Developing critical thinking in early childhood is vital especially in Western culture since it improves an individual’s skills in creative thinking and enhances a person’s sense of responsibility. This is the fundamental contention of this thesis. These skills assist in developing and implementing a state of mind of not accepting negative situations and instead directs the individual towards trying to resolve and improve it. These issues have not yet been fully explored in Arab-Palestinian society in Israel. The development and application of notions of personal responsibility, critical thinking, and kindergarten-age children’s involvement in learning has yet to emerge as a reality in this community. This is needed because existing theory and practice involving these aspects of learning within the Palestinian system is problematic. Moreover, the development of a new approach to teaching and parenting of kindergarten-age children that fosters critical thinking and personal responsibility may not be a reality that is immediately achievable, but it is a possibility. This study aims to investigate how educational leaders can help kindergarten children aged 3-5 years to develop critical thinking and personal responsibility skills. The research focuses on Arab (Palestinian) children in Israel as these skills are not traditionally taught in the home or in educational settings in this culture. The literature shows that there is a marked disparity between the educational achievements of Arab and Jewish children in Israel, making the implications of this study salient not only to practitioners, but also to policymakers and educational institutions. In order to examine these goals, a case study involving qualitative research approaches of a kindergarten classroom has been conducted. The context of this study is an important and complex set of factors determining and shaping the content and form of the thesis and of the research that is embodied in the text. This study has been conducted in a kindergarten belonging to an Arab Municipality located in Northern Israel that was established in 2010 and is situated in a rural area in the north of the country. Lesson plans following the National Curriculum for Kindergarten Education were infused with teaching activities designed to facilitate the acquisition of critical thinking skills. The findings of the project showed that the presence of a strong educational leader had a positive impact on facilitating kindergarten children’s development of personal responsibility and critical thinking skills. This was especially the case if the leader played an active role in facilitating a learning environment at home and in school in which children were acknowledged and given greater autonomy and access to opportunities in which they could engage openly with parents and peers. This study calls attention to the need to further explore educational leadership in the context of early childhood education, as its implications for childhood development, particularly regarding critical thinking and personal responsibility, have not been sufficiently examined. This study claims to open possibilities for doing this in at least the Palestinian Kindergarten communities in Israel and perhaps beyond.

La thèse porte sur l'analyse de l'action publique dans le domaine de l'eau d'irrigation au Maroc. Nous analysons la rencontre entre un projet étatique d'aménagement, et un territoire rural au Maroc, à travers les configurations des acteurs et les enjeux locaux de ses composantes sociales et politiques. Comment le projet d'irrigation a-t-il permis d'accélérer une reconfiguration des rapports de pouvoirs et du leadership local, que nous avons analysé à travers les logiques des différents acteurs. Nous avons adopté un cadre analytique emprunté à la sociologie politique et basé sur l'analyse de l'action publique dans le domaine de l'irrigation. Ce cadre analytique nous a permis de mobiliser en parallèle deux modèles d'analyse : 1) le modèle synoptique pour l'analyse d'une action publique monopolisée par les acteurs publics, 2) celui des ajustements mutuels pour l'analyse d'une multitude d'acteurs dans une situation où l'Etat n'a plus le monopole de l'action publique. Nous avons fais le choix méthodologique d'analyser les acteurs en action, en privilégiant un travail empirique basé sur l'analyse des pratiques, et en décryptant une généalogie fine du projet d'irrigation du Moyen Sebou au Maroc. C'est une zone aménagée par les pouvoirs publics dans une perspective de gestion centralisée par l'administration agricole. Les négociations avec le bailleur de fonds, surgies lors du débat international sur la Gestion Participative en Irrigation, ont amené l'administration à confier la gestion de l'irrigation après aménagement à des agriculteurs organisés en associations. / The subject of this thesis is the analysis of public action in the field of irrigation water in Morocco. We analyze the confrontation of a state-led irrigation project, and a rural territory in the North of Morocco, by looking at the configuration and interaction of actors and local issues of its social and political components. How did the irrigation project contribute to the acceleration of a reconfiguration of power relations and local leadership in the area? Our analysis examined this question through the logic of the different actors. We worked within an analytical framework borrowed from political sociology and based on the analysis of state action in the field of irrigation. This analytical framework allowed us to identify two parallel models of analysis: 1) the synoptic model for the analysis of public action monopolized by public actors, 2) the mutual adjustments for the analysis of a multitude of actors in a situation where the state no longer has the monopoly of public action. We have made the methodological choice of analyzing the actors in action, focusing on empirical work based on the analysis of practices, and by decrypting a fine genealogy of the Moyen Sebou scheme in Morocco. The area is managed by public authorities in the context of a state-centralized management of the agricultural administration. Negotiations with the financial donors, that took place during the international debate on ‘Participative Irrigation Management', led the public administration to entrust the management of irrigation to farmers who are active in associations.

L’objectif principal de l’étude est d’analyser le flux expérientiel de activité de cinq proviseurs afin de mieux comprendre leurs modalités d’action sur des empans temporels courts. Il s’agit aussi de rendre intelligible la complexité de l’activité quotidienne des proviseurs et de mettre en lumière des modalités d’action liées à la gouvernance des établissements. Ils exercent dans des EPLE de 700 élèves à 1700 élèves situés dans deux académies (académies de Clermont-Ferrand et d’Orléans-Tours) et ont 10 ans d’expérience minimum. L'étude s’est appuyée sur les présupposés du programme de recherche du cours d’action (Theureau, 2006, 2009, 2015). Trois types de matériaux ont été recueillis : (i) des enregistrements audiovisuels des actions du chef d’établissement et des communications avec d’autres professionnels ; (ii) des enregistrements d’entretien d’autoconfrontation ; (iii) des notes d’observation destinées à compléter la description de l’activité ainsi que des traces de l’activité du chef d’établissement (mails, documents, etc.). Notre étude souligne que les proviseurs sont contraints à réaliser une multiplicité d’actions. Ils sont amenés à apporter un soin particulier au travail en équipe et à la communication sous toutes ses formes, à la formation et à l’accompagnement de leurs collaborateurs, dans un souci de co-construction les conduisant vers la mise en place d’un leadership partagé. Les résultats de notre étude peuvent ainsi contribuer au développement de nouvelles perspectives de formation. / This thesis mainly aims at analyzing the changes in the nature of the activities undertaken by five school leaders, in order to better understand their short-term actions. It is also a question of clarifying some of the principal’s modes of action while they carry out their everyday activities. It is also a question of making understandable the complexity of the daily role of the school leaders and of highlighting actions and policies connected to the governance of Lycées. The Lycées for which they are responsible have between 700 and 1700 students on role. They are located in two different regional education authorities: that of Clermont-Ferrand and that of Orléans-Tours. These school leaders have at least ten years’ experience in the role. Our study is based on the evaluation of the hypotheses of the research program : “Cours d’action” (Theureau, 2006, 2009, 2015). Three types of evidence were collected: (i) films of the work of the school leaders and their communication with other professionals; (ii) recording of face-to-face interviews; (iii) notes collected during the observation and used to clarify the descriptions of the activity, alongside other evidence eg emails or notes. Our study indicates that school leaders have to perform a large number of different actions. They pay particular attention to teamwork, and all forms of communication. The training and mentoring of staff is carried out with the aim of the establishment of shared leadership. The results of our study can contribute to the development of new types of training courses

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