progressive privatizationAnalyzing the education policy process in Iran

Privatization of public education is the path towards which the education institution is moving in many countries of the world; However, in each country, region and time, affected by the political, social and cultural context of each policy sphere, the process, type of privatization and its consequences will be different. In this article, based on a comprehensive definition of the concept of privatization of education, we have analyzed the processes of educational policy developments in different periods of the history of education in Iran. Documentary analysis of policy texts along with secondary analysis of official statistics has been the methodological basis of this research. The studies of this article show that, except for a short period of governmentalization’s dominance (1973-1989), in other periods, the dominant policy approach was privatization in its various forms. The 1940s is the first decade in which we can talk about the government's intentional effort for exogenous privatization, and then from the 1970s onwards, we see the emergence of forms of privatization that are called endogenous privatization. special actors of Iran's education policy system have accelerated the way for these extensive policy changes.