Investigating the Discourse of Nationalism During the Modernization of Iran's Educational System in the first Pahlavi Period

In the first Pahlavi period, the political structure in Iran moved towards the creation of a modern state and the domination of the centralist discourse. In this regard, establishing and strengthening various institutions such as the High Council of Education and Modern Education, dominated archaic nationalism based on the Persian language. The present article analyzes the approvals of this council through the process of describing, interpreting and explaining the texts by critical discourse analysis of Fairclough.By discovering the hidden and ideological layers of these enactments nationalist discourse during the modernization of the education system was analysed. Furthermore, the components of cultural nationalism based on one race and one language was examined. As a result, modernization of the educational system was carried out with the policy of promoting the Persian language and adopting a strategy of unification based on the historical past and using concepts of archaism and racism. Through strategies of exclusion and integration, the unification desired by nationalists were sought. This process denied the cultural diversity of the country and undermined ethnic and linguistic diversity.