Seminar on the Role of Higher Education Institutions in Promoting Research and Scholarship Culture: Achievements, Challenges, and Future Directions

The third issue-based seminar under the Pak-Norway Institutional Cooperation Project was conducted by Dr Muhammad Memon, Director, AKU-IED Pakistan at the Institute of Education and Research, Peshawar University (IER-PU) on March 20, 2010. It focused on the ‘Role of Higher Education Institutions in Promoting Research and Scholarship Culture: Achievements, Challenges, and Future Directions'. The seminar aimed at engaging key stakeholders of the higher education institutions in critical dialogues on promoting research and scholarship culture in higher education institutions in Pakistan . Around 40 faculty members and students of various departments of Peshawar University participated in the seminar. While presenting a critical review of existing practices of teaching and research in the developing countries, Dr Memon emphasised the need to produce indigenous knowledge, which can help the developing countries to become knowledge societies for contributing towards knowledge economy. Higher education institutions can play an active role in transforming societies by emphasizing intellectual engagement of their faculty and students in critical issues of innovation, development and dissemination. He felt that there is a strong need for the Higher Education Institutions to shift their research agendas from mono-disciplinary to multi and interdisciplinary research and learning processes. Ms Zubeda Bana, the Project Coordinator, also participated in the seminar.

The seminar audience also raised many pertinent issues, such as issue of relevance of knowledge, pluralistic society, management of research, role of leadership in supporting research and role of HEC in promoting research culture in the institutions. The participants appreciated Alvin Toffler's wisdom (1928) that ‘The illiterates of the 21 st century will not be those who can't read and write, but those who can't learn, unlearn, and relearn'.

Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistan (STEP)

Strengthening Teacher Education in Pakistan (STEP)">An advanced Diploma in Education: Primary Education programme was conducted for sixty-two (62) teachers of public sector primary schools from selected districts of Sindh and Balochistan. The programme had commenced on June 04, 2009 and concluded on February 06, 2010 at AKU-IED. It comprised of two face-to-face sessions and a field work component. The programme was found professionally enriching by the participants.

AKU-IED faculty at Sixth International Literacy Conference LITCON 2009

Drs Ayesha Bashiruddin, Nilofar Vazir and Rashida Qureshi, participated in the Sixth International Literacy Conference LITCON 2009:  Forging Pathways to Unity. The conference was held from October 7-9, 2009 in Penang,Malaysia. The participating faculty presented the following papers:

• How to Improve Teaching and Learning of Research in the In-service Teacher Education Programme: The Art of 'Doing' Research - Drs Nilofar Vazir and Rashida Qureshi
• Human Rights: The Perceptions of Pakistani Women- Dr Rashida Qureshi
• Teacher Professional Development through Integrating ICT in English Language Education: A Case from Pakistan - Dr Ayesha Bashiruddin

The papers will be published as chapters in two forthcoming edited volumes on Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts: Issues and Approaches and Forging Unity amidst Diversity: from the Classroom to Beyond. The conference offered a platform for policy makers, administrators, parents, learners, community activists, teachers and other practitioners to interact, network, share their findings and exchange responses to highlight the fact that literacy is one of the growing number of movements in which people attempt to respond both in their personal and professional lives to what they see as a turning point in global development.

ECED initiatives at AKU-IED

AKU-IED conducted two-week short courses for 185 Early Childhood Education and Development (ECED) teachers sponsored by various constituencies. The courses aimed at developing the participants' understanding of early childhood education and development, enabling them to build a wide range of effective instructional strategies within the indigenous cultural and social context. An ECED week was also organised through Early Years Learning Association at AKU-IED for 150 ECED teachers from June 22-26, 2009. The workshop aimed at raising awareness regarding various aspects of ECED including child health care, child rights, early education, etc. The short courses and the workshop were appreciated by the participants.

South Asia Regional Dialogue on Education Quality

AKU-IED organised a South Asia Regional Dialogue on Education Quality (CQE) from May 8-9, 2009, in collaboration with the Campaign for Quality Education. A key objective of this dialogue was to deliberate on the issue of defining quality in education at the regional level. The event brought together more than 80 key education stakeholders from the region and the developing world to discuss on the issues from a variety of perspectives. The dialogue provided an opportunity to reflect critically on the existing ways of measuring quality education in the region and examine the capacity of the existing indicators to remove inequities from en-masse provision of public education. Further to the dialogue, a comparative research with a regional focus would be undertaken to learn from other countries' efforts in addressing issues related to language in education policies and practice. A policy brief would be taken out by CQE and circulated to education stakeholders.

International Seminar on Teaching English in Multilingual Contexts: Current Challenges, Future Directions

A two-day international seminar on 'Teaching English in Multilingual Contexts: Current Challenges, Future Directions' was organized by the AKU Center for English Language at AKU-IED from April 17-18, 2009. It was attended by over 450 educators, practitioners and national and international eminent researchers in the field of linguistics from Holland, Oman, Spain, and the UK . The event also had representation from a wide cross-section of society including intelligentsia, teachers, corporate, media, and university students from both private and public sector institutions. The diversity of the audience and the resource persons gave a multidirectional approach to issues discussed freely in an open forum. Participants of the seminar appreciated the event which provided an opportunity for sharing research findings by experts, and debates on right place of indigenous and foreign languages in South Asia .

ED-LINKS Year-Two commences

The Year two activities of the ED-LINKS project commenced at AKU-IED with a Certificate in Education: Educational Leadership and Management programme for eighty (80) headteachers on April 20, 2009. The participants come from diverse backgrounds from selected district of Sindh and Baluchistan . The first face-to-face session of the programme will conclude on May 12, 2009. The participants will go back to their contexts for a four-week field work followed by a two-week second face-to-face session at PITEs/BOCs in Sindh and Balochistan.