Iranian Journal of Comparative Education
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Spring 2020

There have been many changes and developments in educational services provisions. This paper aims at investigating preschool educational ‎business models from the perspective of implementing existing models and providing suggestions for those involved in this service in Iran. This is a qualitative comparative paper using the thematic analysis approach and identifying similarities and differences. A theoretical sampling method (data saturation) was used to collect data and through the content analysis method, the main components of well-known business models were examined and analyzed. The research findings show that most business models account for the industrial and commercial components of the job and do not pay much attention to the appropriate components of educational services. The research findings also showed the similarity of the models studied in the main components of the customer, profit, cost, information resources, and proposed values. In addition, the similarity of the models in terms of their fitness with the main components in the field of preschool business indicates the superiority of the Prifti ‎et al (2017) model over other models. The main suggestion of the current paper is to prepare a model for preschool entrepreneurship appropriate for the conditions and atmosphere of Iranian entrepreneurship. It is also suggested that preschool entrepreneurial capitalists, as key actors, clearly articulate their expectations of the business process model.

Education is shifting more and more from public goods to private goods. This process starts with State-building of education and then moves towards commercialization and full privatization. Also, the activities of private sector have affected formal and informal education systems in both arenas of educational services and educational provision. The consequence of these changes is presence of different actors and, of course, possible differences between them. Since the geographical scope of commercialization of education is not limited to national borders of a country, the purpose of this article is to examine status and validity of independence of arbitration in Iranian law and international commercial arbitration law with an approach to UNCITRAL arbitration. The present research method is a comparison with documentary approach and data analysis method is re-analysis. The research findings indicated a legal vacuum in the field of education business at both national and international levels for Iranian actors. The research findings also showed that there are similarities between Iranian law and UNCITRAL arbitration regarding status and validity of independence of arbitration condition. In addition, lack of a clear concepts’ definition of "business activity" and "citizenship" are two major differences between Iran law and UNCITRAL law. According to the research findings, Iranian legislators and educational policymakers are encouraged to prepare and approve a separate law on educational business.

The emergence of knowledge economy has increased diversity of intellectual services and prepared new opportunities in business for scientific research centers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the pricing criteria for information goods by Iranian scientific research centers. The research method was descriptive and statistical population included all experts of these centers in Tehran. Cluster Sampling Method was used in order to select research sample and in addition to reviewing books, journals and websites, a researcher-made questionnaire was provided. Structural equation analysis and Friedman's analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. Findings of factor analysis showed that information producers in Iran scientific and research centers mostly use the components of market structure, competition, cost, cultural and time factors as criteria for information pricing. Information producers also pay more attention to cost-oriented, competitive-oriented, marketing and sales promotion variables in pricing goals.

This study was an attempt to check if the Persian and English essays follow a linear pattern. Further, it investigated the essays in terms of the paragraph organization of deduction, induction, and quasi-induction. For the purpose of the study, 200 essays (100 for each language) were selected through convenient sampling and then given to four specialist raters to determine the topic sentence in each essay and enumerate it as deductive, inductive, or quasi-inductive. This research is descriptive and a two-way chi-square was run for the whole data and a set of one-way chi-squares for the comparison of the individual subcategories in the study. The results showed a difference in the number of the topic sentence(s) in each essays in the two languages. Some of the Persian essays contained more than one topic sentence, hence evidence of multitopicality, while English paragraphs were unanimously organized monotopically. The results also revealed that Persian writing is different from that of English regarding the inductive and quasi-inductive writing styles. However, the two languages are similar in the use of the deductive writing style. Furthermore, Persian writers prefer to develop their essays quasi-inductively, whereas English writers prefer to use the inductive style and rarely develop their essays quasi-inductively. These writing preferences imply the existence of cross-cultural differences between the two languages and of different education systems.

The aim of present study was to investigate competencies of employment in the field of educational sciences in Iran and Syria through comparative research method. In the qualitative section, competencies were collected through documentary study and semi-structured interviews. In this section, the participants included 8 faculty members of Department of Educational Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and 7 members of Tartus University of Syria, which were selected by targeted sampling method. In quantitative section, expert evaluation and questionnaire were used to validate the competencies. Data analysis of qualitative part was done through open and axial coding and quantitative part was performed using mean comparison test (One Sample T-Test). The research findings showed that employability qualifications of undergraduate course in educational sciences of both universities can be divided into two groups of general and professional competencies. General competencies include four categories: intellectual, interpersonal (communication), leadership and individual skills; and specialized competencies include five categories: educational evaluation, psychological skill, technology skill, curriculum and specialized knowledge. The results of single-sample t-test showed that general competencies in both universities are same in intellectual skill, but there is a difference between two universities in individual, communication and leadership skills. The results also confirm that in terms of professional competence, both universities are similar in terms of educational and technological evaluation components, but there is a difference in psychological skills, curriculum and specialized knowledge.

The freedom of religious minorities has become one of the most important issues in world politics. Promoting human equality, deepening national identity and educating law-abiding citizens as new goals of educational systems can be achieved through teaching of laws - especially rights of minorities- to children. This educational mission is even more important in countries with religious diversity. Iran and Lebanon are among countries with large number of religious minorities. The purpose of this paper is to compare educational rules and regulations of religious minority in Iran and Lebanon. This is a qualitative comparative research using documentary method for collection of data and content analysis approach.The research findings show main issues related to education of minorities’ rights in both countries that are definition and types of religious minorities, principles governing rights of minorities, proponents and opponents of formation an special authorities for religious minorities, trail’s organizations, conditions and procedure and problems of litigation. The results also show that the differences between two countries in dimensions of minority rights are more than their similarities. According to the findings, it is suggested that the structure of Minority Rights Education Program in Iran to be adapted to new developments in the world.