The Educational Philosophy Underlying Iran's Reform Documents: A Question of Coherence

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the logical structure and level of coherence of the Iranian educational philosophy underlying its reform documents. The study uses a mixed methods approach to address the two research questions: (1) What is the internal logical structure of the philosophy of education underlying the reform documents? (2) What is the state of coherence of this philosophy? Data was collected from the three core reform documents - the “Theoretical Foundations” document, the “Fundamental Reform Document of Education,” and the “National Curriculum - and was analyzed using Frankena’s model for analyzing philosophies of education. Findings suggest that the educational philosophy within Iran’s educational reform documents holds a logical structure that is primarily theoretical, and its coherence level is assessed at a “medium.” The results indicate a satiated foundational base and a lack of coherence in the First Basic Competency where goal, foundational, and strategy statements are not connected to each other enough, hence the mediocre level of coherence. The philosophy’s incoherence was mostly characterized by high levels of implicit statements, improper combinations of statements, vague language, and redundancy of statements. Aside from issues related directly to the logical flow of statements, there were issues in consistency of terms across documents and as well as organizational issues. Ultimately, the results show that the statements of the philosophy, within the scope of the First Basic Competency, are only partially coherent and lack their practical aspect. Recommendations developed based on the study can guide practitioners that design, implement and evaluate the reform programs in Iran’s reform endeavor. The case adds to the growing body of literature on coherence in educational reform by providing an analysis of educational philosophy underlying the reform process in Iran.