Iranian Students’ Experience of K-12 and Higher Education: Use of Drawings to Convey the Difference Between Ideals and Reality

Abstract

The focus of education during K-12 and Higher Education (HE) in Iran is on theoretical empowerment of students; therefore, our students get an illusion of knowing. In fact, what happens is not learning and understanding; rather, it is verbatim transfer of available information in the textbooks into the students’ minds. It might be because the students and teachers (as the main stakeholders of the education) are the least powerful parties within the pyramid of power amongst educational practitioners and policymakers. It means their voice, feedback, needs, and ideologies have no place in the educational decisions and policies. In alignment with the mainstream of the present research; it is an innovative idea to explore the students’ living/ studying experience during K-12, and their ideals and expectations from higher education studies. To do so, we asked 60 university students to portray their experience (in a phenomenological research design) concerning living and studying through K-12 and their ideals and expectations from Higher Education. Students’ drawings are the main source of data collection and inductive analysis of data is administered to find students’ responses which are categorized under three major and six minor themes, respectively.

Analysis of Students’ Desired and Fulfilled Expectations from the Future of Academic Studies: Educational Effectiveness for Prosperous Life

“…One of the important issues at universities is assumed to be the development and growth of individuals, which is crucial to all university stakeholders, including students. In the same line, Tohidian, et al (2021) in their research remind educational policy-makers that there is an urgent call for reform and change in educational policies of Iran (for instance, students and teachers' engagement in materials development both at the K-12 and HE levels, engagement of parents in school leadership through K-12, review of the available job vacancies out of the schools and campuses to avoid students' registration in fields of study with no chance for employment, giving more authority to school principals and university leadership team in terms of their selffinancing plans and financial support sources based on their regions, balance between ministries responsible for education (K-12, HE, Medical education), and etc.). (p. 3419)…”