Zulfikar Ali Bhutto: The Psychodynamics of his Rise and Fall by Shamim Ahmad

Of all the leaders who came to rule Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto has been only second to the Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah in terms of receiving attention from authors of different types—biographers, journalists, researchers, and professional historians. While many prime ministers of the country have remained in oblivion even though some of them deserved to be studied seriously given their contribution to the country’s political development, Bhutto was regularly made the subject of studies both within the country and abroad. A number of Ph.D theses have been done on him and his rule. The number of books written by various authors expressing different shades of opinion are simply uncountable. Being the founder of the nation, Jinnah was treated by and large, over an extended period of the country’s history, and by a majority of writers, as a national hero whose role in history was highlighted in the manner in which the nationalist historians write about the national heroes. It was much later that Pakistani historians took to writing more professionally about the Father of the Nation. Quite interestingly, the Jinnah that emerged from these objective histories proved to be a more original and powerful historical figure as compared with his previous representation as a straightjacketed national hero. As compared to him, Bhutto became the subject of objective historical works right from the beginning. Of course, there have been books of hagiography written in his honor, but these are mainly from the pen of people belonging to his own political party or the ones who were overly inspired by his charisma. Then there are numerous books written by his diehard opponents, who leave no stone unturned in demolishing his image. Despite the diverse writings about him, ranging from one extreme to another, it is good, from the point of view of historical political writings on Pakistan, that with the

The Role of Pdts in Novice Teachers Professional Development

Literature on educational development suggests that the last decade has witnessed tremendous quantitative expansion in education but the quality of education being offered in developing countries has been a main concern for everyone. One of the reasons could be due to recruitment of untrained teachers, since experienced teachers have started leaving the profession. This has further aggravated the situation. Hence, many developing countries including Pakistan initiated effective teacher education programmes. The Aga Khan University, Institute for Educational Development has played a critical role by offering a wide range of teacher education programmes. The purpose of these programmes is to develop critical mass for institutional capacity building, required for school improvement. The M.Ed. programmes graduates called Professional Development Teachers (PDTs), work closely with teachers, in general, and inexperienced teachers in particular in their own context. In order to understand the role of PDTs in the professional development of novice teachers, a qualitative study was conducted in AKU-IED's four cooperating schools. A battery of research tools such as interview, observation and document analysis were used to gather the relevant information. The study suggests some important findings related to PDTs' role in the professional development of novice teachers. The PDTs seemed to have an adequate understanding of how to work with novice teachers for their professional development. The novice teachers feel that the PDTs have been great supporters for enhancing their professional learning. However, novice teachers need more professional support in the areas such as pedagogical approaches, classroom management, and material development. PDTs seem to have a major agenda of professional development in both, private and community-based schools; they need to use multiple instructional strategies for the professional development of novice teachers.