Challenges faced by Farhangian University in education of social reformer teachers from student teachers’ perspective

One of the main missions of teacher training centers and Farhangian University is to train teachers and educators who are engaged in culturally and socially benevolent works. Such teachers can engage in humanitarian work beyond their teaching practice, ideas, and character and transcend the boundaries of their classroom to influence the local and national community throughout history. The history of the educational system in each country is replete with practical and theoretical influences of such teachers. It seems that Farhangian University as a fledgling educational institution in Iran is facing serious infrastructural and structural challenges in training such benevolent and philanthropist teachers. To this end, this phenomenological qualitative aimed to evaluate the role and performance of Farhangian University in fulfilling this important mission and the challenges faced by the university from the perspective of student-teachers. For this purpose, the lived experiences of 70 student-teachers of the Farhangian University of Kerman were explored using a phenomenological approach. The analysis narrations and lived experiences of the participants revealed 9 main challenges and 37 sub-challenges faced by the university in training benevolent and philanthropist teachers. Therefore, following the phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of student-teachers at the Farhangian University of Kerman, it can be argued that the university has failed to have a lasting impact on students in line with this basic mission. The negligence of the importance of offering specialized knowledge in various fields teacher training programs, the failure to present a role model for benevolent and philanthropist teachers in formal and informal educational programs, demotivating students, the non-existence of an atmosphere to welcome constructive critiques, and the dominance of trivial matters over educational issues among students during their academic studies were some of the most important challenges faced by Farhangian University in training benevolent and philanthropist teachers as evident in the student teachers’ experiences.