Journal of Social & Organizational Matters

Integrating Life Skills in Secondary Education: Teachers’ Perspectives and Challenges

Muhammad Jamil — 2024-10-17

The current study aims to find out the perspectives of secondary school teachers on the incorporation of life skills into their teaching. Selecting purposively, the present study participants include ten teachers from public secondary schools in a district of Punjab, Pakistan. The study used a phenomenological research design to get teachers’ perceptions and experiences on the integration of life skills. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Data was analysed through qualitative content analysis with the help of NVivo 14 software. The results of the study showed that teachers, in general, value life skills in education. From the participants’ perspective, critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication were the most focused skills. However, several constraints, including limited time, increased class size, and limited textbook support, limit the efficiency of implementation. Teachers were of the view that students responded positively to life skills-focused teaching and activities but the means of assessing the progress in teaching these skills were lacking. It also revealed insufficient knowledge identification in learning life skills integration and better resources and curricula adaptability requirements. These results suggest prospective future work at curricular, methodological, and teachers’ professional development for better integration of life skills into secondary education. Pakistan’s educational policymakers and curriculum developers will find the study useful in improving the integration of life skills in secondary education.

Humanitarian Crisis in Indian Jammu and Kashmir: An Analysis

Ammara Tasadduq — 2024-10-18

Human rights violations in the part of Kashmir ruled by India are the subject of this article. The part of Kashmir under Indian administration suffers from the ongoing violation of human rights. Their daily lives now involve everything from political repression and the oppressive conditions of free speech to mass murders, forced disappearances, torture, rape, and sexual abuse. Extremist organizations, border guards, and the Indian Central Reserve Police Force have all been charged with and found guilty of serious violations of human rights against Kashmiri civilians. The rebels in Kashmir believe that the part of the country that is ruled by India is a part of Pakistan. Thus, the only people who are allowed to live on that area are Pakistanis. However, the question of how far it is acceptable to create one's existence at the expense of ending the lives of people who are completely innocent and have no fault of their own other than the fact that they were born on that property emerges. Numerous questions have been raised by this upheaval, all of which deserve our serious attention and prompt resolution.

The Evolution and Importance of Student-Centred Assessment in Modern Education

Tayyaba Tariq Mir — 2024-10-23

This paper is based on the concept of examining the development and significance of the kinds of assessments that focus on students in present-day learning environments. This work examines the historical context of educational assessment from the oral tradition of the ancients to present-day standardized testing and reflects on the emergence of student-centred paradigms. The discussion also covers the advantages of these techniques, which incorporate higher participation, enhanced learning, and preparation for pragmatic problems, together with the issues encountered in the implementation of these techniques. The paper describes real-life examples of successful use across various learning contexts and looks at potential future developments, including AI-facilitated assessments and virtual environments as learning simulations. If these questions are touched on, it is possible to ask questions about ethics and policy consequences: equity, protection of privacy, and adherence to educational norms. This paper examines how student-centred assessment has applied a solution to several restraining factors of global education, including workforce development and the promotion of global citizenship. The conclusion re-emphasizes the capacity and potential of assessment for improving efficiency, fairness, and the learning experience when learning is placed at the centre. Therefore, this paper confirms that practitioners, educators, policymakers, and researchers should come together to enhance the definition and implementation of these practices in their rightful places, recognizing their importance in preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century.

Relationship of Metacognition with Academic Performance of Prospective Teachers: Modeling Mediation Effect of Digital Literacy

. Summiya — 2024-10-26

This study examines the relationship between metacognition and academic performance among prospective teachers while modelling the mediation effect of digital literacy. The study was quantitative in nature. In the positivistic paradigm of metacognition research, quantitative relational research design was most appropriate for the research design. 9,680 participants enrolled in a four-year program, i.e. BS Education and B. Ed at the Department of Education in the universities of Punjab Province were the population of the study. A sample of 976 prospective teachers was selected through a stratified random sampling technique. Metacognitive awareness inventory and digital literacy scale were adapted. Data was analyzed using SPSS and AMOS. Pearson product-moment relation revealed that metacognition was positively related to the academic performance of prospective teachers. The statistical results found that digital literacy has a strong moderating influence on the association between metacognition and academic achievement among prospective teachers. Metacognition and digital literacy are found to play a significant effect in improving prospective teachers' academic performance. It is recommended for future studies that examining specific aspects of digital literacy in more depth could yield valuable insights. For instance, research might delve into the role of information fluency or the ability to manage online identities in relation to other indicators of academic success.

The Impact of Current Academic Knowledge on Modern Human Resource Practitioners’ Performance within the Software Industry of Pakistan- Future of HR Work & the Need to Reskill

Jasim Tariq — 2024-10-28

This research endeavors to analyze the effect of latest HR practices on the effectiveness of current HR Managers’ performance in the software industry of Pakistan. The latest quality HR practices (i.e. Technical recruitment & selection, HR Technology, HR Marketing, Dynamic Workforce & Performance Mgmt., Psychology & Stress Mgmt., Green HRM and Workspace Spirituality, Celebration & Recognition Mgmt. and Strategic HR Partnership & Organization Development) have been apportioned to contemplate the effectiveness of current HR knowledge model and its significance in HRs’ professional life. A structured questionnaire is employed as an instrument for data collection. Sample size of 120 employees has been fetched working in HR department of different software companies in Pakistan. The data has been analyzed through Multiple Regressions, Cronbach alpha, demographic and descriptive statistics that are used for various analyses by the help of statistical software SPSS. It highlights a judgmental analysis on the significance of redesigning the current HR knowledge model with modern add-on HR aspects for coping with the challenges that HR students are facing in their professional life presently. Some recommendations have been cited by the author for real-time contribution in HR sector and for escalating the performance professionally. Moreover, this research would accommodate the selected software service sector companies that are operating in developing countries like Pakistan and working on the significance of service industry. The outcomes will be useful for the academicians, researchers, HR practitioners, planners and policy makers who are involved in the concerned area.

An Investigation into the Relationship between HRM, Transformational Leadership and Teachers’ Well-being in Educational Institutions

Aqsa Akbar — 2024-11-13

Today’s dynamic and competitive environment requires our educational sector to be growing. In order to have successful educational institutes, there is a dire need to pay attention on the overall well-being of teachers. Thus, this research aims to provide an empirical evidence of the impact of Human Resource Management strategies and transformational leadership on teachers’ well-being. Data were collected from 246 full-time working teachers in the educational institutes of Lahore. Whereby, results revealed the positive significant impact of both HRM Strategies and Transformational leadership on teachers well-being, the TL association with teacher’s well-being found to be stronger as compared to HRM Strategies. The insights offer valuable practical implications to assess the level of well-being of teachers and the ways to increase it.

An Exploring Effective use of Social Media Marketing by Fashion Brands

Zainab Shafaat — 2024-11-21

The social media platforms have offered a wonderful opportunity of marketing for fashion brands globally. Both emerging and established fashion brands are using social media for marketing functions and growing sales in market. Digital marketing has transformed brand promotion paving the way for globalization of fashion. Present research explored how effectively fashion brands are utilizing sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for their marketing using qualitative phenomenology as a research design. Branded entertainments used on social media by fashion brands were explored with the help of semi-structured interviews. Non-probability purposive expert sampling technique was used to select eighteen participants for semi-structured interviews. Our results showed that fashion brands can achieve great exposure due to smart utilization of social media as a marketing strategy. We found that effectively designed marketing content for social media can achieve better brand engagement, brand image, customer-value, and most importantly competitive advantage among competitors. People use social media almost 24/7. Therefore companies upload their information three to four times per day, or according to their desired schedule. Facebook is a great medium to increases brand out-reach, whereas Instagram is more effective in effectively reaching the desired target market. Previous studies have highlighted that commercial advertisements on Facebook can give much superior results in comparison to other web advertisements. Traffic is directed to brand website by providing cross-links on the Facebook or Instagram posts. Presence of brand on social media increases its credibility as it is ranked among top five social media platforms.

Role of Non-State Actors in Syrian Conflict: An Analysis

Afira Mujeeb — 2024-11-18

The Syrian uprising that began in 2011 led to the protest against Bashar al-Assad’s regime due to the arrest of children in Daraa area. Through the growth of the violent response of the government, civil war continued for a long time because of sectarian complications and the participation of various contingents. Hezbollah was a game changer to the conflict because it supplied the military support to Assad for Syria that was important to its interests. 2013 saw an escalation of the war during the Battle of al-Qusayr as well as problems with coalition warfare being voiced. At the same time, Camp Bucca in Iraq was a home to future ISIS leaders like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared jihadis’ caliphate in July 2014 leading to extreme inter jihadist competition. The emergence of such processes indicated that local and regional war and conflicts intersect, requiring single diverse approaches to counter violent extremism in the Middle Eastern countries.