<p> What explains variation over time in how states treat &ldquo;non-core groups&rdquo;? What are the reasons for co-opting, accommodating, or politically excluding them? Drawing on insights in ethnic politics and international relations, a recent body of literature claims that interstate relations and foreign policy ought to drive state decision making toward externally linked groups. Yet, I observe outcomes that suggest that when regimes perceive a higher threat to internal regime security than they do to their territorial borders, domestic politics is more important in driving regime decision making toward such groups. In such situations, even if non-core groups are supported by unfriendly external powers, I argue that regimes decide to accommodate, accommodate and co-opt, or politically exclude such groups based on their location in the architecture of the opposition&mdash;the numerical strength and diversity of identities in the opposition that threaten the regime in power. The causal mechanism for this relationship is the perception of proximate threats to regime security from political opposition, with larger, crosscutting oppositional configurations posing a bigger threat than smaller, homogenous opposition. I also argue that regimes prefer non-core groups to &ldquo;stay in their lane&rdquo;, that is, that they remain narrowly political in regards to pursuing goods from the state related to their identity.</p><p> This dissertation employs an in-depth, single case study of one group in the same country over time, testing the finding in a secondary country using a most similar systems approach. The case of Kuwait&rsquo;s treatment of its Shi&lsquo;a from 1963 through 2011 serves as the in-depth case study, and uses data gathered from seventy interviews during half a year of fieldwork in Kuwait City in 2013, in addition to documents from the British National Archives and Arabic media. I also briefly compare outcomes in policies toward the Shi&lsquo;a to policies toward the stateless residents and expatriates. Insights from the Kuwaiti case are tested on the secondary case of Bahrain to explain regime treatment of the Shi&lsquo;a from 1973 through 2011. I also suggest that the theory may be extrapolated to explain the variation in recent relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the non-core Kurds in Turkey. The findings crack open the black box of ethnic politics in semi-authoritarian regimes, helping to explain variation&mdash;and some counter-intuitive co-optation&mdash;in cases in which we might expect more exclusion in general.</p>

<p> Multidisciplinary research and philosophical discourse have long explored the complex relationship between the objective environment and subjective human perception. No two humans perceive, experience, and form attitudes about the same phenomenon in exactly the same way. Individual demographics (sex, age) and group identity (culture, religion, ethnicity, political ideology) have been shown to have a profound effect on perception of phenomena; research has also focused on the effect of the physical environment itself. Differences in perception, experience, and resulting behavior have great implications for governance, particularly in regards to planning and development. Recognizing these differences, modern urban planning increasingly seeks to include varying degrees of public participation in the planning process, in order to promote inclusiveness and citizen empowerment. The inclusion of measurement and analysis tools, such as survey questionnaires and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), enable policymakers, planners, and researchers to support their findings and formulate planning strategy by utilizing objective, quantitative data. While previous research has explored perception differences between the sexes, between residents of different cities, and within specific religious groups, there has been little exploration or quantitative measurement of differences in environmental perceptions and attitudes among the diverse, multicultural residents of Jerusalem, a divided city with myriad planning, development, and equality issues.</p><p> In the summer of 2012, 225 Jerusalemites of varying religious, demographic, and social backgrounds completed a questionnaire survey that was designed to quantify their individual environmental perceptions, opinions of the city&rsquo;s growth, and priorities for urban development. While the results indicated great differences between the urban experiences and perceptions of Israeli and Palestinian Jerusalemites, it was also found that these populations&mdash;commonly characterized as enemies by popular media and their respective political establishments&mdash;shared many issues in their day-to-day lives, particularly transportation accessibility, utility provision, unemployment, and housing availability. The majority of respondents indicated that cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians is necessary to solve such issues. These shared issues, experienced in spaces that are socially and physically segregated as a result of past and ongoing governmental action and cultural divisions, may act as the foundation for cooperative, inclusive solutions that seek to improve the lives and urban experiences of all Jerusalem residents.</p>

To the visitor, Istanbul, Turkey is flush with food. But food supply and access to food can be unrelated. Socioeconomic, demographic and development data suggest food security problems for a significant portion of the population. After World War II, migrants to Istanbul from Anatolia who built house gardens within their original squatter settlements (gecekondus) have sold their lands or turned them into apartments. Similarly, only fragments of the traditional network of commercial, intensive urban gardens ( bostans) in Istanbul remain. In addition, the expanding system of European style supermarkets and commercial production in the global marketplace are changing the traditional urban food networks built around such institutions as the neighborhood bazaar. To begin to understand the shifting components of Istanbul's food system, information from numerous sources was gathered and analyzed. The main field data of my research are interviews with Istanbul farmers and residents; interviews with government officials, academics, and professionals; official and unofficial statistics from governments and associations; and surveys. Supplementary information is from Turkish newspaper sources, library materials, and various books and maps. Through kinship relations, labor mobility, the availability of formal and informal economic and transportation networks and the persistence of small, family farms nationwide, food security in Istanbul is supported by food individually and communally transferred from the countryside. Subsistence agricultural production across rural Turkey appears to play a vital role in feeding the urban population through informal food delivery and distribution channels. Thus, despite reductions in rural populations and appearances that rural and agricultural communities are declining, their productivity may be as important as ever. With their emphases on resource use, adaptation, consideration of multiple scales, and the exercise of local agency within structures of power and wealth, political and cultural ecology provide perspectives from which to meaningfully analyze food security needs and practices in Istanbul. Such a framework is enhanced by contributions from research in food systems and food security. Time centered tactics, exchange entitlements and food accessibility within the city cannot be understood apart from its relationship to the countryside.

<p> An ever-increasing number of international counselor education students are faced with the challenge of meaningfully incorporating and translating international training experiences to counseling settings in their home countries. There has been limited research on the returning process of international counseling students and specifically on their &lsquo;adaptation and re-integration&rsquo; experiences in the home counseling context. The primary purpose of this study was to explore the challenges, and experiences of current doctoral level Turkish counselors-in-training (TCITs) who are studying in the United States (U.S.) and Turkish counselor educators (TCEs) who previously trained in the U.S. and are presently teaching and practicing in Turkey. </p><p> A panel of eighteen (18) experts, including both TCITs and TCEs, participated in the study. Participants responded to two rounds of questions based on a modified Delphi method procedure. The questions addressed knowledge, skills and awareness of core counselor education competencies and the transferability, applicability and usefulness of content as experienced in U.S. settings to counseling contexts in Turkey. The initial round of questions focused on perception of five main essential counseling areas: (a) multicultural constructs, (b) theoretical approaches, (c) developmental growth/wellness, (d) organization/professional development, and (e) counseling practice/teaching/research. Thematic content analysis using open coding generated 37 themes which were used to formulate the questions for round two. A second round involved exploration of consensus on qualitative themes emerged from round 1 responses. </p><p> The findings of the study indicated that both groups of panel experts, particularly, identified the following most important themes regarding to Turkish counseling context: multiculturalism, counseling profession, supervision, counseling theories and basic skills, ethics, counseling training and clinic, and bureaucratic issues. </p><p> The results of this present study, which emerged from the discussion based on the direction of the modified Delphi method, addressed several implications and recommendations for both counselor educators, who prepare international students and international counselors-in-training.</p>

<p> This study explored female refugees&rsquo; perceptions and life experiences at the Za&rsquo;atari Camp in Jordan. While the study explored challenges and difficulties refugee women have endured while living in the camp, emphasis was placed on how they faced these challenges, coping mechanisms used for overcoming and enduring such circumstances, and what new life roles they had to assume. Utilizing Schweitzer, Greenslade, and Kagee&rsquo;s (2007) model, this study explored, through qualitative phenomenological methods, the tenacity, resilience, and strength that empowered refugee women throughout their experiences in the camp. In-depth interviews were the main method of data collection. Forty-three face-to-face interviews were conducted on camp premises during the summer of 2015. The data was analyzed according to the Interpretive Phenomenological Analytic (IPA) guidelines.</p><p> The findings of this study revealed the female refugees of the Za&rsquo;atari Camp were not passive in dealing with their adversities. They showed resilience, tenacity, and resourcefulness when coping with life in the settlement. Their resilience is seen through their determination to provide for their families and normalize their lives inside the camp. Additionally, female refugees employed different coping mechanisms for maintaining their psychological well-being such as religiosity, seeking social support and networking, and self-empowerment. </p><p> The findings also indicated children&rsquo;s education in the camp continues to be an area of concern for a majority of refugees despite their understanding of the importance of education for their children&rsquo;s survival. Due to the widespread notion the camp&rsquo;s education was not accredited in Syria, and their beliefs of the temporariness of their encampment, children were left to their own accord in deciding whether to attend school or not.</p><p> The results of this study challenged the &ldquo;Dependency Syndrome&rdquo; myth which postulate refugees tend to become dependent on humanitarian aid and unable to fend for themselves. On the contrary, many become strong, independent and assertive. In the end, they came to see themselves differently which brought a new level of understanding of themselves and their abilities.</p>

<p> Cooperation between members of subordinate and dominant national groups under conditions of alien rule is routine: rulers demand it, and the ruled&mdash;willingly or unwillingly&mdash;supply it. Yet the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable cooperation&mdash;what I term interactional norms&mdash;vary. Scholars have yet to explain how and why cooperation varies under military occupation, colonial rule, or other cases of asymmetric power relations between distinct identity groups. This study fills that gap by assessing fluctuations in Palestinian cooperation with Israel from 1967&ndash;2016, building a theory of <i> Purpose-Driven Boundary Maintenance.</i> It process-traces a causal story, beginning with leadership dynamics, working through social purpose, and noting distinct and probable outcomes around interactional norms. Social purpose&mdash;<i> the shared goals of a group that create obligations to behave in ways that aim at achieving collective goals</i>&mdash;is considered a necessary condition for realizing clear interactional boundaries for subordinate groups under alien rule. Social purpose is triggered with cohesive leadership, producing sharp interactional norms and encouraging norm-compliance. When national strategy aims toward diplomacy, interactional norms will be positive (promoting cooperative relations with the dominant group), and compliance will be high. When national strategy aims at resistance, interactional norms will be negative (prohibiting certain interactions with the dominant group), and compliance will be moderate. Fragmented leadership, on the other hand, fails to trigger social purpose, resulting in social anomie. Where compliance exists, it is sporadic and isolated from a cohesive national strategy. This study draws on 2 years of fieldwork and process-traces changes in Palestinian interactional norms from 1967&ndash;2016, highlighting critical junctures and explaining shifts in five major phases of contestation: (1) The beginning of occupation&mdash;1967&ndash;1987 (2) the first intifada&mdash;1987&ndash;1993 (2) the Oslo years&mdash;1994&ndash;2000 (3) the second intifada&mdash;2000&ndash;2006 (4) and the post-inqisam years&mdash;2006&ndash;2014. </p>

<p> The purpose of the current study was to explore preschool teachers&rsquo; subjective beliefs toward developmentally appropriate practices (DAP) and developmentally inappropriate practices (DIP), as identified by the National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, an investigation was conducted on what might account for cultural influences regarding teachers&rsquo; beliefs toward DAPs and DIPs. </p><p> Q-methodology, as a mixed-method approach, was utilized to collect, analyze, and interpret the data in a two-phase, sequential explanatory design. In the first phase, 37 preschool teachers subjectively sorted 50 cards representing DAP and DIP items in terms of what they considered the most appropriate and the most inappropriate practices in the preschool classroom. Q-technique principal component analysis with Varimax rotation was used to analyze the numerical data. The second phase involved conducting follow-up focus-group interviews for further explanation and exploration of the cultural influences on Saudi preschool teachers&rsquo; beliefs regarding DAPs. </p><p> The results of the Q-methodology suggested that there were four main perspectives regarding DAP beliefs among Saudi participants: Perspective A: a developmentally oriented approach to children&rsquo;s learning; Perspective B: a socially oriented approach to children&rsquo;s learning; Perspective C: a holistic approach to children&rsquo;s learning; and Perspective D: a child-centered approach to children&rsquo;s learning. Six participants were associated with Perspective A, eight with Perspective B, three with Perspective C, and seven with Perspective D. All four perspectives identified in the study coincided with different aspects of DAPs. </p><p> For further explanations, 11 participants were purposefully selected to participate in follow-up focus-group interviews. The interviews provided explanations regarding participants&rsquo; subjective beliefs in light of any cultural influences. Thematic analysis following the interviews revealed themes on two levels: cross-perspective themes and within-perspective themes. Although within-perspective themes varied by each perspective, cross-perspective themes included a) denying teaching preschoolers academics, b) modifying the curriculum to suit children&rsquo;s needs, c) promoting social activities, and d) respecting families but not involving them in classroom activities. Findings from this study contributed to the knowledge base on the applicability of different aspects of DAP in religious and conservative society. Furthermore, methodological notes, recommendations for future research, and implications for practice were addressed.</p>

<p> The process of reading embodies many factors that affect an ESL student&rsquo;s second language acquisition. This study investigates the present situations of current or former ESL students from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their attitudes toward reading in an ESL classroom. The investigation focuses on reading in a social context and the effects of a background with reading as a child. It examines Saudi ELLs attitudes towards reading in an ESL classroom. The background and motivation towards reading in the United States and KSA are examined. The analysis discovers motivation aspects and current knowledge of Saudi students in ESL. A survey was disseminated to determine Saudi student&rsquo;s experiences with reading in ESL. This study investigates how attitudes and cultural aspects influence ESL reading performance and why it is important when teaching Saudi ESL students. This research is important because it directly affects our students and their future as students out of an ESL classroom. In order to provide the best education for our students, we need to be aware of what current attitudes and background history our students have on reading in English and in an ESL classroom.</p>

This dissertation has sought to illuminate the characters of Richard the Lion Heart and Salah Ad-Din Al-Ayyubi (Saladin), and the meaning of chivalry as a concept in Western history, through a comparative "parallel biography" of the two men. It is hoped that this parallel biography of the two most notable figures of the crusading era further illuminates the crusading movement and the encounter of the Western and Islamic worlds in Syria from the end of the eleventh through the end of the thirteenth centuries. / Chapter one examines the childhood, the adulthood, society and the career of Richard I prior to his departure on the third crusade. / Chapter two focuses on the childhood, the adulthood, and society of Salah Ad-Din Al-Ayyubi. Attention is given to his career in the years before he directed his principal energies against the Franks in Syria. / Chapter three examines the Battle of Hittin, which sealed the fate of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem and ultimately of the crusading cause as a whole. Emphasis is placed upon the developments that led up the battle, and the subsequent course of the war that led to the fall of Jerusalem and other inland Christian strongholds. / Chapter four focuses on the political and military encounter of Richard I and Saladin in the third crusade, which resulted in the achievement of Saladin's key objectives, and the departure of Richard from Syria without regaining Jerusalem nor restoring the Frankish position in Syria to a viable condition. / Chapter five discusses the evolution of the images of Richard and Saladin between the twelfth century and the present day. The development of the writing on these two legends shows that with the familiarity of Richard in the West, Saladin has remained in the popular western imagination as one of the most familiar of all Muslim historical figures and a model of moderation, mercy and values of chivalry. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-08, Section: A, page: 3162. / Major Professor: Paul Strait. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

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