Atiya Fyzee, Shibli, and Iqbal: English as a Social Butterfly

Taking an ‘analogical’ approach to the issue, this study reads the saga of Atiya Fyzee’s relationship with Shibli Nomani and Allama Iqbal as a plausible allegory of the transforming cultural relationship of the Muslims of the subcontinent with English (in what this term comes to mean as a language, as a discipline of studies, and as a synecdoche of Western culture). The history of this cultural interaction since the British colonization I have divided into three broad phases: the initial, the middle, and the present. The initial phase I earlier dealt with by exploiting Sheikh Muhammad Ikram’s analogy, later employed by Nasir Abbas Nayyar, that Shibli’s attitude towards English was the same as his attitude towards his step-mother at home. English, in other words, was a stepmother for Shibli, and for the generations represented through his figure in this early phase of cultural interaction of the Muslims of the subcontinent with the language. The present paper focuses on how one can analogically read in the personal histories of the representative figures of this culture the stories of how in the subcontinent the larger cultural reception of English gradually changed from being treated as a ‘step-mother’(and hence forging with her a relationship of cultural exchange) to being treated as a ‘social butterfly’ or a ‘social sweetheart’, as a symbol of liberal humanist high culture, and how such terms of cultural engagement with English were unacceptable to both Shibli and Iqbal. The paper closes on how even this image of English as high culture gradually dissolved with the cultural disintegration wrought by an ever-increasing and relentless consumerist culture in the postcolonial times.

An Analytical Study of Human Resource Development Through In-Service Teaching Training and Development

The quality education is the hallmark for the growth of a nation which is contingent upon the quality of teachers who sustain the environment where this manpower is shaped and in due course emerges as a reckonable force. Thus the requirement to prepare and train teachers becomes a vital need for a country to develop its human resource. Modern times dictate that educational measures be conceived, planned and implemented wholesomely and in totality. It is in this regard that the two fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and education blend to evolve a sustainable system of teaching and training, targeting the objectives of quality education. Focused on the importance of training of teachers, the researcher selected a newly developed in-service teacher training programme which was implemented under Education Sector Reform (ESR) programme in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) from year 2001-2005. Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), in the beginning established a teacher training cell for its institutions in the rural and urban areas of Islamabad. The present research is an evaluation of an in-service teacher training programme developed for the teachers of primary and secondary school level. During 05 years, in-service training continued at FDE, adding maturity and growth to the programme. For the data of the thesis a sample of 300 was picked up which comprised 50 Policy Makers, Planners, Administrators, Resource Centre Coordinators and Heads of Institutions, 50 Master Trainers, Resource Persons of both genders and the third group of 200 Elementary and Secondary Trained Teachers. The tools of research are questionnaires, documents and open-ended discussion session. The research objectives are focused on the analysis of contents, duration and schedule of training programme, strengths and weaknesses and the problems faced by trainers, trainees and administrators for the three stages of pre-, during and post training periods.The data collected through the questionnaires is analyzed by using statistical techniques. Central tendency was used as descriptive statistics whereas chi-square was used as inferential statistics. The main results of the study in terms of strengths are continuous professional development, training based on TNA, willingness of participation, use of audio-visual aids and availability of information and resources at the centres. The weaknesses analyzed highlighted selection procedure for training, training objectives, follow- up plans, contradictions of assessment and perceptions at different levels. The researcher also made an effort to prepare a research based model on in-service education for teachers (INSET) through the present study with strong recommendations of making in-service teacher training a well structured system and linking in- service training with career progression etc. to contribute towards an indigenous teacher training programme. Thus blending the precepts of HRD for training of human resource, a teacher will not only emerge as a manager of learning but will cultivate a student centered approach in the classroom enabling his students to become in dependent learners.