This study aimed to answer the research question: “What role do stakeholders believe character education might play in strengthening UAE university students’ local knowledge?” Implementing character education was explored in terms of its potential influence on national identity and local knowledge in UAE education. The literature review covers several studies that inform a relevant research design. The literature review determines the best-fit term to use in this study by comparing and contrasting suitability of related pedagogical fields to character education, such as citizenship, civic, moral, and ethics education. Additionally, studies that serve as useful examples, such as the Crick Report, Lee’s Taiwan study, and regionally relevant articles such as Al Kharusi and Atweh, are discussed to inform the reader of the study’s design for the Dubai context. A mixed methods methodological design was used with a two-phased approach, a quantitative questionnaire survey and a qualitative series of interviews using an interview schedule. With a relativist, constructivist interpretive viewpoint, three groups were assessed with more than 300 participants: students and administrators at a Dubai case study university were assessed, as well as a group of external education leaders. Findings generally supported the idea of strengthening local knowledge learning both in and outside of educational institutions, with a focus on culture and language familiarity. Also, stakeholders strongly felt the need for choice in how and where learning takes place. Findings that inform the current status quo include that there is already a sentiment of citizenship within the UAE by expatriate residents. Many residents allude to the ‘third culture’ phenomenon, and thus feel belonging to several societies. Thus, results show that character education has potential to influence local knowledge and national identity within the UAE, and be directed at all students, both national and non-national.

The research study is a review of research at Virginia Tech on the relationship between school building condition and student and teacher performance and attitudes. There have been several reviews or synthesis studies of the research in the field of school facilities over the last 65 years. One institution, Virginia Tech has produced several research studies in this area of scholarly work over the past two decades. With this large corpus of research directly related to Cash's theoretical model, first used in 1993, it becomes necessary to find out what the research has shown and also to find out what these researchers have advocated for further research. The study extracted 84 findings from the 20 studies reviewed with 67% being statistically significant. Only eight of the 20 relationships in the theoretical model had related findings. Building Condition and Faculty Attitude and Building Condition and Student Achievement had the highest number of related findings. The study states that a better Building Condition has a positive relationship on higher student achievement and attitudes. The synthesis of the findings also drew seven conclusions that should be factored into future research decisions. The study also extracted 74 recommendations for further research. The three relationships that had the greatest number of related recommendations for further research were Building Condition and Student Achievement, Building Condition and Student Attitudes, and Building Condition and Faculty Attitude. The relationships that were either not investigated or were investigated by one or two research studies are the areas that need more research. The theoretical model produced several propositions for further research. The propositions follow the logical progression of the model from the decisions of the school authorities and financial ability of the school system in determining the condition of the school building to the eventual effect the school building conditions have upon student and teacher performance and attitudes. The presented taxonomy of research needs, through the propositions, serves as a guide in determining the needs for filling the gaps in the research related to Building Condition and Student and Teacher Performance and Attitude at Virginia Tech and other institutions. / Ph. D.