Ayesha Perveen

This book review critically examines Feminist Pedagogy for Teaching Online (Howard et al., 2025), identifying it as a crucial intervention that bridges a significant gap in contemporary scholarship by envisioning online learning through the lens of feminist pedagogy. The collection challenges dominant instructional design norms and technological culture, underscoring fundamental values of care, equity, reflexivity, and social justice. Structured into four thematic parts, the book consistently emphasises praxis, showcasing practical tools like social annotation and cryptoparties to foster equity and collaboration in e-spaces. Its primary strength lies in modelling feminist pedagogical principles through collaborative and student-centred approaches. While praised for its diverse contributions, the review notes some chapters could benefit from more analytical engagement with structural barriers to feminist agency in institutional settings. It acknowledges potential conceptual repetitions for novice readers. Nevertheless, the book is considered a vital resource for all e-learning stakeholders, promoting value-driven, ethical, and transformative online learning environments.

The higher education landscape is continually evolving by imbibing technology and artificial intelligence for facilitating students’ needs, expectations and aspirations. While many institutions are adopting online frameworks for higher education, the online universities constantly need to reevaluate their systems to best facilitate students. One such re-evaluation is a need for language teaching programs offered by online universities. In this regard, this study aimed to explore students’ perceptions about the best language teaching method in online settings. For this purpose, that data was collected from the students enrolled in Virtual University of Pakistan’s BS English course Language Teaching Methods offered by the Department of English. The study included all students enrolled in the course. Qualitative data gathered through the Graded Discussion Board (GDB) i.e., 1190 posts were screened, coded and five themes were finalized. The findings of the study revealed that students preferred the communicative language teaching method. Moreover, they suggested its implementation at the university through collaboration projects, technological adaptation of latest applications and software and learner autonomy through a combination of both a/synchronous activities for improving their language skills.

The Last White Man employs speculative fiction techniques to challenge systemic inequality based on racial privileges. A world is imagined by Mohsin Hamid where the white undergo a racial transformation that is as loathsome as Kafkian metamorphosis into a cockroach. While this speculative aspect describes the racial transformation as fragile because it is something biological, it acts as a tool for social critique exposing the impact that race can have on one's identity particularly in face of the dominant stereotypes about race. Through its form, the novel destabilizes the traditional notions of racial privilege by exposing the socio-psychological and systemic structures based on power dynamics about the privilege of those born white. Simultaneously, it invokes horror by alluding to pandemics or biological conditions that can affect human color through diseases like vitiligo. Discontents of the civilization are conveyed through inexplicable racial metamorphosis that destabilizes the deep-rooted racial hierarchies inviting retrospective reflection about changing a worldview that is based on something fundamentally inherited. In this regard, I study the novel rendering poetics of disruption by becoming a conspicuous discursive space bringing into discussion contemporary social structures that are in need of inversion, an inversion which Hamid renders through the use of speculative techniques

This study explores the perceptions of teachers about the use of Authentic Material in Pakistani secondary school English language teaching classrooms. The research was descriptive in nature and used a quantitative approach to collect data through a survey questionnaire from 40 Pakistani Secondary school English language teachers. The questionnaire used was initially adapted from a research done in Hong Kong by Yeung Ting-fai in 2011, under the topic “English language teachers' attitudes towards the use of authentic materials in Hong Kong secondary schools” but then modified to a larger extent according to the scenario and situation of the Pakistani education system. The data was analyzed through SPSS and descriptive statistics were obtained. The results of this research are significant in Pakistani context. Although many teachers wanted to use Authentic Material in their classes, they were hesitant to do so due to the constraints related to curriculum, examination system and administrative pressure. The study recommends adapting curriculum and examination systems to provide administrative support that can provide space to Pakistani secondary school teachers for using Authentic Material in English language classrooms.

Word clouds can be used as an effective tool for the teaching and learning processes in language learning, as the visual input during schemata activation, and other parts of the lesson, serve as manageable and meaningful target language input. There are emerging studies that explore their effectiveness, but less so with respect to their use in the online second language classroom. This study explores the effectiveness of word clouds for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in an asynchronous mode. The study used a mixed methods design and triangulation was used for data collection. The participant group, as bachelor's degree students at the Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP), were given word clouds based assessment activities in two communication skills courses: Eng 001 (305 students participated) and Eng 101 (1714 and 1516 students participated in two activities respectively). The scores of the students were analyzed to gauge the suitability of task-based assessment in an asynchronous mode. Furthermore, an online survey questionnaire was administered to seek their input on the assessment activities. A total of 272 (N= 272) students responded to the survey questionnaire. The results reflected that the students responded positively overall regarding the use of word clouds for reading comprehension and essay writing tasks but had mixed opinions about reading and writing skill improvement tasks. The study concludes that the use of word clouds for pre-reading and pre-writing activities for task-based EFL teaching in asynchronous learning environments can be effective with the constraints that are described.

(2020). Population explosion. New Writing. Ahead of Print.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007) traces the evolution of Changezs sense of belonging by encompassing a substantial part of his life odyssey, ranging from his movement to the US for higher studies to his disillusionment and redirection of fundamental desires. This study explores those transformative stages that help shape his identity. For this purpose, James Marcias theory of identity achievement has been used as a theoretical framework. Marcia (1980) contends that certain situations and events (called crises) act as catalysts to prompt identity moratorium. The internal conflict caused by such catalysts stimulates adolescents to probe into their beliefs, goals and values. Changez also encounters the four statuses described by Marcia i.e., identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium and final achievement. Consequently, a refraction in his sense of belonging takes place - from love for American exceptionalism to love for Pakistan and Islam (Morey, 2011). This study evaluates the level of identity achievement in Changez as a result of this refraction