An Educational Identity The Intersection of Gender, Class and Islam By Josh Duke
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hat is the purpose of education? It’s a question that has many answers depending on who you ask. In the United States and several other Western countries, we typically view education as a way to gain skills that will help with our future careers. Curricula in primary schools also help students become better citizens by teaching them about history, culture and government. Some countries even take their school system a step further; for example, in Germany, students attend what Americans would consider primary school until fourth grade, at which point they can go on to one of four different schools depending on their interests and academic performance. Some students pursue vocational training while some engage in rigorous coursework in preparation for higher education. But different cultures approach education from different perspectives. In fact, the whole concept of “being educated” looks very different depending on what part of the world you live in. It’s something that Ayesha Khurshid, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, has spent much of her career examining. “I really want to understand how culture—these practices, norms—really shape our understanding of what being educated means, what value it holds, what it does or doesn’t do for us.” A DIFFERENT CLASSROOM During the course of her career, Khurshid has traveled the globe, investigating what children learn in different countries, and in particular looking at the way that gender and cultural norms shape students. Her own educational journey started in her native Pakistan. There, she earned her bachelor’s from Punjab University in economics and mathematics before earning her master’s in economics from Quaid-i-Azam University. Upon graduating, she went to a research institute where her supervisor conducted ethnographic research in Islamabad, Pakistan. “Most of my educational experience was more theoretical, because that’s how the education system is in Pakistan,”
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Ayesha Khurshid
Khurshid explains. “But [my experience at the research institute] was the first time for me where I actually was part of a project where they developed the research design, actually collected data, and then we would analyze it. It just seemed so fascinating to me to go deeper into people’s experiences and learn about not only what is happening in their lives, but how they make sense of it.” At the research institute, Khurshid and the team observed a religious and caste minority community in Pakistan, and she became captivated with the idea of conducting ethnographic research. She became interested in “how the world can be seen from so many different perspectives, and those perspectives are very powerful in shaping who we are and what we think is possible for us and opportunities that we can access or not.” LEARNING AND IDENTITY With her background in economics, it is no surprise that Khurshid frequently explores interdisciplinary topics, but her primary focus is on the way that international
