F. Asghari
Abstract
Like any other community, the university has its own cultural set up. But unfortunately, the culture, which is currently dominating the Iranian higher education institutions, does not meet the expectations of a scientific community. The present study, based on views and experiences of academics as well ...
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Like any other community, the university has its own cultural set up. But unfortunately, the culture, which is currently dominating the Iranian higher education institutions, does not meet the expectations of a scientific community. The present study, based on views and experiences of academics as well as using an interpretive approach, tries to answer the main research question as why and how such a disorder prevails in academic culture. In this qualitative study, the Grounded Theory has been applied as research methods. The selection of participants, including faculty members from higher education institutions, was based on theoretical sampling. It continued until achieving a saturation point. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews, including 17 individual and 4 group interviews. Data were categorized via three-stage coding (open, axial and selective) and classified into 1900 codes, 458 concepts, 101 subcategories and 32 main categories. Further, the data analysis was carried out based on the concept of context, analytical tool paradigm (conditions, action-interaction and consequences) and conditional-consequential analytical strategy matrix. Based on the acquired results "non-adherence to academic norms" was selected as a central phenomenon, and the final model was based on causal conditions and contextual factors at micro and macro levels, academic interaction including resistance, silence and abuse as well as the consequences including individual, organizational and national ones. The final outcome indicates the strengthening and reproduction of the central phenomenon in case of lack of university actions to help improve the situation.
Meisam Latifi; Meisam Zohurian Aboutorabi
Volume 8, Issue 1 , May 2015, , Pages 47-70
Abstract
The present study is aimed to develop a model for assessing public culture at universities and evaluating its indicators at public universities in Mashhad. The research follows an exploratory mixed approach. Research strategies in qualitative and quantitative sections are thematic networks analysis and ...
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The present study is aimed to develop a model for assessing public culture at universities and evaluating its indicators at public universities in Mashhad. The research follows an exploratory mixed approach. Research strategies in qualitative and quantitative sections are thematic networks analysis and descriptive- survey method, respectively. In the qualitative section, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with cultural experts are used as research tools. In this section, targeted sampling is carried out. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire which is developed based on the findings of the qualitative section is used as the research tool. Research population of the quantitative section consists of all the students who are admitted to public universities in Mashhad between 2009 and 2012. Sample size was calculated according to Cochran’s formula. Stratified sampling was used to select the sample. The results of the qualitative section led to the identification of 44 basic themes which are referred to as the micro indicators. These themes were clustered into similar groups. Then, 10 organizer themes were identified and recognized as macro indicators. In the next phase, importance factor of each indicator is determined according to the AHP method. The results of the qualitative assessment of indicators at public universities of Mashhad show that the overall cultural index declines during the years the student attends the university. Additionally, the highest correlation exists between national identity and revolutionary identity. The only negative correlations are observed between family and two indicators including social capital and cultural consumption. The results of the present study can be used to assess the state of public culture among university students and also be considered as a basis for assessing cultural planning.
Mohammad Saeed Zokaei; Mohammad Javad Esmaili
Abstract
The empirical studies undertaken on academic culture in Iran suggest an inefficient academic acculturation and students alienation from the structure and process of a desired academic culture. A sense of powerlessness, normlessness, anomie, social isolation and in general strangement from the self, educational ...
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The empirical studies undertaken on academic culture in Iran suggest an inefficient academic acculturation and students alienation from the structure and process of a desired academic culture. A sense of powerlessness, normlessness, anomie, social isolation and in general strangement from the self, educational processes, unverrsity camp, academic staff members and also from other students is increasingly growing in the minds and feelings of a considerable number of higher education students in humanities and social sciences. Drawing on a mixed methodology, the following paper aims to reconstruct the phenomenology of academic and educational alienation based on students personal lived experience and narrativity. Apart from accounting for internal and external social factors affecting this experience, we have proposed a typology of the types of alienation experienced by different groups of students and the strategies they have adopted to counter it. Results suggest that alienation is directly affected by culture politics and involves different social, psychological, and economic consequences in their lives.
