Higher Education
F. Asghari; A. Abbaspour; H. Rahimian; S. Ghiasi Nodooshan
Abstract
Studying the culture of every community, because of identity characteristics and borders distinguishing different communities, is one of the main requirements for understanding that community. Although researchers from different fields have carried out studies on the culture of university as an important ...
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Studying the culture of every community, because of identity characteristics and borders distinguishing different communities, is one of the main requirements for understanding that community. Although researchers from different fields have carried out studies on the culture of university as an important community, unlike other studies on universities, numerous shortcomings and gaps can be found in these studies, leaving studies on academic culture at an immature stage. The present article aims to analyze concepts, views and theories related to this field in order to deal with these problems. The analysis carried out here shows that failure in the conceptual and methodological development of studies on ‘university culture’, regardless of the complexity of the concepts of culture, organization and university, has three main reasons: failure to distinguish between “culture of university” and “academic culture”, failure to recognize that studies on university culture belong to interdisciplinary fields, and failure to methodologically distinguish between the ‘has approach’ (culture as a variable) and ‘is approach’ (culture as a root metaphor).
Nematollah Mosapour
Abstract
Lifestyle is a phenomenon which provides beliefs, values,knowledge and interpersonal competencies in social-personal situations. Lifestyle makes the real part of human civilization; however it does not occur as a simple and linear. Crystallization of the inner human, means lifestyle, is seriously affected ...
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Lifestyle is a phenomenon which provides beliefs, values,knowledge and interpersonal competencies in social-personal situations. Lifestyle makes the real part of human civilization; however it does not occur as a simple and linear. Crystallization of the inner human, means lifestyle, is seriously affected by the action’s position; time and location based on personal perception, which together form the context of the action. While religion makes the main basis of a religious person’s lifestyle, but the institutional actor is affected by the current realities of organization’s life and acts in terms of laws and requirements which resulted in different lifestyles. In confrontation between religious beliefs and institutional realities, three situations may consider including full conformity, partial conformity and non-conformity. In each of these forms a particular lifestyle based on the university condition may emerge, which is known as academic educators’ lifestyle. The importance of these forms is due to the effect of them on educational effectiveness of academic activities. The educator is not only a person with a personal lifestyle, but also is a “lifestyle learner” which it acts with a latent and indirect manner. If the implementation of “Modern Islamic Civilization” is important, and the “real part” of it, is made by people’s life context and visibly and invisibly is affected by educators’ manners in each society, therefore the explanation of academic educators’ practice is important since they are the main reference of lifestyle model for young.
Saeid Safaeimovahedi; Mohammad Ataran
Abstract
Academic disciplines are like tribes, each of which has its own unique terrain, boundaries, norms and culture. Assuming this, Becher describes the culture of different academic disciplines. He believes that pure sciences are culturally competitive, politically well-organized, own high rate of publication ...
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Academic disciplines are like tribes, each of which has its own unique terrain, boundaries, norms and culture. Assuming this, Becher describes the culture of different academic disciplines. He believes that pure sciences are culturally competitive, politically well-organized, own high rate of publication and are task-oriented. On the other hand, applied social sciences are utilitarian, power- based, scientifically functional, culturally exogenous, situationally vague, aim to promote behaviors, and have low rate of publication. Based on this assumption, this study aims to explore the norms which affect two groups of M.A students in selecting their research supervisor, one group from an interdisciplinary field (Education) and the other from a pure field (Mathematics). The study was conducted within the qualitative framework, using phenomenological method. Semi-structured interviews were the main tools for gathering data. To acquire the needed data, 16 Education M.A students and 9 Mathematics M.A students from a renowned Tehran university were selected using purposeful sampling method. The results show that Education M.A students consider the following criteria when selecting a research supervisor: professors' behavioral traits, professors' status, academic criteria, non-academic criteria, possible support, and limitations. On the other side, Mathematics MA students consider some other different criteria when selecting a research supervisor as follow: research supervision style, professors' scientific qualities, professors' personality characteristics, non-academic criteria, limitations. A comparative exploration of the results within Gestaltian framework indicates that Mathematics MA students are influenced more by figure (academic dimensions of dissertation) when selecting their supervisor, while Education MA students are impacted by ground (expediency and relations) when choosing their supervisor.
