Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

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<p> In March 2016, the Syrian crisis entered its fifth year in war with no end in sight. While current strategies utilized by international aid agencies to address this humanitarian crisis have focused on short-term emergency relief, future considerations on its long-term management are lacking. Due in fact to people's pressing needs in war-torn areas, not enough development programs, plans and research on how to incorporate sustainable strategies has been placed into the management of the crisis. With particular focus on the role of developmental and relief aid workers in the management of the crisis in Syria, this paper aims to answer two questions: (1) how does one manage relief and recovery efforts looking towards the long term in a context of such short term pressing needs? (2) What role does management and lack thereof play in the subject of the effects of the Syrian war? In an effort to address these questions, interviews were conducted on 8 individuals from various professional backgrounds (i.e. medical, development, local councils etc...) who had significant field contributions/experiences in Syria. In addition, a literature review was carried out to examine existing research on the topics of sustainable development and development aid. Findings show that a shift is taking place in the frameworks of how aid workers are responding to the needs of people in the war. The aid system is starting to focus on instilling self-reliance, resilience and stability into communities, and assisting people with the tools to manage sustainable lives. However, it requires much needed management to achieve the desired sustainable outcomes. Moreover, this field still requires further research and considerations. A bitter reality of this context is that the war is political in nature and attempts for sustainable practices cannot serve as resolution to the situation but as means to restore dignity and livelihood back into the victims of a war.</p><p>

This project explores the intersection of art, religion, and community within the historical context of the Middle Ages, where architecture acts as an expression of the experience of urban life, as well as an affecting locus of social interaction. It focuses on medieval Verona, where the immense architectural renovations of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were an integral response to a period of intense social and religious transformation. Here, the churches are examined as an ensemble, as a network of interconnected buildings that were produced under similar social circumstances. Instead of focusing on defining a Veronese architectural style through a number of decorative features, however, this dissertation explores difference as being an important factor in defining the look of each Veronese church, focusing on the Romanesque churches' relationships to the city, floorplans, and elevations as evocations of a period of considerable creativity. This variation is considered in terms of the experiences of the communities and individuals who commissioned them, and how the buildings' historical and cultic associations were identified within the larger urban context.

This dissertation examines the representation of space in the fiction of seven members of the sixties generation in Egypt. Focusing upon the novels of Jamal al-Ghitani, Muhammad al-Bisati, 'Abd al-Hakim Qasim, Baha' Tahir Yahya Tahir 'Abdallah, Ibrahim Aslan, and Sun'allah Ibrahim, I contend that the representation of urban, rural, and exilic space is a means to trace the social, political, and economic changes of the post-colonial period in Egypt. This exploration is framed by the theoretical work of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre and seeks to show that the "spatial shift" that has occurred in the humanities and social sciences can enrich the understanding of the contribution of this literary generation. Emerging at a time of instability and uncertainty, the writers of jil al-sittinat (the sixties generation) moved away from the realist techniques of their predecessors, displaying new innovations in their work, in an ongoing struggle to convey their changing experience of reality. This shift away from realism can be registered in the representation of urban, rural, and exilic space and speaks to the writers' growing disillusionment with the post-colonial project in Egypt, in the years following the 1952 Revolution. Chapter One traces the emergence of the writers of the sixties generation onto the literary scene in Egypt, presenting both the aesthetic innovations with which they were associated, and the socio-economic and political context of which they were seen to be both a part and an expression. This chapter also pays attention to the "anxiety over categorization" that the appearance of this generation seems to have caused, an issue that has been overlooked by critics in the field, and which reveals a great deal about how power and authority is negotiated within the literary field in Egypt. Chapter Two moves to the focus upon literary texts, exploring the representation of the urban space of Cairo in the novels of Ibrahim, al-Ghitani, and Aslan. The three novels reveal a move away from the realist depictions of the popular quarters of Cairo, or of the alley as a cross-section of society; the novelists represent "new" spaces within the capital, or "old" spaces in new ways, showing the way in which the relationship between the individual and the state is based upon surveillance and control, providing virulent critiques of the regimes of Jamal 'Abd al-Nasir and Anwar al-Sadat. Chapter Three turns to an examination of the Egyptian countryside as it appears in the novels of Qasim and 'Abdallah, arguing that the move away from socialist realism resulted in the re-imagination of the village as mystical or mythic space. This chapter places these novels within the context of the agricultural reforms intended to improve the lives of the rural population, and that dominated political discussions in the decade of the fifties and sixties. Both novelists present villages that are separate from the rest of the country, calling into question the possibility of revolutionary change. The fourth and final chapter ends with the move beyond the borders of the Egyptian nation; the novels of Tahir and al-Bisati signal a shift to Europe and the Arab Gulf which appear as the spaces of political and economic dislocation. These novels are read in light of the transformations that resulted in migration, and that call into question both national and regional forms of belonging. This dissertation expands the understanding of the literary contribution of the sixties generation by bringing together the discussion of stylistic innovation and thematic preoccupation, while also insisting upon an approach that reads the production of the generation against the socio-economic and political changes that took place in the decades after their emergence on the literary scene.

This dissertation examines the representations of late Egyptian President Gamal `Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) in Egyptian literature and film. It focuses on how the historical character of Nasser has emerged in the Egyptian imaginary--novel, short stories, autobiographies, and films. Rather than engaging in historical arguments about the deeds and legacy of Nasser, my dissertation makes a case for literature and art as alternative archive that questions, erases, distorts, and adds to the official history of Nasser. Employing the famous Aristotelian differentiation between the historian and the poet, and building on Hayden White's argument about the relationship between history and fiction, I argue that the meaning(s) of Nasser for Egyptians must be sought less in recorded history than in fictional narratives. Unlike history, literature and film give voice to marginalized, voiceless witnesses of society. By creating fictional characters that interact with Nasser, these works constitute a space of knowledge, an invaluable window onto the ways people see, personalize, and negotiate their relationships with the President. As this dissertation shows, Nasser constitutes a perfect site for literary and cinematic approaches. Largely seen as the Arab world's most influential political figure of the past century, Nasser was a larger-than-life character, a legend whose image, voice, ideals, accomplishments, deeds and misdeeds, and defeats have been shaping Egyptian and Arabic life to date. Historians, however, often recognize the complexity of Nasser's character, his contradictory traits, and his sometime inexplicable decisions. Particularly ambiguous is how the relationship between Nasser and Egyptians was personalized and often romanticized, transforming a political leader into an attentive audience, a heartthrob lover, and an enigmatic father. Herein lies a major contribution of this dissertation. I argue that history falls short on capturing the centrality of Nasser in Egyptian life. As will be demonstrated, Nasser emerges as a site for plural interpretations, an instance where narratives compete over the meaning of the past. In other words, there is no monolithic discourse on Nasser, but rather various, at times contradictory views that fragment the man into multiple "Nassers." The historical paths and developments which the literary and cinematic Nasser has traversed bespeaks to the shifts in ideals, hopes, and realities that swept the Egyptian society over the past fifty years.

The surviving fragments of Numenius' On the Good show the progression of a discernable argument; the dialogue as a whole deals with the search for a deeper understanding of the Form of the Good that is discussed in Plato's Republic. Fragment 1a provides a statement of method that governs Books 1-3. Book 1 attempts to use dialectical reasoning to reconstruct the "arguments" (logoi) of Pythagoras. Book 2 attempts to find confirmation of these arguments in the Platonic dialogues. Book 3 attempts to find further confirmation in the traditions of the "peoples of good repute." Fragment 9, taken from Book 3, gives a novel telling of the Jewish story of the Exodus, and is carefully constructed so as to be in conformity with Plato. It is best read as an allegory for the interaction of God and Matter. Book 4 is lost, but likely treated the necessity of a lower creator god beneath the highest god who is "free of labor." Book 5 introduces the Three Gods, who should be understood as the highest god, and two aspects of the lower god: a contemplative aspect and a creative aspect. Book 6 ties together the themes of the dialogue as a whole, and concludes that the Good is God.

This study offers a dual aspect bridging Western and Eastern literary traditions, specifically the tragic-heroic literature of the British Renaissance and the prevailing Iranian tradition. This study demonstrates that the concept of the hero in both Western and Eastern traditions is an evolving one. Primarily, this work treats the Iranian heroic tradition. The several fantastic heroes selected for analysis have since been glorified in prayers, epics, novels, and in a tradition of sacred dramas, so much so as to appear almost legendary and mythological today. This paper suggests that these heroes developed in direct response to the most dire of human suffering, and miseries. This gradual development of the concept provides one kind of insight into the changing subtleties of mind and world view of each generation as traced through the three principal periods of Iran's literary tradition. The Pre-Islamic period includes an analysis of the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, the Iranian national epic. The first chapter investigates several of the most significant stories and their prominant heroes. Chapter two further crystalizes the evolutionary thesis of this study by illustrating its contribution to the process of hero creation and emphasizes heroic elements drawn from Ta'ziyeh, the passion play tradition. Chapter three, the Modern period, analyzes a vastly popular tragic literary and film hero, Shir Mammad of Tangsir by Sadeq Chuback. Finally, the study projects a description of the next most likely phase in the evolution of the hero concept. Part II concludes the study with an exemplum of the central thesis in the form of an original play in English by the author. The plot of this original drama is based upon an ancient and popular tale, The Story of Sohrab and Rostam. Reflected in this new version of the ancient tale, the reader will find a new definition of the hero which expresses some of the aspirations of the contemporary Iranian mind. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-08, Section: A, page: 2690. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of this study is to understand the professional and structural, political and cultural factors that present challenges to the implementation of assessment reform in science classrooms. An analysis of recent science education literature and national science education reform documents suggests that change in schools is a complex process that does not happen overnight and is subject to the influence of many professional and structural attributes (Berliner, 2006; Brooks, 2005; Cuban, 1990; Duschl, 1990; Gess-Newsome, Southerland, Johnston & Woodbury, 2003; Southerland & Hutner, in press; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Structural components include school culture; bell schedule, administration policies and mandates, standards, curriculum and accountability measures. Professional components involve teachers' epistemic views of science, their pedagogical conceptions and their conceptions of assessment along with knowledge necessary to translate these conceptions into practice (Barnett & Hodson, 2001; Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1999; Gess-Newsome et al., 2003; Mortimer & Scott, 2003; Shulman, 1986). Education literature suggests both of these components, professional and structural components, shape how teaching takes place, thus, what students learn in science classrooms (Brickhouse, 2006; Duschl, 1990; Gallagher, 2006; Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1999; Gess-Newsome et al., 2003; Southerland & Hutner, in press). Assessment plays a significant role in efforts to bring about improvements in the educational system (Brickhouse, 2006; Davis, Genc & Aydeniz, in press; NAS, 2006; NRC, 2001; 2005; Southerland & Hutner, in press). Assessment serves multiple purposes. Assessment can be used to support learning (Abell & Volkmann, 2006; Bell & Cowie, 2001; Black & William, 1998; Brookhart, 2006; Davis et al., in press; Klassen, 2006; Shepard, 2000), to monitor the effectiveness of a particular curriculum (NAS, 2006; NRC, 2005), to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of instruction (Bell & Cowie, 2001; NAS, 2006; NRC, 2001; Shepard, 2000), and to evaluate the efficiency of the school system (Davis et al., in press; Linn, 2000; Popkewitz, 2000). Although assessment can serve multiple purposes, the confusion over learning and achievement as manifested in political initiatives that aim to bring about improvements to the educational system through standardized testing has reduced the role of assessment in educational reform to accountability (Abell & Volkmann, 2006; Brickhouse, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Davis et al., in press; DeBoer, 2002; Delandshere, 2002; Southerland & Hutner, in press; Stiggins, 2004). Several science educators, who view learning as more than just what is revealed through a single standardized test, find this approach to educational reform problematic (Abell & Volkmann, 2006; Brickhouse, 2006; Davis et al., in press; DeBoer, 2002; Southerland & Hutner, in press). These scholars maintain that the increasing focus on ensuring high test scores has pressured teachers to reduce the role of assessment to the accountability purposes and the content of science teaching to students' acquisition of only the knowledge and skills necessary for passing the test. Although the pressure that the standardized tests generate influences what teachers assess in students' learning and how they go about assessing what they teach (Brickhouse, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Popham, 2006; Stiggins, 2004), other factors may also influence how teachers come to assess students' learning. For instance, teachers' conceptions of assessment may fail to reinforce the goals of science education reform documents. Furthermore, teachers' epistemic views of science and their pedagogical conceptions may also have an impact on what teachers assess and how they go about assessing students' learning in science. Finally, research indicates that the political and cultural structures have an impact on teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment (Berliner, 2006; Darling-Hammond, 2003; Southerland & Hutner, in press; Stiggins, 2004). It follows that characterizing the challenges of enacting assessment reform in science classroom includes exploring science teachers' professional knowledge base (epistemic views of science, pedagogical conceptions and their conceptions of assessment), and influences of the cultural and political structures. In this study, I focus on characterizing three high school science teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment to develop an in-depth understanding into the problems with the implementation of assessment reform in science classroom. In addition to three teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment I analyzed the major science education reform document such as NSES (NRC, 1996) as well as policy initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). My dissertation reveals that although the political and cultural structures of the school system influence what teachers teach in science classrooms and how they go about assessing students' learning in science, the fundamental challenge to the implementation of assessment reform in science classroom is teachers' naïve pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) base. Furthermore, although my findings suggest a nested relationship between science teachers' epistemic views of science, their pedagogical conceptions and their conceptions of assessment, there is no relationship between science teachers' teachers' epistemic views of science, their pedagogical conceptions, their conceptions of assessment and their assessment practices. This is partly due to the influence of the political and cultural structures of the school system and partly due to teachers' naïve understanding of the nested relationships between various constructs (epistemic beliefs, pedagogical beliefs, assessment beliefs), that make up their conceptual ecology (Southerland, Johnston & Sowell, 2006). In my conclusions I argue that in order for the assessment reform to take place in science classrooms, teacher educators must help pre-service and in-service teachers to develop a sophisticated PCK base. This involves helping teachers to develop sophisticated epistemic views of science, sophisticated pedagogical conceptions, and sophisticated conceptions of assessment. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Middle and Secondary Education in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: June 6, 2006. / Assessment Reform, Science Education, Assessment of Learning, Standardized Testing, v / Includes bibliographical references. / Nancy T. Davis, Professor Directing Dissertation; John Dorsey, Outside Committee Member; Sherry Southerland, Committee Member; Penny J. Gilmer, Committee Member.

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