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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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.

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  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 fuelling 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.

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  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.

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  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.

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

  Sarfaroz Niyozov and Paul Tarc

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  Volume 6: Contemporary Islamic Law in Indonesia : Sharia and Legal Pluralism

  Arskal Salim

  Indonesia has probably the fastest changing legal system in the Muslim world. This book represents the first ethnographic account of legal pluralism in the post-conflict and disaster situation in Aceh. It addresses changes in both the national legal system and the regional legal structure in the province.

  Focusing on the encounter between diverse patterns of legal reasoning advocated by multiple actors and by different institutions (local, national and international; official and unofficial; judicial, political and social cultural) it considers the vast array of issues arising in the wake of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Aceh.

  It investigates disputes about rights to land and other forms of property, power relations, the conflict of rules, gender relationships, the right to make decisions, and prevailing norms. The cases involve various actors from villages, the courts, the provincial government and the legislature, the national Supreme Court and the central government of Indonesia.

  Arskal Salim is Senior Lecturer at the Religion and Society Research Centre, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Australia.

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  In Search of Relevance and Sustainability of Educational Change : An International Conference at Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development

  Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development

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  Cities as Built and Lived Environments: Scholarship from Muslim Contexts, 1875 to 2011

  Aptin Khanbaghi

  The rich diversity of the Muslim world is strikingly expressed through its myriad of cities.

  Volume 3 of the MCA series presents abstracts of scholarship examining socio-cultural and cosmopolitan processes with aspects of material culture in contemporary and historic urban contexts. The abstracts, in English, Arabic and Turkish, examine cities as built (architecture and urban infrastructure) and lived (urban social life and culture) environments.

  Crucial topics such as urban growth are included in abstracts about infrastructural and environmental issues, as well as migration from rural areas to cities.

  The topics related to cities and urban life which are discussed in these abstracts demonstrate that concerns vary among Muslim majority countries, and from one decade to another.

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  Volume 5: Genealogy and Knowledge in Muslim Societies : Understanding the Past

  Sarah Bowen Savant and Helena de Felipe

  Genealogy is one of the most important and authoritative organising principles of Muslim societies.

  From the Prophet’s day to the present, ideas about kinship and descent have shaped tribal, ethnic, sectarian and other identities. An understanding of genealogy is therefore vital to our understanding of Muslim societies, particularly with regard to the generation, preservation and manipulation of genealogical knowledge.

  This book addresses the subject through a range of case studies that link genealogical knowledge to the particular circumstances in which it was created, circulated and promoted. They stress the malleability of kinship and memory, and the interests this malleability served.

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  The Political Aesthetics of Global Protest : the Arab Spring and Beyond

  Pnina Werbner, Martin Webb, and Kathryn Spellman-Poots

  A remarkable feature of the Arab Spring and other protests that followed in Egypt, India, Botswana and the UK, among other places, has been the salience of images, songs, videos, humour, satire and dramatic performances.

  This book explores the central role the aesthetic played in energising the mass mobilisations of young people, the disaffected, the middle classes, the apolitical silent majority, as well as enabling solidarities and alliances among democrats, workers, trade unions, civil rights activists and opposition parties.

  Comparing the North African and Middle Eastern uprisings with protest movements such as Occupy, the authors bring to bear an anthropological and sociological approach from a variety of perspectives, illuminating the debate by drawing on a wide array of disciplinary expertise.

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  Islam and the Foundations of Political Power

  Ali Abdel Razek, Maryam Loutfi, and Abdou Filali-Ansary

  The publication of this essay in Egypt in 1925 took the contemporaries of Ali Abdel Razek by storm.

  At a time when there was widespread turmoil over the abolition of the caliphate by Ataturk in Turkey, Ali Abdel Razek, a religious cleric trained at Al-Azhar University, argued in favour of secularism.

  The abolition of the caliphate had re-ignited the question of Islam and its relationship to political power. This essay unleashed the Arab world’s first great public debate published in the press with polemics supporting or refuting Ali Abdel Razek’s ideas.

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  Building success in a global university: government and academia - redefining the relationship around the world

  Britta Baron and Carl Amrhein

  There is a fascinating complexity of inherent to a modern, research and teaching intensive, publicly funded university. Captains of Industry whom we all have met, who know a modern university, frequently suggest it is the most complex organization they have ever encountered—much more complicated than their own businesses. The complexity of a university arises from shared decision making (sometimes called collegial governance), academic freedom, and the personalities of the dominant group of individuals—the tenured professors.

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  Understanding the Qur’an Today

  Mahmoud Hussein and David Bond

  In Islam, there is a long tradition of interpretation regarding the meaning and significance of Divine revelation, reflecting a plurality of views.

  This book argues that whereas God transcends time, His Word is inscribed within time. It is not a monologue, but a living exchange, through which God reveals to His Prophet different orders of truth, weaving together the absolute and the relative, the general and the particular, the eternal and the contingent.

  An international bestseller, Understanding the Qur’an Today offers a contemporary perspective on one of the world’s most influential texts and adds an invaluable contribution to the debate on Islam and modernity.

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  Education in Pakistan : Learning from research partnerships

  Ayesha Bashiruddin, Zubeda Bana, and Arbab Khan Afridi

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  Volume 3: Ethnographies of Islam : Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices

  Baudouin Dupret, Thomas Pierret, Paulo G. Pinto, and Kathryn Spellman-Poots

  This comparative approach to the various uses of the ethnographic method in research about Islam in anthropology and other social sciences is particularly relevant in the current climate. Political discourses and stereotypical media portrayals of Islam as a monolithic civilisation have prevented the emergence of cultural pluralism and individual freedom.

  This book counters such discourses by showing the diversity and plurality of Muslim societies and by promoting reflection on how the ethnographic method allows the description, representation and analysis of the social and cultural complexity of Muslim societies in the discourse of anthropology.

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  The Construction of Belief : Reflections on the Thought of Mohammed Arkoun

  Abdou Filali-Ansari and Aziz Esmail

  Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism.

  This festschrift honours Mohammed Arkoun’s scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun’s work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological dimensions.

  The authoritative reference study on the work of Mohammed Arkoun, the volume is essential reading for students and scholars of Islam, Muslim societies and cultures, modernity, religious studies, philosophy and semantics.

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  Interpretations of Law and Ethics in Muslim Contexts

  Aptin Khanbaghi

  Law within Muslim societies is not uniform; even within Muslim majority regions it can be interpreted differently according to different denominations and legal traditions. As law forms an integral part of normative social practice, reflecting the moral and ethical principles of a society, it is important to highlight the diversity of interpretations to better enable the study of law along with the ethical principles of a community.

  Volume 2 of the MCA series brings together some of the many unheard voices of scholars studying law and ethics in languages other than English. It features 200 abstracts with bibliographical details in three languages (English, Arabic and Turkish), giving access to information about scholarly publications from Muslim contexts in the fields of law and sharia.