The Reluctant Fundamentalist Exploring the Ideological Basis and Bicultural Consciousness in Pakistani Diasporic Anglophone Fiction

This paper explores the religious ideological basis, cultural ambivalence and a bicultural identity issues in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. This Pakistani Anglophone novel carries different diasporic sensibilities. Issues related to culture, religion and its association with ideological grounds are very prominent. Elements of immigrant feelings and loss of identity are very vibrant. The writer shares migrant experience and the influence of a new culture of the host country, United States. While migrants from some of the Asian states, mainly those characterized by most recent immigrant waves, have really worse socio-economic situation than average immigrants; Pakistani people are among minorities. This research is qualitative in nature. Theories presented by Arjun Appadurai, Homi K Bhabha, and James Clifford about culture and diaspora support this research. This research is helpful to know about the concerns associated with the liminal space and issues related to identity loss, strong affiliation and recognition on the basis of religion and living with a bicultural identity.

Exploring the Experiences of the Appraisers and the Appraisees About Performance Appraisal

Teacher Performance Appraisal has emerged as the most significant and a vital tool for all the educational organizations. The organizations seek to assess the employees, especially the teaching staff, in order to develop their professional competence and enhance their performance with the provision of reward and other fiscal incentives. The purpose of this study was to unveil the positive impacts of the current appraisal model that the AKES, P has introduced in schools across the country. This research study was carried out under the qualitative research paradigm. Under which a phenomenological study method was used to collect the required data, where semi-structured interviews and document analysis remained the major data collection tools. There were total ten research participants, which included two head teachers as appraisers and eight teachers as appraisees from two secondary schools of Gilgit-Baltistan. The respondents were selected through purposive sampling where teaching experience in terms of number of years endured the independent variable. The data reveal that the current appraisal system has been very influential in order to maximize teachers' professional development opportunities and enhance students' academic achievements since its inception across the organization. The data also indicate that the current appraisal system has not only benefited the staff but has also contributed to the organizational effectiveness and progress. The study further reveals that the appraisal model despite being an effective one will not be productive unless there are well qualified appraisers and multiple sources of data for the final appraisal process. Therefore, the study suggests the organization to arrange trainings and orientation sessions for the appraisers. Similarly, there is a great need to bring about changes in the current appraisal procedure and process.