The evolution process of the vocational education philosophy in Iranian education system

Although the issue of vocational training has been considered in the history of education in the country, we do not come across a credible scientific document about the philosophy of vocational training. In other words, the study of preliminary evidence showed that the philosophy of vocational training in Iran has not been considered as much as its value and sensitivity. For example, in the Fundamental Document of Educational Change, it is only important to pay attention to vocational training in general. In a general view, we see that in different periods of time, with the momentary decisions of the officials, the training of professionals has had many ups and downs. In these ups and downs, mostly without logical support, the vocational education system has sometimes been sharply criticized by some education experts in the country. As the philosophy of education and its different aspects such as vocational education is not so clear, and it is considered as a vaccum issue system of education, the purpose of this article is to understand the evolution of the philosophy of vocational education in Iran (from the establishment of Dar-al-Fonoon, up to now).

Method and Materials:

 To achieve this purpose, the researchers have studied the evolution of philosophy of vocational education in contemporary Iran through a philosophical approach and via logical-analyzed procedure. This is done to express challenges and current issues as well as representing required suggestions related to the issue. To achieve this purpose, the relevant documents have been studied by evidence analysis method.

The study of philosophical foundation of education system in Iran before and after the stablishment of Islamic republic indicates that the sprite of ruling over the vocational education in Iran’s education system is affected by several philosophical streams including doctrines related to the realism, pragmatism, liberalism, naturlizm, and mercantilism which are different from Islamic education philosophy in some axiological and epistemological foundations.

In summary, the study of the philosophical foundations of the educational system of the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that the prevailing spirit of the philosophy of vocational education in the Iranian educational system is influenced by several philosophical associations that in some axiological and epistemological foundations with the philosophy of Islamic education. They are different. The most important of these schools were pragmatism, liberalism and utilitarianism. Therefore, it is inferred that the planning and implementation of vocational training programs has been associated with many shortcomings, and with the continuation of this situation, we can not hope for the success of these programs in the future. Because any vocational training system needs a philosophy to help it give basic answers to questions about what and why vocational training is. According to the present study, efficient vocational training is one of the most fundamental ways to achieve some goals of any educational system, and having a clear philosophy and a specific theoretical framework for vocational training is one of the first fundamental steps in achieving the goal of efficient vocational training. As stated in this study, and a review of the theoretical and practical background of research in Iran also shows, that the country's education system has clearly lacked the stated philosophy of vocational training. The lack of clarity in the philosophy of vocational training is a vacuum in any educational system. It is clear that having philosophical support alone is not enough, but also the stability and financial policies of the government can contribute to the success of vocational training projects.