Frequency and Psychosocial Determinants of Gender Discrimination Regarding Food Distribution among Families

Due to male dominance in society as well as in households, the rights of females are ignored. Hence, there exists gender discrimination while giving food to family members which in turn results in poor health status for females. Therefore, it is important to explore the causes of this unequal distribution of food among family members Objective: To determine psychosocial factors causing gender discrimination regarding food distribution among families Methods: Data collected from fifty females aged 15-80 years, selected from the urban community using non-probability consecutive sampling, were used for analysis. Females with malnutrition, psychological disorders, with laparotomy and major surgery were excluded. Gender discrimination was assessed as males or male children were preferred for better and more food items like fresh food, meat, fruits, milk, dairy products and multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to see the impact selected factors on gender discrimination Results: The large family size (> 6 members) showed significantly higher odds of discrimination (OR=3.89; 95% CI= 1.03-15.26) than smaller families. The odds of food discrimination were 4 times more for the families, with males being earning hand (OR=4.57; 95% CI= 1.19-18.31). Similarly, there exist higher odds of gender discrimination in low-income families (OR=5.10; 95% CI= 1.18-23.87). While maternal education reduces the chances of food discrimination (OR=0.10; 95% CI= 0.02-0.42)  Conclusions: Psychosocial factors such as large family size, low monthly income, males being earning hand and maternal education were found to be associated with gender discrimination regarding food distribution among family members.

Use of Inquiry in Science Classroom Teaching in Pakistani Middle Schools

Science is not a basket of facts and principles. It is an ever-growing, ever-expanding and ever-changing body of knowledge. It provides useful methods of exploring the unknown secrets of nature. Because of its distinctive spirit and nature, science demands the learner to be skeptical and challenge it. For several reasons, in the Pakistani middle school science classroom, the teaching-learning standard is not satisfactory. In the middle schools, the expository method is pre-dominantly used by science teachers. This traditional teaching method emphasizes the practice of transmission of information just to meet the needs of the examination system. It ignores the fact that knowledge often emerges from problems and scientific thinking. Therefore, there is a genuine need that current methods and strategies for science teaching should be reversed or modified and more innovative teaching approaches should be introduced in the middle school science classrooms. In relation to teaching for conceptual understanding of primary, middle and secondary school science content, research literature has come up with a wide variety of teaching techniques, methods and approaches, such as problem solving, discovery, investigation, and inquiry. For this study, one of the innovative teaching methods Inquiry Approach' was selected. The Inquiry Approach is a powerful means of seeking deeper understanding in the scientific concepts and it emphasizes process-oriented classroom activity and provides ample opportunities to the children for realizing the process objective of science teaching and learning. The study focused on the possibilities and limitations associated with the use of the Inquiry Approach in Pakistani middle school science classrooms. The study employed a qualitative mode of research and was carried out in one of the private middle schools located in Karachi with two science teachers of different academic background and experience. Interviews and observations were relied on as major data sources. As a result of the qualitative analysis of the data, the study has come up with some findings related to possibilities and limitations associated with the use of the Inquiry Approach. One of the significant possibilities was the positive response to teaching through an Inquiry Approach. The second possibility worth mentioning possibility was the ability to develop knowledge and skills about using Inquiry Approach in the science classroom.