Future study of the employment status of humanities graduates in Iran: Productive view using the causal layer analysis method

Humanities graduates have serious concerns about their employment status in the society. The increase in graduates in this field, especially due to the growing number of higher educational institutes in the country, requires policymakers to adopt more logical and practical measures to deal with the problem. Using future research, the current paper aims to draw a picture of the employment status of humanities graduates. The research method is qualitative, with the statistical population being professors and experts in the field of humanities. There is purposeful sampling method where the data collection tool was a semi-structured interview. After implementing the interviews, its components were identified at the level of litany, social causes, discourse/worldview and myth/metaphor. At the litany level, categories of "unemployment crisis", "abandoned and marginalized humanities", "inefficient/unskilled humanities" and "lack of independent identity" were created. At the level of systematic causes, a set of cultural-social and economic factors are marked as fundamental ones. At the level of discourse/worldview, product-oriented, post-modern, Islamic humanities and problem-oriented discourses were used. At the level of metaphor/myth, metaphorical interpretations of the boy of engineer, Professor Balthazar, the Achilles heel of national development and advanced/regressive sciences were used. Finally, with a literature review and referring to the interviews and going back and forth and asking the opinion of experts and specialists, the two driving forces of an engineering-like and top-down view against the provision of open intellectual and academic space and the policy of unifying sciences were found. In contrast to the development of interdisciplinary studies approach, four scenarios were identified and developed.