A Critical Analysis of Equal Education Rights and Opportunities to All: THE CASE OF IRAN

The right to education and equal educational opportunities for all has been considered a ‘universal entitlement’. Almost everywhere in the world, the main goal of a successful education system is to provide equitable educational opportunities to members of society to enable them to accomplish their diverse needs and interests

A Critical Policy Analysis of Internationalization in Postsecondary Education : An Ontario Case Study

Using a case study approach, I investigate a very timely and significant policy issue regarding postsecondary education. While internationalization seems to be ubiquitous in universities’ policy rhetoric and statements in the Canadian context, specifically in Ontario, it is unclear what values drive internationalization and how they influence policies and initiatives at a public university in Ontario. Relying on Easton’s approach of policy as the ‘authoritative allocation of values’ and drawing on critical policy analysis, I perceive policy as ‘the practice of values’. The critical policy approach and the centrality of values in analysis require a consideration be given not only to what values are represented, but to understanding whose values are represented and whose voices are missing in internationalization activities and related policy statements. By interrogating policy perceptions conveyed through interviews with university administrators and faculty, and reflected in policy statements and administration rhetoric, this study found the emergence and presence of two major discourses of values driving internationalization policies: liberal-academic and neoliberal-instrumental. The liberal-academic discourse is constituted by two sets of values: educational/academic and multicultural/humanitarian. The neoliberal-instrumental discourse is also comprised of two other sets: market-based and competition-based values. Moreover, the findings support there is a significant gap between the meaning of internationalization in theory and its perception in practice. From a critical point of view, internationalization is rhetorically (in theory) acknowledged as ideological components, and literally (in practice) recognized as different realistic components with some pragmatic rationales. Additionally, although participants from different administrative positions and faculties share the same values regarding the necessity of internationalization, there are significant differences between their perceptions and attitudes about the meanings, rationales, and agendas of internationalization. The study shows the gradual extension of commercial logic and market values that historically have been absent from traditional university policies in Ontario to educational initiatives and academic values. The study recommends internationalization initiatives require harmony and a dynamic balance between the two identified discourses of values. There is, therefore, an imperative need to maintain balance in the global market of internationalization and to protect academic and humanitarian values and rationales of postsecondary education

Teacher’s Narration of Teaching Critical Literacy: It’s a KEY for Raising Students’ Awareness in Iran

To be literate, students need to able to think critically and read between the lines to find the implicit meanings and ideologies. To help Iranian English language learners learn writing as a social action and not independent of social (in)justices and (in)equalities, we included critical literacy in a writing course at the University of [for anonymity]. We intend to illuminate teacher’s narration about raising students’ awareness towards (mal)practices, (in)justices, and (in)equalities of the society in their writings.To do so, all 52 undergraduate 3rd-year-EFL learners of English Literature and Translation participated in our writing class. The teacher was also an associate professor (50 years old) with critical literacy as his main area of research. Students were required to write essays as mid-term and final exams. The teacher’s reflection on the course in general and on the EFL learners’ reflective essays highlighted that teaching writing through critical literacy helped students realize that writing is a process dependent on different social and political issues.Students’ growth in critical consciousness through their writing reminds teaching practitioners, policy-makers, and teacher educators to provide innovation in their classrooms to empower language learners with teaching methodologies contrary to what they are accustomed to during their learning

Iranian Students’ Experience of K-12 and Higher Education: Use of Drawings to Convey the Difference Between Ideals and Reality

The focus of education during K-12 and Higher Education (HE) in Iran is on theoretical empowerment of students; therefore, our students get an illusion of knowing. In fact, what happens is not learning and understanding; rather, it is verbatim transfer of available information in the textbooks into the students’ minds. It might be because the students and teachers (as the main stakeholders of the education) are the least powerful parties within the pyramid of power amongst educational practitioners and policymakers. It means their voice, feedback, needs, and ideologies have no place in the educational decisions and policies. In alignment with the mainstream of the present research; it is an innovative idea to explore the students’ living/ studying experience during K-12, and their ideals and expectations from higher education studies. To do so, we asked 60 university students to portray their experience (in a phenomenological research design) concerning living and studying through K-12 and their ideals and expectations from Higher Education. Students’ drawings are the main source of data collection and inductive analysis of data is administered to find students’ responses which are categorized under three major and six minor themes, respectively

Interdisciplinary Higher Education: Criticism, Challenges and Obstacles

During the past two decades, extensive attentions have been paid to interdisciplinary activities by educational institutions and according to the corresponding needs, it has also been extended to ‘interdisciplinary higher education’

Editorial Note: December Issue

Editorial Not

Teacher’s Narration of Teaching Critical Literacy: It’s a KEY for Raising Students’ Awareness in Iran

To be literate, students need to able to think critically and read between the lines to find the implicit meanings and ideologies. To help Iranian English language learners learn writing as a social action and not independent of social (in)justices and (in)equalities, we included critical literacy in a writing course at the University of [for anonymity]. We intend to illuminate teacher’s narration about raising students’ awareness towards (mal)practices, (in)justices, and (in)equalities of the society in their writings.To do so, all 52 undergraduate 3rd-year-EFL learners of English Literature and Translation participated in our writing class. The teacher was also an associate professor (50 years old) with critical literacy as his main area of research. Students were required to write essays as mid-term and final exams. The teacher’s reflection on the course in general and on the EFL learners’ reflective essays highlighted that teaching writing through critical literacy helped students realize that writing is a process dependent on different social and political issues.Students’ growth in critical consciousness through their writing reminds teaching practitioners, policy-makers, and teacher educators to provide innovation in their classrooms to empower language learners with teaching methodologies contrary to what they are accustomed to during their learning

Teacher’s Narration of Teaching Critical Literacy: It’s a KEY for Raising Students’ Awareness in Iran

To be literate, students need to able to think critically and read between the lines to find the implicit meanings and ideologies. To help Iranian English language learners learn writing as a social action and not independent of social (in)justices and (in)equalities, we included critical literacy in a writing course at the University of [for anonymity]. We intend to illuminate teacher’s narration about raising students’ awareness towards (mal)practices, (in)justices, and (in)equalities of the society in their writings.To do so, all 52 undergraduate 3rd-year-EFL learners of English Literature and Translation participated in our writing class. The teacher was also an associate professor (50 years old) with critical literacy as his main area of research. Students were required to write essays as mid-term and final exams. The teacher’s reflection on the course in general and on the EFL learners’ reflective essays highlighted that teaching writing through critical literacy helped students realize that writing is a process dependent on different social and political issues.Students’ growth in critical consciousness through their writing reminds teaching practitioners, policy-makers, and teacher educators to provide innovation in their classrooms to empower language learners with teaching methodologies contrary to what they are accustomed to during their learning.Para una alfabetización de calidad, el alumnado debe pensar críticamente y leer entre líneas para encontrar los significados e ideologías implícitos. Para ayudar a los estudiantes iraníes de inglés como lengua extranjera (EFL) a escribir como acción socialy no independiente de las (in)justicias y las (des)igualdades sociales, incluimos la alfabetización crítica en un curso de escritura en la Universidad de Kashan. Con este artículo, pretendemos aportar conocimiento alrededor de la narración del profesorado con relación a la sensibilización del alumnado hacia las (malas) prácticas, (in)justicias y (des)igualdades de la sociedad en sus escritos. 52 estudiantes de 3er año de Literatura y Traducción Inglesa participaron en nuestra clase de escritura.El profesor tenía la alfabetización crítica como su área principal de investigación y pidió al alumnado que escribieran ensayos como exámenes de mitad y final de curso. La reflexión del profesor sobre el curso y los ensayos reflexivos del alumnado resaltóque la enseñanza de la escritura a través de la alfabetización crítica ayuda al alumnado a darse cuenta de que la escritura es un proceso que depende de diferentes problemas sociales y políticos. El incremento en la concienciación crítica del alumnado a través de sus escritos insta a docentes, responsables políticos y formadores de docentes a promover la innovación en sus aulas para capacitar a los estudiantes de idiomas. No es común encontrar una práctica de este tipo en la educación superior en Irán, donde se recomienda encarecidamente a todos los maestros de escuela e instructores universitarios que se apeguen a los programas de estudio predefinidos mientras el mundo de la práctica de enseñanza y aprendizaje está cambiando

Urgent Changes to Be Made in Iran’s Primary Education: Voices From Teachers

Highlights One of the main shortcomings of the Iranian educational system is its focus on training students to succeed in different testing/assessment practices. In this regard, primary emphasis is still placed on memorization rather than learning dialogue, collaboration, tolerance, and life expectation for today’s globalized communities. Few voices from Iranian teachers have been heard in international publications. This study collected focus group interviews from 84 Iranian primary school teachers in Tehran, Shiraz, and Yazd. Findings show that the interviewed teachers agreed on the urgent curriculum changes, including English, Law, and Entrepreneurship in the primary teaching. Additionally, the educational focus should be broadened from the current emphasis on assessment from the early years of schooling