Functions of philosophy of education as an academic discipline from Tehran University Student's viewpoint: a thematic analysis

The main objective of this study is to investigate the viewpoints of postgraduate and PhD students of Tehran University about the functions of philosophy of education as an academic discipline. To gather students’ viewpoints, we used semi-structured interviews and to analyze their responses, we applied thematic analysis method. A sample of 11 postgraduate students and 6 PhD students who are studying philosophy of education at Tehran University participated in this study. Findings of this study demonstrate that the basic functions of this discipline can be classified in two categories including social functions (with 80 item) and individual functions (18 items). The most basic social functions are: macro policy making of formal educational system; proposing measures, criticisms and analysis of educational space; aspiration for solving educational problems and “deriving educational implications”. The most important individual functions are: thinking and coherence of thought; changing attitudes and expanding individual promoting vision.