Razia Fakir Mohammad

 My academic and professional qualifications include three degrees in Master of Education from Pakistan, and a DPhil (Mathematics Education) from the University of Oxford.  I also hold qualified teacher status in Teaching in Higher Education UK. 

I am Dr Razia Fakir Mohammad, working currently as a Professor at Iqra University Karachi Pakistan.  My academic and professional qualifications include three degrees in Master of Education from Pakistan, and a DPhil (Mathematics Education) from the University of Oxford.  I also hold qualified teacher status in Teaching in Higher Education UK. 

I started my career as a Secondary Teacher, and as a Head of the Mathematics Education Department at the Aga Khan School Karachi and worked there for around five years. Based on a careful and critical assessment of my performance (of working with pupils and teachers in school), my motivation to be a continuous learner, and commitment towards the teaching profession, I was selected for a 2-year M.Ed. programme at the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED).

After completion of my M.Ed., I worked at the university as well as in school as a Professional Development Teacher (PDT) for three years. In this capacity, I contributed significantly to the conceptualization, implementation, and evaluation of teacher education in Pakistan. 

In 1998, I went to the Oxford University for my doctoral studies (Mathematics Education) and returned in April 2002 with a D.Phil. in Teacher Education and joined the Aga Khan University’s Institute of Educational Development as a faculty. My D.Phil. thesis was shortlisted for the British Education Research Award, UK. 

From 2002 to 2007, as a faculty member at the AKU- IED, I contributed to teacher education programmes and research in the area of teacher development and school improvement. I also took lead roles through my services for institutional growth. I have also engaged rigorously in disseminating findings generated through conference presentations as well as academic publications both, at national and international level. 

From 2007 to 2016, I was associated with the Department of Graduate Studies, Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), London UK, as a senior fellow. My academic portfolio included various roles (Teaching, Pedagogic Expertise, Module Leadership, MA Research and Programme Evaluation and Development) on the Secondary Teacher Education Programme (STEP), which aimed to educate and prepare teachers to teach the institute’s secondary curriculum to Ismaili students worldwide. The programme is a pioneering development by IIS in collaboration with the University College London Institute of Education (UCL IOE), University of London, and leads to two postgraduate degrees: The Master of Teaching (MTeach) and Master of Arts in Education: Muslim Societies and Civilization (MA). My portfolio involved extensive coordination and collaboration at various levels within and outside the institute. 

In UK, I also worked as a Mathematics Education Consultant at the United Nation Reliefs Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in Near East (NNRWA) in the design of SBTD Materials in Mathematics Education. Working in UK has been a very worthwhile and enriching experience for me.

In 2016, I rejoined AKU IED as an Assistant Professor, and Head of Research and Policy Studies (RAPs). My main responsibility as a faculty was to design courses and programmes in classroom assessment, and to nurture a culture of quality research at the institute as part of role as a Head, RAPs. I completed my contract with the university in 2020 and joined another private university in Pakistan as an Associate Professor. Throughout my professional journey, I have performed various roles; listed below are some:

Throughout my professional journey of nearly 30 years, I have been involved in designing, teaching and evaluating initial teacher education and in-service teacher education programmers at national and international levels. 

My doctoral academic education, under the supervision of Professor Barbara Jaworski, was done at the University of Oxford.