فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 43 (پاییز 1397)

Officials in charge of higher and university education, before undertaking policymaking and decision-making look for foundation and basis of their educational and research policymaking that enjoy a high degree of justification, legitimization and documentation. They therefore try to develop their evaluation of performance of educational system, or, in other words, evaluation of the quality and quantity of their decision-making and policymaking by heeding the requirements and considerations of the accepted foundation and basis. They also try to define the vision of higher education system in congruence with the dominant spirit of that foundation, which is called historical fundamentalism in this paper. This article, on the one hand, through studying the concepts and discourse analysis, is in search of enumerating the bases and principles of performance extracted from historical fundamentalism and geographical approach to university and comparison of the principles and bases of performance of university in the two approaches, and on the other hand, attempts have been made to criticize policymaking in university system in Iran during the past four decades which have been based on historical and linear considerations. This objective has been followed through geographical perspective to university as a favorite and ideal approach and by explaining the characteristics of approach to university through philosophy of space.

The article titled “University in the Mirror of History or Geography” is a reflection on philosophy of education which critically studies the epistemological foundations of education system in Iran. Iran’s education system, according to this article, is fundamentalist and historical and hence it is an obstacle in the way of the growth of intellectual activists of this field, i.e. professors and students, and, the solution is change and transfer to geographism discourse. The present study is a review of the said article. In criticizing the said article, the contention of this writing is that, firstly, it has relied on instable supports; and secondly, it has not remained committed to what it has borrowed from postmodernism in this regard, and, hence, it has failed to be a compatible referent of the approach it recommends. The incompatibilities and incongruences are visible on different levels in various parts of the article, and, hence, they have become subject to theoretical and conceptual criticism of the present article.

Postgraduate programs are a significant stage in academic career. However, some studies denote serious shortcomings and problems in the process of thesis writing. Attempts have been made in this paper to narrate and understand the lived experience of girl students in the process of thesis writing by borrowing from interpretative paradigm. In the light of the objectives and questions of the research, interpretative phenomenology was used due to more sensitivity to the context of formation of experiences and relative specificity of stages of analysis. The key informed respondents included eight students of applied social sciences (Economics, Management and Accounting) who had recently defended their theses. Positive and negative pre-constructs of thesis writing, understanding of self and scientific and practical capabilities, emotional experience, duality in supervision, frustration, resignation and reliance on other, thesis as a learning opportunity, transition and transformation of primary mental constructs, and finally, attainment of independence were the themes garnered from the study of students’ experiences of thesis writing. Serious attention to the issue of supervision and positive and constructive interaction between the student and supervisor, on the one hand, and, the necessity of correction of traditional methods of guidance, more attention to the role of counterparts and advisors and correction of departmental and institutional policies, on the other, are among the suggestions of this research.