Transformation in education: A discourse analysis of policy actions in the first decade after the Islamic Revolution

The signs of change and transformation in education have always been floating signifiers while articulating educational policy actions and various other semantic conflicts. This article uses a combined theoretical framework from Laclau, Mouffe, and Fairclough to analyze these semantic conflicts in policy texts formulated in the first decade after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The results of this analysis show that semantic conflicts in the field of education, in the context created by cultural struggle (or Jehad Farhangi), articulate the fundamental change in the goals, content, structure, programs and philosophy of education with a focus on Islamization. This nodal point found semantic stability with signs such as: changes to the course content, purgation of manpower and elimination of former discourse, foundation of "Omor Tarbiyati" (Educational affairs), orientation to extracurricular activities in schools and, governmentalization of schools, etc. The credibility and accessibility of this meaning was linked to the necessity of signs of the Islamic Revolution discourse, and became a metaphor in the field of policy texts.