University Employed Women’s Perspective on Societal Attitudes Towards Their Employment

This descriptive quantitative research paper attempts to explore how women employees at one of the public universities in province of Sindh perceive their profession and societal attitudes including those of colleagues, family and neighbours towards these professional women and their profession. The target participants of this study were academic and non-academic women who had minimum 5 years work experience. Through random sampling technique 100 women (50 from each category) were selected for taking part in survey questionnaire. Findings suggest a positive shift in societal attitude towards professional women in general and working in universities in particular. Interestingly, non-academic respondents perceived societal attitude more positive and supportive than those of academic.

Issue-Based Inquiry As an Instructional Strategy in Educating Students for Citizenship

The starting point of good citizenship is the ability of the child to become aware of his/her identity, right, and obligations in the community. Hence, the curriculum is a very important tool in creating awareness through relevant teaching methods. Social Studies thus, is a crucial subject in teaching citizenship education. Therefore, inquiry is one of the most relevant instructional strategies, so as to allow students to question in order to become aware of issues that affect them as individuals, or as a nation, on a global level. Issue-based inquiry is an instructional strategy which can be used to promote active learning by encouraging students to investigate the problem by collecting information from different sources, analyzing and presenting the findings and identifying areas to take appropriate actions. The study was conducted in one of the private schools of Pakistan in a grade eight Social Studies classroom. A small scale classroom action research was carried out in order to study the implementation of issue-based inquiry. The action research, which I practiced, involved the process of formulating a general idea, conducting reconnaissance, making a general plan of action, implementation and evaluation. The cycle of action research that is planning, acting, observing and reflecting was followed in the process. The findings of this study indicated that by being involved in issue-based inquiry, students can develop inquiry skills and as in groups, the skills of working together are practiced. However, skill development is a gradual process, which demands deliberate teaching and substantial practice. For example, the students developed skills of collecting data from newspaper and textbook, but they still require more practice so as to become comfortable in these skills. Also, the knowledge regarding ‘Kalabagh Dam's construction' and Environmental Pollution' was shared. However, students found the second topic more interesting and close to their level, whereas the former was considered as a political' and adult' topic, and they did not want to associate themselves with politics.