eCommons@AKU

Follow

• 

  Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Syria, Iran and Pakistan

  Maryam Ghadyani, Hinna Hussain, Wael Odeh, and Philip Wood

  This paper describes the reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak on social media in Iran, Syria and Pakistan. In particular, we focus on issues of the place of religion in society, on international relations and on trust between society and government, where these issues have been invoked in the discussion of the epidemic. We conclude with timelines for the early phases of the epidemic in the three countries.

• 

  Islamic and Middle East Area Studies Librarianship

  Walid Ghali, Waseem Farooq, Paul Auchterlonie, and Arnoud Vrolijk

  The three papers collected here are based on a seminar on Islamic Studies Librarianship held on 31 January 2019 at the Aga Khan Library (AKL), in conjunction with the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC). Curators, area studies directors, and collection librarians, who are currently involved in this field, gathered to discuss common challenges and to identify strategic areas for collaboration.

• 

  Atlas of diagnostic and predictive histopathology

  Shahid Pervez

  The second edition of this atlas covers the histopathology of all organ systems, supporting trainees and residents in the histopathological diagnosis of a wide range of inflammatory, neoplastic, degenerative, developmental and metabolic disorders. Though organ-specific books and atlases are increasingly available, there is a growing demand for a comprehensive guide to the histopathological diagnosis of each organ system, enabling histopathology trainees/residents and general pathologists to make reliable provisional or final diagnoses in routine practice. Each chapter covers a specific organ system and provides a better understanding of the microscopic pathology of common diseases and cancers, their interpretation, clinical presentation, epidemiology and demographics. The book also includes a chapter on ‘Predictive Pathology’ to help pathologists and other medical and healthcare professionals understand histopathology and report on it in keeping with standard international guidelines for individualized patient management.
  Intended as a concise and handy guide, this book offers a ready reference for trainees in histopathology, surgical pathology, anatomic pathology and cellular pathology, as well as practicing pathologists. It can also serve as a useful resource for biologists, biomedical scientists and physicians in general. The book features over 2200 illustrations with microscopic descriptions and interpretations. Besides H&E, special stains, IHC, FISH and radiology are included.

• 

  40 Years On: Reflections on the Iranian Revolution

  Sevgi Adak, Touraj Atabaki, Kamran Matin, and Valentine M. Moghadam

  The three articles compiled here are based on a panel discussion held at the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations (AKU-ISMC) on 23 May 2019.

  Marking the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution, its aim was to revisit the debate on the causes and impact of the revolution for Iran and beyond.

  Three questions in particular guided the interdisciplinary dialogue and political reflections on this world historical event: How should we analyse the conditions underpinning the revolutionary dynamics in Iran in the global context of the 1970s? How should the Iranian Revolution be analysed in an historical-comparative perspective? And, what is the legacy, or rather, the multiple legacies, of the revolution for the political struggles in Iran and the Middle East today

• 

  Delusional states: Feeling rule and development in Pakistan's Northern Frontier

  Nosheen Ali

  Delusional States: Feeling Rule and Development in Pakistan's Northern Frontier is the first in-depth study of state power and social struggle in Gilgit-Baltistan - the only Shia-majority region of Sunni-dominated Pakistan and a contested border zone that forms part of disputed Kashmir. For seven decades, the political conflict over Kashmir has locked India and Pakistan in brutal wars and hate-centered nationalisms. This book illuminates how within this story of hate lie other stories - of love and betrayal, loyalty and suspicion, and beauty and terror. Placing these emotionalities at the centre of its analysis, Delusional States rethinks the state–citizen relation in deeply felt and intimate terms, offering a fine-grained ethnographic analysis of power and subjection in contemporary Pakistan. A powerful contribution to studies of state-making and Muslim sociality in South Asia, the book additionally offers distinct theoretical insights in the fields of social movements, political ecology, education, and global development studies.

• 

  Education in Tanzania in the era of globalisation: Challenges and opportunities

  Joe Lugalla and Marriote Ngwaru

  Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities is a product of papers presented at a National Education Conference held in Dodoma, Tanzania in November 2016 and organised by the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development, East Africa (AKU-IED-EA). The individual chapters in this publication, and their collective thrust, discuss the challenges in the education system in good faith and in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration guided by the belief that it is not the responsibility of the Government alone to see how these can be addressed. The various authors of Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities discuss issues within the context of the Tanzanian political economy against the effects of globalization and seek to initiate a new kind of debate that is long overdue; a debate aimed at charting out appropriate strategies whose objective is to improve the quality of education in Tanzania so that it becomes a useful vehicle in enhancing processes of social change, transformation and development.

• 

  Political kinship in Pakistan: Descent, marriage and government stability

  Stephen M. Lyon

  In Political Kinship in Pakistan, Stephen M. Lyon illustrates how contemporary politicsinPakistanarebuiltoncomplexkinship networks created through marriage and descent relations. Lyon points to kinship as a critical mechanism for understanding both Pakistan’s continued inability to develop strong and stable governments, and its incredible durability in the face of pressures that have led to the collapse and failure of other states around the world.

• 

  Enhancing primary science teaching through school-based mentors: A study from Pakistan

  Nelofer Halai

  Aiming to develop a model in understanding key strategies, the author indicates existing gaps and exposes the readers to logistical components of workshops, while at the same time, places special emphasis on conceptualization of ideas for preparing and using appropriate materials to teach science to adult teachers. In addition to this, the book also provides teachers’ insights on how to develop themselves into mentors or teacher educators and thus enhance their impact in schools by not only teaching students, but also other teachers. Halai aims at aiding teachers away from conventional and towards new tutoring techniques by providing a broad context of study.

• 

  AKU-IED reflecting on the past journeying into the future

  Anil Khamis and Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta

  This Commemorative Edition, with its 12 engaging chapters written by AKU-IED graduates, exemplifies the depth and scale of the educational challenges to be confronted. The chapters provide insights into how different discourses and educational practices are envisaged by the students themselves, which in turn is a reflection of their experiences as post-graduate students at the Institute, leading to changes they chart — both of themselves in developing their research capabilities and the impact of their studies in each of the particular projects. The chapters provide compelling insight and evidence of the AKU-IED Master of Education programme effect, with its two specialisation strands of teacher education and educational leadership and management, and the influence of the MEd on its graduates' personal and professional lives, their enhanced capabilities and capacities as pedagogues and critical thinkers, their vision for real and potential change to impact their home institutions and more broadly in the educational arenas they study. The graduates' biographical snapshots presented along with their chapters convey a powerful perennial message: the journey and creation and re-creation of individuals and institutions is a personal and public narrative that needs to be acknowledged, critically examined, and recast in the pursuit of producing new knowledge and sustainable approaches particularly for the Global South.

• 

  Mobile technologies and socio-economic development in emerging nations

  Fredrick Mtenzi, George Oreku, Dennis Lupiana, and Jim Yonazi

  As technology advances, mobile devices have become more affordable and useful to countries around the world. As a result, mobile evolution has become an essential part of economic and social advancement. This book provides emerging research on the role of mobile devices as an important aspect of social and economic growth in developing countries. While highlighting topics, such as device authentication, mobile data management, and sensor services, this book explores how mobile devices have evolved to become an extremely useful tool. This book is a vital resource for academicians, researchers, students, practitioners, politicians, and professionals seeking current research on the uses, applications, and advantages of mobile services in increasing economic growth.

• 

  Education and extremisms: Rethinking liberal pedagogies in the contemporary world

  Farid Panjwani, Lynn Revell, Reza Gholami, and Mike Diboll

  Education and Extremisms addresses one of the most pressing questions facing societies today: how is education to respond to the challenge of extremism? It argues that the implementation of new teaching techniques, curricular reforms or top-down changes to education policy alone cannot solve the problem of extremism in educational establishments across the world. Instead, the authors of this thought-provoking volume argue that there is a need for those concerned with radicalisation to reconsider the relationship between instrumentalist ideologies shaping education and the multiple forms of extremisms that exist. Beginning with a detailed discussion of the complicated and contested nature of different forms of extremism, including extremism of both a religious and secular nature, the authors show that common assumptions in contemporary discourses on education and extremism are problematic. Chapters in the book provide a careful selection of pertinent and topical case studies, policy analysis and insightful critique of extremist discourses. Taken together, the chapters in the book make a powerful case for re-engaging with liberal education in order to foster values of individual and social enrichment, intellectual freedom, criticality, open-mindedness, flexibility and reflection as antidotes to extremist ideologies. Recognising recent criticisms of liberalism and liberal education, the authors argue for a new understanding of liberal education that is suitable for multicultural societies in a rapidly globalising world. This book is essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students with an interest in religion, citizenship education, liberalism, secularism, counter-terrorism, social policy, Muslim education, youth studies and extremism. It is also relevant to teacher educators, teachers and policymakers.

• 

  Lessons from implementation of educational reforms in Pakistan: Implications for policy and practice

  Takbir Ali and Sarfaroz Niyozov

  A resourceful insight for stakeholders and reformers on the future of education in Pakistan, Lessons from Implementation of Educational Reforms in Pakistan: Implications for Policy and Practice offers challenging research-grounded accounts from a selection of distinct research studies, carried out by AKU-IED faculty. These studies originated from two major multi-year international and donor-funded education improvement projects in Pakistan—the Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistan (STEP), and the Educational Development and Improvement Programme (EDIP).

  Providing a blend of qualitative and quantitative accounts of practices, attitudes, and challenges of integrating local and international experiences and ideas around educational reform and professional development at micro-levels, and these projects’ promising implications at macro-levels, the book provides a distinct understanding of the processes of educational reforms in Pakistan. It delves into issues involved in understanding the nexus of theory and practice in the context of large-scale education reforms. While providing a conceptual base for reflections, it raises such critical questions on how local and global successful practices and experiences can be merged into new quality and sustainable projects and frameworks for educational change in Pakistan and other developing countries.

• 

  Educational policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan: Contested terrain in the twenty-first century

  Dilshad Ashraf, Mir Afzal Tajik, and Sarfaroz Niyozov

  In the mountains of the Northern Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan School and schooling are both symbolic of wider ranging cultural and political battles over morals, modernity, development, gender and the rule of law. Educational Policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan: Contested Terrain in the Twenty-First Century is about both the normative battles over the purpose of education, as well as about the structural impediments to providing instruction in those remote and challenging locations where it is attempted. The analytical frames in this collection come primarily from the social sciences and comparative education. Contributors examine education, policy, processes and structures in the broader socio-cultural, religious and economic context of three countries sharing somewhat similar colonial and post- colonial legacy and current uprising of extreme religious positions and a drive to social-cohesion.

• 

  Dance of the Jakaranda

  Peter Kimani

  "This funny, perceptive and ambitious work of historical fiction by a Kenyan poet and novelist explores his country’s colonial past and its legacy through the stories of three men involved with the building of a railroad linking Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean--what the Kikuyu called the 'Iron Snake' and the British called the 'Lunatic Express.'"
  --New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice
  
  "Kimani has done a game job managing the carpentry of this ambitious novel, bringing great skill to the task of deploying multiple story lines, huge leaps back and forth in time and the withholding and distribution of information...Once Kimani has his plotlines all set, his writing relaxes, and it’s here that you can see his raw talent...I have never read a novel about [Kenya] that’s so funny, so perceptive, so subversive and so sly."
  --New York Times Book Review
  
  "Destined to become one of the greats...This is not hyperbole: it’s a masterpiece."
  --The Gazette
  
  "A multi-racial nation-building tale that begins during the construction of the railway from Mombasa to Nairobi. There are three men at its heart: two white, a British administrator known as 'Master' and an Anglican minister; one brown, an Indian technician who sires a male child, a birth that will reverberate down through the years."
  --Toronto Star
  
  "A fascinating part of Kenya’s history, real and imagined, is revealed and reclaimed by one of its own."
  --Minneapolis Star Tribune
  
  "But the novel has way more strengths than I can describe here, including the beauty of lyrical narration that combines irony, flashback, humour, allusions and inter-textual references, all of which are expertly manipulated to give the reader a gem of a story populated by composite characters, a story that, though revisiting old themes and times, does so with the freshness that one would expect of established literary geniuses."
  --Daily Nation
  
  "The author has built here not only, on these pages, not only a railroad, but the singular triumph of a highly diverting novel. Besides weaving an excellent plot-line, he offers the reader a classic, understated writing style that haunts much of this book, turns it into a minor masterpiece."
  --RALPH Magazine, Starred review
  
  "Peter Kimani, an acclaimed writer and poet, has brilliantly constructed this novel’s plot...[His] lyrical prose, such as portraying the train as ‘a massive snakelike creature,’ and his breathtaking descriptions of ‘God’s country’ bring the beauty of the land before our eyes."
  --Historical Novels Review
  
  Set in the shadow of Kenya's independence from Great Britain, Dance of the Jakaranda reimagines the special circumstances that brought black, brown and white men together to lay the railroad that heralded the birth of the nation.
  
  The novel traces the lives and loves of three men--preacher Richard Turnbull, the colonial administrator Ian McDonald, and Indian technician Babu Salim--whose lives intersect when they are implicated in the controversial birth of a child. Years later, when Babu's grandson Rajan--who ekes out a living by singing Babu's epic tales of the railway's construction--accidentally kisses a mysterious stranger in a dark nightclub, the encounter provides the spark to illuminate the three men's shared, murky past.
  
  With its riveting multiracial, multicultural cast and diverse literary allusions, Dance of the Jakaranda could well be a story of globalization. Yet the novel is firmly anchored in the African oral storytelling tradition, its language a dreamy, exalted, and earthy mix that creates new thresholds of identity, providing a fresh metaphor for race in contemporary Africa.

• 

  Being a Surgeon: The Ten Commandments

  Asad Raja

  ‘Being a Surgeon' is a heartfelt exploration of surgical discipline. It is intended to help surgeons and other stakeholders around the world make a difference in the care of surgical patients. It would serve trainees and training programs, and help improve the culture and practices of surgery. The book invites surgical trainees and preceptors to fight the onslaught of institutionalized dehumanization in medicine. It calls to delve into the full, holistic complexity of the surgical discipline by exploring and cultivating every facet of the surgeon's role. It centers round author's experiences as a surgeon battling to salvage patient life, dignity, and wellbeing in difficult and challenging environments. These experiences are held up as examples for surgeon's young and old to learn from, providing key principles. The Ten Commandments are based on cardinal, ethical and surgical maxims that invite surgeons, to discuss triangle of medical professionalism, primacy of patient welfare, the duty of care, reflective practice, value judgments, conflict of interest, patient advocacy, justice, and much more. This book will guide new surgeons and practitioners as they develop and refine their sense of professionalism and ethics. It will be invaluable to preceptors as they create methods of mentorship that nurture and support young practitioners by teaching them to cultivate their moral sense. Surgery is a union of science and compassion. The book will inspire anyone dreaming of becoming a surgeon and providing compassionate, quality surgical care. Being a Surgeon will help you gain valuable insights to the true holistic approach to patient care.

• 

  Organize or die: Exploring the political and organizational activities

  Fulgence Saronga and Shine Swai

  This is a book of its kind for political and organizational activities of workers’ unionization.The conceptual framework review will reveal whether teachers unions are organizations imbued with political activities. Definitions of an organization, a teacher union and other related nomenclature would be highlighted. Being teacher organization and being organizational imply that there are certain commonalities in what is a teacher union is as compared to the definition of an organization from organization studies. After seeing what has happened to the teacher organizations in Africa, certain categories of ideas will emerge from the study, which will be a foundation for more scholarly work. It is believed that by interacting with textual material in the literature review, the subject matter will fold and unfold and come out with a body of knowledge about teacher unions as an input to organizations studies. I hope the book will open up a dialogue for policy makers, scholars and politicians to give proper weight to the concerns of teacher unions in the worldview of knowledge. More written material, might come out in relation to teacher unions from other organization studies.

• 

  Practical guide and atlas for the diagnosis of fungal infections

  Afia Zafar, Kauser Jabeen, and Joveria Farooqi

  Laboratory diagnosis of fungal infections remains challenging in South East Asia as it is a neglected field in most diagnostic centres in the developing world. Initial microscopic examination of clinical specimens for the presence of fungal elements followed by growth and eventual identification of isolates up to genus and species levels are very basic and important services that must be provided by any clinical microbiology laboratory. These services have considerable impact on selection of appropriate antifungal therapy and ultimate reduction in morbidity and mortality. With the realisation of scarcity of this service and expertise in Pakistan, our group decided to produce an atlas for use in clinical laboratories to diagnose fungal infections as well as to improve understanding and skills of clinical laboratory technologists, residents and junior consultants. The editors and authors are hopeful that this atlas will aid in the identification and reporting of fungi in day-to-day clinical laboratory practice.

• 

  Urban Farmers Handbook

  Alex Awiti

  In 2008, more than half of the global population, 3.3 billion lived in cities, making our kind, for the first time, Homo urbanus – an urban species. By 2030, 5 billion people will live in cities.

  Urbanization has its challenges, especially in the developing world. Hunger and malnutrition are marching on our cities. A recent study showed that 44 percent of households in Nairobi were under nourished. In May 2012, the Ministry of Special Programs, distributed 4,800 bags of rice and soya and another 400 tins of cooking oil to poor households Nairobi, where it was estimated that 65% were food insecure.

  But urbanism also presents a unique opportunity and the developing world is seizing it. In Kenya, the government and residents of Nairobi have passed a law that promotes and regulates agriculture. For the first time in the 115 years since Nairobi was founded as a railway beachhead, agriculture is now recognized as a legitimate land use, just like residential use.

  This handbook is really about creating an excitement among urban residents on the possibility of providing sufficient food for their families and their community. Examples from other cities, such as Havana and Vancouver are inspiring and demonstrate that urban farmers can nourish cities and make decent living. This handbook draws from and celebrates the courage and obstinate persistence of Francis Wachira, one of Kenya’s most successful urban farmers. Francis a pioneer, leader, a mentor and role model embodies the spirit and promise of a new dawn of urbanization, one that recognizes the vital role of food urban farmers. We all can and must learn from Francis’ leadership.

• 

  Supporting Healthy Futures for East Africa: Celebrating 15 years of partnership in nursing education. School of Nursing and Midwifery in East Africa, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya

  Sharon Brownie, Walter Robb, Lyndal Hunter, Cliff Aliga, Isabel Kambo, Atem Machar, Joseph Mwizerwa, Judith Mutyabule, M. Namuguzi, Carolyne Namukwaya, Esther Nderitu, Leah Sande, Victor Skrzypczynski, Muneerah Vastani, and Mariana Xavier

  This impact evaluation study was designed on the basis of quality and accountability. It focused on sourcing evidence regarding the impact and achievements of a 15-year investment in nursing education and workforce capacity building. The study was also designed to enhance alumni connection and establish sustainable models for monitoring and evaluation.

• 

  Teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms: Issues for policy, practice and teacher education

  Anjum Halai and Philip Clarkson

  This book draws on recent, emerging insights and understandings about the approaches to improving policy and practice in mathematics education and mathematics teacher education in multilingual settings. It presents, and discusses critically, examples of work from a range of contexts and uses these examples to draw out key issues for research in education in language diverse settings including teaching, learning, curriculum and fit these with appropriate policy and equity approaches. With contributions from all over the world, especially novice researchers in low income countries, this book is a valuable resource for courses in Mathematics Education and related social sciences both at the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as for students of international development.

• 

  Mathematics education in East Africa : Towards harmonization and enhancement of education quality

  Anjum Halai and Geoff D. Tennant Dr

  In the increasingly global and technological world mathematics is seen as a significant gatekeeper of opportunities for social and economic advancement and mobility. Hence, countries and development agencies in the broader sub-Saharan Africa region are looking towards increasing access to relevant and high-quality secondary education as a lever towards economic development. Policy makers and other key decision makers in education look towards improvement in mathematics teaching and learning as a key focus in education reform. In the East Africa region also a number of initiatives have been taken at the national level in the respective countries to improve the quality of mathematics education. This book provides an in-depth comparative analysis of the developments and issues in mathematics education in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda, and advances our understanding of the state of secondary mathematics education in East Africa.

• 

  Volume 7: Shaping Global Islamic Discourses : The Role of al-Azhar, al-Medina and al-Mustafa

  Masooda Bano and Keiko Sakurai

  Claims abound that Saudi oil money is fueling Salafi Islam in cultural and geographical terrains as disparate as the remote hamlets of the Swat valley in Pakistan and sprawling megacities such as Jakarta. In a similar manner, it is often regarded as a fact that Iran and the Sunni Arab states are fighting proxy wars in foreign lands.

  This empirically grounded study challenges the assumptions prevalent within academic as well as policy circles about the hegemonic power of such Islamic discourses and movements to penetrate all Muslim communities and societies.

  Through case studies of academic institutions, the volume illustrates how transmission of ideas is an extremely complex process, and that the outcome of such efforts depends not just on the strategies adopted by backers of those ideologies but equally on the characteristics of the receipt communities.

  In order to understand this complex interaction between global and local Islam and the plurality in outcomes, the volume focuses on the workings of three universities with global outreach (Al-Azhar University in Egypt, International Islamic University of Medina in Saudi Arabia, and Al-Mustafa International University in Iran) whose graduating students carry the ideas acquired during their education back to their own countries, along with, in some cases, a zeal to reform their home society.

  Masooda Bano is Associate Professor and University Research Lecturer at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford; Keiko Sakurai is Professor at the Faculty of International Research and Education, School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.

• 

  Mathematics education and language diversity: The 21st ICMI study

  Richard Barwell, Philip Clarkson, Anjum Halai, Mercy Kazima, Judith Moschkovich, Nuria Planas, Mamokgethi Phakeng, Paola Valero, Martha Villavicencio, and Abraham Arcavi

  This book examines multiple facets of language diversity and mathematics education. It features renowned authors from around the world and explores the learning and teaching of mathematics in contexts that include multilingual classrooms, indigenous education, teacher education, blind and deaf learners, new media and tertiary education. Each chapter draws on research from two or more countries to illustrate important research findings, theoretical developments and practical strategies.

• 

  Tales from a Gynecologist

  Alfred Murage

  Ever wondered what goes through your Gynecologist’s mind as you (or your significant other) prepare to bare all on the examination couch?
  
  Tales From A Gynecologist provides a unique behind the scenes perspective on the day to day encounters experienced in a busy Gynecological practice. Dr Murage’s humorous and compassionate anecdotes will have you splitting your sides with laughter……and often surreptitiously wiping away a tear or two as well. From fibroids and hormonal imbalances to the taboo subjects of transgender disorder and infertility, and even touching on weird and wonderful advances in medicine such as microwave therapy and medical droids, this deeply heart warming book will surprise, entertain and at times even shock you.
  
  Guaranteed to cure you of any gynecological jitters, this book is a must read for anyone who’s ever felt nervous about visiting their Gynecologist.

• 

  Working with, against, and despite global 'best practices': Educational conversations around the globe

  Sarfaroz Niyozov and Paul Tarc