Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar | Virginia Commonwealth University (original) (raw)

Papers by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

International Journal of Research in Education Methodology, Aug 30, 2012

The aim of this study is to find out the Emotional Maturity and Achievement in Economics of highe... more The aim of this study is to find out the Emotional Maturity and Achievement in Economics of higher secondary students in Tirunelveli District. 1060 Higher secondary students were taken as sample. The tool used to find out the Emotional Maturity is constructed and standardized by Emotional Maturity Scale Constructed and Validated by K.M.Roma Pal (1984). The Academic achievement in Economics was found out using the tool constructed by the investigator. The mean value of Emotional Maturity scores (136.53) indicates that the higher secondary students are having extremely unstable Emotional Maturity, The mean value of Achievement in Economics scores (M=75.47) indicates that the higher secondary students are having high Achievement in Economics. There is significant difference between male and female, Day scholar and Hostel staying Higher Secondary students with respect to their Emotional Maturity. There is no significant difference between rural and urban, Government and Aided Higher Secondary school students with respect to their Emotional Maturity. There is significant difference between male and female Higher Secondary students with respect to their Achievement in Economics. There is no significant difference between rural and urban, Day scholar and Hostel staying, Government and Aided Higher Secondary school students with respect to their Achievement in Economics.

... Shelley Constantin – Schools Come Alive Project Coordinator – Hip Hop Dance October 2003 Refe... more ... Shelley Constantin – Schools Come Alive Project Coordinator – Hip Hop Dance October 2003 References Dance Even I Would Do!, P. Doyle, L. Potapczyk, 2000 CIRA Product # 9034, 20/20/20/25.00, www.intramurals.ca Fit Kids Classroom Workout Video, J. Notte, 2000 CIRA ...

ADFL Bulletin, 2018

On the international branch campuses of Education City, Qatar’s multiversity project featuring si... more On the international branch campuses of Education City, Qatar’s multiversity project featuring six American universities, the role of English classes in the curricula is a complex one. Each of the universities have been contracted to offer a specific degree, whether design, computer science, international relations, engineering, or medicine. The students apply and enroll in particular programs with the ensuing professions in mind. The challenge of this approach to education particularly affects English courses because they are offered in Liberal Arts programs and departments, rather than as their own specialization. Literature survey classes are counted as electives in the general education or core curricula and therefore occupy a secondary status in the degree program as well as students’ attitudes. While students do not prioritize literature classes, the skills developed in such courses, including reading and writing, are central to academic success at the tertiary level. For the international student population, the majority of whom are second language learners, the dual challenges of reading comprehension and argumentative writing are pressing challenges that must be overcome in order to succeed in American education. A secondary set of issues facing literature classes in the context of the culture of the Arabian Gulf, is the issue of appropriateness for material. The Education City project has the contractual and good will promise of the sponsor, Qatar Foundation, to offer the same degrees and courses as the main campuses of the universities. The realities in the classroom, however, are much a more complicated terrain. This article offers a case study based discussion of the treatment of literature classes at the six campuses in Qatar, including VCUQatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Texas A and M University at Qatar, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, and Northwestern University in Qatar.

Routledge, May 23, 2012

The countries on the Arabian Peninsula—including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, O... more The countries on the Arabian Peninsula—including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen—enjoy a wealth and political stability unique in the Middle East. Petrodollars and oil wealth have made these monarchies headliners in the western media as they funnel billions into educational programs such as Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development or Kalima, the translation project to increase the number of classic English titles into Arabic. In the case of Qatar, there are twin sides to this growth and modernization; six American universities have set up branch campuses in Doha, Qatar as part of the QF Education City initiative and most of the classrooms have significantly more female than male students. While this generation of women enjoy roles in public life not available to their mothers or grandmothers, there are still social and cultural mores which most families prefer their daughters adhere to out of deference to local customs. The Internet is one area where women can both express themselves and yet feel restricted because of social conventions around the photography and dissemination of women’s images. Hence social networking such as Facebook or even blogs is applied in different ways. While American college students are posting compromising photos perhaps unthinkingly, Qatari college students, particularly the females, often do not use any images at all on their pages. Blog writing in the Middle East in general is on the rise as people use the anonymity to work around the restrictions of their governments or social taboos. Yet here again, many women in Qatar do not use their full names or photos to identify themselves with their blogs. This paper addresses the ways in which gender, social class, and ethnicity affect Qatari women’s use of two modes of popular culture on the Internet: Facebook profiles and messages. Most of the analysis draws from real life examples of students at Qatar Foundation and Qatar University. Of central interest are the parameters within which web content is created and circulated by young women in Qatar, in most cases willingly so as to honor the expectations of their parents. Also central to discussion will be the ways in which students circumvent these restrictions to promote and participate in lively digital communities. An interesting contrast is the range of information shared on the Internet as there are often differences between what is permitted for young, unmarried college age females and older, post graduate women.

The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies, 2016

The International Journal of the Humanities: Annual Review, 2006

Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1, 2014

The past three generations of Qataris have witnessed unprecedented economic, social and cultural ... more The past three generations of Qataris have witnessed unprecedented economic, social and cultural changes. The juxtaposition of economic growth and social conservatism causes many conflicts or gaps between traditional values and the opportunities offered by modernity; perhaps one of the most startling examples of this is the current generation of Qatari females who are attending university, preparing for professional fields, and still expected to fulfill traditional gender roles as wives and mothers, within the same time frame as their own mothers or grandmothers. Within a kinship or tribal society, where relationships are determined by exchanges between families, marriage is a symbolic institution as much as a social one; the exchange of partners is a private act that has public significance with socio-economic ramifications. Marriage is a way of maintaining and enforcing social order, particularly the behavior of women by patriarchal societies; therefore it is at the very heart of traditional society. This study examines whether the tertiary education of Qatari women in co-educational settings is impacting the institution of marriage within a patriarchal Arab society. Does the level of a woman's education hamper or enhance her marriage prospects? This question is particularly relevant given the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030) which outlines human capacity building as central to the development of the nation and another example of the explicitly stated intentions of the State of Qatar in investing in a knowledge based economy. The research team has studied marriage practices from 2000-2012 through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and the analysis of marital documents to analyze the way attitudes towards educated women as prospective brides. Over 350 Qatari women from a variety of academic institutions in Qatar, including Hamad Bin Khalifa University branch campuses, Qatar University, College of the North Atlantic Qatar, and the Community College of Qatar were surveyed. 150 women from these institutions also participated in focus group interviews. The findings interpret the broader social ramification of balancing the education of women within the expectations of traditional gender roles during state-building.

Kate Chopin in Context, 2015

Kate Chopin’s work is often read as a critique of nineteenth-century marriage and gender roles; i... more Kate Chopin’s work is often read as a critique of nineteenth-century marriage and gender roles; it’s also used in the curriculum because of its accessibility for beginning readers or nonnative speakers of English. In particular, “The Story of an Hour” has been taught in a variety of settings as an example of American short fiction. This classic example of form is concise, yet takes the reader on a great emotional journey; the surprise twist at the end is an excellent example of dramatic irony, which can also be used to assess reading comprehension. The reversal is indicative of the short story genre as established by early twentieth-century male writers including Guy Maupassant and O. Henry (Chongyue and Lihua 1). Despite its brevity, this narrative presents complex and subtle sentiments about marriage and the role of the wife in domesticity that often resonate with student readers. The idea that literature connects readers to their own life is not a new idea; readers respond to specific themes and focus their analysis around ideas that resonate with their own cultures (Diederich 116).

Social Media and Networking: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes i... more Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes in Qatar have not kept pace with the country's economic development. The expatriate and national population of the small emirate have access to luxury brands and a variety of Western goods including food as well as hotels. The high level of commercialization, however, does not mean that cultural differences between the various nationalities have been erased. Online forums and social media have provided neutral public spaces where debate and dialogue about identity and values can take place in a way they do not occur in public. This chapter examines a variety of examples through comments by expats and nationals on a number of media sites as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Establishing Credibility and Influence

Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes i... more Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes in Qatar have not kept pace with the country’s economic development. The expatriate and national population of the small emirate have access to luxury brands and a variety of Western goods including food as well as hotels. The high level of commercialization, however, does not mean that cultural differences between the various nationalities have been erased. Online forums and social media have provided neutral public spaces where debate and dialogue about identity and values can take place in a way they do not occur in public. This chapter examines a variety of examples through comments by expats and nationals on a number of media sites as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 2017

IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, Feb 28, 2017

The close kinship structure of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arab... more The close kinship structure of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) means that appeasing one's family often supersedes personal aspirations. The family occupies a central space in the life of the individual, one that mimics the state's involvement in the everyday lives of its citizens. Within such a context we need a new framework to understand how women's private choices have sociopolitical implications. Qatari women are ensconced within the political and economic stability of the Arabian Gulf. The Western feminist tropes of activism and advocacy, as have been studied in Egypt and other Arab countries affected by the Arab uprisings of 2011, cannot characterize Qatari women's behavior on social media. Yet the degree to which women present themselves online, using their real names, is a form of agency important to their context. Qatari women also use social media in order to educate themselves about the personalities and activities of potential spouses. Similarly, male Qataris consider certain behaviors as disqualifiers for potential brides. We discuss these trends within the larger context of Qatari society and the dichotomy between modernization and traditional culture in the Arabian context. This article arose out of a larger study about contemporary marriage practices and attitudes toward partner selection in Qatar today. The ways in which both males and females analyze the social media usage of potential partners is an interesting ancillary discussion against the backdrop of larger trends in Qatari society.

Situating Strangeness: Exploring the Intersections between Bodies and Borders

International Journal of Research in Education Methodology, Aug 30, 2012

The aim of this study is to find out the Emotional Maturity and Achievement in Economics of highe... more The aim of this study is to find out the Emotional Maturity and Achievement in Economics of higher secondary students in Tirunelveli District. 1060 Higher secondary students were taken as sample. The tool used to find out the Emotional Maturity is constructed and standardized by Emotional Maturity Scale Constructed and Validated by K.M.Roma Pal (1984). The Academic achievement in Economics was found out using the tool constructed by the investigator. The mean value of Emotional Maturity scores (136.53) indicates that the higher secondary students are having extremely unstable Emotional Maturity, The mean value of Achievement in Economics scores (M=75.47) indicates that the higher secondary students are having high Achievement in Economics. There is significant difference between male and female, Day scholar and Hostel staying Higher Secondary students with respect to their Emotional Maturity. There is no significant difference between rural and urban, Government and Aided Higher Secondary school students with respect to their Emotional Maturity. There is significant difference between male and female Higher Secondary students with respect to their Achievement in Economics. There is no significant difference between rural and urban, Day scholar and Hostel staying, Government and Aided Higher Secondary school students with respect to their Achievement in Economics.

... Shelley Constantin – Schools Come Alive Project Coordinator – Hip Hop Dance October 2003 Refe... more ... Shelley Constantin – Schools Come Alive Project Coordinator – Hip Hop Dance October 2003 References Dance Even I Would Do!, P. Doyle, L. Potapczyk, 2000 CIRA Product # 9034, 20/20/20/25.00, www.intramurals.ca Fit Kids Classroom Workout Video, J. Notte, 2000 CIRA ...

ADFL Bulletin, 2018

On the international branch campuses of Education City, Qatar’s multiversity project featuring si... more On the international branch campuses of Education City, Qatar’s multiversity project featuring six American universities, the role of English classes in the curricula is a complex one. Each of the universities have been contracted to offer a specific degree, whether design, computer science, international relations, engineering, or medicine. The students apply and enroll in particular programs with the ensuing professions in mind. The challenge of this approach to education particularly affects English courses because they are offered in Liberal Arts programs and departments, rather than as their own specialization. Literature survey classes are counted as electives in the general education or core curricula and therefore occupy a secondary status in the degree program as well as students’ attitudes. While students do not prioritize literature classes, the skills developed in such courses, including reading and writing, are central to academic success at the tertiary level. For the international student population, the majority of whom are second language learners, the dual challenges of reading comprehension and argumentative writing are pressing challenges that must be overcome in order to succeed in American education. A secondary set of issues facing literature classes in the context of the culture of the Arabian Gulf, is the issue of appropriateness for material. The Education City project has the contractual and good will promise of the sponsor, Qatar Foundation, to offer the same degrees and courses as the main campuses of the universities. The realities in the classroom, however, are much a more complicated terrain. This article offers a case study based discussion of the treatment of literature classes at the six campuses in Qatar, including VCUQatar, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Texas A and M University at Qatar, Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service in Qatar, and Northwestern University in Qatar.

Routledge, May 23, 2012

The countries on the Arabian Peninsula—including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, O... more The countries on the Arabian Peninsula—including Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Yemen—enjoy a wealth and political stability unique in the Middle East. Petrodollars and oil wealth have made these monarchies headliners in the western media as they funnel billions into educational programs such as Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development or Kalima, the translation project to increase the number of classic English titles into Arabic. In the case of Qatar, there are twin sides to this growth and modernization; six American universities have set up branch campuses in Doha, Qatar as part of the QF Education City initiative and most of the classrooms have significantly more female than male students. While this generation of women enjoy roles in public life not available to their mothers or grandmothers, there are still social and cultural mores which most families prefer their daughters adhere to out of deference to local customs. The Internet is one area where women can both express themselves and yet feel restricted because of social conventions around the photography and dissemination of women’s images. Hence social networking such as Facebook or even blogs is applied in different ways. While American college students are posting compromising photos perhaps unthinkingly, Qatari college students, particularly the females, often do not use any images at all on their pages. Blog writing in the Middle East in general is on the rise as people use the anonymity to work around the restrictions of their governments or social taboos. Yet here again, many women in Qatar do not use their full names or photos to identify themselves with their blogs. This paper addresses the ways in which gender, social class, and ethnicity affect Qatari women’s use of two modes of popular culture on the Internet: Facebook profiles and messages. Most of the analysis draws from real life examples of students at Qatar Foundation and Qatar University. Of central interest are the parameters within which web content is created and circulated by young women in Qatar, in most cases willingly so as to honor the expectations of their parents. Also central to discussion will be the ways in which students circumvent these restrictions to promote and participate in lively digital communities. An interesting contrast is the range of information shared on the Internet as there are often differences between what is permitted for young, unmarried college age females and older, post graduate women.

The Encyclopedia of Postcolonial Studies, 2016

The International Journal of the Humanities: Annual Review, 2006

Qatar Foundation Annual Research Conference Proceedings Volume 2014 Issue 1, 2014

The past three generations of Qataris have witnessed unprecedented economic, social and cultural ... more The past three generations of Qataris have witnessed unprecedented economic, social and cultural changes. The juxtaposition of economic growth and social conservatism causes many conflicts or gaps between traditional values and the opportunities offered by modernity; perhaps one of the most startling examples of this is the current generation of Qatari females who are attending university, preparing for professional fields, and still expected to fulfill traditional gender roles as wives and mothers, within the same time frame as their own mothers or grandmothers. Within a kinship or tribal society, where relationships are determined by exchanges between families, marriage is a symbolic institution as much as a social one; the exchange of partners is a private act that has public significance with socio-economic ramifications. Marriage is a way of maintaining and enforcing social order, particularly the behavior of women by patriarchal societies; therefore it is at the very heart of traditional society. This study examines whether the tertiary education of Qatari women in co-educational settings is impacting the institution of marriage within a patriarchal Arab society. Does the level of a woman's education hamper or enhance her marriage prospects? This question is particularly relevant given the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030) which outlines human capacity building as central to the development of the nation and another example of the explicitly stated intentions of the State of Qatar in investing in a knowledge based economy. The research team has studied marriage practices from 2000-2012 through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and the analysis of marital documents to analyze the way attitudes towards educated women as prospective brides. Over 350 Qatari women from a variety of academic institutions in Qatar, including Hamad Bin Khalifa University branch campuses, Qatar University, College of the North Atlantic Qatar, and the Community College of Qatar were surveyed. 150 women from these institutions also participated in focus group interviews. The findings interpret the broader social ramification of balancing the education of women within the expectations of traditional gender roles during state-building.

Kate Chopin in Context, 2015

Kate Chopin’s work is often read as a critique of nineteenth-century marriage and gender roles; i... more Kate Chopin’s work is often read as a critique of nineteenth-century marriage and gender roles; it’s also used in the curriculum because of its accessibility for beginning readers or nonnative speakers of English. In particular, “The Story of an Hour” has been taught in a variety of settings as an example of American short fiction. This classic example of form is concise, yet takes the reader on a great emotional journey; the surprise twist at the end is an excellent example of dramatic irony, which can also be used to assess reading comprehension. The reversal is indicative of the short story genre as established by early twentieth-century male writers including Guy Maupassant and O. Henry (Chongyue and Lihua 1). Despite its brevity, this narrative presents complex and subtle sentiments about marriage and the role of the wife in domesticity that often resonate with student readers. The idea that literature connects readers to their own life is not a new idea; readers respond to specific themes and focus their analysis around ideas that resonate with their own cultures (Diederich 116).

Social Media and Networking: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes i... more Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes in Qatar have not kept pace with the country's economic development. The expatriate and national population of the small emirate have access to luxury brands and a variety of Western goods including food as well as hotels. The high level of commercialization, however, does not mean that cultural differences between the various nationalities have been erased. Online forums and social media have provided neutral public spaces where debate and dialogue about identity and values can take place in a way they do not occur in public. This chapter examines a variety of examples through comments by expats and nationals on a number of media sites as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications

Establishing Credibility and Influence

Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes i... more Despite having one of the highest per-capita incomes of the world, social and political changes in Qatar have not kept pace with the country’s economic development. The expatriate and national population of the small emirate have access to luxury brands and a variety of Western goods including food as well as hotels. The high level of commercialization, however, does not mean that cultural differences between the various nationalities have been erased. Online forums and social media have provided neutral public spaces where debate and dialogue about identity and values can take place in a way they do not occur in public. This chapter examines a variety of examples through comments by expats and nationals on a number of media sites as well as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

GENDER – Zeitschrift für Geschlecht, Kultur und Gesellschaft, 2017

IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, Feb 28, 2017

The close kinship structure of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arab... more The close kinship structure of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries of Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) means that appeasing one's family often supersedes personal aspirations. The family occupies a central space in the life of the individual, one that mimics the state's involvement in the everyday lives of its citizens. Within such a context we need a new framework to understand how women's private choices have sociopolitical implications. Qatari women are ensconced within the political and economic stability of the Arabian Gulf. The Western feminist tropes of activism and advocacy, as have been studied in Egypt and other Arab countries affected by the Arab uprisings of 2011, cannot characterize Qatari women's behavior on social media. Yet the degree to which women present themselves online, using their real names, is a form of agency important to their context. Qatari women also use social media in order to educate themselves about the personalities and activities of potential spouses. Similarly, male Qataris consider certain behaviors as disqualifiers for potential brides. We discuss these trends within the larger context of Qatari society and the dichotomy between modernization and traditional culture in the Arabian context. This article arose out of a larger study about contemporary marriage practices and attitudes toward partner selection in Qatar today. The ways in which both males and females analyze the social media usage of potential partners is an interesting ancillary discussion against the backdrop of larger trends in Qatari society.

Situating Strangeness: Exploring the Intersections between Bodies and Borders