LANGUAGES IN EDUCATION: A THREE DIMENSIONAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRIVATE AND GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS IN PAKISTAN

Dr Tayyaba Tamim(PhD Cambridge UK), Associate Professor Lahore School of Economics

Background

A) Poor learning outcomes and b) difference between private and government schools (LEAPS & ASER)

What could possibly account for these differences ? (two ways)

Theoretical underpinnings

‘Transformative education’ (Hart et al, 2004)

Principles of co agency ( active engagement); trust (relationships) and everyone (inclusiveness )

How does learning take place? Sociocultural theory of learning &

multimodal communication

The Field of School Social contexts/ Resources multimodal communication / Teacher agency learner

agency Practices/ interactions

learning outcomes co agency

Relationships of trust Inclusiveness

Methodology

Qualitative multiple; case study design Sample : 32 participants comprising 16 cases Each case: final yr secondary school student

and same sex 6-7 yr old sibling 6 private and 7 government schools Sites urban areas Karachi and Lahore Methods: ethnographic style interviews;

participant observation; Interviews with EDOs and Heads of school

documentary analysis; informal interviews with

Social context of learning/ Resources

Infrastructure : Poor in GS (no toilets , canteen, playground, libraries, funding

Human resources: Teachers in GS more qualified and trained

Curricular: strict guidelines for GS; simpler

Languages: Urdu vs English taught: English Urdu and Sindhi latter

in Karachi only)

Two

This was a boys’ school in the centre of Lahore with over a thousand students. The school did not have any playground. Just in front of an office, I spotted a building . The sign board read ‘auditorium’. I asked a final year student. He said ‘It is hardly used,,,I don’t know for what,,, there is a library also somewhere,,, but it is never used’.

A teacher shows me around the new classes being built at the rear end from recently received government funding. I ask about the computer lab. He comments casually.

‘We have closed it down. No one wanted to study computer. We have technical subjects like woodwork and electrician courses etc. The students and their parents are really interested.

Source: Field visit notes and informal interviews with teachers and students (Government boys school, , April 2008).

Snaphshots of Government Schools

Social interactions: Practices Accountability structures (diff)

promotions Ability based segregation : a reality in

half of the GS Use of Urdu in GS and devaluation of

local languages in PS. Secondary board examination

Social interactions: practices contin

Transmission Mode of Teaching : Lack of trust in learner agency

Corporal punishments Perceived relationships with teachers Intersubjectivity issues

Questions in class a sign of failure in GS Syllabus coverage not learner ability the

base Different languages different practices

Ex 1: Comparison of Sindhi Language TeachingGovernment School   Sindhi they would make us write question answers and they

would not make us do reading then the period would be over and the second sir would come and would say put it away and then the work that was on the board, the would say delete it he would delete it

   Umair Private School graduate described his Sindhi class    Sindhi teacher herself would get it done. That was a strange

way just to get it over with. They would say just do the reading (1+). Now no one knew how to read,,, thus we read half and half the teacher would make us read. This she would not tell what’s the meaning of these words. How to speak these words. If Sindhi had any history?

 

Ex 2 Urdu teaching/ learning Government School : Khalil GSG laughed as he recalled his Urdu classes at

school   There was no Urdu subject ,the teacher only came occasionally… then stayed

until the period was nearly over. Then s/he asked ,,, a student to start reading. After completing the whole chapter he would tell now mark the answers of questions. At times it happens that the teacher taught the whole chapter and after reading he would say do the question and answers from home… no marking of answers,…no answers tick marked. It also happened like that.

   Private School: Majeed described his experiences of Urdu class   My Urdu was weak. Now there were some words that when the teacher gave us

to read I would stop (1+) while reading. Some words I could not read so the teacher said( How will you (1+) study Urdu,,, what will you do?,,, so I used to sit down. When Miss would dictate I would ask and ask [from friends] and write. Some words I could not understand. I would ask and ask [from friends] what they meant and put them in my mind and then I wrote them in simple words.

 

Ex 3: English Language

  Government School Yaseen said:  The English sir would make us stand and then no one

would read,,, he would make us do work but there was no reading…he would also make us do words meanings but would not explain (Interview, GSG, Karachi, April 16, 2008)

Private School English Class Midrah,:  The usual pattern was that she used to come and she

asked anyone of us to read the chapter then she used to explain,,, our teacher. Then she dictated notes. Meaning she dictated and we used to write.

( Interview PSG, Karachi, May 21, 2008.)  

Ex: 4 Questions in GS

Maria recalls vividly the humiliation when she ventured a question in her English classes:

  The English teacher would say what did you

study in 6th and 7th that you do not know,,, how did we pass? Then she would say like that, then I would become silent. Then like this [I] never asked. If I would have asked she would have said the same. (Interview GSG, Lahore, April 6, 2008)

Ex: 5 Anxiety and Stress in GS Imran (GSG) now in final year BA repeatedly mentioned that he was

glad that the school was over and there is ‘no pressure’:  In government schools maam there is a constant pressure ,,,A boy

who has taken sick and takes a day off knows no matter what he will have to take the beating and what do you think beating is like in government schools. Two boys are asked to hold a boy pinned against the desk and then there is a severe beating with a stick,,, it was awful. (Interview GSG Karachi, April 25, 2008)

    Khalil (GSG) related one of the many times he was severally beaten.   Ask me if there was a reason for hitting? There had to be a reason.

The reason was that I asked a question after that I became uninterested in studies I said I will not study. I was in class five. I ran away from school,,, burnt all my books,,, [decided] that I am not to study. (Interview GSG, Karachi, April 16, 2008)

Implications for learner agency Ability based notions in GS

constraining the agency

Space for learner engagement

Emotional wellbeing / anxiety

Inter subjectivity issues

embedded messages of negative belief in learner ability in social contexts and interactions

Stress and anxiety

Poor relationships

Issues in inter subjectivity

Less Space for learner engagement

Embedded messages of positive belief in learner ability in social contexts and interactions

Emotional security

Relationships of trust ( meaningful scaffolding )

Greater intersubjectivity

More space for learner engagement

Collaborative vs Coercive Processes

Agency enhancing Agency constraining

Perceived Language Learning outcomes.

Urdu : GS : 6 of 16 could not read or write PS ‘poor’ English: GS: Only minimal or not even

that PS: All but only 7 of 16 highly confident ,

only two attributed it to school. Sindhi: None 17 of 32 participants perceived

themselves as ‘in the middle of no where’

Conclusion

The paper conceptualizes learners as semiotic social beings who make meaning from their interaction with:

social contexts of learning : i.e human, material , curricular resources , and

teaching/ learning practices Implications for learner agency and discusses their possible impacts

for learning outcomes from the perspective of sociocultural theory

collaborative and coercive processes at work in private and govt schools : generating a positive or negative sense of agency

.Results of the study are limited a) representations and b) nature of the study

Further research needs :