IRANIAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE EDUCATION
Year:2019 | Volume:2 | Issue:2 |Papers Count:11

Nationalism, a modern sociopolitical phenomenon, bears a close connection with the rise of modern educational institutions. Additionally, modern educational institutions, in line with the ideology of nationalism, take upon themselves to consolidate ethnic and cultural diversities and transform them into a solid national identity in order to constitute the nation as a political unit. This article aims to survey the role of modern educational institutions in constructing a shared national identity. The present article, employing a comparative-historical analysis, will shed light on how modern nation-states were constituted in Iran and Turkey. Ultimately, based on theory of nationalism by Ernest Gellner (1925-1995) the results of the study indicated that both in Iran and Turkey, the notion of nation was fabricated via the nationalist ideology. Thus, in both countries, the educational institutions, which were in charge of political forces, did their best to help the state in order to build a homogenous nation.

Few studies have ever been conducted to find out degree of contribution of L1 reading ability and L2 general linguistic proficiency to L2 reading regarding the context of learning. Two groups of students from the Indian ESL (English as a Second Language) and Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts attended this study. Measures of general English proficiency (GEP), reading comprehension (RC) in L2 and reading strategy awareness (RSA) in L1 were administered among the participants. Findings showed that RSA accounted for 41% and 10% of variance in L2 RC for the Iranian and Indian groups, respectively. It was also found regression weight for RSA is still significant for the Iranian group but not for the Indian group. In addition, for the Iranian group, both RSA and GEP are significant variables in prediction of RC in L2 but for the Indian group only GEP contributed significantly to the prediction of RC in L2. In addition, for both the high and low Iranian GEP groups only the contribution of RSA was significant in the prediction of RC in L2. However, for the Indian group the role of RSA was insignificant in predicting RC in L2, for both high and low groups. As the differences of the findings are more than the similarities in the two contexts, it is suggested that reading teachers reconsider the significant role of factors that contribute more to L2 reading, regarding the moderating role that context of learning plays in this regard.

Performance of primary students in mathematics among the countries participating in TIMSS is different. The purpose of this study is to compare the math curriculum of Iran with the five countries which were the pioneers in TIMSS 2015 (Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan). The research method was comparative and the statistical population consisted of all math books of the fourth grade in Iran and the leading countries. The findings showed that some elements are similar among the countries, such as the concepts of numbers, calculation, measurement, and geometry. However, the studied curricula are different from each other, regarding skill of math problem solving, analysis and application of mathematical topics, interesting statistics and algebra topics, and positive attitude to math learning, so that in Iran these areas have been somewhat neglected. At the end, some suggestions were offered based on the findings.

Japan took the initiatives to build the modern school system in 1872. The process of the building is characterized as the words like rapid, sometimes bold, and often tumbling in the economy, internal and external political conflicts and ideological conflicts. It is not difficult to realize how various values and beliefs have been intervening in the process, but not easy to lucidly observe them. The purpose of this study is to rediscover the cultural values and beliefs affecting the directions of teacher preparation programs for secondary school teachers in Japan. This study is a qualitative study, mainly analyzing the historical studies done by other researchers. It examined the development of teacher preparation programs from the late 19 th century to the present day. Two different aspects were adapted for analysis: The concept of ‘ program’ developed by Ueyama (2009), and the historical functions of university defined as organization, institution and community (Gamage & Ueyama, 2012). This study discussed in the four areas of development of the teacher preparation programs: national policy, preparation at the university level, the program structure and content, and quality teacher. It concluded what values were underlined and by what and how they were influenced in the process of shaping the teacher preparation for secondary school teachers.

Different aspects of the world literature will lead to a better mutual understanding and development of “ one common language” among people. Education systems through formal programs-by teaching subjects such as world literature-can nurture a peace-loving and human-friendly generation. On the basis of this idea, in this study Farsi textbooks of formal general education of Iran were studied using comparative method (content analysis). This comparison is done in order to understand the degree, nature, and the expression of world literature on Farsi books taught in Iran. The findings showed that the authors of the Persian literature books at the primary level provide less reflection of world literature on such books than that of those being taught at intermediate levels. In addition, much of this reflection and focus, at any level, has been on didactic genre in comparison to lyrical genre which plays a less important role and the epical genre which cannot be seen very much. Also in terms of how they are presented, it was found that the invasion and capture of authors in the world literature, the improper selection of literary works, and the absence of discussion on history of world literature are all the shortcomings of Farsi textbooks.

The main objective of this paper is to explore the insights and experiences of ELT (English Language Teaching) faculty members regarding the challenges of conducting qualitative research (QR) in the Iranian higher education context. This study is qualitative, with its data obtained from the semi-structured interviews with 20 ELT faculty members to gain their standpoints regarding possible challenges faced in qualitative studies. To analyze the collected data, the recorded interviews were transcribed, and then the grounded theory approach was employed. The results showed that the main possible challenges of conducting QR from ELT faculty members’ perspectives consisted of the dominance of positivism in the Iranian higher education context, paper publication, lack of QR course in postgraduate ELT syllabus, interpretation and analysis of data, time-consuming nature of QR, and writing proficiency. Most of the participants of the present study believed that the main reason for QR underdevelopment in academic setting is the Iranian higher education policies, and some of them stated that professors’ professional tastes and personal interests determined the research trend in the Iran higher education system.