Reconciliation Process in Afghanistan and Pakistan as Cardinal Player

Afghanistan is in state of war for almost 40 long years but the political dynamics got changed after 9/11. Since the war on terror started facets of peace talks launched without meaningful end. The reconciliation process in Afghanistan had immediately started after establishment of Afghan interim government in 2001. Till 2016 mid, four different reconciliation /reintegration processes were launched by the USA and Hamid Karzai government with Afghan Taliban. The new elected president Ashraf Ghani ended all such processes in 2016 but showed willingness again in 2018 for direct peace talks between USA and Taliban clerics. In the current political scenario, Afghan reconciliation process is back on track with direct peace talks between USA, Taliban and Afghan Government along other international actors. However, Taliban were not ready to sit with the Afghan Government and this is where the Pakistan played as key to Afghan peace process. The focus of this research article is to find the challenges and opportunities of this peace process; Pakistan’s role as cardinal player can consolidate the peace process in Afghanistan. Furthermore, this research will give future recommendations for the peace process in Afghanistan.

Students’ Perceptions About the Symbols, Letters and Signs in Algebra and How Do These Affect Their Learning of Algebra: A Case Study in a Government Girls Secondary School, Karachi, Pakistan

Algebra uses symbols for generalizing Arithmetic. These symbols have different meanings and interpretations in different situations. Students have different perceptions about these symbols, letters and signs. Despite the vast research by researchers, namely Kuchemann (1981&1998,), Collis (1975), and Booth (1988 & 1984) on the students' difficulties in understanding letters in Algebra, the overall image that emerges from the literature is that students have misconceptions about the use of letters and signs in Algebra. Through my study, I have explored the perceptions of students about the use of symbols and signs in Algebra. Here, I have used the case study method within a qualitative research design. In order to get insights of students' perceptions of Algebra, I have interviewed students in groups and invited them to work on different tasks related to uncovering their perceptions of Algebra. My empirical done through this study has revealed that the students have many misconceptions in the use of symbols in Algebra, which have bearings on their learning of algebra. It appears that the problems encountered by the students appeared to have a connection with their lack of conceptual knowledge and might have been a result of teaching they experience in learning Algebra at the secondary schooling level. Some of the findings also suggest that teachers appeared to have difficulties with their own content knowledge. Here, one can also see that textbooks are also not presenting content in such an elaborate way that these could have provided sufficient room to students for developing their relational knowledge and conceptual understanding of Algebra. Furthermore, the interviews and observation of the classrooms highlighted that the students usually perceive letter and variables as a fixed numbers or value. Some of the students perceive letters as short forms and abbreviations of some objects. Students also have difficulties in interpreting and developing algebraic equations and expressions. Moreover, this study investigates students' difficulty in translating word problems in algebraic and symbolic form. They usually follow phrase-to-phrase strategy in translating word problem from English into Urdu. This process of translating the word problem from English in to their own language appears to have hindered the correct use of symbols in Algebra. Textbooks, mathematical pedagogy, students' prior experience of arithmetic and the students' and teachers' inadequency in algebraic thinking emerged from my study as some of the reasons of students' misconceptions and why they experienced difficulties in learning of Algebra. The findings have some