INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT OF STUDENTS’ HABITUS ON THEIR LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF PAKISTAN
Back to Page
Authors: Mamuna Iqbal
Keywords: architectural education, habitus, learning experience, Pakistan
Abstract: Architectural education in Pakistan, similar to other subjects of higher education, is a very under-researched field. There is not a single significant study to understand students learning experiences in general or in general to their socio-economic backgrounds. The socio-economic class system in Pakistan is very strong which define every aspect of life including education, this system produces individuals with very distinct inherent personality attributes or as Bourdieu defines, Habitus. Over the decades, researchers have defined habitus to be the most important aspect of dictating educational success in higher education. It is particularly important in architectural education because its subjective nature requires its students not only to know something but to be something. Researchers in Western societies have looked into the impact of habitus on architectural learning that informs this particular study through a detailed literature review. This is a qualitative study that is conducted through semi-structured interviews with 44 students in 10 architecture schools of Pakistan. Schools from both public and private sector universities are selected for this study to make sure there is a good representation of students with a different socio-economic background. This study is in two parts, for the first part, it investigates into students’ life experiences and their current thoughts and believes about different aspects of life, including the reasons for their choice of architecture as a profession. This gives an insight about their habitus which is then divided into three groups of high, medium and low based upon students’ answers. For the second part, this study investigates into their learning experience of architecture in the school through detailed questions. An analysis is conducted by investigating how the experience of different habitus groups vary from each other and conclusions are drawn.