Journal of Iranian Cultural Research
Year:2016 | Volume:9 | Issue:2 (34)|Papers Count:14

In this study, immigrant students’ lives in Germany have been investigated and the aim was to understand the subjective meanings of agents with respect to the questions of the study. We can say that a student who moves to another country to continue his education, finds himself in a new culture, (the general culture of country of destination as well as its academic culture.) he experiences the trends of changes starting from the time he decided to leave his own country and lead to his final act of returning or staying in country of destination forever. These changes happen in the lives of students through different phases that it can be said each experience in student’s life is a phase for him to change and every change, stimulates a feeling in him.Therefore, in this study, unlike other studies on this field, research efforts to investigate lived experience of participants. To achieve this goal, observation, participant observation, in-depth interviews and group interviews were used and eventually it became clear that the final act of the participants in this study was associated with a sense of ambivalence. Thus“Ambivalence” was driven to write ethnography. This feeling, regardless of their act, is always with them and its strength depends on the duration of inhabitancy and the success of their coordination with the host society and it reminds some notions in post-colonial theory which are called being on threshold, being in the middle and third space and being linked. During this study, we try to survey paths, each students traverse to study in Germany to answer why this feeling exists.

Academic Dishonesty is one of the important issues in the higher education system of Iran, and reducing or preventing it requires identifying the factors which have an impact on it. The present study has analyzed the perceptions and understandings of PhD students in social science fields, who have a wider experience of scientific socialization in the process of education, with the aim of identifying the factors influencing academic dishonesty in the space of social science in Iran. The findings of this research show that the factors influencing academic dishonesty in the space of social science education can be detected at two individual and structural levels. At the structural level, sources and rules, and at the individual level, academic dishonesty among three groups of actors in educational space, i.e. professors, students and managers (heads of departments and faculties), with reference to their individual and personality characteristics, have paved the way for academic dishonesty, or have resulted in its occurrence.In the framework of a combination of actor/structure in explaining social phenomena, the factors influencing academic dishonesty and non-conformity to the norms of the ethics of science in the educational space can be reduced neither to the role of the structure nor that of the actor. Dishonesty in the ethics of science in social science education and the factors affecting them can be explained in the light of a combination of structure and actor.

The quality of college life means the overall satisfaction of students from the college life as a whole which is affected by different aspects of life based on the theory of generalization. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of college life among local and non-local students from non-state universities in Tehran. This study is developmental with respect to the aim and uses survey method for data gathering. The statistical population of the study are undergraduate students and 500 samples are chosen from the universities in the target population randomly and data are gathered using the questionnaire designed by the researcher the validity of the questionnaire has been verified based on the views of 5 experts and using some similar tested questionnaires as a model. The reliability has been estimated using Alpha Cronbach’s index by pre-test of 15 samples about 0.86. To data analyze SPSS software and statistical tests are used. The quality of the college life of students has been evaluated significantly lower than average and the quality of college life of non-local students is significantly higher than the quality of college life of local students.The low quality of college life shows that higher education policies on quality and national resources productivity have had low effectiveness. Dissatisfaction of students, as the key stakeholder of higher education system, from quality of college life could be a starting point to stray away from the higher education missions and philosophies. It is necessary that academic managers and leaders make serious decisions to promote the quality of college life. The higher education without the quality of college life, will be defeating the purpose.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the cross-cultural validation of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support among Iranian and Swedish university students. In the study, 212 university students (112 Iranian and 167 Swedish) completed the MSPSS. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the factorial invariance of MSPSS for both samples. The results of principal component analysis (PC) using varimax rotation showed that MSPSS is composed of three actors including family, friends and significant others. The results of single-group confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three-factor model of MSPSS in both groups fit to the data. The results of multigroup confirmatory factor analysis indicated crossgroup invariance of measurement residuals, structural covariance and regression weights of the MSPSS for both samples. Also, the results of MANOVA indicated significant effect of culture for multiple dimensions of perceived social support. In sum, these results indicated that university students across the two cultural groups interpreted MSPSS 12 items in a similar manner regardless of their cultural backgrounds.

Concurrent with modern transformations and modernity experiences, we are faced with various transitions in different aspects of life. Transitions that women with different gender roles experience within the society, which in turn leads to changes in their mental meanings and social roles. Changes in women’s motivations and desires which leads them to reflect on their identity and social and individual transitions in order to achieve their goals and look for new directions in line with their identity ideals. This article examines the function and motivational experience of women from their own perspective and individual mentality logic based on a grounded theory. Through conducting interviews with women who concurrently play the role of mother, wife, employee and student, the study presents an identity typology of women with an emphasis on their motivational processes for entering higher education. The results show that factors like experiencing modernity and changes in valuation systems surrounding women, women’s entrance into labor market, expansion of educational platforms and symbolic social capitals together with social and individual motivations in women’s everyday life has led to a new kind of motivation within them and through such process and in order to reduce tensions coming from their lack of achievements, women have chosen the employment and study strategy in order to reach their goals and in this study the emphasis is on the study strategy. The current analysis has reached four abstract categories in terms of the emerging motivations of women under study.It includes: 1. choosing study as a tool to compete and combat, 2. study as an ambiguous plan, 3. study and employment as self-achievements and 4. study and employment as a path toward improvement and financial independence.

This article tries to formulate the diverse forms of Iranian confrontation with the Western civilization by focusing on the modernity as the most important aspect of this civilization. For this purpose, the article is focused primarily on the concept of modernism as the most important effect of Western civilization at least in terms of representation in Iranian society; then, the whole confrontation of Iranian society with Western civilization is classified under three topic of West fascination, West selection and West aversion using interpretive method. The first two cases of these three types, contain subsets that are marked as distinct and defined, and for each type and their sub-sets, a set of intellectual representatives and citation samples are provided. The article, suggests resulted classification as a basis for understanding mental interaction of Iranian society with what is referred as the totality of Western civilization, in the field of intercultural studies and international politics.

One of the most important objectives of academic research is to meet the scientific needs of society. The important factor that contributes to the establishment of trust and values with in order to provide stakeholders with academic research and its results is the scientific quality of research. PhD thesis, carried out by students and requiring a lot of time and money, constitute a considerable percentage of the research conducted at universities. The present study aims to identify the challenges of“the quality of PhD thesis” in Iran from the viewpoint of professors and students, as two major components in doing research in doctoral programs.This is a phenomenological research study, and the data collected through interviews with professors and students in doctoral programs is analyzed on the concept of “value chain”. The findings of the study indicate that the challenge of the quality of PhD thesis involves a multiple, multilayered interconnection of elements (students, professors, managers and policymakers), organizational structure, procedures, rules and other environmental actors. In addition, a powerful and fast-moving current has developed between these layers, which is both affecting them and affected by them.There are instances of un-academic behaviors that have marred the scientific identity of universities and turned into a major challenge to the quality of doctoral thesis in Iran.