Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute

Dear Martin, your mail came as a pleasant surprise, it feels great to be a part of PSU-PELI!!

Well, I am Rakshanda, a female teacher educator at one of the community institutes in Karachi, Pakistan. My job is to provide professional support to teachers for the improvement of classroom teaching and learning. My focused areas are English and Social Studies, besides I facilitate teachers in class management , reflective practice, curriculum development, lesson planning, classroom research etc.

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Well, to answer your question Where I came from? —— My parents belong to the Punjab, which is situated in the North of Pakistan). They migrated to Karachi (South of Pakistan) in 1960 and since then have settled here. I was born and brought up in Karachi and therefore have a mixed cultural background. I can speak languages of both the provinces fluently that is Urdu and Panjabi, which makes me very comfortable in both the cultures. Interestingly I got married into a family which migrated from Hyderabad, India, having different cultural back ground. In the beginning I faced difficulties to adapt to different style of living, but soon got adjusted . So you can see that how different situations helped me adapt and appreciate cultural diversity. Similarly, when I did my Bachelors of Education from Notredame Institute of Education- Karachi, Pakistan, an institute which is run by Australian faculty, I got a wonderful opportunity to understand an altogether different culture. We used to celebrate our religious festivals such as Eid-ul-fitar or Christmas together which helped us respect and value each others beliefs and practices. Now that I have been given a chance to visit USA, I am very excited to interact with Americans, to share our experiences and to learn from each other.

I would also like to mention here that last year, I did an online course about teaching of Foreign and Second Languages, from (iEARN), International Education and Resource Network. iEARN, is an American, non profit network which encourages online collaboration between teachers and students around the globe. I deeply enjoyed my online interaction with teachers. I learnt about their practices and their school context. The course broadened my educational and cultural horizon. I learnt that although we live in different parts of the world, most of the time our classroom issues are quite similar. The course helped me look at educational issues from various perspectives.

I am now anxiously waiting to visit America and to actually see and observe the things personally. I am looking forward to a rich learning experience from PSU-PELI, and wish to promote the same on my return to Pakistan.

Rakshanda