Tribute Dr Ghulam Mustafa Khan

Dr Ghulam Mustafa Khan [d. 2005] can truly be said to be a teacher of teachers [ustadh al-asatadha]. In his long and distinguished academic career spanning over six decades, he brought into existence literally hundreds of teachers in his subject Urdu and also created in many of them a taste for critical research that resulted in the existence of a whole corpus of standard critical material. This will endure in academic circles for a long time. It was his common habit to encourage his students, especially those of an academic bent of mind, to enrol for a Ph.D. In the course of which he would proffer them all kinds of assistance even if he were not their research supervisor. As such, the names of Dr Najmul Islam, who succeeded him as Chairman, Department of Urdu, University of Sindh, stands out. Dr Najmul Islam was the editor of a scholarly research journal, Tehqiq, which appeared in over 20 volumes in his own lifetime. Each issue contained scores of critical essays of a very high academic standard including his own [Dr N. Islam’s]. There is also the name of Dr Hasrat Kasganjvi, who emerged as a creative artist and critic of merit later on authoring dozens of books of high academic standard. The list is long and distinguished and contains the names of the major teachers of Urdu language and literature at the main Pakistani universities. Apart from Urdu teachers, the thousands of persons who had the benefit of attending his lectures and courses are also evidence of his intellectual wide-ranging scholarship. Then there is the select circle of his murids who formed his circle of spiritual knowledge and who had proffered their religious devotion at his hands. To these he gave the benefit of his spiritual counsel and advice as well as the vast knowledge he possessed of the Islamic sciences in his table-talk. Among these persons, the name of ex-President Ziaul Haq is most prominent.

The Nature of Organizational Learning in a Private School in the Pakistani Context

The speedy process of change is constantly forcing organizations to learn faster in order to be fully prepared for the uncertain future. Organizational learning (OL) is a newly emerging concept which deals with the learning processes of organizations. The aim of this study was to explore the nature of OL in a private school in the Pakistani context. The study was conducted in a secondary private school in the context of Chitral, a remote district of NWFP, Pakistan. Using qualitative case study as the research design and activity theory as the study framework, the data was generated through questionnaire, interview, observation and document analysis. A questionnaire was administered to 61% teachers and 8% students. Interviews were conducted with the school principal, Vice Principal, Academic Coordinator, four groups of teachers, another four groups of the students and one group of parents. Moreover, five lessons of teachers and the interactions among various stakeholders were also observed. Similarly, Some documents such as, teachers' lesson plans, the students' progress reports and exam papers were also analysed. The findings revealed that the new ideas coming from external sources and the intervention of external forces create tensions and contradictions in the school, providing rich opportunities of learning. The school practices especially the teaching activity has improved whenever those ideas have been implemented and the tensions addressed. However, the school has not fully been successful to exploit the contradictions and tensions as learning opportunities. Once a tension is created, instead of availing it as a learning opportunity, it is ignored, accepted as it is or provided with readymade solutions. Moreover, the limited nature of interactions does not allow teachers to extend the externally acquired ideas to the whole teaching staff, to search solutions for the newly emerging tensions and thus, to generate knowledge collectively. Coupled with the limited structure for interactions, the culture of isolation, stereotyping, dependency and lack of motivation are the factors which hinder the process of OL in this school. The school leadership may be able to avail the contradictions as learning opportunities and thus, foster OL through bringing structural and cultural modifications in the school.