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This study aimed to identify the level of application of design thinking by biology teachers at the secondary level and determine the degree of obstacles they face during its application. The descriptive survey method was used to meet the objectives of the study. The open questionnaire was conducted among a sample of 276 male and female teachers who were chosen by stratified random sampling. 132 male and 144 female secondary school biology teachers were selected as a sample for this study. Biology teachers were chosen using a stratified random method in Riyadh. The collected data has been processed statistically using SPSS version 25. The results showed that the level of application of design thinking was low with an arithmetic average of 2.26, while the obstacles to the application of design thinking were high with an arithmetic average of 3.70. The results also revealed that there are statistically significant differences (0.01) between the average levels of the application of design thinking in favor of teachers. Moreover, there are statistically significant differences (0.01) between the average degrees of obstacles in its application in favor of teachers.

Received: 09 April 2023 / Accepted: 5 June 2023 / Published: 5 July 2023

Self-selection of converts is an under-studied explanation of inter-religion socioeconomic status (SES) differences. Inspired by this conjecture, I trace the Coptic-Muslim SES gap in Egypt to self-selection-on-SES during Egypt's conversion from Coptic Christianity to Islam. Selection was driven by a poll tax on non-Muslims, imposed from 641 until 1856, which induced poorer Copts to convert to Islam leading Copts to shrink into a better-off minority. Using novel data sources, I document that high-tax districts in 641–1100 had in 1848–1868 relatively fewer Copts, but greater SES differentials. Group restrictions on apprenticeships and schooling led the initial selection to perpetuate.

AbstractThis article argues that there is a need to develop a 'new' economic and social history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region that is based on exploiting novel sources of data, including (a) primary papyrological sources from the medieval period, (b) primary sources at the region's local archives and European (colonial) archives, and (c) primary sources from the ancient (pre‐Islamic) period. The proposed 'new' history of the MENA region must be inter‐disciplinary for two reasons: (a) digitizing and employing these novel data sources in research requires the collaboration of social scientists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, demographers and papyrologists, as well as the co‐operation of MENA‐based scholars who have better access to MENA's local archives, and (b) even if these novel sources are digitized, data limitations are likely to impose a constraint on the reach of quantitative analysis and thus necessitate an inter‐disciplinary methodology that combines quantitative evidence with historical analysis.

Public mass modern education was a major pillar of state-led development in the post-Colonial period. I examine the impact of Egypt's transformation in 1951–1953 of traditional elementary schools (kuttabs) into modern primary schools on the Christian-Muslim educational and occupational differentials, which were in favor of Christians. The reform grantedkuttabs' graduates (where Muslim students were over-represented) access to higher stages of education that were previously confined to primary schools' graduates. Exploiting the variation in exposure to the reform across cohorts and districts of birth among males in 1986, I find that the reform benefited Muslims but not Christians.What Europe is suffering from is the result of generalizing education among all levels of society… they have no chance of avoiding what happened[Europe's 1848 revolutions].So if this is an example in front of us, our duty is simply to teach them how to read and write to a certain limit in order to encourage satisfactory work and not to spread education beyond that point.Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ottoman Viceroy of Egypt (1805–1848), in a private letter to his son, Ibrahim Pasha (in Judith Cochran 1986, p. 6)Education is like the water we drink and the air we breathe.Taha Hussein, Egyptian liberal intellectual and Egypt's Minister of Education (1950–1952)The poor go to heaven, but can't they have a share on Earth too? They are willing to give up a share in heaven in exchange for a share on Earth.Gamal Abdul-Nasser, President of Egypt (1956–1970) (Excerpt from a public speech)

In 1805–1882, Egypt embarked on one of the earliest state industrialization programs. Using a new data source, the Egyptian nineteenth-century population censuses, I examine the impact of the program on the long-standing inter-religious human capital differentials, which were in favor of Christians. I find that there were inter-religious differentials in reaping the benefits (or losses) of industrialization. The first state industrialization wave was "de-skilling" among Muslims but "up-skilling" among Christians, while the second wave was "up-skilling" for both groups. I interpret the results within Lawrence F. Katz and Robert A. Margo (2013) framework of technical change.

Die suahelische Welt erstreckt sich über 3000 km entlang der ostafrikanischen Küste. In dieser Region haben Menschen unterschiedlicher Herkunft eine gemeinsame Geschichte geprägt. Der Kosmopolitismus der Bevölkerung erklärt sich vor allem durch die alten regelmäßigen Beziehungen zwischen den beiden Kontinenten Afrika und Asien. Diese Interaktion hat die suahelische Welt durch die Entwicklung einer Religion (Islam), einer Sprache (Kisuaheli) und einer Identität (Ushirazi) geprägt. Zanzibar nimmt dabei aufgrund der engen Verbindungen zum Sultanat Oman einen besonderen Platz ein. Zanzibar, seit 1964 Bestandteil der Vereinigten Republik Tansania, betrachtet sich als Verteidiger der Shirazi-Identität, die an den alten Einfluß Persiens erinnert. (DÜI-Ott)

AbstractThe transplantation of European legal systems in the periphery often occurred via semi‐colonial institutions, where Europeans were subject to their own jurisdictions that placed them outside the reach of local courts. In nineteenth‐century Egypt, the option of extraterritoriality was extended to local non‐Muslims. Drawing on Egypt's population censuses in 1848 and 1868, we show that locals did not seek extraterritoriality to place themselves under more efficient jurisdictions. Rather, legal protection mitigated uncertainty about which law would apply to any contractual relationship in an environment where multiple legal systems co‐existed and overlapped.

AbstractMalthus predicted that fertility rises with income and that people regulate fertility via regulating marriage. However, evidence on the Malthusian equilibrium has been mostly confined to Europe and East Asia. We employ Egypt's population censuses of 1848 and 1868 to provide the first evidence on the preindustrial Malthusian dynamics in the Middle East and North Africa. At the aggregate level, we document rural Egyptian women having a high fertility rate that is close to the Western European level, combined with low age at marriage and low celibacy rate, that are closer to the East Asian levels. This resulted in a uniquely high fertility regime that was probably offset by the high child mortality. Next, we provide individual‐level evidence on the positive correlation between fertility and income (occupation). We find that the higher fertility of rural white‐collar men is attributed to their marriage behaviour, and not to marital fertility. Specifically, white‐collar men's higher polygyny explains 45 per cent of their fertility advantage, whereas their higher marriage rate and lower wife's age at marriage explains 55 per cent. Therefore, polygyny was an additional factor that led to a steeper income–fertility curve than in Western Europe by enabling the rural middle class to out‐breed the poor.