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This paper examines higher education in Afghanistan. Based on qualitative research, including interviews with key policymakers and stakeholders, the paper examines the primary issues, challenges, progress, and future vision for higher education in the country. The research reveals that one of the most significant issues in the country in the post-Taliban era is female participation in higher education. It also shows the importance of alternative forms of higher education, such as two-year institutions, private education, and technical/ vocational education. The paper also discusses the emergence of quality assurance mechanisms and international partnerships with other universities. Regarding the future direction and vision for higher education, the paper reveals two primary focuses: preparing students for the labor market, and the potential for education to influence democratic values and social cohesion in a divided country.

Language is a systematic means of communication that employs sound or conventional symbols. Using a foreign language can be problematic when attempting to communicate or translate written or spoken language from one's native language due to structural differences between languages. Among the most widely spoken languages in the world, English is understood by approximately half of the global population. However, it is neither an official nor a second language in our country. Nonetheless, due to its significance, it is often taught as a foreign language at schools, institutes, and universities. As previously mentioned, Pashto, our language, shares structural similarities and differences with English, which can challenge learners. To address these difficulties in learning English, this paper presents a contrastive analysis of English and Pashto adjectives, examining their similarities and differences. The study employs a descriptive and contrastive methodology.

The current paper focusses on the teachers' attitude towards and experiences with e-learning tools at two universities in different phases of e-learning implementation. The study population comprises teachers at university level and a simple random sampling method was used. A total of 45 teachers in bachelor programmes from the Faculty of Agriculture of Kabul University (KU) in Afghanistan filled out the survey. For this study, secondary data on Wageningen University and Research (WUR) in the Netherlands was also used from a survey which was recently conducted by Banihashem et al., (2023) in which 307 teachers participated. Data were analysed through descriptive statistics and the two settings were compared in general terms. The results showed that the majority of the respondents at KU and WUR had a favourable attitude towards e-learning tools and that this attitude is an important enabling or disabling factor in the adoption of technology. The findings also indicated respondents' access and facilities, e.g., at KU for interaction with students mainly among teachers HELMS during COVID-19 and for assessment, individual assignments and quizzes were used. Meanwhile, at WUR and mainly among teachers, for interactive purposes Brightspace assignments (and, for assessment, group assignments), Brightspace grades, individual assignments and rubrics were used. Consequently, this research paper will add to the existing knowledge in this area, potentially having a positive influence on the educational sector, because doing so could help the educational system to improve and to better consider the aspects which influence the attitude of teachers that leads to applying a technology. In addition, we recommend more e-learning research studies in Afghanistan in order to find a solution for educating women in Afghanistan.

This paper represents one of the most recent and pertinent studies conducted in Afghanistan, aiming to address the societal imperative of comprehending the factors behind the fall of the Republic government and the subsequent rise of the Taliban to power. Furthermore, the paper seeks to analyse public attitudes towards the current situation. Employing a quantitative approach, the research utilizes a descriptive-analytical method through questionnaires and the participants include social media activist, students and universities professors, the data collected by online survey according WhatsApp, Facebook messengers, telegram, email and other social media groups from different ethnic groups. The findings of this research have identified several pivotal factors contributing to the ascent of the Taliban to power, including the US-Taliban agreement in Doha, Qatar; political disparities; administrative and financial corruption within the Republic's administration; Pakistan's support for the Taliban; the previous government's accord with the Taliban; ethnic dominance; robust military morale of the Taliban; and proficient war management by the Taliban. Afghanistan, as a multi-ethnic society, witnesses political dynamics predominantly rooted in ethnic affiliations. The majority of respondents express dissatisfaction with the current Afghan situation, displaying significant concerns for the populace. Foremost concerns, in terms of prioritization, encompass poverty; closure of girls' schools; restrictions on women's education and employment; escalation of civil unrest; mono-ethnic rule; ethnic conflicts; emergence of ISIS; ethnic marginalization; violations of citizenship rights; political participation and legitimacy crises; and authoritarianism. Consequently, to address the political crisis and establish a viable system, the research concludes that while Pashtuns lean toward a centralized system, Hazaras, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Turkmens evince greater interest in a decentralized structure.

This paper uses critical discourse analysis and critical literacy to analyze the first in a series of literacy primers developed with US support for children in Afghanistan in the 1980s, called 'Jihad literacy'. The text is analyzed for its ideological content as related to the themes of religion, violence, and martyrdom in the historical perspective of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The paper demonstrates how the notion of 'Jihad' was subverted to promote a holy war against the Soviet invasion. The educational system supported by the US created a radical version of Islam based on violence and martyrdom, shaping the Afghan society to this day. We contend that the same or similar institutions shape current discourses as in the past and that children are the main victims of politico-economic warfare.

Over the last decades researches have been conducted on different disciplines and in teaching English for specific purposes in different contexts, but teaching technical words for doctors in the context of Afghanistan is the newest subject. The aim of this article is to explore the needs of doctors and prepare them a course to learn English. In Afghanistan, English is used as a foreign language and it is not the medium of instruction in the class because the national languages play the key role in instruction. It is really important for the doctors to learn English in order to learn new information and should be aware about progress, especially in medical. At the same time, most of the names of drugs have been written based on English and it is necessary for them to know English in their own discipline. This paper is written based on quantitative research and Questionnaire was the tool for data collection and it was sent to doctors who were in Afghanistan, particularly. In this research, there were 50 participants and out of them 25 subjects were female. In learning English language for doctors, they wanted to memorize technical words that are very important in their daily works. They wanted to improve four skills of English language as well because they need to communicate with their colleagues. This paper ends with significance of technical words for doctors in the context of Afghanistan.

Implicit prejudice can be simply understood as any negative feelings or beliefs people hold towards a particular outgroup without being aware of it. One such form is microaggression, which can be defined as everyday verbal or nonverbal subtle, unconscious putdowns, slights, or negative remarks towards members of an outgroup. One of the most common and harmful forms is gender-based microaggression. Gender microaggression is defined as subtle, unconscious, everyday putdowns, slights, remarks, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, directed at a particular gender, notably women. Despite a plethora of literature and research on gender microaggression, the focus has predominantly been on understanding microaggressions faced by women in various domains, largely neglecting the experiences of men as victims of microaggression. One such overlooked experience is that of Afghan male students studying in universities in Delhi. Each year, thousands of students from Afghanistan travel to Delhi to pursue higher education, often unaware of the prejudices they may encounter due to associations with terms like 'terrorism' or 'terrorist.' Therefore, this paper aims to understand and study the microaggression faced by Afghan male students by employing the Gender Implicit Association Test on a sample of 103 Indian students studying in universities in Delhi, selected using a snowball sampling technique. This study adapts and modifies the Weapon-based Implicit Association Test. The goal is to uncover the implicit biases of Indian students towards Afghan male students by examining the association (reaction time) between images of weapons and harmless objects, in conjunction with adjectives related to Afghan males and Afghan females. In other words, words or images that are congruent in our minds should result in shorter reaction times and fewer errors compared to words and images that are incongruent. The results indicate that Indian students were quicker in associating weapon images with Afghan male adjectives (D = -0.64) compared to Afghan female adjectives (D = 0.89).

This paper discusses the 'Bamiyan Papers,' also known as the 'Afghan Genizah,' which probably originated in the Bamiyan region in present-day central Afghanistan. Particular attention is given here to their earliest phase, comprising the private archive of Yehuda ben Daniel, a Jewish landowner residing in early Ghaznavid Bamiyan in the first half of the eleventh century, who plays a central role in this study. The archive documents shed significant light on the interaction between an urban private landowner and the rural population, with specific emphasis on his tenants. By closely examining two texts from the archive, this paper illuminates the complexities inherent in the landowner-peasant relationship and unveils the financial connections that existed between urban landowners and peasants. This research thus contributes to our understanding of Ghaznavid rural history and provides insights into the broader context of the pre-Mongol Iranian world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the impacts of service learning (SL) on teaching sustainability competencies in an undergraduate tourism program at Bamyan University, Afghanistan. This study reports on tourism students' experiences in the SL course which taught five key sustainability competencies (collaboration, values thinking, action-oriented, systems thinking and integrated problem-solving). Design/methodology/approach: This paper assessed students' perceptions of their sustainability competencies gained during the implementation of the course in 2016 and 2017 through focus groups, reflective essays and participant observation. Findings: The results demonstrate how the SL experience led students to self-discovery, strong conceptualizations of sustainability and working relationships with community stakeholders. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to assess the impacts of a SL course in Afghanistan. The analysis provides valuable information for developing effective higher education programs, relationships of trust between students and community stakeholders and the empowerment of students to contribute to local solutions which serve a role in stabilization efforts in conflict-affected contexts.

This paper is based on the results of an ethnography conducted in the context of several junior high schools in the host community of Iran. It draws on the data collected via observations and forty sessions of in-depth semi-structured interviews with school staff, domestic (Iranian) and refugee (Afghan) students, and their parents. The paper aims to explore the probable impacts of some particular elements on the absorption of refugee students in the host community. These elements included interactions between refugee and domestic students, the role of their parents, and the role of multicultural aspects of pedagogy.

This paper addresses peace education focusing on how place-based experiences and collective memories stimulate local mobilisation for refugees fleeing from war. The Arctic Migration Route, located above 69th degree north, became an alternative to dangerous boat trips on the Mediterranean Sea, for people seeking safety and protection in the fall of 2015. During a few months, over 5,500 people from 35 nations, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran came to a municipality in north Norway with 10,000 inhabitants. The paper demonstrates how global conflicts far away, have important local consequences across borders and huge distances. Interviews with local authorities, teachers, voluntary workers constitute the main empirical material. By combining theories of place-based experiences and collective memories with phenomenology of practice, geographical location, collective and cultural memories across generations, are analysed as important driving forces for the local mobilization to help refugees. This approach opens for a wider perspective on learning, showing how climate, culture and history have important role as material and sociocultural education in this arctic border region in the north of Norway. Based on empirical data from a small local school, the paper will document how a local community can find solutions to globally produced problems.

This paper reflects historically and contemporaneously on the relationship between 'International Education and Development' actors and foreign intervention in our colonial past and present, with a particular focus on Education in Emergencies (EiE), a sub-field of research and practice within 'International Education and Development'. Theoretically, this work is underpinned by a critical application of the 'implicated subject', Rothberg's (2019) conceptual addition to the study of violence and injustice which seeks to go beyond binaries of 'victim and perpetrator' and recognise the way many others are 'implicated' in systems of violence and injustice. In the first section we explore this framing for researchers and practitioners in the field of EiE and the complex ways that researchers and practitioners might be understood as 'implicated subjects'. In the second part we explore two dimensions of EiE actors as 'implicated subjects': Diachronic and Synchronic. In the diachronic dimension we highlight the way the colonial past hangs heavy in the present and in the synchronic dimension we explore the case of Afghanistan, and the links between military, development and education strategy. In the conclusion we reflect on their implication for improved ethical practices in EiE and in the broader field of International Education and Development.

This paper uses conversation analysis (CA) to examine telephone conversation openings in an unwritten and understudied language, Rushani, spoken primarily in remote, mountainous areas of Tajikistan and Afghanistan. In a sample of three telephone conversations, examples are sought of the four opening sequences of telephone calls originally identified by Schegloff (1986): summons-answer; identification-recognition; greetings; and initial inquiries. At first glance, telephone conversation openings in Rushani appear to skip over the greeting stage and move directly into an extended exchange of initial inquiries. However, upon closer analysis, it is argued that a Rushani word that translates as "How are you" is in fact used by conversation participants as a greeting. The paper concludes with an argument that the study supports a "universalist" position of CA as applied to calls conducted in languages other than English (Luke & Pavlidou, 2002). Despite their apparent form as initial inquiries, greetings in telephone conversations in Rushani serve precisely the same function and resolve the same "interactional issues" as greetings in other languages (Schegloff, 1986).

The Darakht-e Danesh ("knowledge tree") Online Library is the first open educational resource (OER) initiative in Afghanistan, established to enhance teacher subject-area knowledge, access and use of learning materials, and to foster more diverse teaching methodologies in order to improve learning outcomes in Afghan classrooms. This paper describes our experience developing this local language digital library, buildings its responsiveness to our audience of users as we progressed, customizing both the interface and the resources for Afghanistan's education environment. We innovated methods to devise relevant local content, localized usability, developed different access models to reach different populations of users, integrated impact measurement, and opted to openly license material in the library's collection. By making digital educational content open from the first introduction of digital repositories of learning objects in Afghan languages, we have an opportunity to establish the principle of openness and to promote open practices in teacher professional development in Afghanistan. The paper aims to share lessons on how OER can be customized for multilingual, resource-scarce contexts drawing from our experience to date in Afghanistan, and seeking to contribute to the literature on localization and multilingual OER. [This paper was presented at the "Open Education Consortium Global Conference," Krakow, Poland, April 12-14, 2016.]

This paper considers the utility of critical realism as an ontological foundation for the analysis of education policy in emergencies. By exploring the synergy between critical realism and a method to analyse policy known as Critical Policy Analysis, the paper argues for the use of "conceptual" analytical tools when examining education policy in conflict-affected contexts. It illustrates the value of theory-informed analysis by reflecting on a recent study of Afghanistan's higher education strategic planning, and advocates for critical engagement with broader cultural, political, and economic factors in the analysis of education policies during conflicts and crises.

Purpose: This comparative case study looks towards the diverse approaches of higher education to support peacebuilding, from policy and philosophy to pedagogical practices, in conflict-affected and post-conflict settings. The achievement of global development goals is dependent on addressing access to quality education in conflict-affected contexts, including higher education. However, in settings affected by conflict, higher education is often perceived to be a luxury, not a necessity. This study, then, explores whether and how higher education might support peace and development through the unique perspective of the "three faces" of higher education in conflict contexts. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is designed as a qualitative comparative case study. The research examines the work of university educators in two institutions in Afghanistan and Somaliland, highlighting the challenges and opportunities they face working in conflict-affected societies and their pedagogical responses to conflict. Data for the research were collected through in-depth interviews, documents, and digital artifacts with 12 university educators across the two institutions. The faculty teach a wide variety of subjects in the social sciences and humanities, subjects including and in addition to those specific to peace and development studies. To strengthen the interpretation of data, multiple coders were involved and intercoder reliability was conducted. Findings: Findings indicate a number of challenges and opportunities that university lecturers and their institutions face in teaching for peace in conflict-affected contexts, particularly as it relates to the "three faces" of higher education to support, impede, or reveal the complicated nuances of peacebuilding in conflict settings. Member-checking was employed with participants to enhance the reliability of the analysis. Originality/value: In the end, the paper contributes new empirical insights into higher education in conflict-affected contexts, particularly from the standpoint of faculty. Critical perspectives and implications for curriculum, pedagogy and research are offered.

This paper locates the emergence of critical pedagogy (CP) as praxis in the protest movements in New Delhi, India, against the new citizenship amendment laws that were brought about by the Indian government. The ruling government in India brought amendments to the existing provisions for citizenship, such that persons from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious communities from neighbouring Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan were allowed Indian citizenship. Muslims, however, were excluded from this. This exclusion, coupled with the national project established for finding illegal immigrants in India -- called the National Citizenship Registry project -- affects the Muslim communities in South-Asia and has been widely resisted across India, by Muslims and other social and political organisations. This paper traces the development of such a struggle in Shaheen Bagh, New Delhi, and proposes that CP as a critique of the social, emerged from the specificity of the Shaheen Bagh movement. Shaheen Bagh gives critical insights into rethinking CP whenever its foundational tenets seem to have been lost or are merely subsumed by disciplinary compartments within academia. This struggle offers us insights toward returning to the insurrectionary character of CP, by locating CP within the context of such struggles. At the same time, this study of Shaheen Bagh and the specific form of CP that emerged in thatcontext, also shows us the limitations of contemporary social movements to take CP to its logical conclusion where oppressive class relations are undermined.

The fatal conceit of foreign intervention refers to the limitations faced by governments using discretionary power to address perceived problems in foreign societies. Drawing on evidence from the "Afghanistan Papers"—a collection of internal government documents compiled by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and released in December 2019—we demonstrate how the failure of the U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan to meet the stated objectives illustrates the fatal conceit of foreign intervention. We explore the limitations faced by foreign government interveners in three stages, reflecting distinct decision nodes within a means-ends framework in which the policies relating to foreign intervention are formulated and implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper argues that part-time adult literacy facilitators (ALFs), who are often employed in large numbers, have the potential to become agents for a wider approach to development, especially through involvement with the adult learning targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Drawing on international ethnographic-style research into adult literacy facilitators in Africa and elsewhere, the paper reports the findings of a project examining in depth the profiles of six adult literacy facilitators in Afghanistan. The paper identifies the diversity of experiences they bring to their teaching and their potential for national development goals, and draws some lessons about the training and support systems required to help them become more effective in their teaching. It attempts to provide insights into ALFs in Afghanistan which will be of interest to the international community of academics and practitioners.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insight in how military expeditionary task forces cope with the dual challenge of organizing and learning, by reflecting on the experiences of Dutch expeditionary task forces in post-conflict missions in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Design/methodology/approach: This paper reflects on the outcomes of a research project into the experiences of operators of different specific expeditionary task forces of the Dutch Armed Forces in dealing with everyday problems in their working environment. The case studies were based on interviews with military personnel of all ranks and focused on relating the process of making sense of environmental dynamics to characteristics of the organizational context. Findings: The case studies indicate that designing and learning become intertwined in the realities of everyday problem-solving in the more complex missions. As task forces are essentially tailor-made for the purpose of specific missions, units initially need to be selected. Subsequently, the design of the task force needs to be adapted to suit local conditions. This challenge interrelates with the everyday challenge for operators of making sense of their environment and finding pragmatic solutions for the everyday problems they are confronted with. In pragmatically solving everyday problems, operators in the cases engaged in working out incomplete or ill-fitting aspects of the task force design. Practical implications: The findings are relevant for military task forces and in general for organizations that are confronted with dynamically complex environments that rely on temporary structures. Originality/value: Existing literature on learning and on organizing generally treat these as two related, but essentially separate, phenomena. In the expeditionary military task forces, operators that aimed to develop pragmatic solutions to everyday problems, the processes of learning and organizing became intertwined: units needed to organize to learn and to learn to organize. The paper ends by suggesting a combination of specific circumstances that influences the nature of the interrelation between these processes.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the challenges associated with emergency remote teaching in the developing countries of Palestine, Libya, and Afghanistan, as reported by middle-school students, their parents, and teachers. These countries have been struggling with an unstable and violent situation for decades. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 participants from the three countries and 60 online classes were observed. Findings revealed that COVID-19 widened the digital gap among students and families, which created challenges in terms of online class attendance. In addition, violation of students' and parents' digital privacy emerged as another key challenge to emergency remote teaching. However, teacher presence and timely feedback in synchronous online sessions strengthened students' engagement within the emergency remote teaching environment. Overall, emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 crisis deepened inequities across students and infringed upon the digital ethics of students, teachers, and parents.

Providing access to higher education for people in marginalized communities, in particular for refugees, requires to re-think the traditional ways of teaching and learning in higher education institutions. The challenges of these circumstances both in terms of access to learning materials and the opportunity to collaboratively learn with others require specific support via appropriate didactical settings. Blended learning arrangements, i.e., settings that bring together online learning activities with synchronous, co-located settings show potential for addressing these requirements. In the present study, we examine the success factors in the design of blended learning settings for supporting higher education in marginalized communities. Based on an established model of blended learning success, we explore the specific challenges of the target group via a survey which was distributed to students of different subject areas and of the higher education programs of Jesuit Worldwide Learning. The 80 survey participants analyzed in this paper live in refugee camps, or marginalized areas located in rural and remote areas in Afghanistan, Guyana, India, Iraq, Kenya, Malawi, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. While we could confirm the success factors that also apply for blended learning scenarios in traditional settings, we also found evidence for the crucial role of facilitation in both, online and co-located learning phases, and challenges regarding the access to suitable infrastructure. Both need to be considered during design of blended learning programs for this target group.

This paper investigates the short and long-term pernicious impact of armed conflicts on education and educational agents (students, teachers and students' parents), using a multivocal review by means of the integration and qualitative analysis of 60 research reports (voices) found in two databases: Web of Science and PROQUEST in the period between 1995 -date of the first founding paper- until 2014. Through the analysis of source data (voices) and taking the "multivocal review" as a method, the voices have been combined in nine categories, namely: a) Refusal and impediments to a return to education; b) Educational infrastructure damaged or destroyed; c) Cuts in or withdrawal of spending on education; d) Loss of the educational and protective functions of the family; e) Loss of the academic community; f) Non-qualified teaching staff; g) Drastic loss of skills; h) Abandoning school (population movements, destruction of networks and social environment); i) Behavioural problems: traumas, pedagogical roles and self-victimization. These categories have highlighted the serious consequences arising from conflicts, infringing as they do the most basic human rights and in particular the right to a sound education during childhood.

In this paper, I analyse the narrative positioning in two semi-structured interviews with volunteer interpreters in a counselling centre for refugees run by an NGO in Vienna, complemented by ethnographic descriptions of volunteer work in the counselling centre drawn from long-term participant observation. As a substantial part of the volunteers working at the counselling centre consists of (current and former) clients of the NGO, asylum seekers themselves, 'work' and 'citizenship' are deeply entangled in their positioning. The analyses of how past and future trajectories are co-constructed in the interviews, and of how the participants position themselves in and through the interview narratives, show that linguistic volunteer work becomes a site of investment and speculation on citizenship (conceived both as a moral and a legal 'object'). As the paper demonstrates, volunteer work promises to yield symbolic and social capital -- including language -- required for success in the 'markets' of citizenship (e.g. in the asylum procedure) and, contingently, later on, in the national labour market.

This paper looks at how the promotion and usage of translanguaging practices in the teaching process facilitates learning Greek as a L2 by unaccompanied minor refugee students in a class of non-formal education. Drawing on ethnographic data the present study examines how educational interventions that were designed following the principles of translanguaging pedagogy can facilitate language learning and encourage unaccompanied minor refugees to participate in the teaching process. The main methodological tools that were implemented were action research, class observation, field notes and interviews with students. The findings show that translanguaging pedagogy can promote learning effortlessly by doing, as students stated in their interviews that they were actively engaged in teamwork through real-life language interactions empowering their multilingual and multicultural identities.

Afghanistan's history over the last century is littered with incidents and bloody conflicts. In other words, the history of this land over the last century has been one of blood and fire, as well as a conflict between "tradition" and "modernity." Over the last century, the citizens of this land have witnessed life-threatening and subversive changes. These changes have had both positive and negative effects on Afghans' lives. Meanwhile, Afghan women, education, the right to political and social activity, and the right to work and employment have been among the issues that have undergone change and transformation, along with political, social, and cultural changes and developments, willingly or unwillingly, and have been seriously harmed as a result. A qualitative research method has been used, in which data was collected from previous literary sources such as research articles, magazines, reports, and documents kept in the archives and national libraries of Afghanistan. This paper investigates and examine the position of Afghan women in Afghan law from various angles and perspectives. The researchers approached the subject of women by taking into account their worldviews, assumptions, and subjective variables. The purpose of this research is to evaluate Afghan women's active, long-term, and meaningful presence in Afghanistan over the last century. The study's findings show that despite deliberate campaigns, efforts, and ongoing struggles over the last century, Afghan women are still denied the right to education, political participation, and institutional employment.

In this paper, I put forward and apply a phenomenological understanding of body and embodied experience to examine refugee families' identity (trans)formation and language ideologies and practices. In particular, Kitaro Nishida's (1870-1945) notion of historical body was adopted to investigate how Afghan refugee families' lived experiences of forced mobility and life in different countries before their settlement in Norway influence their own as well as their children's raciolinguistic and cultural/national identities, which in turn, affect their language ideologies and practices. Based on a thematic analysis of the interviews conducted with parents in three families, it was found that, having left Afghanistan at a young age with no hope to return to as well as their forced stays in different countries, Afghan parents have not developed a strong Afghan national identity. This embodied experience was entangled with painful emotions as well that resulted in the parents' desire for their children to develop strong attachment to Norway and a Norwegian identity. Yet, parents' wish does not seem to readily realize because the racial differences become an important marker of identity for the children as they grow up and enter the society, leading them to seek their roots. The study contributes to our better understanding of the complexities and nuances of transnational populations' language ideologies and practices as well as identification and integration processes into the host society.

The study unveils the Afghan patriarchal ideology and norms that are in conflict and challenge with liberal feminist ideology in Khaled Hosseini's (2013) "And the Mountains Echoed," depicting the cultural and socio-political context of Afghanistan. Tools of critical stylistics, developed by Jefferies (2010), have been used to delve into the conflict as mentioned above. The conflict in ideologies leads to gender differences, and inequalities. Patriarchs view liberal feminism and its motive as a threat to patriarchal social structure. The study reveals how women challenge the monopoly and status-quo of patriarchs to raise their voice for their emancipation and free will in matters of their life. Women in Afghanistan are the "nang" (pride) and "namoos" (honor) of their families. Men, especially patriarchs, misperceive the status and image of women as damaging their reputation if they are granted full freedom in matters and walks of life. Nila Wahdati, a liberal feminist character in the novel, challenges the stereotypical image of women as fragile, fickle, and prone to sex. She even resists and negates the imposed traditional, conservative ideology and supremacy of her father. Through the use of language, women challenge the Afghan patriarchal thinking. The novelist has manipulated verb processes to represent the patriarchal ideology of the Afghan men, while the discourse-producers utilize nouns and modifications to indicate patriarchs' contrary thinking towards women. Linguistic tools, like nouns, pronouns, pre-modifiers, negative evaluative words, epistemic modality, and subordinate clauses, describe the conflict and challenge between patriarchal and liberal feminist ideologies.

Due to the intensification of global migration movements, the importance of studies in the field of acculturation has been increasing. In order to develop a healthy adaptation process between the migrant community and the host society, it is especially necessary to conduct studies on the acculturation processes of young migrants. Exploring the acculturation orientation of migrant students in Turkey, one of the leading countries experiencing the migration movements intensively, this study collected data from a total of 110 migrant students, 69 females and 41 males. "Vancouver Index of Acculturation", "Revised Social Contact Scale", "Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support", "Turkish Proficiency Level Questionnaire" and "Personal Information Form" were employed as data collection tools. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The analyses results revealed that the level of perceived social support of migrant students from their families and the quality of social contact significantly predicted their heritage culture orientation and explained 18% of them. In addition, the quantity of migrant students' social contact and the quality of social contact significantly predicted their mainstream culture orientation and explained 25% of them. As a result, the present study put forth that in order to support the heritage culture orientation of migrant students, the perceived social support from the family should be improved, and the quantity and quality of social contact should be increased to reinforce their mainstream culture orientation and to facilitate the acculturation processes. [This study was presented at the International Eurasian Educational Research Congress (EJER) (7th, Eskisehir, Turkey, September 10-13, 2020).]

Access to education has been the central tenet of the Millennium Development Goal 2, which focused strongly on increasing enrolment yet failed to promote education quality and equity and address contextual complexities that sustain exclusion. As a consequence, many children are not learning. There is growing recognition that effective, efficient and equitable education for all will not be achieved without better accountability. The present paper details innovative methods for strengthening the learning process through better social accountability. The paper defines and tests in rural schools of Afghanistan and Pakistan a community-based system dynamics protocol using participatory group model building (GMB) techniques. We tested the protocol with two groups of teachers and one group of children, with the three produced causal loop diagrams highlighting factors that influence learning in the classroom from the perspectives of the participants. The sessions showed interest, engagement, quick mastery of how GMB methods work and clear understanding of how the current classroom system hinders learning for many students. Researchers found that large autonomy and initiative could be left to the workshop participants, keeping the facilitator's role to one of explaining the method and asking clarification about causal relations.

This paper explores how a national higher education sector can be assembled upon a relatively narrow ideological foundation during and in the aftermath of violent conflict. It analyses the case of Afghanistan's higher education system, and argues that the violent disintegration of this system during the 1980s and 1990s created the conditions for a neoliberal reassembly and subsequent expansion of higher education from 2001. This paper draws on data gathered from document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with key policy actors. It identifies an ideological grounding in neoliberalism within higher education policies which are responsible for directing the sector's growth since 2010. I argue that this neoliberal agenda, largely driven by globalised influences, has exploited Afghanistan's conflict-affected context to position higher education primarily as a driver of economic growth, thus limiting policy emphasis on higher education's non-economic dividends. The paper concludes by critiquing the underlying assumption that this role is sufficient if higher education is to serve as a key institution in Afghanistan's ongoing national development.

Background: Through a nationally representative household survey in Afghanistan, we conducted an operational study in two relatively secure provinces comparing effectiveness of computer-aided personal interviewing (CAPI) with paper-and-pencil interviewing (PAPI). Methods: In Panjshir and Parwan provinces, household survey data were collected using paper questionnaires in 15 clusters, and OpenDataKit (ODK) software on electronic tablets in 15 other clusters. Added value was evaluated from three perspectives: efficient implementation, data quality, and acceptability. Efficiency was measured through financial expenditures and time stamped data. Data quality was measured by examining completeness. Acceptability was studied through focus group discussions with survey staff. Results: Survey costs were 68% more expensive in CAPI clusters compared to PAPI clusters, due primarily to the upfront one-time investment for survey programming. Enumerators spent significantly less time administering surveys in CAPI cluster households (248 min survey time) compared to PAPI (289 min), for an average savings of 41 min per household (95% CI 25–55). CAPI offered a savings of 87 days for data management over PAPI. Among 49 tracer variables (meaning responses were required from all respondents), small differences were observed between PAPI and CAPI. 2.2% of the cleaned dataset's tracer data points were missing in CAPI surveys (1216/ 56,073 data points), compared to 3.2% in PAPI surveys (1953/ 60,675 data points). In pre-cleaned datasets, 3.9% of tracer data points were missing in CAPI surveys (2151/ 55,092 data points) compared to 3.2% in PAPI surveys (1924/ 60,113 data points). Enumerators from Panjsher and Parwan preferred CAPI over PAPI due to time savings, user-friendliness, improved data security, and less conspicuity when traveling; however approximately half of enumerators trained from all 34 provinces reported feeling unsafe due to Taliban presence. Community and household respondent skepticism could be resolved by enumerator reassurance. Enumerators shared that in the future, they prefer collecting data using CAPI when possible. Conclusions: CAPI offers clear gains in efficiency over PAPI for data collection and management time, although costs are relatively comparable even without the programming investment. However, serious field staff concerns around Taliban threats and general insecurity mean that CAPI should only be conducted in relatively secure areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the level of conceptual understanding of Newtonian mechanics among Afghan school and university students in Kabul, Afghanistan was investigated. This study employed a quantitative descriptive survey method where the Pashto version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) was given to a random sample of 216 students from two schools and 90 students from two universities in Kabul city. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS v.24 and Microsoft Excel, where descriptive and inferential statistical analysis methods were used to determine the students' level of conceptual understanding in Newtonian mechanics. The results of this study revealed that generally, Afghan students had a low level of conceptual understanding of Force which is less than the Newtonian entry threshold for FCI. The results further showed that there is a significant difference between school and university students in the level of conceptual understanding. Furthermore, the results indicate that student's gender didn't have any significant effect on the FCI scores of university students. In general, the results confirmed that both school and university students were having difficulties to conceptually understand Newtonian mechanics. Therefore, the results of the study can be added to the database and serve as a guideline for teachers and students to increase their conceptual teaching and learning. In addition, it can be used to correct the students' misconceptions and to improve teaching and learning of physics in Afghanistan.