Understanding the Most Significant Challenges to Execution of the Document of Fundamental Transformation in the Education System of Iran; a Focus on Its Main Subsystems

In a constantly changing world, all societies, and especially societies which are more in need of fundamental transformations in their social, cultural and scientific structures, need to implement reforms in their educational system. Iran is no exception in this regard. Considering this, the Document of Fundamental Transformation in the Education System of Iran was issued in 2011 and submitted to all educational organizations in the country, but many experts believe that this document has not been adopted yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to understand major challenges in the execution of the Document of Fundamental Transformation in the Education System of Iran with a focus on its main subsystems.

To achieve this, both the Strategic Transformation Document and the Guidelines on the Philosophy of Formal and General Education were examined in relation to the theoretical foundations of the Fundamental Transformation Document. This study benefits from a qualitative approach to research and simultaneous data collection and analysis. The data required for this study was obtained through conducting semi-structured interview with 17 designers and past and present officials in the Ministry of Education of Iran involved in preparing the document. The collected data was then analyzed through the use of grounded theory method and by adopting inductive and interpretive approaches to research.  First, the researchers briefly review the data and used the constant comparison method to examine compatibility of the data. Then, side categories, central categories and the main category were identified through performing open coding and axial coding. In recent years, the country's education system has been faced with some serious problems and solving these problems has been one of the major concerns of the responsible officials. One of the main needs of the education system of Iran is to bring about a fundamental change, and the most important obstacle to change in any education can be resting on the basis of an old-fashioned and inefficient educational system. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education has established a committee/council for producing a fundamental change in education. In fact, the main responsibility of this council is to study the issue of change in its different dimensions, to identify the existing challenges, and to remove main obstacles through benefitting from intellectual capacities of the country’s experts and the wise decisions of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution, the Supreme Council of Education and the Islamic Consultative Assembly. Transformation in the education system can be considered as an important educational issue which should rest on a sound theoretical basis related to the entire education system and factors as change, reform, innovation and promotion. Transformation requires innovations to redefine the ideals, goals, and desirable educational outcomes. This can only be possible through the application of a system of accurate, scientific philosophy which is based on the national and religious identities of people in the country. Therefore, in the educational system, the dynamics of the system. On the one hand, it can start from change, reform and innovation and end with the impact on the promotion of the system to its final point, ie change in the educational system, and on the other hand, it can change theoretical approaches and redefine the ideals and achievements of the educational system. Lead to change, reform and innovation to improve the education system.

The results revealed that there are some serious challenges to the execution of the Document of Fundamental Translation, challenges which include weaknesses in document preparation and in the process of producing comprehensive and strategic documents, ambiguity in the content of the document, and extremely centralized structure of the educational system. Furthermore, weaknesses in provision of specialized and developed human resources, decline in living standards and social status of teachers, lack of facilities and financial resources, and low participation of people and related organizations were found among other major challenges in this regard. It is worth noting here that the effects of political, economic and social instability on the government’s four-year plan for the execution of the Document of Fundamental Transformation in Education cannot be neglected in this regard. The ambiguity in the document and crisis in practice was the main category which was identified through inductive analysis of data.

Finally, it can be stated that provision of transformation mechanisms in a large educational organization requires efficient and effective management to make maximum use of available facilities and resources and to establish active and effective interaction with stakeholders in the transformation process, setting the ground for achieving transformation goals, and early identification of challenges and solving them. considering that the educational system is one of the most important areas of thought, science, life and spirituality, compile a strategic document Accurate, integrated and comprehensive identify an important part of the Iranian Islamic model of progress.