This thesis evaluates the policy intentions, practices and effects of two different types of School-Based Management (SBM) initiatives in Sri Lanka: the Programme for School Improvement (PSI) and the Child-Friendly Schools Initiative (CFSI). Moreover, it examines the similarities and differences between these two initiatives and, when they co-exist in the same school, the ways in which schools have integrated them. PSI is the national SBM initiative of Sri Lanka introduced to the schools during 2006-2011 following a prolonged process of designing and consensus building which started in the 1990s. Running parallel to PSI, the CFSI - a rights-based approach to education which also has SBM features - is being implemented in selected primary schools. The policy discourse of SBM/PSI focused on the proposition that schools should be empowered to meet the expectations of their communities and that the administrative decentralisation which had shifted power from national to provincial levels was not addressing adequately disparities between schools. At the same time, there was scepticism as to whether SBM would be able to address the issues of a heterogeneous school system. CFSI was introduced by UNICEF in response to the government's request to strengthen disadvantaged schools. The policy intentions of these two initiatives were investigated through interviews with key policy officials and with the representatives of development partner agencies who assisted PSI and CFSI. The influences of the policy-intents of PSI and CFSI on organisational practices, their effects, similarities, differences and complementarities were explored through six school case studies and experiences of the principals, teachers and parents. The thesis reveals that PSI is expected to empower schools with autonomy for making collaborative decisions, create a sense of ownership among the school community and permit improvement of schools. CFSI is intended to promote inclusiveness, child-centredness and democratic participation. They are both, in principle, guided by the concerns for ensuring equitable opportunities for all to learn, improving the quality of education which is judged by student learning outcomes and improving efficiency in resource allocation and use. At the school level, each case-study school has forged collaboration between school-parent-community and ensured democracy in decision-making. School-based decision-making is promoted by PSI through a set of Ministry guidelines and by CFSI through a participatory approach recommended by UNICEF and the Ministry, but having less official ‘force' than PSI. Both initiatives have influenced to increase parents' contribution in the school physical infrastructure development and in the educational projects. School-based planning has been promoted by both initiatives, and in some cases has resulted in the production of two separate plans. Some schools have combined these plans in accordance with the thematic structure of national Education Sector Development Framework. These initiatives have involved principals and teachers in decision-making, planning and implementation of programmes in collaboration with the community. The emphasis given to school-based teacher development is, however inadequate. Nonetheless, the increases in attendance and retention was influenced by CFSI rather than PSI, while both initiatives have had a positive influence by improving student learning and performance through various interventions at school and learning at home. The several ways in which these initiatives are integrated by schools, ensuring that each contributes towards filling the gaps left by the other are described. Considering their complementarities, the positive features of management in PSI and rights-based approach to education in CFSI in a rational manner, the author recommends an integrated ‘Learner-Friendly School-Based Management Model' which will effectively address learners' needs. It also recommends a methodology to pilot this model in Sri Lanka, thus putting the new knowledge produced by this research into practice.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how education in one girls' government school teaches understandings of citizenship and to identify potential links to the reproduction of identity-based violence in Pakistan. This in-depth qualitative case study was conducted in a girls' government model school. This study focuses on curriculum and school practices of the secondary school section. Data was collected through interviews with staff, a participatory workshop with teachers, focus groups with students, classroom observation, and informal discussions. I also analyzed the Pakistan Studies textbook used in the secondary section of the school. Using theories of critical education, intersectionality, and Galtung's violence triangle, I argue that despite recent political and curricular reform attempts, education in Pakistan reproduces a homogeneous concept of a legitimate citizen (male Sunni Muslim). While this evolved to unite an ethnically diverse Pakistan, it has contributed to identity-based violence (direct, structural, and cultural) against those that do not fit within this conception. In this school, the Pakistan Studies textbooks create an official discourse that promotes this gendered and exclusionary citizenship. I show how the Pakistan studies textbook uses history and constitutional lessons to promote citizenship that is based in a masculine Islam meant to oppose the Hindu ‘other' as well as to promote the exclusion of women and minorities from full citizenship. I also found that teachers own understandings of citizenship, which closely reflect the text, are deeply rooted in their understanding of their notions of the ideal Muslim woman. I find that the school rewards gendered behavior in both students and teachers. I then explore the extent to which the school reproduces other social divisions including religious, ethnicity, and class. I find that the school simultaneously reproduces, mitigates, and exacerbates these tensions. I then argue that the teachers' and students' understandings of the role of women to counter violence is rooted in the notions of middle class women's roles as mothers and supporters of men that are reproduced through school practice. This study furthers the knowledge on the links between education and violence by showing that promoting a homogeneous ideal of a citizen through education, while intended as a nation building project, can contribute to structural, cultural and direct violence against women and minorities, limiting their agency to engage in social transformation.

The continuing disadvantage that poor and marginalized communities face in low-income countries is well recognized but international initiatives and government policies still fall short of providing sustainable quality education. The recently published Global Monitoring Report 2013 – 2014 “Teaching and Learning: Achieving Quality for All” recommends strategies for solving the quality crisis through attracting the best teachers, getting them where they are most needed and providing incentives to retain them. Few would dispute these strategies but their achievement is problematic, given the vastness of the challenge in a financially constrained global environment. This study is predicated on the acknowledgement that the strategies proposed provide too narrow a focus and that poor quality education is also due to contextual factors that have been relatively ignored. These contextual factors are investigated through this research. This research study explores community perceptions of school benefits as a lens through which to engage with marginalized rural communities' conceptualization of “quality” education. It utilizes Tikly and Barrett's (2011) framework for analysing quality education with its three key dimensions of inclusion, relevance and democracy. It investigates the factors and processes that are shaping perceptions of benefits within the three environments of policy-making, school and community. The research study uses a qualitative methodology, employing a critical stance, but engaging also with the insights of Bourdieu and Foucault viewing power as both repressive and productive. This research engages with the “regimes of truth” that have constrained social action as well as the process of discourse deconstruction and reconstruction that has shaped agency and facilitated social change. This is a multiple case study of four rural primary schools in marginalized communities in Sindh, Pakistan (two opened in 2002, two in 2007), using purposive sampling to maximize data heterogeneity. Data, mostly qualitative, was generated from semi-structured interviews with community leaders, school management committee members, parents and teachers. Focus groups were conducted with school graduates and teachers. Photographs were used as a participatory tool to facilitate interview and focus group discussions. The findings indicate that context-led policy, contextualized teacher training, pedagogy and curriculum and community leadership that facilitates agency are the key factors shaping perceptions of benefits. Emerging from these factors is both the employment of local teachers who can experience a transformational process that enables them to bring social change and a dynamic interaction between pedagogy and benefits. Positional benefits are highly valued with social skills being key to the development of social capital, which the findings indicate should be included in the discourse of “quality” education. The study provides empirical data demonstrating how the recent theoretical frameworks for quality education are being “fleshed out” in specific contexts and addresses issues raised in quality debates. It makes recommendations for the complementary role of non-government schools in the post-2015 EFA strategy and the provision of quality education in hard to reach areas characterized by poverty and marginalization in the global South.

The recent emphasis on the importance of English language teaching and learning in public universities in Pakistan has resulted in the introduction of a new English as Second Language (ESL) programme including revised teaching approaches, content and assessment. However, to date, no rigorous and independent evaluation of this new programme has been undertaken particularly with respect to students' learning and experiences. This thesis seeks to address this gap by examining the effects of the new ESL programme on students' learning experiences, as well as teachers' perspectives and the broader institutional context. The study uses a qualitative case study approach basing its findings on the responses of purposively sampled students (n=17) and teachers (n=7) from the Institution of English Literature and Linguistics (IELL), University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan (UoSJP). Semistructured interviews, observations and document review were used as the main tools to collect a wide variety of data. The analysis of the data was informed by different theories including Symbolic Interactionism, Community of Practice, and Bourdieusian notions of habitus, field and capital. These theories offered an approach which bridges the structure and agency divide in understanding students' learning experiences. The study employed the concepts of institutional influences to examine the impact of UoSJP's policies and practices on the teaching and learning of the ESL programme. The concept of community, which is understood as the community of the ESL classroom, is used to examine the interactions of students-students and students-teachers. The notion of identity was used to examine the interaction of students' gender, rurality, ethnicity and previous learning experiences with different aspects of the ESL programme. In relation to institutional influences, the study found that UoSJP's institutional policies and practices are shaped by its position in the field of higher education, and in turn, these influences shape teaching and learning in the ESL programme. Specifically, UoSJP defines its capital as higher education for all, which in practice translates as admitting students who have been rejected by other universities and/or cannot afford private universities' high fees. In order to meet the language needs of disadvantaged students from non-elite English and vernacular medium schools, UoSJP offers the ESL programme. This initiative aims to improve students' English language skills in their first two years, and to fulfil requirements set by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the university's treatment of the ESL programme significantly impacts on teaching and learning in terms of its policies and practices, in relation to faculty hiring, teacher training, relationship between the administration and ESL teachers, number of students in ESL classrooms, assessment criteria, ESL quality assurance, and learning support resources like up-to-date libraries. In relation to the community of ESL classroom, the study found that participation plays an important part in defining students' roles and their relationship with teachers and peers in the classroom. Teachers' pedagogic strategies and large classes were found to be influential factors affecting students' participation in the classroom. It was found that teachers use different pedagogic strategies, which define them as facilitators or knowledge transmitters accordingly. The facilitators allow students' full participation in the classroom by listening to their opinions, respecting their arguments, appreciating their feedback, acknowledging their contributions to the class, and demonstrating empathy to their problems. When in class with these teachers, students feel encouraged, confident and motivated to participate in the classroom. By contrast, the knowledge transmitters prefer monologue lectures when teaching ESL, and strongly discourage students' participation. Students are usually not allowed to ask questions or express their concerns to these teachers. In their presence, students revealed that they lacked confidence, and felt discouraged and demotivated from participating in the classroom. Moreover, in the context of large classes only students sitting on the front-benches are given opportunities of participation, while those at the back of the classroom are considered to be educationally weak, inactive, therefore ignored in interactive activities. The treatment of these students by teachers and students at the front of the class alike limits their participation in the classroom. In relation to identities, the study found that students frequently foreground their gender identities, rural-ethnic identities and identities as medical or engineering students in interaction with different aspects of the ESL programme. Some aspects of ESL textbooks including units which depict stereotypical gender roles conflict with female students' gender identities; units which are based on exclusively Western, urban contexts conflict with students' rural-ethnic identities, and units that are based on graph-comprehension conflict with students' identities as medical students. While others aspects of ESL textbooks particularly those units that are constructed on experiences and activities which are exclusively associated with men in Pakistan such as driving complement female students' gender identities; and those units which are set in a village, and focus on the culture and life of villages complement students rural-ethnic identities. Moreover, it was found that female students struggled in maintaining their role as ESL learners in comparison with their gender roles as sister and daughter. This thesis provides new insights into students' learning experiences and ESL in higher education. It also contributes to and enhances the literature on higher education in Pakistan. Furthermore, it enables policy-makers to reflect upon their policies, as well as provides suggestions to the UoSJP and its teachers.

Since 1962, Myanmar has experienced stagnant economic growth despite its rich natural resources, demographic strength, and being located at the crossroad of Asia. To improve policy and regulation, Myanmar's private sector must advocate policy or administrative course of action to the government. Therefore, the purpose of the research was to evaluate the public-private dialogue (PPD) before and after the change of the government, and change of UMFCCI leadership during major reforms in Myanmar. Research questions were focused on the design, implementation, and benefits and risks of PPD. This qualitative case study, based on cross-sector collaboration theory, included semistructured interviews with 26 key participants who have deeply involved in the PPD building process since very beginning. Data were categorized for thematic analysis and the PPD building process was compared before and after April 2016 because there was a change of government and Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries leadership. Findings included differing levels of conceptualization, capacity constraints, and the need to coordinate among development partners. Additionally, differing commitment level among local and foreign businesses indicated that creating the right conditions and being able to establish a collective purpose are important for successful cross-sector collaboration. This study contributes to positive social change for policy makers and collaborators interested in creating a positive regulatory environment through collaboration.

La frontière tectonique entre les plaques indienne et birmane est principalement décrochante avec une faible composante de raccourcissement. La plaque subduite, le bassin du Bengale, est parcourue par des hétérogénéités crustales majeures acquises lors de son processus de formation et de migration vers le Nord (rides de point chaud, failles transformantes...). La plaque supérieure, la microplaque birmane, délimitée à l'Est par la faille décrochante dextre de Sagaing, est dans la zone d'influence du flux crustal Est-Tibétain. <br />Le long d'une large coupe Terre-Mer depuis le bassin du Bengale jusqu'au Nord de la Birmanie, je me suis intéressé à la géométrie structurale et à la cinématique de la subduction hyper-oblique Indo-Birmane en insistant sur les effets d'éléments perturbateurs (flux et hétérogénéités crustaux). Par une approche pluridisciplinaire combinant des observations géologiques structurales de terrain, des données géophysiques marines et des mesures géodésiques, je présente un modèle d'évolution néogène de la subduction oblique en réponse à ces perturbations. Une étude de la sismicité et quelques mesures paléomagnétiques ont complété ce travail.<br /><br />La ride de 90°E, formée au sein de la croûte océanique du Bengale vers 100Ma, est entrée en collision avec la marge Birmane au Miocène supérieur. Elle a probablement bloqué la subduction dans sa partie méridionale de telle sorte que seule une déformation décrochante dextre le long de son flanc Est est exprimé structuralement. Au Nord de la ride, le prisme externe Indo-Birman est libre de se développer rapidement vers l'Ouest depuis 2Ma à la faveur d'une forte épaisseur de sédiments déposés sur la plaque plongeante (delta du Ganges-Brahmapoutre).<br />Ce prisme Indo-Birman, construit en convergence hyper-oblique, a enregistré un partitionnement de la déformation : les zones internes sont cisaillées sur une direction Nord-Sud et les zones externes sont raccourcies sur une direction Est-Ouest. <br />La faille de Sagaing est défléchie de plus de 100km vers l'Ouest dans sa partie Nord. Je propose un modèle dans lequel le flux crustal résultant de l'effondrement du Tibet, est responsable de cette inflexion. Ce modèle questionne le rôle de ce flux dans la construction du prisme partitionné. Appuyé sur l'ensemble des données géodésiques disponibles autour de la syntaxe Est Himalayenne, il établit un lien entre les déformations finis néogènes de la région.<br /><br />Les données de sismique réflexion ont apporté des contraintes fortes sur la partie marine de la section. Ainsi, la présence de la ride de 90°E et la nature océanique de la croûte du Bengale ont pu être fixées. En revanche, le flux crustal Est-Tibétain reste mal compris. Les données géodésiques permettent d'en approcher la cinématique mais il est nécessaire, pour en connaître la nature, d'y combiner des données géologiques de terrain, qui sont les seuls à permettre l'observation direct de la déformation crustale profonde aujourd'hui exhumée. Ces observations géologiques peuvent aussi apporter des éléments de réponses sur la stabilité du flux au cours du temps. Un travail de modélisation doit encore être mené pour confronter ces idées nouvelles aux propriétés physiques de la lithosphère continentale en cours de déformation.

<p>The people of Myanmar find their personal security and well-being threatened by the military authorities of the country and have no option but to leave their homeland and seek refuge in Thailand. Nevertheless, seen as the burden and element of insecurity the refugees are often left unprotected or even expelled by the Thai authorities. The situation as such recalls what some observers shortly named “unwanted and unprotected”. The thesis focuses on the provisions of international human rights and refugee rights principles and traces the impact of international standards on the refugee problem situation. This research aims to assess the compliance with the international human rights and refugee principles in the Myanmar-Thailand case. Taking into account the particularity of this case, the aim has a twofold structure. On the one hand, it seeks to analyze the compliance with the international human rights principles in the Myanmar context. On the other hand, it needs to analyze the compliance with the international refugee and human rights standards of the Myanmar refugees in Thailand. Falling in-between the international law and international relations theories the compliance-based theory is employed to guide the analysis and help answer the fundamental question of this research: Why is compliance with the international human rights and refugee rights principles in the case of Myanmar and Thailand problematic?</p>

The people of Myanmar find their personal security and well-being threatened by the military authorities of the country and have no option but to leave their homeland and seek refuge in Thailand. Nevertheless, seen as the burden and element of insecurity the refugees are often left unprotected or even expelled by the Thai authorities. The situation as such recalls what some observers shortly named “unwanted and unprotected”. The thesis focuses on the provisions of international human rights and refugee rights principles and traces the impact of international standards on the refugee problem situation. This research aims to assess the compliance with the international human rights and refugee principles in the Myanmar-Thailand case. Taking into account the particularity of this case, the aim has a twofold structure. On the one hand, it seeks to analyze the compliance with the international human rights principles in the Myanmar context. On the other hand, it needs to analyze the compliance with the international refugee and human rights standards of the Myanmar refugees in Thailand. Falling in-between the international law and international relations theories the compliance-based theory is employed to guide the analysis and help answer the fundamental question of this research: Why is compliance with the international human rights and refugee rights principles in the case of Myanmar and Thailand problematic?

No description available.

Myanmar, an isolated country in Southeast Asia, held general elections for the People¡¦s Assembly in 2010, the first in twenty years and the second in fifty years. The military junta that has ruled the country for decades has been facing strong criticism from the international community. This research has systematically examined the historical development of the electoral laws and the overall electoral system of the Union of Myanmar (since October 2010 officially known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar) during the period of 18 June 1989 up until the latest elections on 7 November 2011. Why did the military bother organizing elections? The latest elections were meant to give the impression that they would create a legitimate government. In reality, they were designed to preserve military rule under a façade of democracy. The junta learned a valuable lesson from the last free elections in 1990, which ended in a fiasco for the pro-junta parties, and did not leave it to the people's will in 2010. In order to effectively extend military rule, in 2008 the junta used a flawed referendum to approve a supremacy constitution, according to which the military automatically receives 25% of the seats in parliament. This constitution helped the junta impose several severe limitations on parties willing to participate in the 2010 elections, thus ensuring that the military-backed political parties would win most of the seats at stake. This thesis attempts to show the powerlessness of the masses against a system based on the creation of self-serving laws used by the ruling junta to control the society.