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Presentations on teaching as a vocation and the contributions of Edwardian culture to Pakistani society were highlights of a midday faculty development seminar held at the College on Thursday, 3 November 2011, with the sponsorship of the Edwardes College Teachers Welfare Association (ECTWA). In introducing the event in the Science Lecture Theatre, ECTWA President Gulzar Jalal, Asst. Prof. of English, said the aim was to provide an opportunity for interaction among faculty and to enable junior faculty to benefit from the experience of senior faculty. ECTWA took the initiative to organize the seminar, he said, to inspire faculty members to establish strong relationships with students as learners. “Edwardes is family, and we must keep in mind a missionary zeal,” he said. All faculty members are capable, and the need of the hour is to channel their energies in the most fruitful directions, he concluded.
“Motivation for Effective Teaching” was the theme of the talk by Alwin Edwin, longstanding Asst. Prof. of English. Highlights of his address included:
– Teaching is a vocation, not a profession. Vocation is a call from God Almighty in which service to humanity is the priority.
– The famous Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib was asked what was the greatest luxury in life. His reply was that if your hobby becomes your profession there cannot be greater luxury than that.
– Know Thyself: Beware the way you think, because your thinking gives birth to your words, your words give birth to your actions, your actions formulate your character, and your character is your personality.
– The great advantage of pursuing knowledge is that we may capture something that will contribute to the welfare of the world.
By “Edwardian Culture” Kalim Ullah, Prof. of English and Vice Principal, meant the longstanding culture of Edwardes College that has made it unique among the institutions of higher education in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has enabled it to make great contributions to the life of the province and the nation. Prof. Kalim adopted a dialogical method with the almost 30 faculty members who were present, eliciting from them features of the College’s culture that form students in distinctive ways and contribute to the life of society.
Attendees at the seminar included: Mahpara Jabeen, Mujeeb ur Rehman, Inyatullah, Muhammad Saeed, Zahir Shah, Muhammad Ashfaq, Ayesha Zahoor, Faiza Javed, Mian Zeeshan, Shamoon Akbar, Faseeh ur Rehman, Zubair Shah, Basmina Siraj, Silas Akhtar, Yasir Hussain, Myra Edwin, Saiqa Nadar, Shahid Iqbal, F. M. Zafar, Nadia Bashir, Noor Jamal, Shumaila Ehtisham, Sameen Khan, Julia Pervaiz, Mehboob Alam, Ajmal Shah, Gulzar Jalal, Alwin Edwin, Ejaz Ahmad and Kalim Ullah.
“We are grateful to ECTWA for conceiving and organizing this seminar,” said Principal Titus Presler in commenting on the event. “Faculty development in the vocation and art of teaching is important as Edwardes seeks to upgrade its academics and move toward degree-awarding status.” |
