RE-SEARCHING THE RESEARCH CULTURE IN TEACHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS OF PUNJAB

Abstract

The universities are the research oriented institutions that promote research culture throughout the world academia. As research culture includes disciplinary and interdisciplinary ideas and values, it is not easy to flourish it in the universities overnight especially where research is relatively a new. This study is an effort to investigate research culture in universities. The main purpose of this study is to find out the existing provisions for promoting research culture and to identify the barriers to the development of research culture in higher education institutions of Punjab province. The design of study is descriptive and exploratory in nature. The interpretive approach is applied to describe phenomena. Sample of this study is derived from six public sector universities of the Punjab offering M.Phil/PhD programs in Education. The sample consists of 06 heads of departments, eighteen teachers and twenty students of M.Phil/ PhD. Data is collected through interviews and focus group discussions based on four indicators of research culture. The major findings highlight that the research resources for scholars are needed to be provided at department level. Inter university research collaboration is also required to promote the research culture and that research culture is not limited to four indicators of research. It is recommended that further researches may be conducted to investigate its other aspects.