Learning Approaches in the Architectural Education and the Role of Students’ Habitus: Case Study Pakistan

This study seeks to explore the impact of social upbringing on architectural learning. The theory of “habitus” helps to understand how students’ personality dispositions might affect the way they approach learning in the “field” of architectural education. The notions of learning approaches and knowledge codes in literature are used to develop a framework for the study that helps to explore the field of architectural education. It is a qualitative study, conducted through semi-structured interviews with 44 students in 10 architecture schools in Pakistan. Interviews explored students’ habitus as well as their learning approaches, later explored through the framework developed in the study. Interviews are transcribed and coded using Nvivo 12. A detailed analysis explores the connection between habitus and learning approaches and finds out that habitus plays a major role in determining the way students approach learning in Architecture, with most cultivated habitus students showing a deep learning approach.     

Educational outcomes across the generational and gender divide: the rural family habitus of Pakistani families living in poverty

Education for all as a global agenda has particular repercussions for those living in rural poverty. By adopting a Bourdieusian framework to analyse interview data collected from fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in 10 rural Punjabi households, we expose the intersections of education, gender, poverty and rurality. The concept of a rural family habitus focuses attention on the collective, relational and dispositional worlds of such families. Three dimensions are used to analyse reproduction and transformation in each narrative set: intergenerational educational dynamics; on-going gender dynamics; and, social dynamics within the rural field. The findings challenge the stereotyping and assumed homogeneity of rural families whose gender cultures and positive educational dispositions are diverse and complex. The gendered histories of parental education, their aspirations, and their social status in the rural field intersect with the changing gender relations which result from schooling, and the increasing differentiation between educated and uneducated rural families.     

新形势下构建中印和谐关系

从2003年开始，中印关系朝着更加成熟、更加理性和更加务实的方向发展。然而，中印之间如欲实现长期的建设性合作的伙伴关系，就应摈弃传统地缘政治观念，消除两国在认知上的误解，同时还应消除边界问题上的误解，公正合理地解决边界问题。从战略眼光分析，两国之间的分歧和竞争并不妨碍双方在具有共同利益问题上的合作。     

Literacy,power and practices: taking a discourse-ethnographic approach to exploring adult literacy practices in Pakistan and the UK

ABSTRACT

The framework for this paper takes its central orientation from the New Literacy Studies (NLS) body of research which focuses on the analysis of texts and practices rather than the skills-oriented perspective of large-scale quantitative studies. In this paper, these are the texts of everyday life and the literacy practices of adult migrants before and after their migrations. Barton and Hamilton (2000) claim that practices are neither accidental nor random but are given their structure by institutions. This includes social institutions, such as the family, education and religion, and includes those institutions which are formally structured through rules and procedures, such as schools. The analysis in this paper focuses on the sponsorship of literacy in Pakistan prior to one adult’s migration and the ways in which these literacies are taken up after migration to the UK. The contribution of this paper to the field of adult literacy is the multi-disciplinary methodological framework it presents for analysing the socio-political influences which shape the accessibility of literacy, accessibility which is taken for granted in large scale surveys which measure literacy skills. To do this, I combine work using the Discourse Historical Approach in Critical Discourse Studies (Wodak 2011) with the literacy practices approach set out above to explore how one Mirpuri family deploy their multilingual literacy resources.     

Contested womanhood: women’s education and (re)production of gendered norms in rural Pakistani Muslim communities

In a world marred by the fears of religious extremism, Muslim women have become subjects of various global projects that aim to modernize ‘traditional’ Muslim societies through women’s education and empowerment. Embedded in these discourses is an assumption that all educated Muslim women will empower themselves through challenging the ‘oppressive’ structures of their families and communities. This paper challenges these homogeneous narratives of education and empowerment through highlighting the complexities of educated women’s daily lives in rural Pakistan. We situate the lived experiences of rural educated Pakistani women in global mainstream as well as in local historical narratives regarding the role and purpose of education for women. Our analysis reveals how the educated women participants’ lives were shaped by a complex gendered hierarchy that facilitated educated women to take on new roles while simultaneously requiring them to maintain harmonious relationships with family and community members.     

Diversity or homogeny: concentration of ownership and media diversity in Pakistan

Using democratic participant theory as a framework to explain media performance, this article examines the implications of ownership concentration and diversity on democracy and analyzes the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority's (PEMRA) endeavors to implement the principle of diversity as espoused in its mandate. It finds that though PEMRA accelerated the growth of electronic media in Pakistan, it failed to promote local and diverse media as PEMRA policies supported diagonal integration and lead to concentration of ownership. PEMRA was also criticized for suppressing independent media when it was brought under the control of Ministry of Information in 2007. The study concludes that regulatory mechanisms in developing countries like Pakistan are still a tool in the hands of the government to control media, and development of a participatory and diverse media is a normative ideal not yet translated into reality.     

Badabim,Badabum, That's Reference!

ABSTRACT

Reference Service has been regarded as a required course in the curricula at all levels of library education in Pakistan. An analysis of the contents of reference service course and teaching methodologies of the country's seven of the eight graduate library schools reveals that reference service practices of the 1960s and 1970s predominate, along with a wider absence of electronic reference sources and newer technologies, non-availability of competent teachers, and poor lab facilities. Suggestions include revision of curricula, arrangement to train reference teachers in developed countries, improvement of laboratories, and organization of continuing education programs.     

The automation of academic and special libraries in Nigeria: the state of the art

The paper examines the state of library automation in academic and special libraries in Nigeria. As a background, an attempt was made to present efforts made by different bodies and institutions in the country to automate their entire library systems. Also disclosed are the reasons why the libraries opted for automated systems, the successes achieved by some of the libraries in automating their systems, and the problems faced by the libraries who succeeded in automating some of their systems as well as those who are still in the process of doing so. Considering the fact that the automation of library systems in Nigeria has spread from academic and special libraries to the public, and there are also a number of companies/institutions engaged in the provision and servicing of computer hardware and software including management information systems, the paper concluded that the future of library automation in the country is bright.     

The role of educational information systems for survival in information society and the case of Pakistan

The study reviews the important role of information systems and their impact on educational planning and development. It also attempts to identify gaps in the provision of information needed by educational administrators who are key planners of education enterprise in Pakistan. It intended to determine their views about the development, objectives and needed services of a user centered information system for educational administrators. To achieve these objectives, a literature review, questionnaire survey and interviews were conducted. Thus, the educational administrators (i.e., registrars/deans/chairpersons in universities and principals of schools and colleges) were identified as the target population for the survey and were selected through cluster sampling. The respondents were from the Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory. In total, 297 (99%) responses were received and analyzed quantitatively. Interviews of purposively selected educational administrators were also conducted for a more in-depth understanding of respondents’ points of view. This triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods helped in understanding the phenomena under study. Recommendations and conclusions are also drawn in the light of findings of the study. The study is the first one of its type that tried to probe the gaps in the process of accurate/valid information supply to educational administrators and planners. This gap is causing serious challenges for education in Pakistan.     

Hey,Look Who Took This Out!-Privacy in the Electronic Library

ABSTRACT

No one can predict what document delivery will look like in the future, but librarians must guard patron confidentiality even in an electronic environment. This time it isn't an easily solved problem like finding another way of recording circulation than handwriting patron names onto circulation cards, it is instead the tracking of personal information attached to electronic text supplied by publishers that is a potential violator of patron privacy. Unmonitored in their efforts to protect their intellectual property without considering the rights of their customers, publishers could pose a threat to their customers' privacy, thus limiting their legal right of free access to information. Although encryption technology would appear to provide an answer to the confidentiality problem, it is not a panacea and that must be considered as the National Information Infrastructure is developed. Librarians need to stay alert to the developments in electronic publishing to be sure their concerns for patron privacy continue to be heard.