Multilingual education in Iranian schools: Qualitative meta-analysis
Publisher: name: The University Of Kurdistan
Year: 2021

description: Introduction: Humans display different behaviors and beliefs because of what\nthey learn and follow the patterned ways of those they encounter in their\ndaily lives. Many philosophers and social scientists believe that the\nfundamental difference between man and animal is culture, which is realized\nin manifestations such as religion, science, mysticism, art, etiquette, ethics\nand philosophy, in various individual and social fields.\nMulticulturalism is a concept that has been emphasized in recent years in\neducation, especially the sociology of education and it means that despite the\nexpansion of relations between countries and their movement towards a\nglobal and regional military, the issue of ethnicities and nationalities and\ncultural differences between them is of particular importance. The diversity\nof cultures is not limited to continents and countries, and in each country you\ncan see different ethnicities and nationalities that, despite cultural differences,\ncontinue to live within the national culture. On the other hand, one of the\nmost characteristic cultural features of human beings is language. The ability\nto communicate through language has affected all aspects of culture, from\nkinship, politics, religion and life to science and technology; Language also\nplays a crucial role in our ability to adapt quickly and effectively to new\nrequirements, enabling us to codify and systematize our knowledge.\nIran is a multicultural society. Archaeological and historical findings show that\ndifferent ethnic groups and cultures have always lived in it for thousands of\nyears. With the changes that have taken place in the geographical conditions \nand boundaries of this land, of course, its cultural and ethnic composition has  also changed over time. But the facts still show that there is cultural and\nethnic diversity in this land. Presence and life of different ethnicities such as\nPersians, Turks, Kurds, Baluchis, Turkmens, Arabs and Lors together as well\nas speaking Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, Lori, Turkmen, Arabic, Baluchi,\nTaleshi, Tati, Laki, Armenian and the existence of different dialects in some\nlanguages is another manifestation of the diversity of ethnicities and cultures\nin present-day Iran. The policy makers of each society take different\napproaches to the issue of cultural diversity, depending on the circumstances,\nwhich sometimes leads to challenges in different areas. One of the most\nchallenging areas of cultural diversity is the field of education, which\nbecomes more important in Iranian society due to high cultural diversity and\non the other hand, the centralized educational system of planning.\nIn our country, every year, a large number of students enter primary school with\nfluency in their ethnic and mother tongue and with little knowledge of\nPersian. This means that not all children at the age of six or seven have the\nsame language status and their mastery of Persian is not the same, but from\nthe past until now, our educational system has treated all these children in the\nsame language and considers them all Persian. Teaching and learning takes\nplace through language and all the sciences that the human child wants to\nlearn through language. After entering school, the child begins to learn to\nread and write in various sciences with language, which is true for Persianspeaking children in our country, but this does not happen for children whose\nfirst language and mother tongue is not Persian. Issues related to cultural and\nlinguistic minorities have been the subject of numerous works in recent years.\nBut the question is, to what extent have these researches been able to provide\na deep and reliable framework for scientific and macro policies? What have\nthese studies achieved so far? What has been the overall outcome of this\nresearch? What has been their theoretical and methodological direction and\napproach? The present study aimed to provide a clear answer to these\nquestions.\nResearch Methods: The purpose of this study was to outline the research of\nmultilingual education in Iranian schools. In order to achieve this goal, the\nqualitative meta-analysis method was used. The statistical population of the\npresent study includes all researches carried out by executive bodies,\ndissertations and researches published in scientific and research journals and\nscientific conferences in Iran from 1390 to 1398. The following sources have\nbeen used to find related researches: 1- Iran Scientific Documentation Center\n2- University Jihad Scientific Database 3- National Library of Iran 4- Noor\nJournals Database 5- Universities affiliated to the Ministry of Science,\nResearch and Technology. At the beginning of the sampling method,\nsnowball sampling was considered; Thus, the sources, information, articles\nand researches were tracked and out of 44 researches, 35 researches were selected as the research sample. In order to obtain the data required for the\nresearch, a checklist with 10 questions was designed and compiled, the\ncompletion of which required a careful study of each work and the discovery\nof the underlying views; Therefore, after careful study of each research and\nbased on the coding and annotations, the components of the checklist in\nrelation to each work were completed. The information obtained from the\nresearch was analyzed at both structural and content levels. In order to obtain\nthe data required for the research, a checklist with 10 questions was designed\nand compiled, the completion of which required a careful study of each work\nand the discovery of the underlying views; Therefore, after careful study of\neach research, checklist components were completed in relation to each\neffect. The information obtained from the research was analyzed at both\nstructural and content levels.\nDiscussion: In the field of structure, from 1390 to 1398, only 35 researches in\nthe form of dissertations, scientific and research articles and conferences have\nbeen conducted in Iranian schools, and it is interesting that in the specialized\ndoctoral program, no dissertation on the subject of multilingualism has been\nfound during these years. The time period of the research represents a bell\ndiagram that indicates a slow-fast-slow process. Most multilingual\nresearchers are university professors and faculty members. The field of study\nis most linguistic researchers. Research Method Most researches are\nquantitative and rarely qualitative method has been used. In terms of content,\nthere are many shortcomings in research related to multilingual education.\nMost research focuses on examining and comparing the cognitive effects and\nintelligence of multilingual students and has not attempted to design curricula\nfor multilingual children. The theoretical foundations of research are based\non conservative theory. The results of most studies indicate the difference\nbetween monolingual and multilingual children. But no instructions have\nbeen provided to take advantage of these differences, and only the differences\nare enough.\n