VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Ottomans and the Ismaʿilis (1850-1920): Imperial relations with an inter-imperial community
Keywords: Syria
Ottoman
Salamiyya
India
Aga Khan
Ismaʿili

This thesis examines the changing relationship between the Ottoman state and the Ismaʿilis of Syria from the middle of the 19th century until the end of World War I. It approaches the Ismaʿili community’s new links with an imam in Bombay, the Aga Khan III, by entangling local society and politics with larger interregional trends, such as Pan-Islam, religious networks, and imperial citizenship. The Ismaʿilis attempted to refashion themselves through their newfound belonging to an emerging global religious community and also sought to present themselves as loyal Ottoman citizens entitled to constitutional rights and protections. The Ottoman state, however, viewed the community and their connection to the Aga Khan with suspicion, much as it had other groups with ties to foreign powers, like the Iraqi Shiʿa, Maronites, or the Armenians. The Aga Khan, meanwhile, continued his centralising reforms of the disparate Ismaʿili communities across Asia and Africa. These machinations came to a head at the outbreak of World War I, when the Aga Khan, as an Allied wartime propagandist, and the Ottomans, on the side of the Central Powers, each demanded clear signs of loyalty from the Syrian Ismaʿilis, who ultimately negotiated the dilemma on their own terms. It is overall the history of a local community negotiating inter-imperial rivalries, which offers a wider lens to explore Muslim networks and self-fashioning across political and ideological fault lines.
Confucian justification of leadership democracy: a distinction between Confucian ethics and politics
Keywords: leadership democracy
Confucian democracy
Confucian ethics and politics
classic Confucianism

My doctoral study focuses on the relationship between classic Confucian thought and democratic theory, examining whether canonical Confucian texts in the pre-Qin period (770-221 BC), especially the Analects, the Mencius and the Xunzi, can provide intellectual sources of justification for democracy. In Confucian political theory today, there is a crucial debate on whether the stretch of Confucian thought can lend support to democracy. Examining the relationship between Confucianism and democracy not only helps to clarify different flavors of Confucianism to which various normative theories subscribe, but also has a crucial bearing on envisioning ways in which the Confucian tradition can be renewed under modern conditions.
For some intellectual historians, democratic thinking is tangential to Confucian political thought, the latter of which is about a multi-layered hierarchy where popular welfare serves as a means of securing stable political order. Consequently, there is no political agency assigned to the common people. While Confucian meritocrats also read Confucianism as denying the common people any meaningful say, they take popular welfare to be the gist of Confucian political legitimacy. Confucian democrats, in contrast, believe that, despite the heavy dose of elitism in Confucianism, Confucian values require democracy as its political form.
In light of the dispute over textual interpretations, I situate my work in the emerging field of Confucian political theory that attempts to interpret and revamp Confucianism in light of modern political vocabularies and changing social contexts. My research transcends the traditional disciplinary boundary between Confucian philosophy and democratic theory and makes a fresh contribution to Confucian political theory. The central questions guiding my thesis are whether core Confucian values, which I recast as plebeian and elitist ones, can provide justification for democracy, and if so, what form the democracy thus justified takes.
Correspondingly, the main arguments of my thesis are 1) that a proper distinction between Confucian ethics and politics, which weaves together the Mencian idea of popular approval and Confucian respect for ordinary people’s natural dispositions, justifies electoral democracy as the best expression of Confucian values, and 2) that the democracy thus justified is elitist democracy or what I call “Confucian leadership democracy” that combines popular approval with elite governance. Working on this thesis involves a close examination of existing interpretations of classic Confucian texts made by as various commentators as traditionalists including Loubna El Amine (Chapter I), Confucian meritocrats including Daniel A. Bell, Bai Tongdong and Kang Xiaoguang (Chapter II) and twentieth century New Confucians including Mou Zongsan and Xu Fuguan (Chapter III). In Chapter IV, I propose Confucian leadership democracy as the best expression of Confucian plebeian and elitist values.
The role of G protein alpha 11 in calcium and glucose homeostasis
Keywords: glucose homeostasis
calcium-sensing receptor
G alpha q
G protein-coupled receptor
GNA11
GNAQ
hypocalcemia
biased signalling
BRET
calcium homeostasis
hypercalcemia
G alpha 11

Guanine nucleotide-binding (G) proteins act as molecular switches to transduce stimuli received by G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) into intracellular responses. For example, Gα11 mediates signalling by the calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), a class C GPCR, to regulate calcium homeostasis. Germline CaSR and Gα11 inactivating and activating mutations cause calcitropic disorders such as familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia (FHH) and autosomal dominant hypocalcaemia (ADH) types-1 and -2, respectively. In addition, non-calcitropic disorders may also occur, e.g. Nuf mice (model for ADH1) have impaired glucose metabolism. This thesis aims to: identify and characterise rare Gα11 variants from online databases; investigate glucose metabolism of Dsk7 mice (model for ADH2); study CaSR signalling differences between Gα11 and the closely related Gαq; and explore CaSR functional selectivity and G protein biased signalling. My analysis revealed novel Gα11 variants that cause CaSR signalling abnormalities in vitro and are associated with hypercalcaemia in patients. Moreover, some Gα11 variants also disrupted signalling by prototypical class A GPCRs and promoted biased and promiscuous signalling. In contrast, Gα11 gain-of-function did not impair glucose homeostasis or pancreatic islet architecture in Dsk7 mice, indicating that other G proteins may be involved in these non-calcitropic CaSR functions. Gαq mutations were not found in patients with FHH or ADH, and engineering FHH2- and ADH2-associated Gα11 mutations in Gαq did not alter Gαq function, thereby highlighting functional differences between them. Analysis of CaSR functional selectivity showed that the CaSR is a promiscuous receptor which activates eight G proteins and that clinically approved CaSR allosteric modulators can promote biased signalling. In summary, my thesis illustrates the importance of Gα11 for CaSR signalling, demonstrated by identification of additional FHH2 mutants, and that Gα11 mutations disrupt signalling by other GPCRs, thereby possibly leading to wider effects. Additionally, CaSR biased-signalling highlights the importance of G proteins other than Gα11 for this GPCR.
Status & ecology of leopard (Panthera pardus) in African conservation landscapes
Keywords: Botswana
Trophy hunting
Habitat use
Community conservation
Carnivore ecology
Conservation
Tanzania
Activity patterns
N-mixture modelling
African leopard
Occupancy modelling
Relative abundance
Random forest
Zimbabwe
Spatially explicit capture-recapture

Although widely considered one of the world’s most resilient large carnivores, the leopard (Panthera pardus) is severely threatened by habitat fragmentation, prey base declines, and human-induced mortality. In Africa, a relative lack of conservation urgency has resulted in the species’ status being poorly understood across much of its remaining range, despite evidence of range contractions and population declines across the continent. In this thesis, I set out to answer some of the most pressing questions facing the long-term persistence of leopard populations in Africa’s evolving conservation landscape, using data from two mixed-use landscapes which are likely to represent major strongholds for the species within its remaining African range. In Chapter 3, I find leopard to be widespread across the southern KAZA TFCA, Africa’s largest transfrontier conservation area, and show that prey and protection are important predictors of habitat use. I also find that the species is most abundant in areas with high protection and prey availability, whereas trophy hunting appears to have a negative influence on leopard abundance. In Chapter 4, I step back to take a community-level perspective on KAZA wildlife distributions, and show that altered rainfall and rising livestock numbers are emerging trends that may impact leopard and their prey in this important conservation area. In Chapter 5, I find that leopard density across southern Tanzania’s Ruaha-Rungwa landscape is likely to be largely driven by availability of prey, which itself varies with habitat types and anthropogenic impacts. My results show that a hunting area with significant protection investment supports a leopard density comparable to similar habitat in a photographic tourism area, and provide evidence that community-managed WMAs can be highly valuable for wildlife but should be prioritised for monitoring. In Chapter 6, I find evidence that leopard in Ruaha-Rungwa employ fine-scale partitioning mechanisms to facilitate coexistence with both dominant competitors and humans, and that growing anthropogenic pressures may interfere with these adaptations. Taken together, this work provides evidence that leopard are resilient but not immune to human impacts, and that populations may continue to decline across sub-Saharan Africa without major intervention. I use my findings to highlight priorities for leopard conservation in Africa, including securing prey populations, preserving highly-protected areas as refugia within mixed-use landscapes, closely monitoring at-risk populations, and enacting adaptive hunting quotas.
Explicit vocabulary teaching: developing reading confidence and achievement in disadvantaged Y6 pupils
Keywords: MLT
MLT2020

The aim of this study was to investigate if the teaching of vocabulary could lead to increased confidence and achievement in reading for disadvantaged Y6 children. The literature highlighted the importance of teaching vocabulary from an early age in order to have the greatest impact and to ensure that children are taught a range of strategies that they can then apply independently to work out unknown words. Following the literature review, I was interested to investigate how far daily teaching of vocabulary closes the vocabulary gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. In addition, I also wanted to find out if explicitly teaching vocabulary impacted on children’s reading comprehension skills and confidence.
In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the shut down of schools across the country which meant I was unable to carry out my planned intervention. I had already collected some data from questionnaires, vocabulary and reading tasks along with reading. From this data, I found that some of the more accomplished disadvantaged readers still lacked confidence in their own ability. In addition, the data found that some of the children with poor vocabulary knowledge passed the reading test whereas others who had a wide vocabulary knowledge scored poorly. This suggests that whilst vocabulary knowledge is important; there are also other factors which contribute to being a successful reader.
Science teacher-educator intervention within an emerging Professional Learning Community
Keywords: MTED
MTED2020

This study aims to observe a developing professional learning community amongst a mix of 8 beginning and experienced teachers who work in a science department in an inner-city secondary school. The study is framed around an intervention based on Japanese lesson study aimed at improving engagement in academic literature and reflective teaching practices.
Specifically, this action research answers the following questions:
1. Within the described context, what are the characteristics of the emerging professional learning community (PLC)? Specifically,
a) Based on a teacher-educator intervention, how does the PLC develop?
b) What are the participants' perceptions of their knowledge development as a result of working within the PLC?
2. How is the PLC supporting the development of the teachers' knowledge?
This is done through reviewing literature related to; Teacher knowledge bases and how these bases can change, views on the nature of science, PLC's, lesson study, reflection, principles, identity, mentoring, peer relationships and social theory of learning. The literature is compared with data gathered from a reconnaissance survey, audio recordings of training sessions and post-intervention interviews. To answer the above research questions, the data gathered is systematically analysed using coding adapted from Wenger’s (1998) work, ‘Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity’. Findings suggest, that within the research context, that the professional learning community emerges as a result of an alignment of individual principles with group principles. Hierarchical structures are necessary for collaboration within the group, however, as they emerge they may limit some knowledge development. Furthermore, the work suggests unstructured peer/group discussion and discourse is a way to develop teachers, however, time constraints limit the opportunity to do this. It is suggested for the future that the researched community of teachers could engage more critically with literature and Japanese lesson study and to develop the community, more attention should be given to exploring the relationship between the teachers.
From teacher to teacher educator: Supporting the development of schools-based physics coaches
Keywords: MTED2020
MTED

The Institute of Physics (IOP) employ, on a secondment basis, teachers (school-based coaches or SPCs) for half a day or a day each week to work with science departments in other local schools.
The aims of this investigation are to explore:
1. What knowledge the SPC comes to the role with and what knowledge they have to develop during the first year in role.
2. a) How they develop that knowledge, and b) to what extent, mentoring and community interventions facilitate the development of that knowledge
I have followed four coaches over the course of their first year in the role, collecting data on their views on their developing knowledge bases through interviews and through reflective diaries as well as recording field notes on their interactions with their mentors and their community of practice.
Different areas of knowledge, discussed in interviews and reflective diaries, have been categorized and ordered to show their connections to one another, resulting in a framework (shown below in figure 1) that highlights the typical knowledge base of a coach (aim 1). I have then re-analyzed the interview data, using this framework, to highlight how coaches currently develop this knowledge (aim 2a) and the extent to which mentoring and community interventions, which I put in place, support that development (aim 2b). Analysis of the data shows SPCs typically come with a well-developed knowledge for teaching, and this is further developed through peer networking within the community, comparing approaches with other teachers and gaining new ideas.
Knowledge around coaching pedagogy, teacher learners and engagement is typically less developed, and SPCs develop this through both experience and discussing specific problems with their mentors. Case studies are used to illuminate specific examples of how mentoring and community interventions have supported knowledge development.
The investigation has hopefully provided a useful tool in terms of a framework that will help conversations around the knowledge and development of coaches. It has also highlighted the need to discuss coaching pedagogy more explicitly in the coaches’ development programme and the need to make some aspects of the programme compulsory (e.g. regular mentor meetings).
In what ways and to what extent can a bespoke programme of support enable primary teachers to develop as teacher educators of their peers?
Keywords: MTED
MTED2020

Each year NCETM runs many work groups in England, funded by the Department for Education, all of which are organised on the basis of a cascade effect: two teachers attend work group meetings then share their learning with their colleagues. Evidence shows that although work groups change the teaching of those who attend meetings, the cascade to colleagues is less effective.
The work was carried out in two stages through joint work group meetings and bespoke school visits. An initial reconnaissance stage was designed to provide a baseline from which development could be measured and to inform the design of the intervention. The second stage was designed to address a range of teacher education strategies, with the content to be determined in collaboration with the group members. However due to lockdown this work was incomplete. A proxy was therefore used to establish the ways and extent to which participants were acting, and felt confident to act, as teacher educators of their peers, despite the restrictions caused by lockdown.
The reconnaissance phase showed that teachers started with a wide range of prior experience of leading teacher education. Closing questionnaires showed that participants had increased in confidence to act as teacher educators of their peers. Follow up interviews with a representative sample of participants found all were now showing evidence of thinking and acting as teacher educators of their peers. However, none showed evidence of identifying themselves as such, leading to the conclusion that identity change occurs after changes in behaviour are embedded.
Respondents were asked to identify the factors which had the greatest influence on their development as peer teacher educators. A wide range of responses to this question led to the conclusion that due to the differing prior experience and contexts within which participants worked, two key factors were the variety of teacher education strategies considered in this intervention and the bespoke support the programme offered. An expectation of professional experimentation, with participants feeling supported to enact and reflect upon new ideas was also important in their development, as was modelling of high-quality teacher education.
As lockdown prevented full implementation of this study, care must be taken when generalizing from these findings. However, they add to the knowledge base of effective ways to cascade learning between work group members and their colleagues. They will be further developed in the coming academic year.
Trialling the use of the Knowledge Quartet as a framework to facilitate beginning teacher learning on one ITE programme in Wales
Keywords: MTED
MTED2020

This study involves trialling a tool called the Knowledge Quartet (KQ; Rowland et al., 2005) on a postgraduate initial teacher education programme in Wales and reports on perceptions of its use to facilitate lesson planning, analysis and feedback and reflection. The study aims to answer the following questions:
1. In what ways is use of the KQ framework perceived by Lead Mentors, tutors and student teachers to be effective as a tool in facilitating beginning teacher learning in the areas of:
a) Lesson planning
b) Lesson observation analysis and feedback
c) Reflection
2. In what ways is use of the KQ framework perceived to be a challenge? Findings are from two action research cycles, involving semi-structured interviews (with two Lead Mentors, a university tutor and ten science student teachers) and an analysis of six science students’ portfolios (containing mentors’ lesson observation and feedback reports and associated student lesson plans and reflection). The tool is perceived to be effective in several ways. Firstly, the KQ tool is perceived to structure and support student planning by breaking down, categorising and raising awareness of underlying teacher knowledge. Secondly the tool is perceived to get easier to use over time. Thirdly, there is a perception that using the tool contributes to mentor professional development. Fourthly, the tool is perceived to be most helpful to beginning teachers; assessment requirements to use the KQ to structure reflection ensured its use by all science student teachers in this study. However, there are also challenges. More education and time may help embed its use (this study was affected by Covid-19). To make use of the tool more educative, during mentor development, mentors could be encouraged to share experience of using the KQ and lead an exploration of how its use can support beginning teachers towards meeting the Teaching Standards.
‘For women there are two nirvanas’:  risk and freedom in Myanmar’s contemporary Buddhist revival movement
Keywords: Southeast Asia
Buddhism
religious extremism
National League for Democracy
Myanmar
Rohingya
Tatmadaw
Aung San Suu Kyi
Anthropology of Ethics
Anthropology
Religious Nationalism
Violence
Ma Ba Tha
Ethnography
Burma
Countering Violent Extremism
Wirathu
Non-violent religious extremism
Gender
far right extremism

In 2015, Myanmar’s parliament passed four controversial ‘protection of race and religion’ laws that many believe discriminate against women and non-Buddhists, particularly Muslims. To date, academic and activist discussion of the laws has focused on how the ruling military government may have used this package of legislation, and religio-nationalist rhetoric more generally, to maintain power in the face of mounting political pressure. Simultaneously, the active participation of Buddhist monks in the promulgation of the laws, many of whom operated collectively under the mantel ‘the Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion’, known by its Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha, unsettled longstanding assumptions about the nature of radicalism and religious conflict. Neither hypothesis adequately accounts for the far-reaching grassroots support the legislation, Ma Ba Tha, and the violent, exclusionary ideologies represented therein, enjoyed across the country. Nor do the assumptions which underly such analyses help to make sense of or why it is that Buddhist nuns and laywomen continue to be some of the most vocal and dedicated supporters of the laws, and the movement which originated them.
Building from nearly two years of extended fieldwork with members of Ma Ba Tha, this thesis examines the participation of women in the movement as a means of understanding how certain forms of discourse, particularly those involved in the construction of risk and reciprocal duty regimes, create opportunities for otherwise marginalised figures to participate in socio-moral world building. It examines the degree to which the women of Ma Ba Tha espouse an explicitly gendered consciousness, and what their participation means for the movement’s social, cultural, or political impact more broadly. It will demonstrate that the drive many women feel to engage in Ma Ba Tha – the group, and its ideology – stems not from a love (or revulsion) of a single political party, a lack of education, or obeisance to charismatic monks. Rather, many lay and ordained Buddhist women participate in Ma Ba Tha because they perceive it to be the best possible means by which they can achieve two critical objectives. First, Ma Ba Tha women hope to improve the gendered conditions of possibility which constrain them, particularly as they pertain to ethical self-making. Second, they hope to revitalise Buddhism and secure its place and its sociocultural values within Myanmar’s changing political and economic environment. These two desires are intersecting and overlapping, but nevertheless clearly articulated and reflexively rationalised.