The development of research cultures within a Pakistani university:
Analysing structure and agency
AHMAD SOHAIL LODHI Lecturer at University of the Punjab, PakistanPhD candidate, University of Leeds, [email protected] ; [email protected]
What will I share?
About the project Journey to find Archer’s
morphogenetic approach My experiences of understanding the
approach The guiding role of the morphogenetic
approach in this study Lessons learnt
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About the dish
The University:Regulated by the Higher Education
Commission (HEC) of Pakistan but autonomous in articulating internal policies and practices
Teaching as a dominant elementStriving to promote research under
the influence and support of HEC
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About the dish
The focus of my project was to examine factors influencing the development of research cultures in two social sciences faculties in a Pakistani public university.
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In search of the recipe
Organisational cultureCommitted to shared norms, values and
assumptions
Do universities have an organisational culture?
Archer ‘s conception of culture Heterogeneous ideas Interplay between the ‘parts’ and the
‘people’ 5
Understanding the Recipe
Difficult language and vocabulary
Interconnected concepts
Few empirical studies that used the morphogenetic approach
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Conceptualizing the notion of research culture Ideational aspects of the model
Choosing and developing instruments for data collection Informed by the stages of the morphogenetic cycle
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Nutritional value of the recipe
Picking the Ingredients
Interview questionsPeople’s views and perceptions about research
e.g. it should be applied or pure etc.
What, why and how questions
Questionnaire item I have adequate time to conduct research (e.g., writing articles, books and presenting conference papers etc.)…................................ SD D N A SA
Conceptualizing the notion of research culture
Choosing and developing instruments for data collection
Analyzing empirical data the morphogenetic framework as
template
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Nutritional value of the recipe
Cooking
Periodisation to indicate the stages of the morphogenetic cycle
Relatively straightforward task T1 T2 (when new leadership took
over the university) T3 (when data was collected)
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Cooking
Articulation of Cultural and Structural emergent properties
Sometimes difficult to sustain analytical distinction between culture and structure e.g. teaching-research
Difficult task to maintain ‘analytical dualism’ while analysing interviews, especially, in case of cultural emergent properties
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Cooking
Necessary and contingent relations Mostly unproblematic to identify Influences of regulatory body (HEC) Discipline-specific influences on
research practices
Complementary and contradictory relations
Easy to identify but difficult to handle 12
Re-thinking the recipe
Time-consuming process Availability of literature about the
context in relation to the problem Long time span (T2-T3) is preferable Knowledge about the context
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Questions Please ! ! !
