This ethnographic study investigates the language ecology of Urumchi, Xinjiang with a focus on contextual factors as related to the language practices of Uyghur young adults. The thesis explores how the migration and settlement of Han Chinese, coupled with the expansion of Mandarin (and corresponding marginalization of Uyghur and other ethnic minority languages) in the Xinjiang education system has resulted in a punctuation of the linguistic equilibrium of the province. This study demonstrates how socio-political forces contribute to the devaluation of minority linguistic capital in a linguistic market, and how a language policy in the domestic field, as the primary structuring structure, may be utilized to stabilize diglossia and maintain the intergenerational transmission of a minority language. Participant observation, interview and documentary data were collected over an 18-month period of fieldwork in Urumchi. The analysis of interview data from 26 Uyghur adults, defined as early to mid-twenty years of age, who had been educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn), Uyghur classes (mínkăomín), and bilingual Mandarin-Uyghur classes (shuāngyǔ) or a combination of these programs yielded four themes: context and language investments; expected returns; language choice; and linguistic anxiety. The data suggests a high degree of ambivalence among Uyghur young adults toward Mandarin; this form of cultural capital is conceived of as requisite for participation in the Han Chinese dominated economy, yet of a colonial nature and damaging to the demarcation of Uyghur social identity. Case study narratives are presented on four Uyghur young adults: one female educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn); one male educated in Mandarin classes (mínkăohàn); one female educated in Uyghur primary and Mandarin-Uyghur secondary classes (mínkăomín/shuāngyǔ); and one male educated in Uyghur primary and Mandarin-Uyghur secondary classes (mínkăomín/shuāngyǔ). Each case study consultant completed a 94-item expressive vocabulary assessment. The data suggests that the expansion of Mandarin as the language of instruction in the Xinjiang education system has resulted in unstable diglossia among Uyghur communities, evidenced by Uyghur language attrition and Mandarin-Uyghur code-switching. Findings emphasize contextual factors that are contributing to the disruption of the intergenerational transmission of Uyghur and actions to support the vitality of this cultural heritage. / text

This study investigates the relationship of student engagement with the design of structured group learning experiences (SGLEs) implemented by increasing numbers of community colleges. Using data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS), I employ Vygotsky's activity systems theory as a framework for interpreting the results of hierarchical linear models where student engagement measures are outcome variables, and the several covariates selected in terms of SGLEs as a social activity system. The results provide evidence that, among 24 different curricular elements of SGLEs, engagement is positively related to only a few of them, in particular co-curricular and community activities (campus or community service project(s), participation in campus activities/events outside the classroom, and service learning). There was limited evidence that engagement is related to duration and intensity of the programs; instead the evidence suggests that the people involved, both the personnel that teach and facilitate the programs, and the characteristics of the student participants, matter most to engagement. Even as this study provides the first views of the contours of student engagement within high-impact practices on a national scale, it also suggests that what may be important for engagement is that the programs bring people together for a purposeful experience at all. The results suggest the need for increased attention to co-curricular and community activities and professional development by practitioners; and for research, they propose hypotheses for further research such as the relative import of participation vis-à-vis program design, and they suggest new conceptual approaches to the study of high-impact practices generally. / text

A common analysis of the Book of Judges argues that the progressive disintegration of moral values in the latter half of the book mirrors the societal breakdown of kinship ties. In the appendices (Judg 17-21) this disintegration of tribal society apparently reaches its apex, thus anticipating the formation of the monarchy in First Samuel. I argue, however, that the traffic of women in Judg 21 mediates the conflict between Benjamin and the rest of the tribes to create a peaceful resolution through the reestablishment of kinship loyalties. Rather than a chaotic ending which illustrates the need for a king, the tribes are reconciled through this exchange of women. In making this argument, I use Marcel Mauss's concept of gift exchange, its development in the anthropological kinship theories of Claude Lévi-Strauss, later critiques of Lévi-Strauss by other anthropologists and feminist scholars, such as Gayle Rubin, as well as anthropological theories concerned with the kidnapping of wives. I apply these theories to the final story of Judges (chs. 19-21), especially to the resolution of that story in ch. 21. I also consider the developmental stages of the appendices to Judges. Specifically, I suggest that the monarchic refrain (Judg 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, and 21:25) was added during the latest stages of development to frame the final two stories and to emphasize the need for a strong central government -- the monarchy. Only with this added refrain does the reconciliation of the warring tribes through the traffic of women appear insufficient. / text

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This is about acting from a situation, a place, its conditions and its actors. It is an attempt to understand the ongoing transformations of the city of Umeå, to grasp how it functions and gain the knowledge to be able to act within and suggest new possible futures. By looking at Umeå and the current situation with the parking lot as an index, a tool, a laboratory, and a possible new common, new ways of building the city while living within it will be suggested. The non place of the parking lot with its singular purpose is part of the mechanisms that makes our city, at the same time it is the effect of this city making and it is also a great place to start a change of such system. The 2.5x5 meters that makes a parking lot is small in comparison with the city, and even more so in comparison with the country or the world, but the size also makes it possible to grasp, touch and inhabit. The smallness makes it seem rather innocent and without much importance but the power lies within its multiplicity. A change within a parking lot might not be much, but the possibility of spreading throughout the city and the world makes the parking lot a very powerful place. Since humans can sometimes be creatures of habit, I believe that it is extremely important to keep on questioning the way we inhabit the world together. Widely spread and accepted habits can start acting like dysfunctional natural laws steering us in a direction we might not have chosen if alternatives were presented to us. By investigating and testing the possibilities of such a bland and unquestioned place as the parking lot, I am looking to find glimpses of alternative ways of making the world while living it.

The majority of Muslims believe that the best era in their history was that of the Prophet Muhammad and his orthodox successors, and that the best rulers who ever governed Muslims are the Prophet and his successors. Therefore the Muslims in our own time are inspired by their works and words in many aspects of life, and hope still to follow their model behaviour. This attitude became clear immediately after the creation of Pakistan when the people began to discuss the necessity of establishing a constitution which should be based on the rules of Qur'an, the practice of the Prophet, and, the precedents of his orthodox successors. Yet the nature of the governmental system of the Prophet Muhammad is still ambiguous in the minds of Muslims, and it is hard to find any scientific study on this subject. Therefore it was felt that it might be useful to choose "the governmental system of the Prophet Muhammad" to be the subject of this thesis, and to study it in the light of the theories of state which are known in the field of constitutional law, in order to clarify the form and nature of "the Prophetic government". The thesis consists of five chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter explains how the Islamic state was established and extended to govern most of Arabia. The second chapter presents the idea of sovereignty and authority in the Islamic state. The third deals with the three authorities - legislative, executive, and judiciary - in the Islamic state. In the fourth chapter the writer tries to define the nature of the governmental system of the Prophet and the relations between its powers. The fifth chapter is devoted to explaining the position of the Islamic state on the rights of equality and liberty. The conclusion contains the summary of the main points dealt with in the thesis. It will be a source of satisfaction to the writer if this work should participate in clarifying the governmental system which the Prophet Muhammad established, and if in the near future an opportunity is found to study the development of this system in the era of the Prophet's successors.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(農学) / 甲第19045号 / 農博第2123号 / 新制||農||1032 / 31996 / 京都大学大学院農学研究科地域環境科学専攻 / (主査)教授 縄田 栄治, 教授 舟川 晋也, 准教授 赤松 美紀 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

The purpose of this study was to provide a clearer understanding of current Korean American adolescents under the recognition that their stories are barely told in educational research. Based on the literature that has described identity as a core concept in understanding adolescence and literacy practice as a dominant tool for identity construction, this study focused on Korean American adolescents' identity construction through their self-directed Internet literacy practices. Four Korean American adolescents living in a mid-size city in the Southwest participated in this study for several months. Data sources included face-to-face interviews, literacy practice logs, participants' literacy products on the Internet, online chat logs, and emails. Collected data were analyzed based on the constant comparative method. Results showed that these youth are active meaning makers with agency, that they constructed multiple, fluid identities within their sociocultural context, and utilized the Internet to stage these identities strategically. The result of this study implies a successful pedagogy needs to begin with careful consideration of each student's changeability and complexity by removing the labels imposed on them related to their ethnicity, race, gender, class, and so forth. This study also implies that literacy researchers' contribution, as messengers of adolescents' literacy practices outside of school, is critical for the a clearer understanding of adolescents. Finally, this study suggests that Korean American community take more interest in diverse voices among Korean American adolescents in the era of globalization. / text

This dissertation, "Intellectual Cartographic Spaces: Alfonso X, the Wise and the Foundations of the Studium Generale of Seville," I reevaluate Spain's medieval history, specifically focusing on the role of Alfonso X and his court in the development of institutions of higher education in thirteenth-century Andalusia. In the past, Spain has been analyzed through a limited, usually western, lens. Incorporating historiography from both eastern and western sources, my investigation traces Semitic intellectual traditions and their subsequent transmission to the Iberian Peninsula during the Umayyad dynasty with the establishment of katātib (schools), maktabāt (libraries), and awāqf (pious endowments). With the identification and classification of these scholarly nuclei, my research maps the chronological diffusion of knowledge and intellectual practices adopted by the Wise King on a tangible level. At the same time, I have developed a theoretical framework that includes the concepts of Henri Lefebvre, Pierre Bourdieu, and Itamar Even-Zohar, all of whom provide a rich, synthetic canvas for social and economic analysis of the medieval period. This investigation has led to a fresh approach that demonstrates how Muslim Spain, though separated from the great intellectual metropolises of Dar al-Islam--Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus, and Kairouan-- experienced nonetheless the very same development of academic centers and institutions, or jām'āt, that were emerging at that time in the rest of the Muslim world long before a similar Christian movement that would later establish the universities of western Europe. Moreover, Alfonso's subsequent adoption and maintenance of these Islamic cultural initiatives, including the designation of space for intellectual activities, is not exclusively of western or of eastern origin but rather a combination of both these established traditions which would ultimately shape the intellectual foundations of the Iberian Peninsula.

In Swedish schools the interest for formative assessment practices has increased during the last decade. This can partly be seen as a response to Sweden’s poor performance in international tests and rankings but it is also reflecting the advancement of knowledge within the field. This research paper aims to examine teachers understandings of the term formative assessment and what practices they associate to the term. It is carried out by semi-structured interviews of primary school teachers. The material has then been subjected to an inductive content analysis. To ensure reliability of the results teachers have been chosen from two different municipalities and four different schools. One of the municipalities has an explicit interest in formative assessment and has developed a local program for teachers to participate in. The results of the study show a vide range of varieties in how teachers comprehend the term formative assessment. The lack of a common understanding of the term creates consequences for the equality of education, both between classrooms and between schools. Furthermore the results show that there is a correlation between the time and support teachers are given to implement formative assessment in their teachings and the depth of their understanding of the term. If the results are confirmed by further research and causality is established, further steps should be taken to examine key factors for a successful implementation.