Understanding the variation in MBA students’ experience of Learning Technology in Pakistan

The advances in information and communication technology (ICT), particularly in the last few years, have influenced teaching and learning activities across educational institutions. There has also been an increase in research studies that explore how students and teachers interact with diverse types of digital technologies available to them. However, despite this rapid expansion of digital learning across the world, little research has been published on how Pakistani campus-based students interact with technology during their studies. This research study explores the different ways in which MBA students experience learning technology within a less developed and under-explored educational context of Pakistan. Phenomenography has been used as the research approach to highlight the variation in students’ experience of learning technology and the contextual factors within which this experience is situated. In phenomenographic terms, experience represents an internal relationship between the experiencer (i.e., MBA students) and the that which is experienced (i.e., learning technology). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 45 students in two of the leading business schools of Pakistan. These data sets were analysed using the referential/structural framework of phenomenography, based on Aron Gurwitsch’s theory about Anatomy of Human Awareness. The referential aspect formed the basis of analysing the variation in the meanings these students associated with their experience of learning technology, while the structural aspect facilitated in understanding the ‘figure-ground’ relationship of this experience. The analysis of the student descriptions reveals three distinct ways of experiencing learning technology, i.e., engaged, instrumental, and alienated. Each of these categories of description also highlights the strong interplay of the contextual factors which influence the students’ experience of technology, such as their socio-economic backgrounds, prior exposure to technology, variation in teaching approaches, to name a few. Two of these categories of description link closely to the established phenomenographic concepts of deep and surface level approaches presented by Marton and Säljö (1976, 1984) and further elaborated by Ramsden and Entwistle (1983) and Biggs (1987). The third category (alienated experience) offers a transitional dimension in which the students describe how they transition from an initial phase of isolation and adjust to their learning environment. This study's significance derives from the way it provides insight into the experience of these MBA students based in a majorly instructor-led learning environment, within a less developed country. The findings highlight how students in these regions, when exposed to different types of digital technologies, make an effort to change from mere passive recipients of knowledge to active participants. The students’ descriptions of experience reveal that the use of learning technology enables them to understand that help and support are available to them beyond their classrooms and from people other than their teachers – a phenomenon that has not been very common in Pakistani universities

Technical Interviews: Another Barrier to Broadening Participation in Computing?

What does it take to obtain a computing position in the industry? Although anecdotal reports state that ``hiring is broken,\u27\u27 empirical evidence is necessary to identify the flaws in the existing system. The goal of this dissertation was to understand what expectations companies have for job seekers in computing, and to explore students\u27 experiences with technical interviews and their pathways to job attainment. In particular, this work considered how hiring practices may impact populations already underrepresented in computing such as women, Black/African American students, and Hispanic/Latinx students. It also sought to understand how minoritized populations leverage their own inherent capital to overcome obstacles throughout the process. The theoretical frameworks of community cultural wealth, social cognitive career theory, identity theory, and intersectionality guided the studies, to answer the following research questions: 1) What does the hiring process in computing look like from both the applicant and industry perspective?; 2) How do cultural experiences impact technical interview preparation?; 3) How do technical interviews, and other professional and cultural experiences impact computing identity?; and 4) How do students describe their experiences with the hiring process in computing? To address these questions, a variety of methods were employed, beginning with a systematic literature review. This was followed by an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design that utilized a survey, statistical analysis, and semi-structured interviews. Discursive phenomenography was also the methodology chosen which shaped the qualitative inquiry. The findings illustrated the unique experiences and support mechanisms students from different gender, racial, and ethnic backgrounds utilize to succeed in hiring. These results not only serve to inform students, educators, and administrators how to best prepare for technical interviews, but also present a call to action for industry to change hiring and workplace practices that limit diversity. Suggestions and guidelines are given to enable a hiring process that can still achieve its target of finding qualified employees, but that does so in a manner more inclusive to all job seekers

Perspectives of High School Photography Teachers Regarding Visual Literacy

This qualitative study investigated the perspectives of high school photography teachers regarding visual literacy. A qualitative methodology that used a phenomenographic research design was employed to gain understanding about the perspectives of high school photography teachers in their conceptualization, perceptions, and experiences surrounding visual literacy. A survey/ questionnaire was used to explore participants’ paths towards becoming a high school photography teacher, the amount of years they have been teaching, and their geographic location. Participants perception of school demographics such as school size, community contexts, racial, ethnic, and economic diversity were also collected. Additional prompts were designed to investigate curricular influences, pressing concerns, and pedagogical considerations regarding the various aspects of visual literacy. 100 survey/ questionnaire responses were collected along with five semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed through constant comparison and in vivo coding was used to construct categories of description. The categories of description were further organized into three main themes: Curricular Influences, Pedagogical Considerations and Creative Applications. Data were then sorted into structural and referential aspects of experience to provide an overview of the outcome space. The structural aspects are described as teachers’ influential experiences and the referential described as the teaching of visual literacy. The results of this study were organized into five major discussion points: 1.) Participants’ lived experiences directly impact their teaching of visual literacy, 2.) Curriculum standards have limited impact on the teaching of visual literacy, 3.) Participants employ dialogue-based strategies when teaching visual literacy, 4.) Both analyzing and creating images are important aspects of visual literacy, 5.) Visual literacy addresses the needs of high school photography students

PHENOMENOGRAPHICAL COLLOQUIES OF THE HALLYU WAVE AMONG SELECTED STUDENTS OF TAYTAY SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL, PHILIPPINES

The invasion of the South Korean culture in the Philippines has spanned in almost three decades where the former started exporting their drama series that caught a wide public attention in Philippine TV on 1990’s. The evolution since then was foreseen inevitable that in fact, from 1.0 (K-drama), 2.0 (K-pop), 3.0 (K-culture), it continues to evolve into 4.0 (K-technology and online games) and the developing and ongoing 5.0 (a possible pan-pacific cross over). In this study, the Hallyu wave was carefully delineated by the researchers thru extensive literature reviews and further affirmed by the colloquies of the selected senior High School participants using the Phenomenographical approach. A Focus-Group Discussion was conducted that anchored with the theories of Soft Power (Nye, 1990), Desire Fulfillment (Heathwood, 2014), Cultural Hybridization (Ryoo, 2009), and Cultural Intermediaries (Maguire and Matthews, 2012). From the results of the colloquies, the researchers were able to bracket and expound qualitatively the following analysis and synthesis of results based from the responses of the participants: struggle, ingenuity of ways, influences, inexplicable satisfaction, fandom bonding, the irony of situation, inspired by idol and dream away. These results paralleled the theories used to support the study and as such, proved the continuing wave and fever of the Hallyu culture in the Philippine archipelago. In future studies, the researchers recommend that a western counterpart in the area of adaptation and appreciation could be explored, both quantitatively and qualitatively

Egyptian teachers’ conceptions of sexual harassment prevention within schools and through education

Abstract. Sexual harassment is a prevalent issue facing 98% of girls and women in Egypt. In July 2020, Egyptian society has witnessed a forceful women’s movement against sexual harassment, after the Instagram account @AssaultPolice was created to expose harassers and pursue justice for victims. To shed light on harassment in schools, @AssaultPolice shared stories by students about their experiences with sexual harassment. Schools have a responsibility of sexual harassment prevention (SHP) by ensuring the safety of its environment and educating towards social change. The focus of this thesis is the teachers’ conceptions of SHP in schools. Since they spend significant time with students, facilitate learning, and contribute to school culture, teachers have the potential to prevent sexual harassment. To form a holistic understanding of the topic, the literature reviewed describes the Egyptian context of sexual harassment, feminism and sex education. Moving from local to global, international literature about sexual harassment as gender-based violence, sexual harassment in schools, and different levels to SHP at schools are explored. The theoretical framework includes the concepts of feminist pedagogy, anti-oppressive pedagogy, role theory for teachers as change agents, and school culture as an implicit curriculum. Phenomenography is used where the conceptions of 14 Egyptian teachers are collected through semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the interviews led to an outcome space that presents the teachers’ conceptions on SHP with regards to their role, the surrounding environment, and ideas for practice in the future. The findings show that the teachers’ awareness of sexual harassment lacks connection to broader issues of gender inequality. Teachers perceive their role in SHP as a safeguarding responsibility rather than a step towards enacting social change. Teachers educate for SHP by following the school’s guidance, or by independently following their values. Some teachers demonstrate acts of feminist pedagogy instinctively, without recognizing it as pedagogy. Teachers are skeptical of actualizing their change agency beyond the school’s interest in change. Finally, teachers believe in the value of sex education but have concerns over its feasibility. This thesis contributes to the work exerted towards achieving the UN SDGs 2030 in Egypt through quality education, gender equality, reducing inequalities and peace and justice in schools. This thesis adds to the field of research on gender in education in the context of Egypt. The context as a central aspect of this thesis is useful for future researchers, policymakers, and educators in designing programs and policies that are relevant and sustainable

Gentrification and school choice: Where goes the neighborhood?

This dissertation explores parent-gentrifiers’ lived experiences of the school-selection process, including the social networking and the influence of those social networks in their selection of schools. School choice and parent involvement are forms of social capital, and such social capital represents the results of social networking and parental agency. The unknown is how this scenario manifests itself in gentrifying parents’ school-selection process in Atlanta’s Kirkwood and Grant Park neighborhoods. Gentrifying children’s absence in urban public schools is of interest as residential areas integrate, while schools (re)segregate. The research paradigm is interpretivist as it investigates the qualitatively different ways in which people experience or think about a phenomenon (Marton, 1986). Purposive snowball sampling is used to reach 30 eligible participants in two neighborhoods. The methodological approach is qualitative phenomenographic interviews. The research found five options considered by parent-gentrifiers in the school-selection process that are consistent with the previous literature: public school, charter school, private school, homeschool and undecided/not yet. The forms of communication utilized in the social networking were face-to-face, phone, e-mail, social networking sites, and texting. Participants varied by work schedule, neighborhood communication infrastructure, and level of social network in their forms of communication. Parent-gentrifiers’ approaches to school selection included: activating agency, social networking, operating in social spaces, their social agenda with regard to diversity, and their educational agenda with regard to curriculum, instruction, and school characteristics. The results show that while parents espouse racial and socioeconomic diversity, their choices in the option-demand system in Grant Park resulted in racial segregation among the schools. In contrast, the lack of formal options in Kirkwood resulted in racial integration in the public elementary school. The actions interpreted and ideas constructed in the process of selecting schools as a parent-gentrifier are of practical value to district efforts to understand the urban middle-class school-selection process. In light of increasing school segregation and student attrition, continued urban revitalization efforts and the sustainability of those efforts for many major cities in the United States is highly dependent on their ability to regenerate and maintain quality schools that attract the middle-class

Cultural Classroom Competencies: White Female Social Studies Teachers’ Preparedness and Support to Interact with, Engage, and Teach the Global Majority

The purpose of this study was to examine White female social studies teachers’ experiences of how they were prepared to engage, interact, and teach students of the global majority. Teachers who identified as White and female and teach any social studies discipline served as the five participants for this study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and an online survey. The data were analyzed using the Atlas AI software to identity and record specific codes and themes within the data. Overall, the data showed that the participants were not highly prepared for the cultural diversity of the public school classrooms with students of the global majority. This study highlighted a need for more experiential learning opportunities for preservice teachers along with a foundational understanding of culture and the recognition and implementation of various pedological strategies such as Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Culturally Responsive Teaching, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for the teaching of students of the global majority