Postgraduate Students' Understanding of The Indigenization of Social Sciences: A Phenomenological Study

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

1 Professor of Sociology- Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences- University of Mazandaran- Babolsar

2 Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

3 Assistant Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

4 MA in Youth Study, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

Abstract

Throughout its history, Iranian social sciences have witnessed many controversies around the issue of indigenization. During the years after the revolution, the policies implemented in the science institution have formed more complex intellectual formulations than the duality of the possibility or refusal of indigenization of science, so that a significant theoretical literature has been formed around the plan and proposal to solve this issue. Despite the importance of such an issue, few empirical studies have been conducted so far on understanding the experience of science actors on the issue of indigenization of science. The present study aimed to identify the understanding and comprehension of postgraduate students on the issue of indigenization of social sciences in Iran and was conducted using the interpretive phenomenological method. The participants in this study were 31 master's and doctoral students in the field of social sciences at the University of Mazandaran, who were selected through purposive sampling. Semi-structured and in-depth interviews were used to collect data, and the six-step process predicted in the IPA method was applied to analyze the data, the output of which was the identification of a structure consisting of 8 main themes and 44 sub-themes. Each of the main themes, which were: semantic confusion, inability to indigenize science, distrust of indigenization of science, indigenous science as a guide, indigenization as an ideological matter, political understanding of indigenization of science, identity understanding of indigenization of science, and requirements of indigenization of science, were extracted based on their subcategories. The results of the research were identified in two main models of understanding the meaning of indigenization of social sciences: “a model of indigenous of social sciences” in which students understand indigenous science as an ideological epistemological system and “a model for indigenous social sciences” in which indigenous science is understood as the decolonization of science and the Islamization of science.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Rahyaft
Volume 34, Issue 3 - Serial Number 95
October 2024
Pages 103-108

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