Research conducted in five interconnected villages on the Black Sea Coast of Turkey has shown that general cultural ideas about family and social relations combine with traditional and clinical... Show moreResearch conducted in five interconnected villages on the Black Sea Coast of Turkey has shown that general cultural ideas about family and social relations combine with traditional and clinical medical theories and techniques to shape health care practices. By studying the health care choices of patients and their families, cultural values can be observed in action. Studies of health care institutions in rural areas have typically treated traditional healing and indigenous theories of health as obstacles to be overcome in the pursuit of maximum health benefits for the population. On the other hand, efforts to validate indigenous techniques and knowledge often present clinical medicine as an unmitigated threat to traditional ways. The following demonstrates how traditional and clinical healing practices interact and combine in a system which is actively negotiated and consumed by patients and their families. Show less
Women, taken as cinematographic figures, evoke multiple images of a cultural and social discourse and draw attention to gender and family relations in a broader sense in a specific society, in this... Show moreWomen, taken as cinematographic figures, evoke multiple images of a cultural and social discourse and draw attention to gender and family relations in a broader sense in a specific society, in this case, Tunisia and Algeria. The process of research and analysis of the films goes beyond a simple collection of female figures. Rather, it focuses on the representation of female identity in the films and how this identity (as a mirror of society) has changed and continues to change. Show less
What makes a web site 'Islamic'? Significant issues emerge in answering this question and delineating Muslim cyberspace, associated with identity, language, patterns of behaviour, and the... Show moreWhat makes a web site 'Islamic'? Significant issues emerge in answering this question and delineating Muslim cyberspace, associated with identity, language, patterns of behaviour, and the utilization of textual and ideological sources. In addition, the cyber Islamic environment may be shaped by the application of 'Islamic' symbols, images, sound files, and different conceptual approaches towards defining 'appropriate' Internet interfaces. These components illustrate diversity with respect to interpretative, cultural, political, and linguistic concepts associated with Muslim identities. Show less
This study investigates the effects of subject and track level on the definitions of knowledge used by teachers in secondary education. Responding to 20 scales of an inventory, 202 teachers... Show moreThis study investigates the effects of subject and track level on the definitions of knowledge used by teachers in secondary education. Responding to 20 scales of an inventory, 202 teachers provided 313 judgements of the characteristics of their own subject as they actually taught it to students of one or more track levels. The first dimension of a principal components solution was interpreted as a contrast between everyday knowledge and academic knowledge. The second dimension involved a contrast between general and specialized knowledge. As far as individual teachers responded to more than one track level, they, generally speaking, maintained a single definition of their subject for all track levels. Subject identity explained most of the differences, but teacher variables were also relevant. If it is allowed to order teacher hierarchally, based on their teacher training and their experience with track levels, then in the group of teachers with the highest track level, only the science subjects were judged as extremely hard and specialized. In the group of teachers ranking lower, some other subjects such as the foreign languages were judged as relatively hard and specialized, whereas the science subjects weere judged as less hard and less specialized. The theoretical an practical implications of these findings are discussed. Show less
