Cultural Studies
M. Farasatkhah
Abstract
Structures at the macro level and researchers’ habits hinder the effectiveness of research in Iran. But this is not the end of the story since researchers struggle with these structural and contextual limitations leading to the establishment of a diverse research cultures. This article takes into ...
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Structures at the macro level and researchers’ habits hinder the effectiveness of research in Iran. But this is not the end of the story since researchers struggle with these structural and contextual limitations leading to the establishment of a diverse research cultures. This article takes into account a specific and contextual theory with the aim of understanding the twisted pieces of humanities research in Iran. As such, the author has referred to the shared experience of 32 faculty members from various disciplines in order to achieve a relatively deeper understanding of the subject and explain it systematically as a grounded theory. More than 600 key propositions have been analyzed with the "CCDA" (Constant Comparative Data Analysis) model that with the help of the researcher's technical notes could lead to a model to explain the matter. Based on this model, we are facing with a dual border situation in researches. Varied research cultures have been explored by taking into account 12 categories of causal conditions, 11 contextual conditions and 12 genealogical groups of strategies that researchers undertake in such situations. The outcome of this process has been identified and categorized. Accordingly, it was found that the knowledge absorption and productivity is problematic in Iran. Instead of effective knowledge, we are faced with states of wandering knowledge, suspended knowledge, prestige knowledge and artificial knowledge. Still, the arena is not empty of all kinds of innovations in diverse research cultures of Iranian researchers.
Higher Education
F. Nasrollahinia; M. Yamani Douzi Sorkhabi; M. Farasatkhah; M. Rezaeizadeh
Abstract
Today, academic fields have turned into a powerful tool for shaping the society and play an important role in the production of science and the creation of scientific communities. But at the same times, the nature of science and its production in academic settings are encountered with changes and challenges. ...
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Today, academic fields have turned into a powerful tool for shaping the society and play an important role in the production of science and the creation of scientific communities. But at the same times, the nature of science and its production in academic settings are encountered with changes and challenges. In this study, based on Pierre Bourdieu's sociological theory, we have tried to examine factors and challenges that university environments face with in the course of science production and hence, attempted to respond to the basic question: What are the factors and challenges of science production in the academic field? For that matter, using the meta-synthesis method, 62 articles were reviewed and their related categories and concepts were extracted and identified using the content analysis.
Cultural Studies
F. Samanpour; N. Barakpour; M. Farasatkhah
Abstract
In recent decades universities are pushed to provide services to commercial or governmental stakeholders rather than the civil society. In Iran, even, the commercial services have not developed satisfactorily. In this situation a strategy for promoting the position of universities is to provide voluntary ...
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In recent decades universities are pushed to provide services to commercial or governmental stakeholders rather than the civil society. In Iran, even, the commercial services have not developed satisfactorily. In this situation a strategy for promoting the position of universities is to provide voluntary social services within the educational and research activities. This article is part of an attempt to introduce such services to the urban planning postgraduate programs of two schools in Tehran. Although, this attempt was successful in some aspects, it could not satisfy the participating professors. To find the reasons, the pragmatic foundation of academic services has been reviewed and the review showed that provision of civil services necessitates holistic cultural communication with people. An interdisciplinary workshop was held for examining the quality of the cultural communication of the faculty; and some interviews were conducted with some of the attended lecturers and professors. A narrative analysis of speeches, interviews and communications was then conducted by using a framework devised for the assessment of universities’ public communication on the basis of Habermas’ theory of communicative rationality. It identified that the organizational culture of the faculty has paid little attention to the aesthetic aspects of communication; also while the school has critical attitudes, theoretically, it is practically confined to formal structures and has little competence in critical action. The article suggests a framework for a substitute organizational narrative that may promote the aesthetic interaction, and suggests that other disciplines evaluate their social relations aesthetically, too.
Sociology
M. Khoshnam; M. Kousari; M. Farasatkhah
Abstract
Students have interactions and communications beyond the official university systems which are informal and form many of their memories during the time of education. What matters is the students' understanding and perception of mental concepts of student life which should be discovered to narrow the ...
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Students have interactions and communications beyond the official university systems which are informal and form many of their memories during the time of education. What matters is the students' understanding and perception of mental concepts of student life which should be discovered to narrow the gap between higher education and university officials as much as possible so that the hidden layers of student life can be perceived and policies can be formed according to them. In the present study, a summary of the perceived, meaning and experienced student's life will be presented during these interactions. For this purpose, deep phenomenological interviews were made with 52 students from different departments and fields of study in the University of Tehran. Over the informal interactions and spending most of their times with their friends, the students have changed in many cases of their student life such as changing in human communication patterns, changing religious styles, changing the leisure time, an improvement in personal abilities, gender attitudes, changing in educational patterns, changing of attitude and worldview, achieving positive personal feelings, support and a sense of group affiliation, compensation, changing in social participation motivations, change in the socializing processes and the normative system.
