Iranian Journal of Comparative Education
Volume:6 Issue: 1, Winter 2023

The scholarly field of Comparative and International Education is facing one central challenge, namely that of the affirmation of the Global South to its rightful place. The thesis of this paper is that the Comparative and International Education scholarly community in the BRICS countries is ideally placed to lead this quest, and Iran joining the BRICS grouping, can strengthen this scholarly community in this endeavour. The paper discusses Northern Hegemony in the world, and places against this Northern Hegemony the rise of the Global South in the world. The range of challenges facing the scholarly field of Comparative and International Education is enumerated. It is argued in this article that the Comparative and International Education scholarly community in the BRICS countries, more so in an enlarged BRICS grouping including Iran, has a critical mass to negotiate these challenges, and especially so in securing the Global South coming to its right in Comparative and International Education.

The purpose of this research is to compare the curriculum of chemistry education for sustainability in higher secondary schools of USA, Finland, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Iran. This is a qualitative, experimental, applied, and comparative research in terms of nature, variable, purpose, and method respectively. By using the four-step approach of Bereday, the similarities and differences of the main curriculum components of chemistry education for sustainability such as logic, objectives, content, teaching-learning methods, and evaluation methods were determined in the selected countries. Also, the strategy of country selection was "different social systems, different educational outputs" using purposeful sampling technique. The findings reveal that the similarities among countries are mostly related to the logic, and objectives of chemistry education for sustainability and the differences are mainly related to the content and teaching-learning methods. The common similarity of the five countries in the dimensions of educational logic, and objectives is to determine, and explain the relationship of chemistry to moral and social issues and to prevent air and water pollution. The main difference among these countries is the freedom of teachers in choosing the content, and teaching method, which is much greater in Finland than in other countries. According to the findings, the attention of Iran's curriculum and educational planners should be directed to designing curricula related to chemistry education for sustainable development based on the needs of society, industry, environmental protection and coordinated with today's technologies.

The purpose of research was to compare the characteristics of teacher education system with an emphasis on the policy making process and admission procedures in Finland, England, Japan and Iran. The research method was a qualitatively comparative approach using four-stage regional model of Bereday. Scientific documents and reports related to the teacher education system in the four selected countries were used to collect data. The findings showed that, in terms of policy frameworks, the teacher education system in Iran, unlike the other three countries, follows a centralized structure that originates from ideological thought. The structural and administrative concentration and vital role of supranational institutions in the policy-making and decision-making processes have caused the teacher education system in Iran to lack institutional independence and academic freedom. Contrary to England and Finland, in Iran and Japan, obtaining legal obligations from student-teachers is considered an important precondition for continued work in the educational system. Also, the results reveal the similarity of Iran's teacher education system with England, Finland and Japan regarding the necessity of participation of candidates in a national exam, while in terms of educational qualifications and degree of discretion and freedom of action of universities in the admission process, there is a difference between Iran and other countries.

The aim of present research was a comparative study of teachers' performance evaluation methods in Australia, Finland, Iran and USA. In this qualitative comparatively study, the strategy of country selection and level of analysis were "different social systems, different educational outputs" and macro (countries) respectively. The findings reveal that in all the selected countries, teachers' performance evaluation methods are done for the two purposes of accountability and professional development. Also, the findings indicated that in Finland and Iran, results of performance evaluation do not have a great impact on the employment status of teachers, while in Australia, the purpose of evaluation is to issue teaching certificates and continuous career improvement or to fire teachers who cannot or do not willing to perform professionally. Another finding revealed that all the selected countries have similarities in the evaluation indicators - such as identifying and attention to the needs and individual differences of students, use of new technologies in the teaching-learning process, proper relationships with colleagues, and professional participation. Of course, indicators such as emphasis on having excellent thought power (in USA), adherence to Islamic, moral and religious values (in Iran) and awareness of various dimensions of the teaching profession - social, philosophical, psychological, sociological & historical foundations of education (in Finland) are more important in the process of evaluating teachers' performance. Findings also showed that all the selected countries are similar in using various methods of teachers' evaluation performance - such as direct observation of the teacher, feedback from peers, principal, parents & self-evaluation. However, consultative and formative evaluation methods in Finland and lack of use of academic record of students and learners’ performance in Iran are among differences of these two countries with others.

The purpose of research was to investigate the representation of countries in the upper secondary school textbooks of Iran education system based on van Dijk's discourse analysis. The data collection method was documentary by examining primary sources (seven textbooks) and secondary sources. The findings of research reveal that the authors of selected textbooks are aware of the ways of reproducing power in the discourse, by highlighting their identity successively implement the process of producing and understanding ideological discourse and dominate the minds of students through this language structure. Another finding showed the author's use of words, sentences, and numerous paragraphs to create all the negative aspects of others. Another finding is that it is rare to find a positive attribute for the people of a country in the selected textbooks, unless the said country has a history of struggle, war, domination and colonization in relation to one of the western countries. However, it is difficult to find a word praising industrial, technological, social, scientific achievements or progress of a country in the selected textbooks. According to the findings and in order to increase the highlighting of the positive characteristics of "other" and reduce the negative view of other cultures, societies and countries; it is suggested to curriculum planners and authors of school textbooks in Iran to make fundamental changes in the content of textbooks.

One of the ways to better understand education is to compare their philosophical systems and determine similarities and differences. The aim of this research was to compare similarities and differences of three modern, postmodern and metamodern schools of thought with a comparative approach. The method of data collection was documentary through examination of primary and secondary sources. To analyze the data, thematic content analysis method was used. The first finding of the research shows the evolution of philosophers' opinions from modernism to metamodernism during the last two centuries. Another finding reveals the similarities and differences between modernism, postmodernism, and metamodernism in the realm of macro-topics such as ontology, epistemology, and axiology. It can also be inferred that the supporters of metamodernism try to create a relative balance between the two opposite poles of modernism and postmodernism. From the point of view of education, the findings of the research are clear that the view of metamodernism supporters on issues such as education goals, curriculum, teacher & student role, and teaching-learning methods is to accept or reject some of the educational ideas of the two philosophical schools of modernism and postmodernism. Therefore, it cannot be said that the supporters of metamodernism are the creators of new ideas in the field of education.

The aim of this research was to compare the approaches of High Scope, Reggio Emilia and Waldorf in order to provide guidelines for the training of pre-primary teachers in Iran. The research method is comparative qualitatively using documentary and Bereday methods for data collection and analysis respectively. The research findings showed that all three educational approaches in cases such as acceptance of sequence and child's developmental tasks; unique role of the coach as a guide and facilitator; following the basics and principles of child psychology; attention to the physical, mental and emotional aspects of the child; and attention to the famous principles and theories of learning are similar to each other. In terms of differences, the "high scope" approach emphasize on components of special needs of the child, dialectical education, technical coach and reverse education; Reggio Emilia's approach highlights multicultural components, technical training situation, implicit values and Waldorf's approach persists the components of curriculum integration, artistic method of imaginative play, classroom with natural materials and trained teachers. The findings of the present research can be a good guide for experts, executives and decision makers in the field of preschool education in Iran to identify and pay attention to the characteristics and elements of an effective educational model for the training of preschool teachers.