ALA Success Story- Harits Masduqi

Harits Masduqi is a lecturer at English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang, East Java. Believing in ’Impossible Is Nothing’, he began his enduring career as a scholarship hunter in 1999. After two-year ill-fated efforts in applying numerous scholarships, he successfully got a master degree scholarship from DEPAG RI and studied at Postgraduate Program, Islamic University of Malang.

During his thesis completion in 2003, Harits gave his ‘nothing to lose’ shot to apply for ADS (Australian Development Scholarship). This time Allah SWT seemed to pity on him and granted his prayers. And Kun Fayakun, out of the blue! He got a ‘durian runtuh’ of ADS and pursued his second master degree at Monash University of Melbourne, Australia. He obtained M.Ed. in TESOL (English Language Teaching) from the university in 2005. Two years later he was awarded another AusAid scholarship and got a Certificate of I-CELT ESOL Course (an international English Language Teaching certificate) from Cambridge University, England. ALHAMDULILLAH and Bravo Australia Indonesia Partnership!

In addition to working for UM and UNISMA, he was once assigned to be a Master Teacher Trainer of the LAPIS ELTIS Project from January 2008 up to June 2010. In the AusAid teacher training project, he was responsible for training Communicative English Language Teaching method to Islamic secondary school teachers and headmasters in remote areas of East Java. In collaboration with all ELTIS trainers, he also contributed his writing work in Handbook of Communicative English Language Teaching Training which was published by the AusAid Project in 2008. Indeed, the project was challenging and rewarding as well. He did not only train the trainees, but also encouraged them to improve education qualities in remote areas which are often neglected by Indonesian government.

Harits has also presented and published articles in academic journals and seminars, i.e., Critical Thinking Skills and Meaning in English Language Teaching published in TEFLIN Journal 22 (2) 185-200 in July 2011, The Teaching of Reading in Indonesian Universities: A Cross-Cultural Perspective presented at Annual Higher Degree Research Student Conference 2012, The University of New South Wales on 9 November 2012, and English Language Teaching in Indonesian Universities: What Makes for an Effective EFL Reading Program presented at the 60^th TEFLIN International Conference on 27 August 2013.

The latest breakthrough of Harits’ career is being an awardee of AusAid Austalian Leadership Award Scholarship 2010 (The scholarship is updated at http://australiaawardsindo.or.id/). He was granted the PhD scholarship after ‘a series of unfortunate events’ failing three ADS applications (including an interview in January 2010), Endeavour Scholarship, IIEF Fellowship, and Fulbright Scholarship (also failed the interview in July 2010). What a long scholarship journey! Harits is currently doing PhD in TESOL program at Faculty of Education, The University of Sydney, Australia.

His research proposal discusses EFL Reading and Critical Thinking Skills Used by Indonesian University Students. His study is mainly designed to find out to what extent Indonesian University students use reading and critical thinking skills and whether ways of using reading and critical thinking skills vary among them due to different socio-cultural backgrounds. In Australia, he will be actively involved in leadership trainings and workshops as required by the ALA Scholarship. He plans to extend his academic network and leadership qualities with other brilliant ALA awardees from Indonesia and other countries.

Having got PhD from Australia, Harits believes he will be more able to develop Indonesian people’s reading and critical thinking skills. His study will potentially contribute to higher education development in Indonesia, through the inclusion of reading and critical thinking skills in the university curricula. Consequently, Indonesian students and lecturers will be better able to apply reading and critical thinking skills and eventually, can exchange and evaluate argumentative ideas in English more effectively. The research topic also fits with his future community development in which he plans to include the notion of reading and critical thinking skills in leadership trainings and seminars in Indonesian non-governmental organizations.

Having been married with Fatimah – a lecturer at Brawijaya University of Malang – for thirteen years, Harits has four children (what a productive couple, isn’t it?). His hobbies are watching movies, travelling, and reading novels. He also likes meeting new people and of course, enjoying nice meals and drinks (steak, noodle, nasi pecel, fruity juice, STMJ, and Es Teler). Believe it or not, now he is weighed over 90 kg! Oops! Luckily, he is 180 cm tall and therefore, he isn’t a sort of pendekar (pendek kekar). No wonder his students at UM and UNISMA call him Mr. Smack Down!

Finally, Harits can be contacted through email at hmasduqi@gmail.com. He also has a Facebook and Twitter accounts after his full name. He welcomes 'good guys' coming to his modest home in Malang, East Java.

Malang, December 14^th, 2013

^* Harits Masduqi, PhD Candidate.

Faculty Member, State University of Malang (UM)

Lecturer, Islamic University of Malang (UNISMA)

Awards/Scholarships obtained:

1. Thomas T. Roberts Education Fellowship, The University of Sydney, 2013
2. Postgraduate Research Student Scholarship, The University of Sydney, 2013
3. AusAid Allyson Sudrajat Award, 2010
4. AusAid Australian Leadership Award, 2010-2015
5. AusAid LAPIS-ELTIS Scholarship, 2007
6. The Best Graduate Award, Islamic University of Malang, 2006
7. AusAid Australian Development Scholarship, 2003-2005
8. MORA RI Graduate Scholarship, 2001-2003
9. The Best Undergraduate Award, Islamic University of Malang, 2000