IED-PK | Doctor of Philosophy (PhD in Education) Dissertation: Complete List with Abstract

Exploring possibilities of creating gender equitable learning environment in an early childhood classroom

Nasima Zainulabidin

Date of Award: 2018

Abstract

This study explored the possibilities of creating a gender equitable learning environment in one of the Early Childhood Education (ECE) classrooms in Karachi, Pakistan through a Collaborative Action Research (CAR). The actions, reflections and retrospections were guided by the Feminist poststructuralist theoretical lens throughout the study. Two ECE teachers and 43 five year old (23 girls and 20 boys) children participated in this collaborative action research which was conducted in a non-for-profit private school. Various data collection strategies were used throughout the study. This included in-depth interviews, dialogues, observations, pre and post observation discussions with the teachers and reflective dialogues during and after drawings, stories, play, games with children. The participating teachers and I maintained reflective journals as part of our commitment to reflexivity during the study. An analysis of the discourses and discursive practices of participating ECE teachers and children revealed that initially both the groups positioned themselves within the essentialist discourse of gender and viewed gender as part of biological sex determinism. However, feminist poststructuralist methods such as deconstruction through reading and discussing literature, dialogues, critical actions and reflections helped the participating ECE teachers to expand their theoretical and practical repertoire regarding gender equity in early childhood. This enabled the teachers to disrupt the processes of promoting stereotypical masculine and feminine traits and oppressive gender relationships among children in the classroom. Cross case analysis of the five focused children revealed that collaborative efforts, critical actions and reflections enabled us (teachers and myself) to destabilize the hegemonic ways of being boys; deconstruct femininity and celebrate gender risk taking among both girls and boys. Hence, the study indicated possibilities for transforming the classroom learning environment in the context of ECE in Pakistan. The cyclical process of critical actions and reflections in the study revealed that a combination of child initiated and teacher/researcher led activities worked as appropriate pedagogical strategies to create a gender equitable learning environment. The strategies such as storytelling, dramatization of stories, opportunities of cross gender play, group discussions, dialogues and conversations about gender were particularly illuminating for effectively engaging young children inside and outside the classroom. The research process further revealed that teachers' and children's gender discourses were highly influenced by the complex intersection of their multiple identities. Therefore, the study emphasized the importance of closer bonds with children's families to strive for transformational changes in children's feeling, thinking and practicing of gender differently in the patriarchal context of Pakistan. The study has contributed to the growing body of knowledge around gender equity issues in ECE in Pakistan in variety of ways. Firstly, it recognizes that young children are capable of critical reflection and dialogues regarding gender equity issues. Secondly, it has highlighted the critical role ECE teachers as well as children themselves play in producing, reproducing, perpetuating and or disrupting the existing gender discourses. Thirdly, it has identified some contextually relevant pedagogical strategies to disrupt the oppressive gender relations and has shown children the possibilities of thinking, seeing and doing gender in multiple ways. Furthermore, the study has opened up possibilities to use transformative research methodologies at PhD level studies. Finally, the study has presented an example of applying feminist poststructuralist theory for deeper engagement in gender equity related issues in an educational setting of Pakistan.

Recommended Citation

Zainulabidin, N. (2018). Exploring possibilities of creating gender equitable learning environment in an early childhood classroom (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Nature of engagement of secondary school leaders in curriculum planning and decision making in the mountainous rural areas of Pakistan

Riaz Hussain

Date of Award: 2016

Abstract

Teachers and students in Pakistan are perceived as consumers of the 'given' curriculum and have little role in the development of it. As a result, policy directives and actions to improve quality of education in Pakistan have been mainly 'top-down' and geared towards improving the ‘given knowledge’ transfer capability of teachers. Blind to teachers' agency to develop powerful curriculum in school, these efforts from outside school have mostly failed in achieving the aims of students' meaningful learning as espoused in the national curriculum of Pakistan. The quality of education, thus, can significantly be improved if change is initiated from within school. Be it the case, a series of questions needs to be answered. Who are in school that are so important for students' meaningful learning? How are they important for students' meaningful learning? What do they do to achieve that end? How and why do they do what they do to reach that end? How could they be helped to do better what they currently do in schools in order to facilitate students' meaningful learning? These are some of the questions that this research study with its focus on engagement of secondary school teachers and students in Chitral district in curriculum planning and decision making has attempted to answer. Hence, adopting a mixed methods research approach, this thesis outlines the nature (what, how, and why) of engagement of secondary school teachers and students (school leaders) in the four dimensions of curriculum planning and decision making at school level and provides a framework to improve their engagement for enhanced students' meaningful learning. These dimensions are (a) objectives of teaching and learning, (b) content to be taught, (c) learning opportunities, and (d) mode of presentation and response. Quantitative data were collected from 401 teachers in 89 secondary schools through a questionnaire survey and qualitative data were generated in the selected two case study schools through interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and field notes. The findings of this study are important with respect to the notion of school leaders as curriculum planners and decision makers at school level. The results show that school leaders are not just implementers of curriculum through teaching textbooks in the classroom. Rather, empirical findings have illustrated that school leaders exercise their personal agency to adapt and enrich nationally developed curriculum in order to serve the meaningful learning purpose of the students. All findings of data analysis are in contrast with the way teachers and students in schools are viewed as mere consumers of textbook knowledge. Though school leaders are not engaged in developing curriculum at the national level (at least those who participated in this study), data showed that they build upon the national curriculum in many ways making them, in their own right, developers of curriculum that serves the learning requirements of students well. To achieve the longstanding aim of enhancing quality of education, national curriculum policy makers need to acknowledge and provide due space for school leaders to engage creatively in planning curriculum at the local level. Recognizing school as primary unit of change, this research theorizes that the goals of students' meaningful learning can be achieved when school leaders build and re-build visions for the overall education in the school and respective subject areas including co-curriculum in the school. Central to the success of achieving these visions is relationships developed mirroring those visions. To further strengthen these relationships and to achieve enhanced students' meaningful learning, it is also important that resources and school-based professional development opportunities are provided to the teachers. Equally important for enriching these relationships is institutionalization of student-led co-curriculum in the school. To coordinate these processes and to create further engagement opportunities for teachers and students, the role of principal / head teacher is of utmost importance. The above theorization is rooted in empirical data collected through reliable tools. Hence, it is contextual and relevant yet applicable to other contexts in Pakistan and developing countries in the world. It challenges the educational status quo in Pakistan produced due to non-serious on-ground reform initiatives of successive governments in Pakistan by empowering school leaders, particularly students, to initiate change with whatever resources they have from within schools.

Recommended Citation

Hussain, R. (2016). Nature of engagement of secondary school leaders in curriculum planning and decision making in the mountainous rural areas of Pakistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Development of cultural identity in students of secondary schools in Baltistan

Zakir Hussain Zakir

Date of Award: 2015

Abstract

Schools as important sites of socialization play a key role in nurturing, enculturation and/or acculturation of children and shape their present and future identities. Numerous research studies (Foster, 1999; Matthews & Jenkins, 1999; Tse, 2007; Bass, 2008) show that schooling as an important mode of formal education has been used as a powerful instrument for both cultural and national identity formation of children. Under the multiple internal and external pressures from family, peer groups, society, religion, schooling (formal education) and media, a student internalizes certain behaviors and ways of life that form his/her cultural identity. This is the social dimension of one's personal identity which is a compound of past experiences, present circumstances, future aspirations and preferences of the individual. This study explores the role of schooling in the development of students' cultural identity in order to observe and understand the influence of school processes on identity formation. The study focused on the cultural identities of ethnic communities, in this case the 'Balti cultural identity' among secondary school students. Here, Balti represents the native­ speakers of the Balti language residing in Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan, and Laddakh, Kargil, and Nobra parts of India. The study used ethnographic approach of qualitative investigation with the critical lens. Data has been analyzed by using critical discourse analysis (CDA) techniques. The research participants included students of secondary classes (both boys and girls) and teachers of two government secondary schools in Baltistan. Interviews of teachers and head teachers, focus group discussions with students, and school observation were used to generate and collect relevant _ data. Four specific cultural identifiers: language, religion, music and ceremonies were focused on. The findings reflect that school processes have major emphasis on the inculcation of national and religious identities. Local language and music have no place in the schools except in the form of religious poetry or national songs. Further, the nature of all the school ceremonies and celebrations is either religious or national. Consequently, the local language and cultural identity is marginalized to a great extent.

Recommended Citation

Zakir, Z. H. (2015). Development of cultural identity in students of secondary schools in Baltistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

 Manifestations of global education in National Curriculum of Pakistan Studies : A case study of developing students' global perspectives in Chitral

Tajud Din

Date of Award: 2014

Abstract

Global education has emerged as a new educational response to the challenges and conditions of globalisation. Global education, however, has led to an on-going and vigorous debate among global scholars. Global education scholars have criticised nation-centric curricular and educational approaches of countries across the world for inadequately preparing students for the twenty-first century. The critical and post-colonial global scholars have also offered critique to global education for its failure to address economic inequity, dependency, structural violence, and the hegemonic processes of neoliberal globalisation (Kapoor, 2009 and Chana, 2011). Critique further indicates global education has failed to provide a multi-perspectival theoretical framework that truly represents views of the world’s diverse societies, nations and cultures (Kapoor, 2014 and Merryfield, 2009). The purpose of this study is to explore global education dimensions in the national curriculum of Pakistan Studies (class X-XII) for developing students’ global perspectives in schools.

This research drawing upon colonial and post-colonial theoretical frameworks builds on the theoretical framework of one worldism (Pike and Selby, 2001), orientalism (Said, 1978), coloniality of power (Mignolo, 2000 and Quijano, 2000)) and southern theory (Connell, 2007). Employing two theoretical perspectives, this research analyses global education dimensions and practices in the national curriculum of Pakistan Studies, with specific reference to ethnocentric and Western-centric theoretical critiques.

A case study method based on the interpretive approach was used to study Pakistan Studies curriculum practices of global education in two schools (one public and one private) in Chitral. The study employed qualitative data gathering strategies, particularly document analyses, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, classroom observations of participant teachers, and focused group discussions with students. The study utilised inductive data analysis technique to develop core categories in terms of dimensions of global education for developing students’ global perspectives.

The research finds that the curriculum subject matter is superficially incorporates elements of cross-cultural awareness, perspective consciousness, world problems and local solutions, and global interconnections and interdependence for developing students’ global perspectives. The teachers’ pedagogies, on the one hand, construct/reconstruct and reinforce Western knowledge and promote Western-centric worldviews. On the other hand, some teachers introduce knowledge from Islamic and local traditions as a post-colonial resistance to the hegemony of Western knowledge. The Pakistan Studies curriculum provides perspectives within colonial and post-colonial frameworks rather than providing multiple perspectives on topical issues. The national curriculum over-emphasises economic and political global interdependence and interconnection, but ignores economic dependency, violence, and various forms of human rights violations. Thestudy finds that the examination-bound teaching culture in schools, teachers’ limited repertoire of world knowledge and globalisation, limited utilisation of resources, and schools’ participation in national-global programmes are factors that affect Pakistan Studies curriculum practices of global education.

Lastly, the study finds that the four-dimensional theoretical framework of global education is heavily embedded in the Western-centric approaches of global education with overemphasis on interdependence of economic and political systems in human rights context. The framework lacks analysis of dependencies and structural violence of world economic, cultural and political systems. Hence, a seven-dimensional post-colonial global education theoretical framework has been proposed for teaching Pakistan Studies to develop students’ global perspectives.

Recommended Citation

Din, T. (2014). Manifestations of global education in National Curriculum of Pakistan Studies : A case study of developing students' global perspectives in Chitral (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

 Science teachers' pedagogical beliefs and teaching practices in private nursing schools of Karachi

S. Naghma Rizvi

Date of Award: 2014

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to understand the pedagogical beliefs of science teachers in professional nursing education. The study also sought to understand their personal, professional beliefs and how these beliefs influenced their practices. Demographic questionnaires, along with life history interviews and classroom observations were used as key methods for data collection; life-history is used as a methodological lens for in-depth exploration of participants’ lives.

Demographic data collected from 26 private, Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) registered schools of nursing revealed that 71% of the science teachers were subject specialists with a masters’ degree in science, while the rest are doctors, engineers, pharmacists, and nurses.

Based on demographic findings three subject specialists, two female and one male were selected as participants. Three life- history interviews and three classroom observations were conducted for each participant. An analysis of interviews and classroom observation data revealed that the participants entered the professional teaching context with pedagogical beliefs that developed in two contexts, their own schooling and the out of school contexts. Both of these contexts influenced their pedagogical beliefs. All the participants were nurtured differently, went to different academic institutions, were exposed to different professional development opportunities, and worked in different contexts (academic and professional institutions). Their biographies revealed that these differences shaped their experiences, perceptions, and reasons according to the ways they lived their lives, and conceptualized and practiced teaching in professional schools.

The findings suggest a strong relationship between the science teachers’ experiences of teaching in professional nursing education and their developing pedagogies. The dynamic nature of their teaching and learning beliefs were affected by their personal, social, cultural, historical, and contextual influences. Participants’ understanding of the nature of science (NOS) was found to be one of the major influences in the pedagogical development and pedagogical beliefs. Cognitive dissonance was observed in their beliefs about the NOS and their reported and enacted teaching practices. The reported and the enacted beliefs of the participants imply that conceptually they are still holding a positivist view and hence positivist stance, but pedagogically they seemed inclined towards the constructivist views and positions.

It was interesting to find similarities between cases that were from different contexts, yet to find differences in their professional practices when they belonged to the same profession and had similar academic backgrounds.

Recommended Citation

Rizvi, S. N. (2014). Science teachers' pedagogical beliefs and teaching practices in private nursing schools of Karachi (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Exploring student participation in school governance in public secondary schools in Zanzibar : The case of Mkoani District

Mohammed Juma Abdalla

Date of Award: 2014

Abstract

In spite of the policies to allow student participation in school governance in Zanzibar in an attempt to provide avenue for students to learn democratic values and principles, hardly anything was known about the practice on the ground. This study explored the practice and dynamics of, and the beliefs and attitudes about, student participation in school governance in public secondary schools in one district. The study employed a sequential mixed-method research design whereby quantitative data were collected through a survey questionnaire distributed to a sample of 560 participants from 21 schools. Quantitative data were analysed both descriptively and inferentially to determine frequencies, percentages, and correlations. On the basis of the findings from phase one two schools were selected for in-depth qualitative exploration through semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and document reviews. Qualitative data were later coded and categorized into themes.

The findings revealed that students participated in school governance through two key governance structures – student government and school committee. Besides, overwhelmingly, respondents held positive attitudes and beliefs about the practice of student participation in school governance and there were positive correlations between beliefs and attitudes and the student participation practices in school governance. The study also found that student participation is influenced by unbalanced power relations and socio-cultural beliefs and practices which favour adults at the expense of students. Other influencing factors were gender issues which disadvantaged girls, inadequate skills among students and limitations in, and the flouting of the policy guidelines in the process of student participation in school governance. Overall, the issues surrounding the practice of student participation in school governance appeared to impede the achievement of the main purpose of student participation in school governance of learning democratic principles and values.

On the basis of these findings, there is need to review the policies and to eliminate the policy-practice gap to provide equitable opportunities for student participation in school governance. In addition, concerted efforts through education are needed to equip students with essential skills for effective participation, and to reduce unfavourable gender and socio-cultural beliefs and practices. Further studies are recommended to explore in-depth the dynamics of gender relations, and the norms, assumptions, values, and traditions related to socio-cultural practices in the wider community in general and in schools in particular and come up with possible strategies to reduce imbalance and negative impact of gender relations and socio-cultural beliefs and practices in the practice of student participation in school governance. This study has created long overdue contextually knowledge and contributed to the world-wide debate in the field of student participation in school governance.

Recommended Citation

Abdalla, M. J. (2014). Exploring student participation in school governance in public secondary schools in Zanzibar : The case of Mkoani District (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

 Narratives of personal and professional identity construction of teachers of English in the multilingual context of Karachi, Pakistan

Meenaz Shams Hashwani

Date of Award: 2013

Abstract

This research study aims at exploring narratives of experiences and practices of teachers of English in order to understand how these life stories shape and transform teachers’ personal and professional identities in the process of becoming teachers in the multilingual context of Karachi, Pakistan. Researching teachers’ personal and professional identity constructs is very crucial and significant in order to understand them as individuals and to see how they make sense of their experiences throughout their personal and professional lives and careers, which in turn guide their English language teaching and learning practices in their respective contexts. In order to understand the complex phenomenon of teachers’ identity construction, this study is conceptualized within a narrative framework, exploring teachers’ stories that develop over the passage of time, within their knowledge landscapes and contextual realities, shaping their storied identities of personal and professional selves.

To facilitate this in-depth exploration, the study undertook narrative inquiry as its research design. It explored identity construction of two teachers of English; Faiza and Danish from private and public school systems in Karachi, with a gender balance perspective. The field data was collected in nine-month period using a variety of narrative inquiry tools (i.e. observations, storytelling, in-depth interviews, field notes and document analysis) and art-based research tools (i.e. autobiographical storylines, drawings, metaphors and pictures) in order to assist the exploration of teachers’ stories in a creative narrative form that further helped to situate the study within the ‘three dimensional inquiry space’ (Clandinin & Connelly, 2006).

The research participants used autobiographical story-lines and metaphors to describe their identity construction. Faiza storied herself while running on her life’s race track and Danish un-revealed his multi-layered onion layered-self, describing his multiple roles wearing different hats. Through these storylines and metaphors, they presented their multiple identities that have developed with the passage of time, experience and situation, and shaped and evolved their personality into who they were, are and aspire to be. From the narratives of the two teachers, it was seen that the complexity of their identity construction lies in their creative portrayals of the way they perceive and represent themselves as persons and as professional teachers of English. This element of teachers’ creativity has facilitated in exploring the multifaceted phenomenon of teachers’ identities under study. Also, the metaphor of ‘creativeness’ has added value in characterizing and understanding the complexity of teachers’ identity construction in the existing literature.

The study highlights two significant and unique findings that have emerged from the analysis and comparison of the two teachers’ narratives of their identity construction. The first major finding highlights that both Faiza and Danish enjoy the freedom of speech and expression within their language choices according to different audiences, situations and contexts, shaping their monolingual, bilingual and trilingual identities within their multilingual gendered selves, living in the multilingual context in Karachi, Pakistan. The second important finding shows that both the teachers feel pride in carrying their professional identity as the ‘English teachers’ in their private and public schools respectively, and within the social communities of practices and the broader multilingual contexts that they live and teach in.

The study concludes by suggesting the implications of understanding who the teachers of English are, how they have become what they are and what their future aspirations are, highlighting new openings for future research and recommendations in the light of the research insights. This will further assist the identity construction of teachers of English in both public and private schooling systems, the teaching and learning processes of English language as well as the language teacher education programs, adding value to understand the role of language in constructing teachers’ identities and improving classroom practice, and in addressing language identity issues in the multilingual educational settings in Karachi, Pakistan.

Recommended Citation

Hashwani, M. S. (2013). Narratives of personal and professional identity construction of teachers of English in the multilingual context of Karachi, Pakistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Educational inequalities and perceptions of students’ life chances : A critical ethnographic account of an elite and a non-elite school in Gilgit-Baltistan

Hajee Parveen Roy

Date of Award: 2012

Abstract

There is a growing intensity of educational inequality, as the credentials one holds plays an increasingly powerful role in determining one's life chances. While the socioeconomic backgrounds of students are considered crucial, very often schools are complicit in advantaging the already advantaged ones. The present study explores the nature and extent of educational inequalities existent in elite and non-elite schools in the context of Gilgit-Baltistan through critical ethnography and exploring the teachers', students' and parents' perceptions about the life chances of their students. Two research sites, an elite one referred as Research Site A (RSA) and a non-elite one referred as Research Site B (RSB) schools, were selected through purposive sampling, were studied for a period of 10 months. Carspecken's (1996) five non-linear stages of critical ethnography, incorporating periods of prolonged non-participant and participant observations, semi-structured individual and group interviews, and document review guided the data collection process. The theoretical framework of the study was developed drawing on the works of Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein and it guided the data analysis process.

The study revealed some major inequalities between RSA and RSB in three different but interlinked and interdependent domains: context, processes and life chances. The study found inequalities in the endowment and possession of different forms of capitals, which are then lived in the day to day school practices and their production, and reproduction are facilitated by the schooling processes. The curriculum exposes students to a body and level of knowledge which appropriates their specific class positions in the society. The pedagogical processes promote, reward and reinforce the disposition of the upper middle class and distance the dispositions of the students coming from poorer families. The assessment system serves the purpose of continual learning in the case of RSB and the purpose of selection and exclusion in the case of RSA.

The unequal socio-economic conditions and schooling processes are perceived to contribute to the unequal educational, occupational, civic and social life chances. The students of RSB are perceived to be more likely to complete their schooling, enter prestigious colleges/universities and choose professional fields for their further education, whereas the chances of school completion, getting into decent colleges and entering into professional fields for the students of RSA are seen as comparatively low. The students of RSB are believed to have a comparatively secure future in terms of their jobs and employability, whereas the students of RSA are believed to engage in home making endeavors. The students of RSA express a limited range of jobs as compared with the students of RSB whose awareness and expression of job range was much wider. The likelihood of students of RSB living a healthy, disciplined, individualistic yet responsible and informed civic life and enjoying higher status in the society is observed to be greater, whereas the students of RSA are observed to be more vulnerable to diseases, social stigma, have less chances of enjoying personal freedom, and to be more humble and self-restrained.

Recommended Citation

Roy, H. P. (2012). Educational inequalities and perceptions of students’ life chances : A critical ethnographic account of an elite and a non-elite school in Gilgit-Baltistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

 Investigating mathematics teachers’ knowledge about mathematics, mathematics teaching and learning in schools in Pakistan

Munira AmirAli

Date of Award: 2011

Abstract

This study aimed to explore mathematics teachers' knowledge about the nature of mathematics, mathematics teaching and learning and investigate the sources that shape their viewpoints. In response to emerging issues and questions teachers were engaged in a process of developing their thinking and teaching practice.

The study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. Data pertaining to the teachers' conceptions of 174 secondary mathematics teachers were obtained using a survey designed by the researcher on the basis of similar surveys described in the literature. To take the study beyond the descriptive findings of the survey and to explore the sources that shape teachers' viewpoints, twenty teachers were then selected to participate in focus group discussion. Finally, two teachers participated in a small intervention study.

The study demonstrates that the teachers' knowledge about the nature of mathematics originates from their social, cultural and religious experiences. For example, the teachers had dual views about the nature of mathematics. On the one hand, teachers believed that mathematics knowledge is divine, created by Allah and therefore irrefutable and absolute. On the other hand, they maintained that mathematics knowledge is a human creation, invented to facilitate religious practices and to support human survival. With reference to their teaching practice, they considered the teacher to be the 'teacher as a fountain of knowledge' and hence students seldom get the opportunity to explore and construct mathematics knowledge and learn it for conceptual understanding.

The study revealed that institutional support, expectations, teachers' personal and professional commitment, their prior mathematics learning experiences and subject content knowledge play an important role in engaging teachers in developing their thinking and teaching practice. Teachers need to be engaged in a process of critically questioning their views and practices as they are deeply rooted in their social and cultural experiences. The contribution of this thesis is that institutional and cultural influences are local, and derived from the Pakistani context, so these have particular significance which should be taken into account in teacher development.

Recommended Citation

Amirali, M. (2011). Investigating mathematics teachers’ knowledge about mathematics, mathematics teaching and learning in schools in Pakistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.

Exploring patterns in conceptions and enactment of democracy by secondary school teachers in Karachi, Pakistan

Karim Panah

Date of Award: 2009

Abstract

The concept of democracy is a set of contestable yet elastic notions about human interaction in a diverse and ever changing socio-political set up. Like many other socio-political concepts democracy has also been used ambiguously by political as well as non-political elements to serve their own vested interest. However, there is a general agreement that the democratic practices of deliberation and participation by the people can be strengthened through education.

In this study, I focus on the school as an institution that has been used as an instrument to promote certain ideologies and forms of regimes ranging from democratic ideals and participatory norms to orthodox military and religious ethos. The basic purpose of this study is a critical examination of teachers' conceptualisation of democracy and its enactment in secondary schools in the context of Pakistan. In other words the study attempts to unpack and explain the teachers' theoretical and practical positioning' about democracy and how such positioning is mediated by curriculum directions and pedagogical trends in government and private sector schools.

The study involved a multi-method design of data collection and analysis, starting with a survey method and then to deepening understanding by using critical ethnographic methods. For the purpose of the survey a questionnaire was developed using a 5-point-Likert scale ranging from 'strongly disagree' through 'neutral' to 'strongly-agree' along with five open-ended questions. The survey study spread over a period of two months covering 80 secondary schools from government and private sector in the city of Karachi, Pakistan. The overall response rate was 80% as 320 teachers out of targeted 400 completed the questionnaire.

The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to extract 'factors', which were interpreted by computing factor loadings, mean score, and standard deviation values. In addition, responses to the open ended questions were analysed using frequency distribution and percentage scores to identify major trends. During the second phase of the study, critical ethnographic methods of semi-structured interviewing, observations, and document analysis were applied to generate data with the participation of four teachers from selected government and private sector schools. The study was completed in three stages; first compiling the primary records for preliminary reconstructive analysis and second a dialogical data generation and reconstruction of theories. At a third stage, results obtained from the survey and the ethnographic interviews and observation were synthesised to elicit findings and conclusions.

The study demonstrates that the teachers' conceptualisation of democracy originates from a complex and paradoxical claim of compatibility between conventional democracy and Islamic democracy. The paradox is embedded in the dual interpretation of the notion of 'political authority' and principles of freedom, participation and equality. The teachers conceptualise a people centred notion of governance and participatory decision-making, however it is contradicted by claiming Shari' ah as the supreme law over all kinds of human-made laws. It is further argued that due to heterogeneity in the interpretation of the Islamic injunctions the notion of Islamic democracy becomes even more complex.

The study demonstrates that the teachers' paradoxical conceptualisation, dual interpretation of democracy in the textbooks, authoritarian school structures and culture as well as the larger social, culture, economic and political factors identified by the teachers as hindering democratization shape the classroom discourse and practice in both the government and private sector. Hence, the prevailing discourse and practice reflects authoritarian and exclusion based approaches and interpretations offering less for the promotion of democracy.

The study informs that in order to promote democratic principles and procedures the teachers would need to ensure that strengthening of democracy becomes an explicit objective of classroom teaching. In keeping with the objective teaching should promote in addition to knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to democracy and democratic citizenship.

Recommended Citation

Panah, K. (2009). Exploring patterns in conceptions and enactment of democracy by secondary school teachers in Karachi, Pakistan (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan

Becoming a teacher educator in public sector institutions in Pakistan : Stories from personal and professional lives

Haji Karim Khan

Date of Award: 2009

 Abstract

This exploratory study is about understanding the notion of becoming a teacher educator in the public sector teacher education institutions in Karachi, Pakistan. It addresses research questions such as: (a) Who are teacher educators and how do they become teacher educators in public sector institutions in Karachi, Pakistan? and (b) What do teacher educators do and how do they construe their role(s) as teacher educators?

The study was carried out in two consecutive phases. The first phase was a survey whereby data were gathered through a questionnaire administered to all teacher educators (N = 136) working in the Government Colleges of Education and Government Elementary Colleges of Education under the Provincial and City District Government systems in Karachi, Pakistan. A descriptive analysis of the data provided a macro (bigger) picture of the teacher educators' backgrounds and their work contexts. This phase also helped in identifying individuals for the micro (individual) level analysis in the second phase which was a life history study of six teacher educators working in the two systems.

Findings showcase differences with respect to teacher educators' profiles as well as availability of resources across and within the systems. It was found that individuals enter into the profession through inspiration from their own teacher educators and considering the role of teacher educators better than that of school teachers. They face challenges during the transition from school teaching to teacher education due to the demands and practices in the culture and context of the institutions. They experience duality and restrictions in their practices and establish a marginalized professional identity due to the nature of their work located in the academia of higher education as well as in the everyday life of schools. In this regard, their knowledge base seems to be tacit, stemming from their experience of teaching in schools.

The study suggests implications for policy makers to bring about changes in the recruitment and professional development of teacher educators, and to equip the institutions with required resources.

Recommended Citation

Khan, H. (2009). Becoming a teacher educator in public sector institutions in Pakistan : Stories from personal and professional lives (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.