Exploring teachers' and students' perspectives and practices regarding social media integration as teaching and learning tool at private colleges of Karachi, Sindh

Date of Award

2025

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Master of Philosophy in Education (MPhil Ed.)

First Advisor

Dr Meher Rizvi

Department

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Abstract

We live in a digital world, where our daily lives are inter-connected. Social media is not just a space for entertainment, it is digital platform where people connect, communicate, and learn (Lipschultz, 2020). In this digital world, the integration of social media at college level is becoming increasingly significant as it provides opportunities for academic collaboration and communication among students and most importantly (Carpenter et al., 2021), this level bridges secondary school and higher education offering programs such as Pre-Medical, Pre-Engineering, Commerce, and Humanities. Moreover, it also provides an environment where students need to develop global and digital perspectives to succeed in a digitally driven world. As the world progresses towards digitally oriented society, it is important that students must engage in local and global conversations, ideas, and trends. While social media has become deeply embedded in the daily lives of Pakistani youth, its purposeful integration into the teaching and learning process within higher education remains inconsistent (Khan & Raza, 2021). The issue is not just about the availability of digital resources at the college level; it is about how teachers perceive and utilize this resource into their teaching. Many teachers feel unsure about the beneficial integration of these platforms due to lack of training and assistance (Ali & Hameed, 2024). While there is growing discourse around social media use in education at the secondary and university levels, limited research has explored how it is being integrated into college-level teaching in Pakistan (Khan & Raza, 2021). Therefore, this study aimed to explore teachers' perspectives regarding the integration of social media, how do teachers connect with social media at the classroom level and what are students' perspectives regarding their teachers' use of social media integration. This study has employed a mixed-method sequential exploratory design among two private colleges of Karachi. Data gathered using semi structured interviews from ten college teachers, classroom observations for their teaching practices, and students’ focus group discussion (FGDs). The study findings revealed that teachers having positive perception regarding social media showed greater integration compared to teachers having narrow perception about social media and implementing in their classroom teachings.

First Page

1

Last Page

129

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