RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURAL VARIATIONS AND STUDENTS’ RESEARCH PREFERENCES: A GENDER BASED COMPARISON

Abstract

As culture presents the beliefs, value systems, norms, mores, myths, and structural elements of a given organization, tribe and society, it is the most powerful element to be observed in any social phenomena. Therefore, the individual as well as the organizational behavior is influenced by the morals and attitudes that they possess and the societal customs surrounding them. Education, being a social process, is completely dependent of the culture. Hence, research in the field of education is also influenced by the cultural setting of that society. Pakistan is a state that has a wide cultural diversity. There exists a variety in the fields of language, customs, traditions, living styles and needs which shapes the heterogeneous type of educational system in Pakistan. Consequently, the nature and the style of educational research may differ from university to university in the different areas of Pakistan. The present study aims at investigating the influence of cultural aspects, like language, traditions and norms on nature and process of academic research. For this purpose a survey of the universities of four provinces of Pakistan was conducted. The analysis of data revealed that the cultural variations have significant relationship with the specification of the field of research, selection of research problem, choice of research supervisor, research tool, and data gathering procedure.