Aim/Purpose: This paper considers the role of supervisors’ discipline expertise in doctoral learning from a student perspective. Background: Doctoral students need to develop expertise in a particular field of study. In this context, developing expertise requires doctoral students to master disciplinary knowledge, conventions and scholarship under the guidance of supervisors. Methodology : The study draws on a mixed-method approach, using an online survey and semi-structured interviews conducted with doctoral students. Contribution: The paper brings to the fore the role of supervisors’ discipline expertise on doctoral students’ research progress. Findings: The survey data suggest that doctoral students nominate their supervisors on the basis of their discipline expertise. They also view supervisors’ expertise as key to the development of ‘insider’ knowledge of their doctoral research. Recommendations for Practitioners: Supervisors play a pivotal role in helping doctoral students overcome intellectual barriers by imparting their discipline knowledge as well as balancing satisfactory doctoral completion rate and high quality student experience. Impact on Society : Doctoral supervision equips doctoral students with the right arsenal to be able to competently operate within their field and prepares them for their future research or professional career that demands a high level of discipline expertise. Future Research: The scope of the findings leaves open a discussion about the experiences of doctoral students matched with non-discipline expert supervisory teams; for example, the extent of the mismatch and its ramifications.
The purpose of this study was to explore classroom management challenges that novice teachers experienced in their early years of profession. Moreover, this study explored the administrative support novice teachers received from school administration concerning classroom management. We drew on interview data to explore novice teachers' experiences who had less than three years of experience during their first job in public elementary schools. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of ten novice teachers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the experiences of novice teachers. The analysis came up with four themes: Responsive administration, helping hands, struggling with workload, and supportive principal.The study's findings revealed that most of the teachers faced over-crowded classes and a high workload in their initial time. Most of the teachers had received support from the administration; however, the administration was helpless regarding many challenges that the novice teachers faced in their early years. Many administrators did not help the novice teachers’ deal with over-crowded classrooms, the extra workload in the form of periods per week, and the management of students' behaviors.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is also home to other religious minorities. Since Independence, these minorities have played a significant role in serving the nation through different professions, and teaching is one of them. Yet, there is a growing concern regarding how well and respectfully they are accommodated in a Muslim majority society. This phenomenological research study explores the perspectives of Christian teachers concerning their difficulties in dealing with students and parents of different religions and their support needs. Ten teachers were purposively selected for semi-structured interviews. Content analysis revealed that although most teachers were satisfied with working conditions and the behaviors of students and parents with them, few of them highlighted the issues of forced conversion to Islam and usage of derogatory language. Teachers also suggested that there is a need to change the mindset of the people through education, and the government should provide more opportunities to minorities.
The textbook is an important and powerful tool used by the state to reproduce the social and cultural habits of a group, most often, of the majority group’s social and cultural imaginations. The habitus produces and instills the world-view about society, the social and cultural values that a state valorized and would like pupils to internalize and make it part of their world-view. This study analyzes the English textbook published by the state textbook boards (Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh) for the academic year 2018-2019 for pupils of classes four to eight. The textbook content was analyzed using the Qualitative Content Analysis method. The content of 15 textbooks was digitized (scanned and made readable) to electronically categorized the text into categories using Nvivo 12 Plus software. The analysis revealed that the content is focused on developing and promoting Islamic habitus through stories weaved around family, making it a core component of a Muslim country. The family members practiced Islamic values, social and cultural, not only through their everyday lives at home, in school, and at other public places but also within their community through the celebration of cultural and religious festivals. The textbooks presented the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his family’s life as an ideal life to be lead by all, whether Muslims or non-Muslims. The textbook highlighted the ‘good,’ the ‘bad,’ valorizing the former and stigmatizing the latter to encourage pupils to develop an Islamic world-view. The textbooks fail to look into the micro-level national habitus, that is, portraying the habitus of its minorities, ethnic and religious, as the content did not integrate their habitus into the national habitus of Pakistan, making it the habitus of the majority. The current fast globalizing world needed to be presented to pupils a world-view, and this required, broadening the scope of textbook content to make it reflective of true Pakistani habitus aligned and rooted in the humane global world-view.
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