TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

I believe that education in a business school can catalyze students to realize their potential and become inspiring leaders and perspicacious strategic thinkers. My notion of an excellent business education involves satisfying student curiosity by introducing diversified knowledge, fostering a culture of innovative and self-motivated learning, and testing students to reach and extend their analytical limits.

This training can help the students of today to question the status quo, prepare for the unknown, and develop new thoughts and practices to drive their industries forward tomorrow. I opine that developing a mix of contemporary theory-based and practice-oriented curriculum is a way to address this academic agenda. In addition to having students grapple with marketing concepts, my view is to have students simulate the real world experience by having them undertake industry-related projects, build market connections, assess case studies, and conduct hands-on consumer research. In these excursions, a major focus is for students to provide strategic analyses and practical recommendations that can be applied in the professional domain. I also consider the business school educational experience to become invaluable if peer-to-peer learning is facilitated through thorough student engagement and discussion and if modern teaching aids are used effectively. I have found that students benefit more when they are involved in the learning process and techniques such as role-playing, in-class team exercises. Scenario-based problem solving can also be fruitful if employed judiciously. Finally, I believe that a course instructor is always learning and improving and uses student assessment, feedback, and course evaluation to enhance his or her own skills and improve future curricula.

My teaching interests lie in the area of consumer behavior with a focus on sociological influences on consumption and the relation between Islam, culture, Muslim consumers, and marketing. In these teaching domains, I intend to enable students to comprehend the intricacies and complexities associated with consumer behavior and its relation to changing marketplace and cultural dynamics. Moreover, by helping understand theories explicating phenomena of social life, I aim to help students critically understand possible explanations of consumer beliefs and actions. In terms of real-world practice, issues such as technological innovation shaping consumer practices, globalization and the influences and repercussions of Western ideas in Pakistan, socio-economic inequalities and their relation to consumption patterns, the dynamics of the trillion-dollar halal food market, and Islamic education as an emerging industry are examples of subjects that can be discussed and have relevance in contemporary business. Importantly, these topics are related to my research and, hence, give me an opportunity to discuss cutting edge ideas in the classroom. In addition to the aforementioned areas of interest, I also view myself as a qualitative researcher and am keen to impart methodological education to students.