In thesis, I intended to sociologically examine the perceptions and practices of the state and different Islamist groups about the religious education in Egypt from the 1970s onwards. I define the religious education as a religious course to which several hours a week are devoted in the curriculum of mass education, and which teaches moral instructions based on the Qur&#039 / an, and basic information about Islamic culture and history. Since the 1970s, the rise of Islamism in Egypt has created strife between the ruling elites and dissident Islamist groups to capture the religious discourse and control the religious socialization in the mass education. This strife has resulted in the emergence of alternative Islamic educational areas (private Islamic schools and Al-Azhar schools). In this context, I used hermeneutic method to analyze the religious educational discourses and institutions of these two main agents &ndash / ruling elites and Islamist groups. The Mubarak regime in Egypt seeks to institutionalize a particular state discourse in religious education in accordance with its own interests. However, the important thing is the reactions of different Islamist (moderate and radical) groups to this state discourse and institutionalization / because, today, these reactions of opponent Islamist groups generates unintended consequences which are subversive to the legitimacy of the regime.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-141).

This research focuses on an analysis of the changes in the Libyan Higher Education Institutions (LHEIs) management system. This is an important subject since the Libyan General People's Committee for Higher Education (LGPC) has begun to introduce changes for improving and enhancing the management of Libyan Universities (LUs) and the movement towards sustainable development. This study investigates and examines new management changes by considering different factors including university financing, quality and institutional performance and the relationship between fields of organisational change and implementation process. It may be interpreted within a strategic framework, socio-cultural model and institutional changes. Does this mean a move from idealism to a realistic perspective in relation to the problems and issues of universities in Libya? The study also considers the conditions and barriers involved in implementing the new changes. LHEIs have to re-examine their existing structures and practices in order to meet the needs of the information age. This requires major changes and transformation. A main concern that hinders the management of change process is the lack of useful models and success cases to lead the way. The present research proposes to identify the most successful strategies adopted at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and universities in order to characterize the change processes adopted across the universities. In light of these strategies, another important objective of this research is to develop a model for implementing management change into HEIs and universities. The research is also expected to extend the researcher's understanding about the extent of success of the organisational development and change policies in improving performance. This study is designed to fill the gap in knowledge about models appropriate to the management of change in higher education. Each model sheds light on different aspects of organisational life and has a distinct set of hypotheses about why change occurs, how the process grows, when change occurs and how long it takes and the results of change. The models will then be adapted to the specific cultural, political and social aspects of LHEIs. The research questions were answered using multiple data sets showing percentages which explained the benefits of comprehensive assessments of change and its mechanisms. The results will be used to explore how the combinations of quantitative interpretation techniques may be used to support LHEIs in enhancing their quality in an effective way while harmonizing with LUs, external standards and requirements of the information age. Research has shown that higher education governance needs to find a clear mechanism for the process of evaluating the course of HEIs and everything related to the role of a university, identifying its strengths and weaknesses and identifying opportunities for development, both at the university level and in higher education management and policy-making to enhance the effectiveness of this vital sector in various areas. Extrapolating from barriers of change approaches which have recently arisen, this study sheds light on the process of change; the main component of this are managers who have a range of awareness and understanding of change in shaping their trends and attitudes towards it. This has an important impact in organisation leadership to implementing change. The implementation of a strategic change model is based on the assessment to keep up with the conversion used in the statistical analysis and deep understanding and mutual commitment to the process of change between the institution and staff. The most important factors for success in building useful understanding of the change process lies in the preparation process and the knowledge and understanding of the customer in recognising the importance of avoiding ambiguity in the steps of change, predicting potential problems, showing different ways of working for the customer, and developing a cooperative relationship with stakeholders. Extrapolation of findings suggests that lack of strategy or a clear action plan to develop and improve the quality of institutional performance leads to a higher education sector with the slow pace of interaction with the desired societal goals. There is also difficulty in keeping pace with the management of modern university systems and recent developments in the fields of science and technology. Therefore, the main objective of higher education management is to develop a flexible action plan to improve/implement and manage the change process using an effective strategy, to avoid any possible resistance to the process of change and to ensure the active and wide participation by the staff in general; a plan of action aims to: §Contribute to the realization of the vision and a message of higher education, deepen basic values, and implement strategy plans. §Develop a model for the change that includes the first steps of implementing change. §Stimulating all personnel of institutions of higher education to upgrade their performance, including a positive impact in the development of institutional performance.

This study aims to design, implement and evaluate a professional development programme for biology teachers in Tanzania. The proposed activity-based approach to teaching supported by the 5Es instructional sequence (adapted from Bybee et al., 2006) is new in the Tanzanian secondary schools context. Consequently, this study addresses the following research questions. 1) What are the characteristics of an effective professional development programme that adequately supports learning and teaching of biology in Tanzania? 2) How can a professional development programme be practically designed and implemented to enhance Tanzanian biology teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and skills? 3) What impact does this professional development programme have on teachers’ pedagogy and students’ learning of biology? The study included 675 students, 35 teachers, 7 student teachers, and 3 experts in the field of science education. A design-based research methodology involved both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and analysis. Teachers’ reactions to the professional development workshop were positive. They were satisfied with the content and follow-up coaching activities. The new knowledge and skills helped teachers to support students through interaction with materials and discussion in small groups to acquire meaningful learning. Findings of classroom observations, teacher interviews, student evaluation questionnaires, and focus group discussions showed that the adoption of the newly developed excitement stage in the 5Es instructional sequence was useful and relevant to teachers’ instructional approaches. It supported them to move away from overly didactic practices to activity-based and student-centred teaching and learning approaches. Student focus group discussions indicated positive opinions about their teachers’ adoption of the new approaches. Students reported differences from their regular classes, which served to enhance better understanding of the taught concepts. These positive changes included, more student involvement in the lesson activities and teachers being more supportive and open to questions. This study has confirmed findings from previous research about the important role of curriculum materials as a component of teachers' professional development experience. In addition, findings of the study demonstrated that the 5Es instructional sequence provided teachers and students with opportunities to practice effective science teaching and learning approaches. It is hoped that this approach is adopted more widely in Tanzanian secondary schools, so that future students may experience success and be inspired to continue their studies of science.

This study examines subject teachers’ orientations and implementation of English as a medium of instruction in Chinese universities, against a background of the internationalisation of higher education. The study also explores the way in which English as a medium of instruction policies are actualized in teaching practices. The study is informed by English as a lingua franca perspective on English communication, language policy theory and English as a lingua franca in academic settings. This study draws on data retrieved through questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. 106 questionnaires were collected, 14 interviews were conducted and 15 hours of classroom observations were analysed. The findings of the study suggest the majority of teachers favour English as a medium of instruction, while at the same time pointing out concerns regarding the teaching quality, and ambivalent language policy, as well as some perceptions towards attachment to native English ideology. The participants have ambivalent orientations towards English use; on the one hand, exhibited native-like competency was still considered as important for many teachers. On the other hand, the responses of the participants revealed their belief in the need to communicate effectively rather than aiming at native speaker competency in practice. In addition, both questionnaire and interview findings reveal that the English language policy in China is still based on native speaker English, but that teachers and students are using ELF in practice. The classroom observations suggest that some teachers adopted ELF orientated approach in their practices. The data analysis confirmed the existence of a gap between policy as stated and the implementation of the policy. The findings of this study can contribute to ELF, EMI, and language policy research. It is argued that the ELF concept should expand to include interlocutors from the same language cultural background. It is suggested that English policy and ELT in China should take account of the students’ future needs and the global use of English. Thus, the traditional native-normative approach to English language should be questioned. The findings also raise questions as to how English as a medium of instruction in China could be implemented effectively.

The proportion of children entering primary school at the stipulated age in 2010 in Sub-Saharan Africa was 57%. For the same year, the net attendance ratios for primary and lower secondary education were 76% and 47% respectively. These figures are correlated in that delayed school enrolment increases the risk of dropout which in turn shortens the school life expectancy for children. These observations are the motivation behind this research. By writing this thesis, three substantive research questions have been explored: (1) what is Sierra Leone’s progress towards achieving universal basic education (2) what are the determinants of school attendance at basic education in West Africa and (3) does living in a community with more educated mothers enhance children’s school attendance at basic education. Three countries have been used: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana. Sierra Leone and Liberia have been used to reflect poor and post-conflict states with transitional and premature education systems respectively. Ghana is representative of middle income and politically stable countries with more advanced education systems in the region. The most recent Demographic and Health Survey for the three countries are used for analysis. Four empirical chapters are presented. The first chapter addresses research question 1. It applies simple statistical analyses to United Nations indicators for evaluating progress towards universal education. The second and third chapters answer the second research question and the final chapter answers the third research question. These three chapters employ multilevel statistical techniques to model the determinants of primary and junior secondary school attendance. The second empirical chapter focuses on the interaction between household and community poverty with the aim of investigating whether the attendance of poor children suffers more than affluent children by residing in a poor community. The third empirical chapter explores the determinants of junior secondary school attendance with the aim of deducing whether there are significant differences between post-conflict countries and more stable countries. The final chapter focuses on the relationship between mothers’ education and school attendance at basic education, arguing that living in a community with a high proportion of more educated mothers enhances the likelihood that a child will attend school, irrespective of the child’s background. The results from the first chapter show that the realisation of UBE is distant in Sierra Leone. There has been a decline in the number of children entering primary education; junior secondary education has however doubled although it remains low at 21%. Children from the poorest households are the most excluded from school followed by rural children and girls. The results from the second empirical chapter showed that there is a significant interaction between household and community poverty where poor children living in poor communities experience a greater depreciation in their probability of attending school than more affluent children who live in the same deprived environment in Sierra Leone. No such interaction was found in Liberia or Ghana. In the third empirical chapter, the sex of the child, agricultural livelihood within a community, household wealth and area of residence were significant in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In Ghana, sex of the household head and maternal orphanhood were significant. The hypothesis of the relationship between mothers’ community education and children’s school attendance for the final empirical chapter was confirmed.

This thesis focuses on the learning and use of English as a tool of instruction inside Libyan universities. The study begins with an investigation of the challenges that students and lecturers face in the learning and teaching of the language of English in higher education. In-depth qualitative research was carried out at Sebha University in the South of Libya, including individual and group interviews with staff and students. The thesis, in this respect, makes a particular contribution as it sets out the multiple and contradictory challenges that all parties experience. It seeks not to lay blame but, rather, to understand how the parties concerned understand the issues from their unique point of view. This element of the thesis shows up the major challenges in the teaching and learning of English in higher education in Libya. The second element of empirical work concerns how English is then employed as the language of transmission in a professional field – medicine. This second ‘layer’ of work, then, illustrates what happens when a language which is not the language of either the lecturers or the students is used to try to communicate and develop complex information and understandings. This second element of the work shows then how the challenges evident in the teaching and learning of English are carried into a professional field. The concept of ‘deep rote’ learning in extrapolated from the data. The reliance on rote learning in the teaching of English ‘translates’ into a deeper level of rote in the teaching and learning of Medicine, as lecturers and students alike struggle both with the language and the content of the material they are working with. This ‘deep rote’ is consolidated through social and cultural issues and the challenges associated with funding, resourcing and training of staff in Libyan Higher Education. Connections are made between the area of study and the personal experience of the researcher carrying out the study with a methodological reflection on the challenges faced by a student of this same system. To this end, 45 semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff and students from medicine and education departments at Sebha University, divided as follows: 21 semi-structured interviews with students and 24 semi-structured interviews with staff members. These interviews were followed by three focus groups with a particular focus on shedding light on the issues that the students raised in one-to-one interviews, including the main challenges they face when the lecturers use English as the medium of study instead of Arabic, their experiences of learning English, and the different methods that lecturers use in order to support students’ learning in different areas of study. Each group had five participants with two groups being made up entirely of young women. Grounded Theory was used as the theoretical approach to investigate the collected data. The author tried to put to one side any a priori assumptions about what he would find and used a systematic process of organising the data under themes and categories which were then related to each other. The main motivation for the use of this theory was that the findings gained can be valid and reliable in respect of representing real-world settings. In addition, the stories that are told through this approach are context-specific, detailed, and robustly connected to the data.

Extensive research has been undertaken in the area of transformational leadership theory and yet some notable gaps exist. Research has compared transformational and transactional leadership and has examined its existence in both public and private organizations. The leadership phenomenon has similarly been investigated in different cultures, yet there is a paucity of data which synthesizes how these leadership paradigms are perceived in a diverse Middle Eastern cultural environment. The aim of the current study was to compare the perceptions of transactional and transformational leadership styles and their impact upon motivation, trust and job satisfaction within higher educational institutions in Jordan. Working within the positivist domain, primary data was gathered through leader and follower questionnaires that were designed to test out theory in a deductive way. Data was sought on transformational leadership theory, ideal leader characteristics and the perceptual understanding of motivation, trust and job satisfaction. Biographic data was sought to form independent variables. The sample of over 700 was drawn from five Jordanian universities, which ranged across regions and between public and private institutions. With respect to transformational leadership theory the main findings were that Intellectual Stimulation, Individual Consideration and Idealized Behaviour comprised the three main characteristics of leaders within Jordanian higher education. Followers were highly motivated by their work activity and promotion, although a fear of failure emerged as a negative aspect of follower motivation. Transformational leadership had a greater positive impact on job satisfaction than did transactional leadership, especially in the area of Inspirational Motivation, which emerged as the most effective characteristic for job satisfaction. A strong association was found between trust and both Idealized Behaviour and Idealized Attributes. Finally, it is of note that followers trusted leaders who were transactional, particularly with regards to Contingent Reward. The providing of followers with clear rules for reward, within a structured system, is likely to be a salient factor within the higher education system of Jordan. The current study is the first of its kind to investigate transformational leadership theory in relation to trust, job satisfaction and motivation, within Jordanian universities and makes a valuable contribution to a number of areas. Most significantly, transformational leadership theory is extended in a unique way. New contributions are also made to the areas of situational leadership theory and the important conceptual areas of trust, motivation and job satisfaction. The hypothesised leader and situational profile provides a framework for understanding the behaviour and characteristics of leaders who operate within Jordanian universities and is presented with recommendations for future research. The university sector forms an important part of Jordan's economy and there is a considerable prospect for it to contribute to the nation's economic growth. As the universities are soon to operate within a more deregulated and competitive environment, effective leadership is likely to be of paramount importance. Thus, if the higher education sector can adopt the findings and improve their leadership effectiveness, the current study is set to have a positive impact on the national economy.

Critical infrastructures are based on complex systems that provide vital services to the nation. The complexities of the interconnected networks, each managed by individual organisations, if not properly secured, could offer vulnerabilities that threaten other organisations’ systems that depend on their services. This thesis argues that the awareness of interdependencies among critical sectors needs to be increased. Managing and securing critical infrastructure is not isolated responsibility of a government or an individual organisation. There is a need for a strong collaboration among critical service providers of public and private organisations in protecting critical information infrastructure. Cyber exercises have been incorporated in national cyber security strategies as part of critical information infrastructure protection. However, organising a cyber exercise involved multi sectors is challenging due to the diversity of participants’ background, working environments and incidents response policies. How well the lessons learned from the cyber exercise and how it can be transferred to the participating organisations is still a looming question. In order to understand the implications of cyber exercises on what participants have learnt and how it benefits participants’ organisation, a Cyber Exercise Post Assessment (CEPA) framework was proposed in this research. The CEPA framework consists of two parts. The first part aims to investigate the lessons learnt by participants from a cyber exercise using the four levels of the Kirkpatrick Training Model to identify their perceptions on reaction, learning, behaviour and results of the exercise. The second part investigates the Organisation Cyber Resilience (OCR) of participating sectors. The framework was used to study the impact of the cyber exercise called X Maya in Malaysia. Data collected through interviews with X Maya 5 participants were coded and categorised based on four levels according to the Kirkpatrick Training Model, while online surveys distributed to ten Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) sectors participated in the exercise. The survey used the C-Suite Executive Checklist developed by World Economic Forum in 2012. To ensure the suitability of the tool used to investigate the OCR, a reliability test conducted on the survey items showed high internal consistency results. Finally, individual OCR scores were used to develop the OCR Maturity Model to provide the organisation cyber resilience perspectives of the ten CNII sectors.

Before independence, in 1980, the education system of Zimbabwe was organised along racial lines. This organisation of education along racial lines disadvantaged Black Africans in the context of both access to and quality of education experience. The transition of the Black Africans from primary to secondary school appeared to be capped for both academic and non-academic vocational secondary school programmes. Upon attaining independence, the government of Zimbabwe embarked on educational reforms and rapid expansion of the education system. These reforms aimed at establishing equitable provision of education to the disadvantaged Black Africans. Reforms focused on the millennium development goals (MDG) whose aims were to provide (primary school) education for all by 2015. The economy of Zimbabwe, which experienced growth soon after independence, declined rapidly in the late 1990s and 2000 leading to the hyperinflation of 2008. This led to adverse effects on the provision of quality education and teacher demotivation. Some teachers in this study revealed a sense of a compromised professional identity; there was also a sense of a teaching community that included many ‘accidental’ teachers. It was also possible to detect many teachers having a sense of a lack of control; discontentment was high among the teacher respondents. There was also a reluctance to understand the need for accountability and commitment by a significant number of the teacher respondents.