Technology and Development of ESL Learner Autonomy: The Impact on Pakistani Women in Higher Education

Abstract

Patriarchal societies, such as that of Pakistan, denigrate women’s participation in the field of education and technology. Addressing this denigration, my thesis orients from the proposition, which states that in contemporary technologically tuned world use of technology has a positive impact on women ESL tertiary level teachers. This usage grants them teaching-learning autonomy, which in turn, compels these teachers to inculcate the same in ESL learners. Hence, they play an imperative role in the development of ESL learner autonomy. The educated women’s practice of this teaching autonomy in classroom, a miniature of the social fabric of Pakistan, is a breakthrough the prevailing socio-political fences. This premise is contested through the critical review of the related literature. It reveals that the use of technology as positively affecting female ESL tertiary level teachers’ professional competence and pedagogical practices in Pakistani context is not well-researched. Nonetheless, this context helps to address and establish underpinning concepts of this study. Although for some projects that deal in isolation with either technology or learner autonomy or feminist perspective, description in literature or other documentary sources is both comprehensive and also in depth, yet no single framework caters to interface this study. For the purpose of study, I have adopted a technique of theoretical triangulation. The epistemological framework is delineated with (a) feminist pedagogical lens of Paulo Friere and a radical feminist pedagogue bell hooks1; (b) the soft technological deterministic view of Andrew Feenberg (2002); and (c) Phil Benson’s (2011) philosophy of the role of teacher and technology with David Little’s (1996) model of interaction with information system for the development of learner autonomy. My theoretical framework is, thus, based upon feminist methodology, furnished with the empirical tool: Technology and Development of ESL Learner Autonomy Survey. To administer the survey, ‘purposeful’ and ‘snowball’ sampling techniques were employed; accordingly, the response from 128 respondents formed the sample of this study. These sampling 1 Gloria Jean Watkins is known by her pen name bell hooks x techniques were employed to access those female teachers whose knowledge and expertise are substantial in utilizing technology. To evaluate the data, descriptive statistics are used. Moreover, the Pearson Correlation analysis correlates research variables. In addition, the findings of One Way ANOVA analyses tabulate the significant difference of means between variables under study. Elucidating female tertiary level teachers ESL teaching-learning autonomy by way of using technology, the findings of this study contribute to this field of research in Pakistan. The results depict that technology enables the female ESL teachers to perform beyond the customary social differences. In consequence, the emergent theory and praxis of Pyramid of ESL Techno-Feminist Pedagogy sketch the multifaceted philosophies of the impact of technology on women teacher autonomy in Pakistani ESL context. This pyramid, subsequently, delineates women ESL teachers’ critical awareness of the implications of use of technology in education as the embodiment of the active feminist movement in Pakistani educational institutions. These teachers, as highly qualified women reject the gender discrimination and disparage oppression that consummate women’s right to access means of education within the microcosm of social stratum especially in the higher education institutions. The female teachers’ pedagogical practices, in this way, are the conscious actions to liberate and gain teaching-learning autonomy. Moreover, teachers favour teaching as an engaged process rather than a stockpiling attempt onto learners. It also highlights that the women ESL teachers consider classroom a radical space of possibility. Thus, this feminist approach to education advocates voicing of the silent, freedom of the oppressed and autonomy of the restrained. Consequently, the future implications of this pyramid cannot be ignored besides its limitations in addressing the core ideology of educational domain. For example, in further research this framework will help to address the issues of social malignance in education sector and society.