Along the lines of a previous work, the geometrical structure of Hibert bundles describing extended quantum free particles is repeated with Galilei external and internal independent symmetries. Then, in order to introduce the interaction, this structure is extended by replacing configuration and momentum spaces by the socelled spaces of trajectories and extended velocity boosts, respectively. These provide representations giving the probability amplitudes for the particle to follow certain trajectories. The interaction can be introduced in the transformation law from functions on (...) the space of trajectories (free dynamics) to functions on spacetime (intracting dynamics). This transformation law, which makes use of a universal distribution, is seen as a functional in our work according to a quantum functional theory which generalizes the ideas of de Broglie. Intertwining of induced representations gives the free propagator in the space of trajectories and, henceforth, the propagator with interaction in space-time for the extended particle. (shrink)

Toxic workplace environments, especially those involving gaslighting, are known to contribute to stress and excessive work habits, such as workaholism, which may hinder a nurse's agility—an essential skill in adapting to fast‐paced healthcare environments. However, the interplay between workplace gaslighting, workaholism, and agility in nursing remains underexplored. This study aims to investigate the relationship between workplace gaslighting, workaholism, and agility among nurses, focusing on how gaslighting moderates this relationship. This study is a multicenter cross‐sectional that was conducted among 594 full‐time (...) nurses from three major hospitals in Egypt. Data were collected using the Gaslighting at Work Questionnaire, Workforce Agility Scale, and Bergen Work Addiction Scale. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to test the study hypotheses. Results revealed that nurses reported moderate levels of workaholism, workplace gaslighting, and agility. Significant negative correlations were found between agility and both workplace gaslighting and workaholism. Gaslighting negatively moderated the relationship between workaholism and agility, exacerbating the impact of workaholism on nurses' ability to remain agile. The findings indicate that toxic workplace behaviors, such as gaslighting and workaholism, undermine nurses' agility. Regulatory safeguards are necessary to protect nurses from such environments, ensuring both their well‐being and the quality of healthcare services. These findings call for the development of national standards and policies to address workplace mental health and ensure accountability in healthcare settings. (shrink)

Background Home care nurses are central in providing holistic and compassionate care to patients in home-based palliative care. Ethical caring competency is essential for home care to sustain nurses’ integrity in the face of moral adversity. Interprofessional collaboration is vital for ensuring ethical decision-making and providing patient-centered care in home-based palliative care settings. Aim This study explored the predictive roles of interprofessional collaboration and moral resilience on ethical caring competency among home care nurses in home-based palliative care. Methods A cross-sectional (...) survey of 400 nurses was conducted from October to December 2023, utilizing standardized scales to measure interprofessional collaboration, moral resilience, and ethical caring competency. A convenience sample of 400 home care nurses was also included in this study. Correlation and linear regression analysis were used to clarify the associative and predictive findings. Ethical Considerations Ethical approval from the ethics committee, institutional permission, and informed consent from the participants were obtained for data collection. Results Correlation analysis showed significant positive correlations between the ethical caring competency, interprofessional collaboration, and moral resilience constructs, with coefficients ranging from 0.482 to 0.967. Linear regression revealed that management of collaborative systems and total moral resilience significantly predict ethical caring competency, explaining 14.6% and 36.6% of its variance, respectively. Other variables, such as the effects of collaboration and communication, did not significantly influence ethical caring competency. Conclusion The study highlights the significant impact of interprofessional collaboration, particularly the management of collaborative systems and moral resilience, on enhancing ethical caring competency among nurses. Implications Enhancing interprofessional collaboration and moral resilience through targeted strategies in nursing practice and education can significantly improve ethical caring competencies. These efforts are essential for delivering high-quality, patient-centered care and for fostering a healthcare environment that respects the ethical principles guiding nursing practice. (shrink)

This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to one of the most significant Arab thinkers of the late 20th century and the early 21st century: the Moroccan philosopher and social theorist Mohammed Abed al-Jabri. With his intellectual and political engagement, al-Jabri has influenced the development of a modern reading of the Islamic tradition in the broad Arab-Islamic world and has been, in recent years, subject to an increasing interest among Muslims and non-Muslim scholars, social activists and lay men. The contributors (...) to this volume read al-Jabri with reference to prominent past Arab-Muslim scholars, such as Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali, al-Shatibi, and Ibn Khaldun, as well as contemporary Arab philosophers, like Hassan Hanafi, Abdellah Laroui, George Tarabishi, Taha Abderrahmane; they engage with various aspects of his intellectual project, and trace his influence in non-Arab-Islamic lands, like Indonesia, as well. His analysis of Arab thought since the 1970s as a harbinger analysis of the ongoing “Arab Spring uprising” remains relevant for today's political challenges in the region. (shrink)

Islamic bioethics is in good health, this article argues. During the twentieth century, academic researchers had to deal with a number of difficulties including the scarcity of available Islamic sources. However, the twenty-first century witnessed significant breakthroughs in the field of Islamic bioethics. A growing number of normative works authored by Muslim religious scholars and studies conducted by academic researchers have been published. This nascent field also proved to be appealing for research-funding institutions in the Muslim world and also in (...) the West, such as the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). On the other hand, the article argues that contemporary Islamic bioethics is in need of addressing news issues and adopting new approaches for the sake of maintaining and improving this good health in the future. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage a pour objectif principal de présenter une étude originale d'inspiration marxienne sur la théorie révolutionnaire d'Alain Badiou et de Toni Negri. Il comprend une généalogie de la pensée politique révolutionnaire, ainsi que la définition des principaux concepts théoriques utilisés par les deux auteurs. Il intègre également une recherche historico-politique sur le parcours de Negri et Badiou. Ceci permet d'établir le lien entre le travail théorique de ces auteurs et leur engagement politique.

Mit diesem Band wendet sich der Philosoph Mohamed Turki gegen die Behauptung, dass geisteswissenschaftliche Debatten in der arabisch-islamischen Welt ausschliesslich vom Diskurs des Glaubens beherrscht werden. In fundierter und zugleich überblickender Manier wird zunächst der historische Wandel von Bestimmungen des Rationalitätsbegriffs nachgezeichnet und verständlich gemacht, um anschliessend einzelne Diskurse der Gegenwart darzustellen. Deutlich wird dabei das Ineinandergreifen von Konzepten wie Glaube, Vernunft, Offenbarung und Interkulturalität, aber auch Konfliktlinien innerhalb der Diskussion. Die beziehungsreichen Aufsätze des Bandes vereinen Themen wie Pluralität, (...) Toleranz, Frieden und Menschenrechte aus dem Blickwinkel des arabisch-islamischen Denkens und verdeutlichen, dass eine Verbindung zum klassischen Kanon der abendländischen Geistestradition immer schon bestand und keinesfalls dazu im Widerspruch steht"-- Back cover. (shrink)

During the 1990s, biomedical scientists and Muslim religious scholars collaborated to construe Islamic responses for the ethical questions raised by the AIDS pandemic. This is the first of a two-part study examining this collective legal reasoning (ijtihād jamā‘ī). The main thesis is that the role of the biomedical scientists is not limited to presenting scientific information. They engaged in the human rights discourse pertinent to people living with HIV/AIDS, gave an account of the preventive strategy adopted by the World Health (...) Organization, and offered an (Islamic) virtue-based preventive model. Finally, these scientists tried to draft a number of Islamic legal rulings (aḥkām), usually seen in Islamic jurisprudence as the exclusive business of Muslim religious scholars. This multilayered role played by the scientists reflects intriguing developments in the Islamic religio-ethical discourse in general and in the field of Islamic jurisprudence in particular. (shrink)

Managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in crisis-affected and fragile humanitarian contexts requires special attention because primary health care systems often collapse or become compromised in such settings. As a result, addressing and managing these diseases become more challenging. Humanitarian organizations that intervene in crisis situations are increasingly including NCD management in the services they support and provide; however, they encounter a range of issues such as ensuring the quality of care, sustainability of programs, and the possibility of unintended harms. This case (...) study explores ethical considerations raised by a mobile NCD program run by an international humanitarian organization in a country affected by a protracted civil war. (shrink)

Extropy, as a complementary dual of entropy, has been discussed in many works of literature, where it is declared for other measures as an extension of extropy. In this article, we obtain the extropy of generalized order statistics via its dual and give some examples from well-known distributions. Furthermore, we study the residual and past extropy for such models. On the other hand, based on Farlie–Gumbel–Morgenstern distribution, we consider the residual extropy of concomitants of m-generalized order statistics and present this (...) measure with some additional features. In addition, we provide the upper bound and stochastic orders of it. Finally, nonparametric estimation of the residual extropy of concomitants of m-generalized order statistics is included using simulated and real data connected with COVID-19 virus. (shrink)

A Critique of Localized Realism Abstract In an attempt to avert Laudan’s pessimistic induction, Worrall and Psillos introduce a narrower version of scientific realism. According to this version, which can be referred to as “localized realism”, realists need not accept every component in a successful theory. They are supposed only to accept those components that led to the theory’s empirical success. Consequently, realists can avoid believing in dubious entities like the caloric and ether. This paper examines and critiques localized realism. (...) It also scrutinizes Psillos’s historical study of the caloric theory of heat, which is intended to support localized realism. (shrink)

Spirit possession is a common phenomenon around the world in which a non-corporeal agent is involved with a human host. This manifests in a range of maladies or in displacement of the host's agency and identity. Prompted by engagement with the phenomenon in Egypt, this paper draws connections between spirit possession, and the concepts of personhood and intentionality. It employs these concepts to articulate spirit possession, while also developing the intentional stance as formulated by Daniel Dennett. It argues for an (...) understanding of spirit possession as the spirit stance: an intentional strategy that aims at predicting and explaining behaviour by ascribing to an agent beliefs and desires, but is only deployed once the mental states and activity of the subject fail specific normative distinctions. Applied to behaviours which are generally taken to signal mental disorder, the spirit stance preserves a peculiar form of intentionality where behaviour would otherwise be explained as a consequence of a malfunctioning physical mechanism. Centuries before the modern disciplines of psychoanalysis and phenomenological-psychopathology endeavoured to restore meaning to 'madness', the social institution of spirit possession had been preserving the intentionality of socially deviant behaviour. (shrink)

Debates on the distinction between religious experience and mental disorder tend to assume, rather than argue for, the existence of unique types of experience: the religious and the psychopathological. This paper interrogates this approach to the problem. It deconstructs the distinction by examining what the distinction is about beyond the terms in which it is presented and whether it matters who is trying to make it. A key idea is that one’s standpoint in the debate—that is, whether one adopts a (...) religious or a secular standpoint—determines what they can say about the distinction. This leads to the central argument of the first part of the paper: The distinction between religious experience and mental disorder can only be invoked from a secular standpoint but can only be clarified from a religious standpoint. In other words, if you have the grounds to invoke it, you cannot have the tools to clarify it; and if you have the tools to clarify it, you do not have the grounds to invoke it. In the second part, the paper follows through the implications, from a secular standpoint, of accepting this argument. It appeals to the politics of difference and to mental health activism to argue against the binary view whereby mental distress is either illness and incapacity or a path to purpose and identity. (shrink)

Recently, due to the rapid progress of computer technology, researchers develop an effective computer program to enhance the achievement of the student in learning process, which is Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS). Science is important because it influences most aspects of everyday life, including food, energy, medicine, leisure activities and more. So learning science subject at school is very useful, but the students face some problem in learning it. So we designed an ITS system to help them understand this subject easily (...) and smoothly by analyzing it and explaining it in a systematic way. In this paper, we describe the design of an Intelligent Tutoring System for teaching science for grade seven to help students know the 7 characteristics for living things smoothly. The system provides all topics of living things and generates some questions for each topic and the students should answer these questions correctly to move to the next level. In the result of an evaluation of the ITS, students like the system and they said that it is very useful for them and for their studies. (shrink)

Mohammed Arkoun is one of the Muslim world's foremost thinkers. His efforts to liberate Islamic history from dogmatic constructs have led him to a radical review of traditional history. Drawing on a combination of pertinent disciplines ? history, sociology, psychology and anthropology ? his approach subjects every system of belief and non-belief, every tradition of exegesis, theology and jurisprudence to a critique aimed at liberating reason from the grip of dogmatic postulates. By treating Islam as a religion as well as (...) a time-honoured tradition of thought, Arkoun's work aims at overcoming the limitations of descriptive, narrative and chronological modes in history by recommending that the entire development of Islamic thought ? from Quranic to present-day fundamentalist discourses ? be subjected to a critical analysis guided by these categories. The expected outcome of such a strategy is an emancipated political reason working hand in hand with a truly creative imagination for a radical re-construction of mind and society in the contemporary Muslim world. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

Autophagy functions in both selective and non‐selective ways to maintain cellular homeostasis. Endoplasmic reticulum autophagy (ER‐phagy) is a subclass of autophagy responsible for the degradation of the endoplasmic reticulum through selective encapsulation into autophagosomes. ER‐phagy occurs both under physiological conditions and in response to stress cues, and plays a crucial role in maintaining the homeostatic control of the organelle. Although specific receptors that target parts of the ER membrane, as well as, internal proteins for lysosomal degradation have been identified, the (...) molecular regulation of ER‐phagy has been elusive. Recent work has uncovered novel regulators of ER‐phagy that involve post‐translational modifications of ER‐resident proteins and functional cross‐talk with other cellular processes. Herein, we discuss how morphology affects the function of the peripheral ER, and how ER‐phagy modulates the turnover of this organelle. We also address how ER‐phagy is regulated at the molecular level, considering implications relevant to human diseases. (shrink)

This paper presents some thoughts focusing on the problems of ethnico-cultural communalism, its meaning in the current global socio-political context and its implications with regard to principles of democracy, citizenship and the nation-state. It gives particular attention to the issues of interculturality and intercultural communication (IC) as central markers in the contemporary socio-political landscape. The author claims that IC (particularly in its communal and ethnic forms) may prevent or resolve the communal separation that threatens many groups throughout the world. Apart (...) from the essential role it has in production, reproduction and circulation of meaning within, as well as outside, the group, the discourse developed by communal communication media is an ideological, reflexive construction whose aim it is to create an impact on the social cognition of its receivers. This is why ethnicocultural groups scattered around the world generally have effective communal media that reinforce their social, cultural and political cohesion at local, national and global levels. Because, as well as expressing their positions and views on the issues facing a nation's society, this formal discourse provides group members with a legitimate and coherent framework for action and argument. (shrink)

. In the wake of the February 1997 announcement that Dolly the sheep had been cloned, Muslim religious scholars together with Muslim scientists held two conferences to discuss cloning from an Islamic perspective. They were organized by two influential Islamic international religioscientific institutions: the Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences and the International Islamic Fiqh Academy. Both institutions comprise a large number of prominent religious scholars and well‐known scientists who participated in the discussions at the conferences. This article gives a comprehensive (...) analysis of these conferences, the relation between science and religion as reflected in the discussions there, and the further influence of these discussions on Muslims living in the West. Modern discussions on Islamic bioethics show that formulating an Islamic perspective on these issues is not the exclusive prerogative of religious scholars. Formulating such perspectives has become a collective process in which scientists play an essential role. Such a collective approach strengthens the religious authority of Muslim scholars and makes it more influential rather than undermining it. (shrink)

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented strain to healthcare systems worldwide and posed unique challenges to the healthcare professionals and the general public.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health, behavioral, and physical wellbeing of HCPs in the early and mid-term periods of the pandemic in comparison to non-HCPs. Thus, facilitating and guiding optimum planning and delivery of support to HCPs.Methods and AnalysisAn observational cross-sectional survey and cohort study aiming to enroll (...) over 1050 participants. Study questionnaires will be completed at baseline and after 6-weeks and 4-months. Recruitment initiated July 2020. The study was designed in London, United Kingdom, but open to participants worldwide. Baseline: Questionnaires comprising of validated self-administered screening tools for depression, anxiety, sleep-related issues, wellbeing, and burnout. The questionnaires also explore changes in behavior and physical wellbeing of the participants. In addition, associations of these mental health and behavioral factors with work-related factors and support will be explored. Six-weeks and 4-months follow-up: Follow-up questionnaires will assess change in symptoms of anxiety and depression, sleep disorders, use of alcohol and other substances, behavioral or interpersonal relationship changes. Physical wellbeing will be assessed through the presence of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection and absence from work. We will also evaluate the impact of variable provision of personal protection equipment, extended working hours, and concern for the wellbeing of family members, anxiety levels, and evidence of burnout.Statistical ConsiderationsThe study has 80% power to detect a 10% difference of combined depression and/or anxiety symptoms between the groups using two-sided type 1 error at 0.05 at baseline. Assuming that only 50% of these HCPs agree to be a part of a cohort survey, we will have 80% power to detect around 12% difference in the two groups in reported physical symptoms, or prevalence of depression and/or anxiety at the end of the study.EthicsThe study was approved by the Cambridge East, Research Ethics Committee.Trial Registration NumberClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04433260. (shrink)

This paper seeks to discover whether companies that adopt a stakeholder approach, and thereby demonstrate a wider remit of corporate responsibility, provide inferior returns to those that embrace the shareholder value approach. To classify approaches, mission statements were analysed, the final sample comprising 32 shareholder oriented companies and 48 stakeholder oriented companies. To assess performance both accounting–based and market–based measures were used. A number of moderating variables were taken into account: systematic (beta) risk, gearing (long–term debt to total long–term finance), (...) tax ratios, and firm size. ANOVA and Kruskall–Wallis tests revealed that mission orientation did not affect performance, whether in terms of stock returns or excess returns. Neither were accounting returns on equity different overall, although shareholder oriented companies experienced wider variations in this measure. A number of multiple regressions were also performed. However, the mission dummy was not found to be a significant variable. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper is to better understand how sustainability rating agencies, through discourse, promote an “ideology of numbers” that ultimately aims to establish a regime of normalization governing social and environmental performance. Drawing on Thompson’s (Ideology and modern culture: Critical social theory in the era of mass communication, 1990 ) modes of operation of ideology, we examine the extent to which, and how, the ideology of numbers is reflected on websites and public documents published by a range (...) of sustainability rating agencies. Our analysis indicates that the ideology of numbers promotes a relatively narrow vision of corporate social and environmental responsibility. That is, it establishes some areas of visibility while leaving in the shadow certain aspects of the ways in which companies fulfill, or fail to meet, their social and environmental responsibilities. The ideology of numbers also exerts power by identifying those companies that are deemed to be worthy of inclusion, or not, in a supposedly socially responsible corporate elite. (shrink)

This paper explores the important role of critical science, and in particular of post-colonial and decolonial theories, in understanding and shaping the ongoing advances in artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is viewed as amongst the technological advances that will reshape modern societies and their relations. While the design and deployment of systems that continually adapt holds the promise of far-reaching positive change, they simultaneously pose significant risks, especially to already vulnerable peoples. Values and power are central to this discussion. Decolonial theories (...) use historical hindsight to explain patterns of power that shape our intellectual, political, economic, and social world. By embedding a decolonial critical approach within its technical practice, AI communities can develop foresight and tactics that can better align research and technology development with established ethical principles, centring vulnerable peoples who continue to bear the brunt of negative impacts of innovation and scientific progress. We highlight problematic applications that are instances of coloniality, and using a decolonial lens, submit three tactics that can form a decolonial field of artificial intelligence: creating a critical technical practice of AI, seeking reverse tutelage and reverse pedagogies, and the renewal of affective and political communities. The years ahead will usher in a wave of new scientific breakthroughs and technologies driven by AI research, making it incumbent upon AI communities to strengthen the social contract through ethical foresight and the multiplicity of intellectual perspectives available to us, ultimately supporting future technologies that enable greater well-being, with the goal of beneficence and justice for all. (shrink)

Elle s'efforce d'abord de reconstruire et de restituer, en la systématisant, la sociologie wébérienne du paradoxe des conséquences à partir des éléments dispersés dans l'œuvre du maître de la sociologie allemande.

In this essay, Mohammed Albakry discusses the notion of accommodating cultural differences in translation and the need to respect these differences without compromising or emphasizing them. First, Albakry reflects on translation as an act of interpretation in light of Terence's famous saying “nothing human can be foreign to me.” Second, he comments on the place of drama in translation and translation studies in order to contextualize his project — translating a number of critically acclaimed contemporary Egyptian plays. He then reviews (...) and critiques the binary model of foreignization/domestication, drawing on some concrete examples of the cultural challenges of translating Arabic drama for the American stage. Albakry concludes by conceptualizing an alternative translational space of dialogical encounters between the human/familiar and the foreign in translation, and by considering the relevance of the Terentian maxim to the negotiation of maintaining sameness while preserving difference. (shrink)

Abstract. In January 1985, about 80 Muslim religious scholars and biomedical scientists gathered in a symposium held in Kuwait to discuss the broad question “When does human life begin?” This article argues that this symposium is one of the milestones in the field of contemporary Islamic bioethics and independent legal reasoning (Ijtihād). The proceedings of the symposium, however, escaped the attention of academic researchers. This article is meant to fill in this research lacuna by analyzing the proceedings of this symposium, (...) the relevant subsequent developments, and finally the interplay of Islam and the West as a significant dimension in these discussions. (shrink)

Cultural congruence is the idea that to the extent a belief or experience is culturally shared it is not to feature in a diagnostic judgement, irrespective of its resemblance to psychiatric pathology. This rests on the argument that since deviation from norms is central to diagnosis, and since what counts as deviation is relative to context, assessing the degree of fit between mental states and cultural norms is crucial. Various problems beset the cultural congruence construct including impoverished definitions of culture (...) as religious, national or ethnic group and of congruence as validation by that group. This article attempts to address these shortcomings to arrive at a cogent construct. (shrink)

This article presents a Hybrid Artificial Bee Colony for uncapacitated examination timetabling. The ABC algorithm is a recent metaheuristic population-based algorithm that belongs to the Swarm Intelligence technique. Examination timetabling is a hard combinatorial optimization problem of assigning examinations to timeslots based on the given hard and soft constraints. The proposed hybridization comes in two phases: the first phase hybridized a simple local search technique as a local refinement process within the employed bee operator of the original ABC, while the (...) second phase involves the replacement of the scout bee operator with the random consideration concept of harmony search algorithm. The former is to empower the exploitation capability of ABC, whereas the latter is used to control the diversity of the solution search space. The HABC is evaluated using a benchmark dataset defined by Carter, including 12 problem instances. The results show that the HABC is better than exiting ABC techniques and competes well with other techniques from the literature. (shrink)

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a descriptive literature review and a classification scheme for studies on sustainable development, e-learning and Web 3.0 that contribute toward sustainable e-learning. The aims are to discover and highlight some ideas on developing a sustainable learning in higher education in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the elements of e-learning, technology, application, sustainable development and teaching and learning principles that contribute toward a sustainable e-learning through a descriptive literature review approach (...) and a classification scheme. Findings – The findings show that even though sustainable e-learning research is still limited, contributions to sustainable e-learning were recognized and some ideas and perspectives for the development of a sustainable e-learning framework were identified. Furthermore, this paper identified the gaps in the findings; therefore, this paper will try to minimize these gaps through the initial sustainable e-learning framework. Originality/value – The paper is expected to provide further ideas of developing a sustainable e-learning framework, as well as the importance of a sustainable e-learning to provide quality learning through technology, application, sustainable development and teaching and learning principles perspectives. (shrink)

Do not believe that the philosophy that has reached us through the writings of Aristotle, Abû Nasr (al-Fârâbî), and the book of Healing (of Ibn Sinâ), will satisfy your longing; neither that any of the Andalusians has written anything adequate on this matter. For the men of superior understanding who lived in Andalusia before the spread of logic and philosophy in that country, devoted their lives to the mathematical sciences…; but could do nothing more…” Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzân, p. (...) 12.Much remains to be done by way of determining exactly the ways in which Arab thought penetrated Western Islam-I refer both to its sociological extension and the depth of its psycho-cultural effect. The question thus posed is of considerable historical importance, above all if one wishes to cover the whole period from the beginning of the Eighth Century (i.e. the end of the First/beginning of the Second Century of the Hegira), up to the present day. In fact, the spread of Arab thought to the Maghreb, and its penetration in depth, was accelerated again after the reconquest of the politically autonomous areas. This situation lends our research a certain topicality, whence spring both advantages and disadvantages: there is the advantage of historical knowledge not being limited to an erudite accumulation of facts about a past that has no links with any extant community; yet there is the problem that it is hard not to evoke the past in order to justify present ideological ventures. (shrink)

Considerable evidence supports that preschool education is a milestone stage for children. Nonetheless, systematic preschool gifted education programs rarely exist in public elementary schools. The current study explored the perceptions of 16 preschool teachers from seven public schools in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates regarding their views about various components of gifted education for preschool children. Qualitative analyses, using the inductive data analysis method, revealed several themes such as the concept and identification of giftedness, characteristics of gifted preschoolers, preschoolers’ problem-solving (...) skills, the communication and social skills of gifted preschoolers, resources/services offered by the school to serve gifted preschoolers, enrichment programs available for gifted preschoolers, inclusive education for gifted preschoolers, twice-exceptional preschoolers, and governmental support. The results of this study may help advocate for infusing more services and programs related to the identification and education of gifted preschoolers in public schools. The findings identified the need to have an abundance of assessment tools and enrichment programs that can empower preschool teachers to cater for giftedness. (shrink)