Democratic Attitude of Youth Evidence from Pakistan

Since the Arab spring, youth have been politically active in Asia through various modes. Regime revolution or failed takeover on 15 July 2016, in Turkey is its vibrant example. However, it’s unfortunate that the political perception, intention or attitude of youth towards democracy have not been included in the process of policy making. As a result, youth activism in politics remained unrecognized. Therefore, present work is an effort to explore democratic attitude of youth in Pakistan. The state of Pakistan has been selected because 64 % of her population comprises youth. Current study examines democratic attitude through four major independent variables: economic growth, democratic values, public participation and political stability. Data was collected from the respondents who were in between 18-35 years of age by distributing a survey questionnaire which was adopted from the literature. Data was analyzed through SPSS version 24.0. Result of the study suggests that all the developed hypotheses were accepted. Additionally, study finds that despite massive corruption, social injustice, favoritism, nepotism, political instability, economic crisis and many other problems, Pakistani youth overwhelmingly considers democracy, as the potential form of government and dislike any alternative of it. Current study may be the first stone in the stagnant water not only in measuring democratic attitude of young generation but it will also help them to understand what sort of democracy is needed in Pakistan.

The Withdrawn Children and Their Classroom Participation: An Exploratory Case Study

Child-centred teaching and learning approach is a progressive approach that demands for active participation of all children in the classroom process. Educationists and Professional Educational Institutions like IED are advocating for this approach. As a result, more and more teachers are being exposed to this progressive approach of teaching and learning. As teachers embrace this approach, one may wonder whether they are able to enhance the participation of all children, including the withdrawn ones in the classroom process. Therefore, apart from creating awareness about withdrawn children who may be forgotten, ignored and isolated in the classroom, this exploratory case study was also carried out to find out the opportunities that exist in the classroom that could enable and/or enhance the participation of the withdrawn children. This study describes the experiences of withdrawn/unresponsive children in and outside the classroom through detailed classroom observations, interviewing some of the teachers, the two case withdrawn children and parents to one of the case children, and through analysis of relevant documents. The study found out that, though the teacher I observed had been exposed to child-centered teaching and learning strategies, like group work, pair work, the use of role plays, drama, discussions etc., through professional development courses and through the H.A.S programme being propagated in the school by the H.A.S.-IED team, that could have been used to enhance classroom participation of all children including the withdrawn ones, she was unable to maximize the use of these strategies in the classroom. However, the findings suggest that the warm friendly relationship the teacher had with all children including the withdrawn ones in the classroom, which was shown in the way she related to them, indicated that the teacher valued, loved and respected all the children. This relationship may have enhanced the children's self-esteem, thus, leading to occasional interaction between the teacher and the children, hence, enabling the two withdrawn case children to participate.