June 24, 2007

The problems related to social science research are endless. Mansoor Akbar Kundi writes more on the subject

Under the HEC sponsored School of thought which has dynamically changed the patterns and priorities of higher education in Pakistan, the teaching of social science research or research methodology has been made compulsory at university level. In each of the discipline of Social Sciences at post-graduate level since 2002, there is a mandatory 100-mark social science research paper. Previously, the teaching of research was optional and limited to few disciplines of psychology, education and sociology. Meetings of syllabi formulation under HEC has become more frequent than before with rapid changes under a carrot and stick policy, whereby institutions not following instructions may lose their share of funds as the HEC is a major fund-giving authority for those institutions. The teaching of the subject is good and innovative in social sciences. No one can deny the utility of the teaching of scientific research. It helps push the frontiers of knowledge beyond the horizon with an in-depth analysis based on empirical and reflective thinking of the various phenomena or observed units to make a generalisation. But there are certain ground realities and handicaps faced by students and staff in social science disciplines which need to be highlighted and rectified.

Students in social sciences have very little background of research at the graduate level with the fact that a majority of them entering post-graduate have not studied it at college level. There is a distant division between graduate and undergraduate studies in Pakistan. There are very few disciplines, largely in natural sciences where undergraduates are allowed at university level. There are very few people qualified in social science research and methodology. In Pakistan, there are few trends or application of specialisation in a major or sub-field. For example, in Political Science and International Relations one can hardly see a person who has specialised in international law. He tries to teach but without him being a specialist. Even advertisements inviting applications from lecturers to professors fail to focus on specialisations. There is an acute shortage of people trained in social science research.

The spectrum of social research includes disciplines in social sciences, languages, and even humanities. In a majority of the universities in Pakistan, it includes disciplines of business and public management. Broadly speaking, social research studies include man and his institutions with being largely empirical. Rummel defines it as being “devoted to a study of mankind in his social environment and concerned with improving his understanding of social orders, groups, instructions and ethics.” It is bound to be inter-disciplinary as the social phenomena are not isolated. In Pakistan, disciplines in social sciences in public universities adapt isolated interdisciplinary approaches or are isolated. There is no provision of minor in social sciences as is in developed western countries.

The HEC social science curricula largely focus on social science and not individual discipline. For example, the books given in reading material will be the ones recommended for sociology, social work, political science etc. The indices, paradigms and concept realisation are different from discipline to discipline. Research patterns in economics are different from the ones in history. There may be unanimity of research in bibliography and citation preparation or on major research designing but the requirements are not the same. Students are in need of research contents pertaining to individual disciplines which they largely don’t. For example, the Pashto or Punjabi Department in public-run universities for survival have adopted research work but the record show their concerns over the adoption as the contents in large do not cater to their needs. In a majority of the linguistic field research, teachers are not trained to teach research methodology.

A major problem in social research learning is at public universities which are causing students problems in learning. Students in absolute majority in the disciplines of social sciences – that is, history, politics, International Relations, psychology etc., have very little background of statistics. Quantitative research, unlike qualitative research, focuses on words. Thus, that portion of quantitative research is either ignored, wrongly taught or partially covered.

The writer is dean, faculty of state sciences, University of Balochistan