Considerations about university studies and the absence of Shariati in Iranian universities

Document Type : .

Author

Ph.D Cultural sociology. Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran

Abstract

Abstract
 Researching and thinking about Iranian university issues today is one of the most important needs of the country in the field of science, education and culture.  This matter cannot be achieved without the opinions of Iranian academics, researchers and thinkers.  In this article, an attempt is made to reflect on the absence of the Iranian thinker Dr. Ali Shariati in Iranian universities, while giving a glimpse of university research in the opinion of researchers.  and also mention the few works written by Iranian academics about him.  One of the books that  Seyyed Javad Tabatabai wrote in the last years of his life is "Considerations about the University".  This article aims to, while honoring such considerations that make the university a subject for thinking and reflection, the possibility of judgment regarding the success or failure of Tabatabai in formulating his considerations about the university, without stopping at formal problems and dispersions.  and its form, and in view of the false distance that he has adopted from Shariati.  The main claim of this article, despite acknowledging the necessity of university research in Iran, is to mention the shadowy, hidden and overt presence of Shariati in Tabatabai's considerations about the university.  In this article, he also tries to make the audience think about the Iranian university and Shariati's absence in it under the university research project.
Keyword: university studies;  Iranian University;  Ali Shariati;  Seyyed Javad Tabatabaei;  Reformation
Introduction
 Among the few academicians who have addressed the field of "research university" in their works, few have paid attention to the presence/absence of the thoughts of Iranian thinkers, including Shariati, in Iranian universities.  Among these works, the book "Notes on the University" by Seyyed Javad Tabatabai, who paid attention to both the university and Shariati's views, is analyzed in this article.
 In the criticism of the Iranian university, we can offer some points worth thinking about;  Before the Iranian university questioned what the university is;  It has assumed its existence in advance;  And this means avoiding thinking about the foundation and avoiding critical thinking aimed at criticizing the university as a pathology of the university.  The Iranian university is obliged to explain the reasons for passing Shariati and of course most Iranian thinker.
 
 Methodology
 
 Comparative content analysis of the book "Considerations about University" by Seyed Javad Tabatabai and "What should be done?"  The work of Ali Shariati in relation to the mission of Iranian universities is considered in this research.
 Seyyedjavad Tabatabai has discussed the development of Iranian universities in his book Considerations about the University.  Tabatabai's main claim in his remarks about the university in Iran is that the university in the West has been formed in the continuity and transformation of the tradition, but in Iran such a transformation has not happened in the formation and establishment of the university
 
Discussion
 Tabatabai concludes in the book "Considerations about the university" that the university should not be one of the two science systems in the country, but should be the only science system that will be responsible for all the responsibilities of the school.  In a university whose subject is Iranshahr, the field is within the university in the sense that it is subordinate to the science system of the national university.
 The emergence and objective emergence of the logic of the formation of a national university from traditional schools for the first time and about half a century ago and in a reasoned and comprehensive way goes back to Shariati's effort while attending Hosseiniyeh Irshad, as a progressive religious foundation and as an intermediate link between traditional schools and  National University, in the collection of works number 20, What should be done?, has discussed it in detail.
  It should be acknowledged that in Tabatabai's remarks, where he made a clear and direct reference to Shariati, the audience is faced with a language full of values ​​and reproaches about Shariati.  But the important point actually lies in Shariati's hidden presence in Tabatabai's considerations about the university. The main core  formulated Tabatabai's considerations about the university in three subheadings:

Iranshahr University and reference to the history of religious reform thought.
Iranshahr University and referring to the state of chronic decline of science in traditional schools.
Iranshahr University and referring to great cultural Iran based on the concept of self-awareness.

 Shariati's hidden presence and his ghostly shadow can be projected on Tabatabai's considerations under all three aforementioned titles and in three alternative titles as follows:

Shariati and his role and position in the history of religious reform thought.
Shariati and his role and position in facing the chronic decline of science in traditional schools.
Shariati and his role and position in emphasizing self-awareness as the central concept of Shariati's thoughts.

 
 Result
 It is obvious that the creator of considerations about the university, while acknowledging the non-realization of a national university from the seminaries, questions the current state of the university in Iran and calls for transformation and reform by emphasizing national self-awareness and remembering the conditions of degeneration. Anyways, Shariati, since several decades ago, along with all their micro- and large-scale projects, in the direction of creating national, religious, human and social self-awareness and stepping on the path of religious reform, by attending Hosseiniyeh Ershad and formulating its programs in the collection of works number 20  has been to provide an objective example for this development in the direction of the formation of the national university, which may be considered as an intermediate link between traditional schools and the national university.  The author believes that Tabatabai not only has no priority in proposing the idea of ​​Iranshahr University to his predecessors, who had similar concerns, but after decades and the experience of the (existing) university in Iran, he failed to present a clear picture of how to realize the idea of ​​Iranshahr University, and with  Appealing to the theory of the "university in the continuity and transformation of tradition" is placed in the position of path seekers that have been opened by the likes of Shariati.
 

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