No abstract

Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon through which a society assigns certain roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes to men and women. Usually children develop their gender identities and learn what being male or female meant, between the ages of 3 to 7years. These concepts been taught by society through socialization which includes various agents of socialization and learning. After parents schools are most influential agents of socialization where students learn from peers, teachers and books. Text books have a long-lasting impact on students’ interpersonal development and provide role models for children in defining standards for feminine and masculine behaviors. Considering the impact of textbooks on child development; this study was designed to review how gender is represented in the texts and how the themes of stories and pictures in text books are presenting gender awareness? The sample of the research was Urdu textbooks of primary level (1-5) being taught in schools of the Punjab. We used content analysis to find out the concepts about gender awareness and also calculated the frequencies of pictures presenting gender ratio in concepts of the textbooks. The results showed gender biases in the content of the textbooks and lack of the content that promote gender awareness among primary level students. Male gender is over represented and stereotypical beliefs prevail in pictorial representation as males being shown as doctors and females as housewives. It is suggested to involve gender specialists, school psychologists and educators in developing curriculum to integrate gender perspective and gender awareness at all levels and to eliminate gender biases in textbooks so that to develop an equitable society.

In current study, aim was to explore effective academic leadership in Pakistani higher education institutes. It was an attempt to understand how people in academia perceive effective academic leadership and what are the qualities expected in an effective academic leader? It was also attempted to explore if academicians feel that there is a crisis of leadership in Pakistani higher education institutes? What are the reasons and solution for this crisis situation? Purposive sampling technique was used to select a sample of teachers, students, and psychologists. Three focus groups were conducted one after another. Sample (N = 21) included 13 women and 8 men with age range 21-50 years. Sample was selected from different private and public universities and hospitals of Lahore. Emerging themes were analyzed using bottom up thematic analysis. Results indicated that an effective academic leader should have IQ and EQ, be visionary, and should bring everyone together. The participants mostly agreed that there is leadership crisis in Pakistani higher education institutes. They described various reasons for the crisis situation which mainly implied the responsibility to existing leaders, infrastructure, social decline, and policies.

Care giving is a difficult task especially when it involves physical or mental retardation, and it leaves marked negative impact on primary caregivers. Alzheimer is one such ailment where the patient is totally dependent on others for each bit of their life, so the care giving of Alzheimer patients become more burdensome. The aim of this research was to examine the burden and difficulties of caregivers dealing with Alzheimer's patient, especially those living at home. Case study method was employed for this research. Eight caregivers were selected purposively, and content analysis was used to examine their perspective regarding burden and challenges. In the assessment of content, the gathered qualitative information was analyzed in a deductive manner. The results of the analysis showed that caregivers face daily challenges in terms of physical and psychological health issues, social support and resources, family conflicts, crisis, and criticism. The outcomes further elaborated that due to different roles and responsibilities as caregivers they face both positivity and negativity in their lives which in most cases leads them to religiosity. The results of this study can add to positive social change by contributing to the development and implementation of programs that may take into account considerable differences in future.