This study explores Saudi educators’ (teachers’ and administrators’) perceptions of and attitudes to Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) inclusion in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in two phases. Data were collected in sequential quantitative and qualitative phases. A questionnaire was first administered to 120 teachers and administrators in direct contact with DHH students, giving a broad picture of the themes under investigation in phase 1. Attitudes were examined in terms of three components: their beliefs, emotions and behaviour. This phase investigated the influence on educators’ beliefs and attitudes of these factors: type of D/deafness, length of experience, teachers’ qualifications, stage/grade of education, type of school and in-service training. In phase 2, understanding of educators’ attitudes was deepened by conducting semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of five teachers and six administrators of diverse experience, covering five themes: the DHH concept, the inclusion concept, the inclusion process and requirements, barriers to DHH inclusion and changes needed to promote it. The first phase revealed positive attitudes towards hard of hearing inclusion but not with regard to Deaf students, a distinction confirmed by the qualitative findings. The Al-Amal Institute for the Deaf was considered the best educational alternative for Deaf students. Relatively negative attitudes towards Deaf inclusion were related to various factors, especially lack of professional training and expertise in cued sign language, inadequate resources in mainstream schools and poor preparation for receiving DHH students. Participants considered integration to be a matter of equal (part-time) access to the nearest possible local school, but not inclusion as an issue of school restructuring, full participation and active social and academic engagement. Regarding barriers and change, participants were more concerned about the lack of professional training, overreliance on individual donations rather than the local authority to fund and support teaching aids, the absence of strict procedures regarding student referral and teacher transfer from general to DHH education. It was felt that there should be more rigorous diagnosis and differentiation of the national curriculum in order for mainstream schools to be more DHH-friendly. I have discussed the contributions, implications, strengths and limitations of the study. It was concluded that the progressive perspective of inclusion in terms of school restructuring, respect, welcoming, participation and belonging is a far-reaching objective in the Saudi context.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Events at the beginning of the 21st century have brought a fundamental change to the security environment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia of a significance not witnessed in the region since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003 eliminated the most significant external threat facing Saudi Arabia. At the same time, internal threats to the Kingdom appear to be increasing. The demographic and economic challenges facing the Kingdom are contributing to internal instability. Increased instances of political violence, particularly suicide bombings against targets within the Kingdom, have been carried out by terrorists linked to al-Qaeda. These attacks have targeted Westerners and, for the first time in May 2003, non-Saudi Muslims. This paper examines the security challenges facing Saudi Arabia at the start of the 21st century. It argues that while external threats to the Kingdom remain, the greater threat to security may lie within the Saudi state: the result of a failure to address current political realities. Major security challenges include the threat from Iran, economic and demographic pressures, the question of succession within the ruling al-Saud family and maintaining the U.S.- Saudi security partnership, a relationship which has endured over 50 years. / Captain, United States Air Force

The purpose of this study was to investigate the evolution and development of the field of public administration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Factors which brought about programs of public administration and which have been influential in the development of these programs were analyzed. Although the historical roots of Saudi public administration are traced to the recapture of Riyadh by the late King Abdulaziz Al-Saud in 1902, modern public administration in the Kingdom actually began in 1953 with a royal decree which established the Council of Ministers. Factors that led to the establishment of the Institute of Public Administration and the birth of public administration programs at major Saudi universities include the country's rapid socioeconomic growth, rapid administrative expansion, and policies of administrative reform, higher education development, and the ambitious Five-Year Plans. Despite the fact that attention to the field of public administration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dates back to the establishment of the College of Commerce at King Saud University in 1959, the real start of teaching public administration in Saudi universities is considered recent. The field of public administration is paralleled with the establishment of the Departments of Public Administration in King Abdulaziz University in 1971, followed by similar steps at King Saud University in 1978. This study revealed that the Saudi Institute of Public Administration and institutions of higher education offering programs of public administration have played a highly influential role in the development of public administration in the Kingdom. However, current research in the field and practice of public administration at the university level is narrowly focused on faculty promotion. The research conducted for this study did not clarify the degree to which efforts are being made to bring theory closer to actual practice. However, a greater need for coordination between university-based public administration programs and governmental agencies seems strongly indicated.

Before the discovery of oil Saudi Arabia's economic structure was limited, and the majority of the population was engaged in herding and agriculture. Social life was also very simple. The Saudi economy has made tremendous strides since commercial oil production began in 1938. A series of national development plans was formulated, and the government has devoted considerable attention to the improvement of education, the Bedouin lifestyle, and many other aspects of society. Chapter I of this thesis presents background information about Saudi Arabia, and Chapter II outlines the development of its oil resources. Chapters III, IV, and V describe Saudi Arabia's family life, its educational system, and its nomads. Chapter VI offers a summary and suggestions for enhancing future development in the kingdom.

A significant amount of work has been done over last one decade on identifying factors that influence adoption of e-banking among consumers. Despite a decade of research the same issues have been highlighted as influencing factors of adoption of e-banking and this is because the existing research has provided little practical guidance on how to address the issues highlighted in the researches in order to increase adoption of e-banking. This research aims to investigate one of the key factors identified as influencing factor of adoption of e-banking, perception of risk. This research looks at perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector in detail, identifying the factors that affect the perception of risk and how to resolve this so as to reduce the perception of risk and increase adoption of e-banking. This research also considers the influence of cultural factors on perception of risk and adoption of e-banking. This research adopts a pragmatist philosophy and mixed method design in order to provide sufficient depth and understanding of the findings to be of practical use. Data was collected using questionnaire surveys and focus groups in two stages. Based on the findings of the questionnaire survey the conceptual framework was validated. Then focus group interviews were conducted to obtain more insight into the responses and findings of the research. One of the contributions of the focus groups was identification of solutions to the problems that related to perception of risk. This research finds security and financial risks are the key risks affecting perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector. But in addition other risks such as transaction risk, time risk, and performance risks also influence perception of risk. In addition, this research finds that e-banking should be implemented considering the cultural dimensions in mind because cultural factors also have a significant influence on the perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector. Based on the findings, this research proposes several solutions to reduce perception of risk in Saudi e-banking sector. The key recommendation is that e-banking channel should preserve some of the attributes of the brick and mortar channel which are valued high by Saudi customers such as one-to-one interaction.

This thesis focuses on remedies for a breach of the Contract of Sale of Goods under English and Saudi law, wherever the Contract is in the course of business. The primary aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse those remedies and how each of the above legal regimes has dealt with breaches. For this purpose, the remedies must be analysed to identify differences and similarities between the two regimes, while at the same time highlighting the weaknesses and strengths of each. In addition, the reasons why the two legal systems have adopted their respective approaches in favouring specific remedies will be considered, in order to determine whether there are any differences in the underlying legal principles affecting the de facto results for the Buyer and Seller. In so doing, the aim is to provide a detailed and ingenious analysis, which may be of assistance in understanding each regime.

As a result of the increasing interest of the Saudi government in developing its people by education, it has begun in its projects and vision statements to promote a culture of dialogue; hence educators are now expected to make dialogue a routine practice in their work, particularly in the religious education curricula at Saudi universities. The present research makes both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to understanding the Saudi understanding of the concept of dialogue and in relation to one particular context through studying understandings of dialogue and its practices in an Islamic community. Theoretical understandings of dialogue include a consideration of the writings of Buber, Bakhtin, and Freire, and how understandings of dialogue are refracted differently when understood within the context of an ongoing tradition of inquiry, through the writings of MacIntyre and specifically Islamic traditions of inquiry, as investigated by Asad. Within the Islamic tradition, the significance of dialogue is analysed through the works of al-Ghazali. This study also investigated the practices of dialogue in religious education courses at a university and their relation to Saudi educational policy, the aims of establishing a center for national dialogue, and the current understanding and present practices of dialogue within the Saudi community and between university teachers and their students. The empirical research applied a case study methodology and took a sociocultural approach: data were collected via interviews, classroom observations and textual analysis. The findings indicate that, while Islam and the Saudi government are obviously interested in dialogue – with some restrictions – those concerned are unclear about the concept of dialogue and its practicing. This implies that the Saudi people need enough spaces to practice dialogue. The findings illustrate the value of higher education, its teachers, classrooms and activities which need to be improved in order to increase opportunities to practice dialogue.

Health care systems in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere play a significant role in the lives of individuals as well as society at large. Although healthcare aims at enhancing the quality of life it can sometimes happen that treatment itself can lead to a diminution of the quality of life due to unexpected adverse effects. These problems may cause therapeutic failures or even drug-related morbidity and mortality. Consequently there is a need to have in place a system, conventionally known as Pharmacovigilance. The aims of Pharmacovigilance are to identify, quantify and continuously monitor all drug use through a system which would enable all health care professionals such as physicians, pharmacists, dentists and nurses to contribute. This thesis investigated the present knowledge of and use of, the Pharmacovigilance system in Makkah, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A mixed method yielded data that provided depth and breadth to the findings of this study. A questionnaire was designed for 170 community pharmacists and 310 respondents drawn from different medical roles across the seven hospitals in Makkah yielded some useful results. Resistance to change was identified in some groups but it was of interest to discover that 72% of respondents who admitted that their knowledge was insufficient were, nevertheless, agreed about its importance. Key issues from the analysis of the questionnaire were used to design the second phase of the sequential mixed method which involved semi structured interviews with seven senior pharmacists, one from each of the seven hospitals. Analysis yielded three overarching categories: Technology, Internalisation and Motivation. A follow up feedback survey at the end of a lecture, of a group of pharmacy students enhanced the overall findings of the study and revealed a very high degree of interest and acceptance of Pharmacovigilance reporting systems and an expressed desire for its inclusion as a subject in its own right in their training programme. Conflicting epistemological positions inherent in a mixed method are candidly admitted and no attempt is made to circumvent this difficulty. Rather, the enhanced nature of the findings is highlighted despite the opposing knowledge claims of both approaches. A key finding was that 59% of the respondents were unaware of the Saudi National Pharmacovigilance centre (NPC) and reporting arrangements. The problems of lack of internet access and of suitable reporting forms were important contributory reasons for the under-usage of the system. There is a need to raise awareness of all pharmacists of the importance of the knowledge and practice of Pharmacovigilance. Technological solutions should be implemented to facilitate reporting at all levels. Continuing professional development should include Pharmacovigilance. Resistance to change can be addressed by identifying the motivational factors that can lead to a more wholehearted acceptance of the importance of Pharmacovigilance for patient care and well-being. Indeed, these could well be the focus of future studies.

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