Effects of teacher licensing on educators' professionalism: UAE case in local perception.

There is neither a universally recognized teacher licensure system, nor consensus on the criteria for assessing how teacher licensing programs affect the quality of teachers. This is the study to assess the licensing program impact on the professional qualities of UAE teachers. The perception survey was piloted with a group of teachers from random UAE schools. A survey method with valid tests and descriptive statistics were used to determine the self-evaluation of teachers in a wide range of competencies related to licensing. Teacher self-evaluate themselves during the test accentuates strong social competence, while professional qualities and professional growth received significantly lower scores. A strong direct correlation was found between test size and participants' experience. There was no correlation between the quality of the assessment and gender or age factors. The results of the study are aimed at helping government and academic policymakers to obtain feedback from teachers on educational reforms. Both the results of the study and the methods of its implementation can be expanded beyond the UAU due to the typological similarity of problems of licensing of teachers in different countries. The originality and novelty of the research is presented by the analysis of the subjective assessment of their results by teachers who passed licensing for the first time in the conditions of UAE, where the licensing system is in the process of formation. The findings of the study demonstrate the points of further development of the newly created teacher licensing system.

Achieving pro-poor growth and environmental sustainability agenda through information technologies: as right as rain.

The pro-poor growth and environmental sustainability are the twin agendas widely discussed in environmental science literature. The technology-embodied growth helps to attain both agendas through knowledge sharing and technology transfer, which trickle down to the poor income group and improve their living standards. Hence, the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is deemed crucial in boosting economic growth and is under deep consideration to establish its role in reducing poverty and environmental pollution. The current study examines the long-run relationship between ICTs, poverty reduction, and ecological degradation in Pakistan using time series data from 1975-2018. The short- and long-run parameter estimates were obtained through the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model for robust inferences. The results substantiate the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve relationship between income and emissions with a turning point at US$1000 in the short-run and US$800 in the long-run. The results confirmed the decisive intervention of ICTs factors in the poverty reduction, i.e., computer communications and mobile-telephone-broadband subscriptions support to reduce poverty incidence with the mediation of inbound FDI in a country. As far as income inequality is concerned, it shows that computer services support minimizing income inequality via a channel of high-technology exports in a country. The technology embodied emissions verified in the long-run, where mobile-telephone-broadband subscriptions increase carbon emissions. Finally, mobile-telephone-broadband subscriptions and inbound FDI both are significant contributors to amplify the country's economic growth. The results conclude that poverty reduction and environmental sustainability agenda are achieved by developing green ICT infrastructure in a country.

Administrative Stressors and Islamic Coping Strategies Among Muslim Primary Principals in Malaysia: A Mixed Method Study.

Principals are school leaders who experienced stress while leading their schools towards excellence. However, principals stress experiences are always ignored and least studied. This mixed-methods study investigates primary principals' stress experiences and their Islamic coping strategies used in incapacitating the stress experiences. A total of 216 Muslim primary principals across different gender, types of schools and years of experiences as school leaders responded to the administrative stress and the Islamic coping strategies items. In addition, seven primary principals were purposefully selected and interviewed in exploring their reasons of using Islamic coping strategies for their relieving process. Results discovered that primary principals experienced fairly stress level and they perceived managing students' academic achievement was the most stressor followed by managing teachers' capabilities. Although findings revealed that no significant differences in terms primary principals' demographics; male primary principals, and experienced between 6 and 10 years and positioned in schools with least students (SLS) category have slightly higher level of stress. In terms of Islamic coping strategies used by primary principals, saying dhua to Allah, performing dhikir and reciting the Yassen are selected coping approaches employed in handling their stress. From interviews, primary principals also revealed that they used Islamic religious approaches as part of meaningful activities not just to overcoming their stress but also as part of religious approaches in remembering Allah, thinking back their past mistakes as part of the Muhasabah process. Therefore, we believed that religious approaches should be taken into consideration in principals' training as it provides peaceful and treatment in managing principals' stress issue.