Pedagogical and Institutional Challenges in Teaching Pakistan Studies at BS Level: A Case Study of District Peshawar Postgraduate Colleges

Abstract

Pakistan Studies is a compulsory subject in undergraduate education which has a significant role to play in fostering national awareness, constitutional knowledge, civic consciousness, historical consciousness and social integration of students in the country. But at the BS level, the subject is very rarely able to escape from its didactic and memorization-focused treatment in the classroom, and yet it has a lot of potential as an interdisciplinary subject. The pedagogical and institutional problems of teaching Pakistan Studies at BS level in post-graduate colleges in District Peshawar have been discussed. The study will be a qualitative document based case study supplemented by research papers that are available online. It highlights problems of curriculum repetition, dominance of lectures in teaching, insufficient student involvement, low level of inquiry and discussion based teaching, assessment based on memorization, not enough teaching equipment, insufficient teachers training, insufficient teaching materials, dependence on the faculty member from outside the institution, and few subjects' objectives matching the teaching practice. The article suggests that the teaching of Pakistan Studies at the level of Bachelor should not be restricted to being taught as a historical and ideological subject, but should be expanded to be taught as an interdisciplinary subject, where history, politics, constitution, geography, economy and culture should be taught as an integrated whole, as well as citizenship, peace education, gender justice, regional diversity, and current public problems. The case of District Peshawar is important as the postgraduate colleges in the district cater to the students of various ethnic and religious communities and are part of a wider Higher Education System of KP. The article concludes that for meaningful reform, curriculum renewal, teacher professional development, resource improvement, student-centred pedagogy, critical civic learning and institutional support to the Pakistan Studies departments are needed.