scholarly journals Myths and Realities about Language of Instruction in Pakistan: Parental Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 1055
Author(s):  
Habibullah Pathan ◽  
Khalid Hussain Channa ◽  
Shumaila Memon ◽  
Waqar Shah

Language of learning and language of state requires proper awareness in multilingual countries. It demands much clarity if the role of a language in learning is to be acknowledged on the academic achievement grounds. Language of instruction is a controversial issue in Pakistan. Language policies and practices play vital role in shaping the perceptions of individual for the choice of any language. These perceptions may be based on reality or merely myths. Parents are major beneficiary or sufferer of the outcome of the education of their children. This article aims to explore perceptions of parents for the choice of language for the education of their children. By drawing upon Woolard & Schieffelin’s Language Ideology Model (1994), this paper analyses how parents perceive the importance of language of instruction for the education of their children. The researchers conducted 20 semi structured interviews from parents of Hyderabad Town by using Maximum Variation Sampling. Constant Comparative Method (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) of analysis is used as an analytic technique to discover perceptions of parents regarding language of instruction for the education their children. This research implies that perceptions of parents are fraught with myths and misunderstandings of past practices and unclear language policies in Pakistan. This study recommends that parents’ voice must effectively be included in the making of language policy and they must be made aware of the researches in learning mother tongue or second language as the language of instruction for the education of their children.

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 1572
Author(s):  
Khalid Hussain Channa ◽  
Shumaila Memon ◽  
Faraz Ali Bughio

Medium of instruction plays vital role in the education of children. Being major beneficiary or sufferer, parents’ role is integral as one of the major stakeholders in the education policy of Pakistan. This research is aimed to present an analysis of parental perceptions regarding medium of instruction for the education of their children.  The present research draws closely on Woolard Schieffelin & Kroskrity’s Language Ideology Model (1998) for understanding perceptions of parents for English as a medium of instruction. The researchers conducted 12 semi structured interviews from parents of Hyderabad city by using Maximum Variation Sampling (Seidman, 1998). These interviews were analyzed using Constant Comparative Method (Lincoln &Guba, 1985). The findings of the study suggest that Pakistan is a multilingual state and the parents’ preferences of the language they want to be used in their children’s schools are not uniform. Therefore, government should involve parents at grass root level while making education policy for effective outcomes.


Accurate pronunciation has a vital role in English language learning as it can help learners to avoid misunderstanding in communication. However, EFL learners in many contexts, especially at the University of Phan Thiet, still encounter many difficulties in pronouncing English correctly. Therefore, this study endeavors to explore English-majored students’ perceptions towards the role of pronunciation in English language learning and examine their pronunciation practicing strategies (PPS). It involved 155 English-majored students at the University of Phan Thiet who answered closed-ended questionnaires and 18 English-majored students who participated in semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that students strongly believed in the important role of pronunciation in English language learning; however, they sometimes employed PPS for their pronunciation improvement. Furthermore, the results showed that participants tended to use naturalistic practicing strategies and formal practicing strategies with sounds, but they overlooked strategies such as asking for help and cooperating with peers. Such findings could contribute further to the understanding of how students perceive the role of pronunciation and their PPS use in the research’s context and other similar ones. Received 10th June 2019; Revised 12th March 2020; Accepted 12th April 2020


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Durst ◽  
Ingi Runar Edvardsson ◽  
Guido Bruns

Studies on knowledge creation are limited in general, and there is a particular shortage of research on the topic in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Given the importance of SMEs for the economy and the vital role of knowledge creation in innovation, this situation is unsatisfactory. Accordingly, the purpose of our study is to increase our understanding of how SMEs create new knowledge. Data are obtained through semi-structured interviews with ten managing directors of German SMEs operating in the building and construction industry. The findings demonstrate the influence of external knowledge sources on knowledge creation activities. Even though the managing directors take advantage of different external knowledge sources, they seem to put an emphasis on informed knowledge sources. The study´s findings advance the limited body of knowledge regarding knowledge creation in SMEs.


2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (9) ◽  
pp. 710-717 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham P Martin ◽  
Emma-Louise Aveling ◽  
Anne Campbell ◽  
Carolyn Tarrant ◽  
Peter J Pronovost ◽  
...  

BackgroundHealthcare organisations often fail to harvest and make use of the ‘soft intelligence’ about safety and quality concerns held by their own personnel. We aimed to examine the role of formal channels in encouraging or inhibiting employee voice about concerns.MethodsQualitative study involving personnel from three academic hospitals in two countries. Interviews were conducted with 165 participants from a wide range of occupational and professional backgrounds, including senior leaders and those from the sharp end of care. Data analysis was based on the constant comparative method.ResultsLeaders reported that they valued employee voice; they identified formal organisational channels as a key route for the expression of concerns by employees. Formal channels and processes were designed to ensure fairness, account for all available evidence and achieve appropriate resolution. When processed through these formal systems, concerns were destined to become evidenced, formal and tractable to organisational intervention. But the way these systems operated meant that some concerns were never voiced. Participants were anxious about having to process their suspicions and concerns into hard evidentiary facts, and they feared being drawn into official procedures designed to allocate consequence. Anxiety about evidence and process was particularly relevant when the intelligence was especially ‘soft’—feelings or intuitions that were difficult to resolve into a coherent, compelling reconstruction of an incident or concern. Efforts to make soft intelligence hard thus risked creating ‘forbidden knowledge’: dangerous to know or share.ConclusionsThe legal and bureaucratic considerations that govern formal channels for the voicing of concerns may, perversely, inhibit staff from speaking up. Leaders responsible for quality and safety should consider complementing formal mechanisms with alternative, informal opportunities for listening to concerns.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anas Atef Shamaileh

Purpose The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in the late 2019 was accompanied by various consequences that included almost the entire life aspects worldwide. To cope with the pandemic, imposing restricted measures was required, such as quarantine, lockdown and social distancing. The purpose of this paper is to identify the houses' interior designs responses in Jordan under Covid-19 Pandemic. Design/methodology/approach Under such conditions, people have to spend long periods inside their houses. This issue highlighted the importance and the vital role of houses interior design in meeting the various needs of residents under emergent and changing conditions. Findings This study revealed current and future responses that may be implemented to cope with the pandemic consequences in terms of houses’ interior design. Moreover, a conceptual model was proposed. Number of suggestions and further research were introduced considering the revealed findings. Originality/value This study aimed at identifying the houses’ interior design responses in Jordan under COVID-19 pandemic. The study methodology adopted both inductive and qualitative approaches to achieve its goals. Under the qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were undertaken by interviewing ten interior designers and academics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 160940692094760
Author(s):  
Pablo A. Cantero-Garlito ◽  
Juan Antonio Flores-Martos ◽  
Pedro Moruno-Miralles

The general objective of this study is to describe and analyze the meanings that participants gave to the experience related to maternal caregiving activities of children with disabilities in the rural context and their impact on daily life and health. In order to achieve this general objective, the following specific objectives were established: (1) To describe the meanings given to experiences related to caregiving activities of children with disabilities; (2) To analyze the impact on daily life and health that these mothers attribute to those activities; (3) To describe how they experience the support provided by the social and healthcare system in rural areas. An interpretative paradigm was selected, using a qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Twelve mothers were included. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. A discourse analysis of the narrative information was performed using open, axial, and selective coding processes and the constant comparative method.


2012 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura McFarland-Piazza ◽  
Alison Lord ◽  
Melissa Smith ◽  
Belinda Downey

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY was to explore how connections between families, communities and educators can be facilitated in teacher education courses through the use of playgroups. Barriers to building relationships, as well as the perceived benefits of these relationships to families and pre-service teachers, were also explored. Participants were involved in weekly university-based community playgroups. Focus group interviews were conducted and the constant comparative method was used to analyse interview transcripts. Themes of ‘Constraints’ and ‘Enablers’ emerged from pre-service teachers' transcripts, indicating that they were initially uncomfortable with community and family involvement but eventually made connections as to why this was important. The theme of ‘positive relationship building’ emerged from parents' transcripts, indicating that they saw building relationships with families and communities as an important role of early childhood educators. Implications for the importance of authentic learning situations for fostering these relationships in teacher education courses are discussed.


Author(s):  
Leyla Alilu ◽  
Vahid Zamanzadeh ◽  
Leila Valizadeh ◽  
Hosein Habibzadeh ◽  
Mark Gillespie

ABSTRACT Objective: this study explores the process of the development of an intention to leave bedside nursing. Method: the process was studied from the perspective of 21 nurses using the grounded theory method. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and the constant comparative method of Corbin and Strauss was used for data analysis. Results: according to the participants, the two main categories, "social image of nursing", and "culture and structure of the bedside", were the contextual factors that influence why nurses are leaving bedside care provision. Disappointment with a perceived lack of progress or improvement in the clinical experience formed primary psychosocial concerns for the participants. Competence and a process of self-control were steps taken by the participants. These, associated with interventional conditions produced the outcomes of the loss of professional commitment and desire to leave bedside nursing. "Failure to integrate personal expectations with organizational expectations: in search of escape" was the central category of the study that linked the categories together. Conclusion: the findings of this study provide useful information about the needs of nurses for overcoming the intention to leave bedside care. The identification of this process can help in recognizing emerging problems and providing solutions for them.


2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1008-1026 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Martin ◽  
Anabel Quan-Haase

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the changing research practices of historians, and to contrast their experiences of serendipity in physical and digital information environments. Design/methodology/approach In total, 20 historians in Southwestern Ontario participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed employing grounded theory. The analytical approach included memoing, the constant comparative method, and three phases of coding. Findings Four main themes were identified: agency, the importance of the physical library experience, digital information environments, and novel heuristic forms of serendipity. The authors found that scholars frequently used active verbs to describe their experience with serendipity. This suggests that agency is more involved in the experience than previous conceptualizations of serendipity have suggested, and led us to coin the term “incidental serendipity.” Other key findings include the need for digital tools to incorporate the context surrounding primary sources, and also to provide an organizational context much like what is encountered by patrons in library stacks. Originality/value The increased emphasis on digital materials should not come at the expense of the physical information environment, where historians often encounter serendipitous finds. A fine balance and a greater integration between digital and physical resources is needed in order to support scholars’ continued ability to make connections between materials. By showing the active role that historians take in their serendipitous encounters, this paper suggests that historical training is critical for eliciting incidental serendipitous encounters. The authors propose a novel approach, one that examines verbs in serendipity accounts.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 202-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Bentley

Many scholars have studied the role of organizational apologies in crisis communication, but they have defined and operationalized apologies inconsistently. This study uses a grounded theory approach to explore what constitutes an effective organizational apology from the perspective of organizational stakeholders. One hundred participants were asked to imagine being the victims of a data breach at an online retailer and to write the kind of apology they would like to receive from the organization. One hundred more participants were asked to write suggestion lists for how the organization could make its apology effective. These data were analyzed using a constant comparative method. Fifteen apology elements were identified and organized along two dimensions: (a) whether the element involved primarily words or behavior and (b) whether the element focused on fixing the problem or rebuilding relationships. Based on the data, these elements must be combined to make an apology effective with stakeholders.


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