A number of studies seem to indicate that Extensive Reading (ER) enhances language proficiency in general and vocabulary knowledge in particular. However none of those surveyed focused on poorly motivated lower level language learners in a normal course of study that incorporated ER of unsimplified material, and few addressed partial vocabulary gain and the other factors that could have affected this. In this study the participants were young adult male Saudi Arabians, who were elementary English language learners and who were not used to reading for pleasure even in Arabic. Tests were used to gauge their partial vocabulary acquisition when they engaged in ER involving an open choice of simplified and unsimplified English material during a regular English preparatory course of just one semester. If ER could be linked to improved vocabulary acquisition in such difficult but natural conditions, the case for ER‘s wider implementation could be strengthened. The study also used diaries, surveys and interviews to delve into the reading habits, academic background and cultural context that could also explain any observed vocabulary gain. The results showed there were few statistically significant partial vocabulary gains after the ER programme, and although the experimental cohort that received the ER programme showed greater gains than the control in most of these cases, the difference was not large in terms of the absolute number of words. The diaries, surveys and interviews gave a rich profile of the participants with a level of detail that surpassed that of any other surveyed study, offering several possible reasons for their modest vocabulary gains and yielding unanticipated findings, such as an exposition of their motivations for academic study. It is concluded that a greater awareness of the learners‘ context is essential when applying ER, which in this particular context leads to the view that pure ER may not be suitable for vocabulary learning, and instead a significantly modified version could be more appropriate. These modifications include selecting appropriate books for the students and adding explicit vocabulary learning activities, and they even include linking the reading to the students‘ final grade. Further research is needed to gauge the effectiveness of such modifications, while a more inductive approach is also important when investigating ER and vocabulary acquisition to give the opportunity for unforeseen results to emerge.

This study aims to investigate factors affecting the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. The study adopted the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model as a theoretical framework and foundation for the research to investigate current status and readiness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived critical success factors and perceived future organisational performance. Through an extensive literature review and detailed data analysis, the study extended the model to incorporate perceived cultural and external factors that were found to be necessary for the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. Through case studies and AHP analysis, the proposed model elements were validated and prioritised in the Saudi Arabian context. Three different methods were adopted for data collection. First, an exploratory study was conducted to understand the current status of e-procurement and provide an overview of the factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement using the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. Second, a detailed survey was conducted to find the relative importance of various factors related to each of the five elements of the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. Third, detailed interviews were conducted across four selected SMEs to gain an insight into the factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement. The results of the exploratory study were helpful in identifying perceived factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement. Detailed survey analysis using AHP validated the theoretical framework and the relevance of the factors of the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. However, some of the factors were found to be more important than in the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model, while others were less important. Results of the qualitative study (interviews) found additional factors that were relevant to each of the five elements of the GN model. They further suggested that “Current e-procurement activities” was an additional factor in the “current status and readiness” element and “Increased transparency” was an additional factor in the “perceived benefits” element. Similarly, the analysis of the qualitative results found two additional factors in the “perceived barriers” element (i.e. absence of e-procurement specific laws and regulations and lack of trust in the electronic transfer of funds), three additional critical success factors (i.e. cost-benefit analysis of the solution, technical maturity of the marketplace and user-friendliness of the solution) and two additional factors in perceived future organisational performance (i.e. strategic alliance and networking and knowledge management and data warehousing). Further, analysis of the qualitative findings revealed two additional elements (i.e. perceived external and perceived cultural factors). The study thus suggests that organisational culture, cultural inertia and business culture of the country are three important cultural factors that are perceived to affect the adoption of e-procurement, while government support, having one’s own postal addresses and delivery services, providing secure and trustworthy online payment options, low cost and high speed internet connection, suppliers’ willingness and readiness, pressure from competitors, policy and regulations are the seven important perceived external factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. The results of the qualitative data analysis led to the development of an extended Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model to incorporate perceived culture and perceived external factors. The study has significant implications in terms of further e-procurement research for SMEs in Saudi Arabia and also its adoption in the developing world in general.

Recent years have seen a surge of scholarship that foregrounds the relationship between the novel and the nation. The postcolonial condition of much of the Arab world has made the Arabic novel a compelling case. For historical reasons the focus has tended to be on the literary production of North Africa, the Levant and, to a lesser extent, Iraq. This thesis aims to redress the balance while interrogating certain assumptions about this relationship. Its main contention is that the early Saudi novel, as a unique case study, complicates traditional categorisations of the novel in Arabic, either in terms of a set of discrete, national traditions or as a monolithic, regional tradition, i.e. ‘the Arabic novel’. I argue that the ‘Saudi’ novel and its canonisation reflect, and were shaped by, the inherent ambivalence of the nation space and Arab discourses of national identity. This ambivalence gives rise to a third or liminal space of literary production. The thesis revolves around two axes. Firstly, it traces the emergence of the novel in Hijaz, from the 1930s through to the late 1950s. Although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932, for a long time Hijaz retained a sense of its own distinct identity, countering the dominant Najdi-Wahhabi narrative. The close reading of selected texts explores how they express both a strong sense of Hijazi identity and a deep ambivalence towards ‘the Saudi nation’. The salience of ‘the woman question’ in Arab nationalist discourses makes gender a key consideration. The territorialising impulse present in much men’s fiction is shown to be absent from the Saudi women’s novel that emerged between the late 1950s and mid-1970s. Aside from exemplifying the genderedness of nation, this contributes to an explanation of the marginalisation of Saudi women’s novels from the canon. Secondly, the issue of novel and nation is linked to the critical discourse on the Saudi novel and its canonisation. Through an analysis of the literary articles that appeared in the pages of Hijaz’s early press, I trace the origins of a nationalist, ideological concept of the novel and its function that privileges the canonical realist novel for its mimetic representation of the writer’s national social reality. The result of this is that histories of the Saudi novel often present a teleology that is unable to adequately explain its construction or account for its liminality. The thesis offers a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationship between the novel and identity, as well as the novel’s construction in the Arabic context.

There is virtually no existing theory specific to an aesthetic context for Saudi Arabian art. This reveals the problem inherent in reading and positioning this work in the light of the artists and critics identification as authentic product of the Saudi Arabian Kingdom. The Thesis reconsiders the position of art in Saudi Arabia, positing the work's hybridity as yet not recognized in Saudi Arabia as one of the most significant challenges for contemporary Saudi Arabian artists. The Thesis questions the authenticity that defines this work, according to the Saudi Arabian perspective. Developing an alternative perspective, the Tesis aims to define and understand the hybridity of Saudi Arabian paiting.

The history of consumerism shows that consumer movements in developed countries with capitalist economies in general, and in the United States in particular, have had great success in helping customers get safer products (car seat belts), more information (product labels), and better market regulation (the Consumer Product Safety Act). Consumer interests in developed countries are represented by several sets of organizations with different concerns. These consumer interests are fragmented but well articulated, whereas in developing countries, consumer interests are homogeneous and unarticulated. Moreover, compared with the hyper-connected world we live in today, in the past greater efforts were required to mobilize consumers for consumerism actions such as protests, boycotts, calls for policy change, and demands for more government regulations. The purpose of this study is to develop a testable model of consumerism, with a focus on market settings within a developed country, the United States, and a developing country, Saudi Arabia. The goals are to (a) understand why some consumers go beyond the norm to engage in consumerism behaviors, and (b) whether their level of consumerism differs between that of a developed and a developing country, and if so, why. To this end, a consumerism model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was developed. The research provides the first set of data and the first quantitative analysis regarding consumerism behaviors in conjunction with the use of an online platform (Twitter) among Saudi Arabian and American consumers. The developed model explained consumerism behaviors. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that the Saudi sample had a higher level of intent to engage in consumerism behaviors than did the American sample. Also, this study shows that the Saudi sample had a negative perception of government regulatory practices and a higher level of intent to engage in consumerism behaviors on Twitter than the American sample. Thus, in Saudi Arabia, a country with a restricted civil society and only one semi-independent consumer protection organization, more consumers use Twitter as a consumerism platform than in the US, a country with an unrestricted civil society and numerous independent consumer organizations.

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was two-fold. It began by exploring the familiarity and perceptions of Saudi faculty members of the CAEP standards. Then it speculated on how these perceptions may influence the outcomes of using CAEP standards on evaluating educational programs in Saudi Arabia. To explore this issue of how educators in Saudi Arabia perceive CAEP standards. The findings from the survey showed that Saudi faculty members at Al-Jouf University were familiar with the Content and Pedagogical Knowledge standards and valued them. They agreed that mastery of the standard items contributes to the improvement of Islamic teachers’ preparation programs. The results concerning the views of participants about the clinical partnerships and practice standard revealed that Saudi faculty members at Al-Jouf University were also familiar with Clinical Partnerships and Practice standards and valued them. They agreed that mastery of the standard items contributes to the improvement of Islamic teachers’ preparation programs. Results from the interviews and focus groups showed that most faculty members in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction in the sample (77.7%) consider themselves well informed about the CAEP standards. In contrast, most faculty members in the Department of Islamic Studies, in the sample (71.4%), did not have knowledge about these standards. For this reason, many of them responded, “don’t know” to most of the questions. Despite the variety among the participants’ responses about the familiarity or preparedness of CAEP standards, they generally had a favorable outlook towards the CAEP standards. The three major categories and the eleven themes present the Saudi faculty members’ perceptions of the CAEP standards. The findings are reported in three main categories: (a) Positive, (b) Neutral, and (c) Negative.

The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed-methods study is to identify and describe the readiness of female Saudi mathematics teachers in the areas of subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge to integrate STEM disciplines. The study also examines mathematics teachers’ attitudes and obstacles in implementing STEM education. The sample consisted of 98 female mathematics teachers for the quantitative phase and 6 for the qualitative phase in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The findings revealed that Saudi female middle school mathematics teachers appeared to have extensive pedagogical knowledge and an average level of subject matter knowledge but they needed systematic support, such as training courses or professional development programs, to be able to implement integrated STEM education in their classes. Most of the participants also showed a positive attitude toward integrated STEM education and its implementation. The qualitative findings confirmed and explained the quantitative findings. Additionally, participants believed that teachers’ knowledge, preparation, motivation, and professional development in integrated STEM education as well as school setting were the most important obstacles that challenged the implementation of integrated STEM education. Based on the results, I recommend an integrated STEM education degree to prepare future STEM teachers and start an awareness campaign to educate people about STEM literacy and its importance for the country’s future.

This research aimed at identifying the teacher competencies of teachers teaching at an international school in Saudi Arabia. The research addressing the problems and sub-problems involved a literature review that conceptualised multicultural education and international schooling. The empirical investigation included the use of a questionnaire to gather data. The questionnaire aimed at determining the ability of teachers to function effectively within a multicultural environment. The findings, which were linked to the literature review, revealed areas of strength and weakness. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for school administrators for the design of appropriate staff development programmes to inculcate in teachers the competencies necessary to perform effectively in an international multicultural environment. / Teacher Education / M. Ed. (Educational psychology)

This study researches the Islamic Penal System within a penological perspective. The philosophy underlying this Penal System is that every person is responsible and thus punishable for his criminal actions. Punishment could also await the offender in the Hereafter. A system of penalties and rewards is the cornerstone of the Islamic Penal System. The types of punishment that are allowed by the Shari'ah are, inter alia: the death penalty, lashes, banishment, imprisonment, crucifixion, lapidation and public exposure. There are three categories of punishment: Hadd punishment is reserved for serious offences and cannot be altered in any way whatsoever, Qisas punishment is reserved for homicide and assault, whilst Ta'zeer penalties cover the balance. Since this Penal System can only operate within a true Islamic State, it currently only operates fully in Iran and Saudi Arabia. Numerous other Muslim countries apply this system to a lesser degree, for example, Sudan and Afghanistan. / Penology / M.A. (Penology)

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Sócio Econômico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais, Florianópolis, 2017 / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-19T04:12:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 349181.pdf: 1018888 bytes, checksum: 6ccba1f7c591913f5c953faccf91a577 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / Este trabalho possui como temática a política internacional e processos de desenvolvimento econômico nacional. No século XX, os projetos nacionais de desenvolvimento encontraram ampla margem de manobra na política internacional e, por isso, caracterizaram-se pela existência de organismos governamentais orientando estrategicamente os processos de desenvolvimento. Este foi o caso de Venezuela e Arábia Saudita, ambos países profundamente atrelados à economia petrolífera, tanto em sua pauta exportadora quanto em sua dinâmica de arrecadação orçamentária. Ambos os países fizeram parte da tendência mundial de planejamento e coordenação do desenvolvimento econômico, predominante até os anos 1980, e utilizaram as rendas petrolíferas para financiar seus projetos. Contudo, a partir dos anos 1980, tomaram rumos divergentes. O padrão de desenvolvimento da Arábia Saudita continuou dando centralidade à industrialização e à complexificação econômica, coordenados pela orientação governamental, enquanto o padrão da Venezuela alterou-se e passou a dar maior ênfase em processos de mercado, reformas liberalizantes e privatizações. Este trabalho se propõe a investigar por que a Arábia Saudita não precisou abrir mão da coordenação estratégica do desenvolvimento e a Venezuela precisou ceder às pressões políticas e econômicas para efetuar reformas estruturais de mercado. A hipótese trabalhada é a de que a Arábia Saudita, desde sempre, esteve em uma posição privilegiada na cadeia global de poder do petróleo, sob hegemonia dos Estados Unidos. Nessa hipótese, o conceito de cadeia global de poder é central, e corresponde à face política e histórica da cadeia global de valor da mercadoria, onde ocorrem a produção e a distribuição da riqueza. Esses conceitos são oriundos da Economia Política dos Sistemas Mundo, que sugere que o método de abordagem deva considerar o nível sistêmico como nível privilegiado de análise, ou seja, que a análise da cadeia global da mercadoria é aquela que promove o complemento analítico necessário à metodologia de análise individualizada. Nossa hipótese decorre desse nível de abordagem sistêmico e possui a implicação de que os projetos nacionais de desenvolvimento necessariamente devem levar em consideração não apenas as variáveis econômicas, mas também os eventos da política internacional como variável endógena do processo de desenvolvimento. / Abstract: The theme of this research is international politics and the processes of national economic development. In the 20th century, national development projects met a broad margin of operation in international politics and therefore are characterized by the existence of governmental organizations strategically guiding development processes. This was the case of Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, both countries deeply associated to oil economy both at the commercial level and at the dynamics of budgetary income. Both countries were part of a world trend of economic planning and coordination, predominant by the 1980 s, using their oil income to finance development projects. Nonetheless, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela development patterns took divergent paths after the 1980 s. Saudi Arabia s development pattern remained emphasizing industrialization and economic complexity, guided by government, while Venezuela altered its pattern, giving more emphasis to market reforms and privatizations. This dissertation aims at investigating why Saudi Arabia did not need to give in strategic economic coordination and Venezuela was forced by political as well as economic pressure to adopt structural market reforms in the 1980 s. The hypothesis is that Saudi Arabia was always in a privileged position in the oil global power chain, under United States hegemony. In this hypothesis the concept of global power chain is a key concept, corresponding to the political and historical branch of the global value chain. These concepts are introduced by the World-Systems Analysis, suggesting that the appropriate level of analysis should be the systemic level, that is, the analysis of the global commodity chain is the one that promotes a better complement to the individual analysis. Our hypothesis is grounded on that systemic level of analysis and has as main implication the proposition that national development projects should regard international politics as endogenous variable of the development process, as much as the economic variables.