One of the major reasons for the poor quality of research is that Pakistani researchers don’t think critically. They uncritically embrace social constructs, cultural stereotypes, linguistic binaries, political assumptions, and nationalist preconceptions as universal givens. On one level, it is hardly their fault for they have been ideologically indoctrinated, thereby turning them into metaphorical microcephalics. But, on another level, this shortcoming can, and should, be ascribed to them because most of them (this scribe included) are too lazy and stubborn to unlearn whatever has been taught to them in the name of education. Academic research is not about finding answers. Instead, it is concerned with, especially in the social sciences, problematising and complicating a seemingly ordinary phenomenon. The critical acumen required to conduct academic research is not something illusive or hereditary and can be acquired by anyone who is ready to learn it with patience, focus, and determination. During the course of my studies, I have observed an extraordinary aversion to learning critical thinking among my peers because of the ideological and moral panic, which results from questioning social constructs and cultural stereotypes.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:39:18 +0000