Strategic Studies of Culture

Strategic Studies of Culture

Discourse Analysis of the Cultural Policies of Iran’s Education System: Convergence or Conflict with Elements of National Identity and Global Imperatives (2013-2025)

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Parviz Delirpour
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran. Email: parvizdelirpoor@pnu.ac.ir
10.22083/scsj.2026.557238.1329
Abstract
Introduction: This study critically examines the cultural policy orientations of Iran’s Ministry of Education between 2013 and 2025, focusing on the discursive relationship between national identity and the imperatives of globalization. Rather than viewing education policy as a neutral mechanism for transmitting established cultural values, the study conceptualizes it as a contested discursive field in which competing conceptions of religion, national identity, cultural legitimacy, and global belonging are articulated and institutionalized. Education consequently constitutes a central arena in which religious values, Iranian cultural identity, technological transformation, and transnational cultural flows are negotiated.
The study addresses three interrelated questions: which cultural discourses are reproduced and legitimized in official educational policies; how these discourses construct cultural values and identities; and what institutional consequences emerge from their interaction. It identifies three principal formations: religious discourse, national-identity discourse, and globalization/pragmatism discourse. While religious discourse remains the dominant normative framework and national identity functions primarily as a complementary mechanism of cultural integration, globalization/pragmatism has gained increasing prominence since the mid-2010s. Their coexistence, however, represents less a condition of substantive convergence than a field of discursive tension and competing articulations of educational purpose.
Methods: The study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) through an integrated application of Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework-text, discursive practice, and social practice-and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. This theoretical synthesis enables the analysis of both the linguistic construction of policy meanings and the socio-political processes through which particular meanings become legitimized, stabilized, and institutionalized. The research corpus consists of official documents issued by Iran’s Ministry of Education between 2013 and 2025, including policy statements, regulations, strategic documents, and ministerial directives. These texts are analyzed as sites of discursive production in which particular representations of culture, morality, citizenship, and national and global belonging are privileged. To complement the qualitative analysis, a Likert-scale survey was conducted among selected educational experts and practitioners. Their responses provided empirical insight into how discursive contradictions within official policies are interpreted and experienced at the level of implementation.
Findings: The findings confirm the presence of three dominant and interacting discourses. Religious discourse constitutes the principal normative foundation of educational policymaking, emphasizing Islamic values, moral formation, religious commitment, and the cultivation of an ethically responsible generation. Its institutional influence is reproduced through curricula, extracurricular programs, and regulatory frameworks, positioning it as the normative horizon within which other educational objectives are articulated. National-identity discourse functions primarily as a mechanism of symbolic integration. By emphasizing Iranian cultural heritage, the Persian language, historical continuity, collective memory, and national belonging, it seeks to strengthen social cohesion. Nevertheless, tensions periodically emerge between pre-Islamic representations of Iranian identity and Islamic narratives, revealing an unresolved relationship between national and religious conceptions of belonging. Globalization/pragmatism discourse has acquired greater visibility since the mid-2010s. It emphasizes digital literacy, technological competence, intercultural communication, adaptability, knowledge production, and participation in a knowledge-based economy. Education is thus increasingly framed not only as an instrument of cultural reproduction but also as preparation for participation in an interconnected global order. The principal finding concerns the contradictory articulation of these three discourses. At the school level, educators confront competing expectations: preserving religious and national traditions while cultivating global competencies. The absence of effective mechanisms for reconciling these demands often results in selective or improvised implementation. At the student level, the simultaneous transmission of divergent normative orientations may contribute to identity fragmentation, as students are encouraged both to internalize local cultural values and to acquire global competencies. At the macro-policy level, discursive divergence produces inconsistencies and weakens long-term strategic coherence. Survey responses reinforce these findings. Experts identified conceptual ambiguity in key policy terms, persistent gaps between policy objectives and institutional capacities, inadequate resources and teacher training, and ineffective communication strategies. They also emphasized the frequent substitution of symbolic initiatives for measurable outcomes, revealing a persistent gap between discursive ambition and institutional realization.
Conclusion: The findings position Iran’s Ministry of Education as a contested discursive field in which religious identity, national belonging, and global competence intersect without achieving sufficient institutional integration. Religious discourse provides normative stability and cultural continuity, but its dominance may constrain responsiveness to global transformations. Globalization/pragmatism introduces competencies essential to contemporary educational development but, if pursued independently, may weaken established cultural and religious foundations. National-identity discourse potentially mediates between these orientations, yet its own internal tensions limit its integrative capacity. The study therefore argues that rhetorical coexistence is insufficient for sustainable cultural policymaking. The fundamental challenge is not to choose between cultural continuity and globalization, but to transform their relationship from an unresolved contradiction into an institutionally mediated articulation. This requires clearer operational definitions of policy concepts, alignment between objectives and institutional resources, the simultaneous development of global competencies and religious-national values, and systematic mechanisms for monitoring implementation and evaluating outcomes. Without such integration, the educational system risks reproducing fragmentation and policy incoherence rather than achieving a sustainable synthesis between cultural continuity and global adaptability.
Keywords
Education
Cultural Policy
National Identity
Global Imperatives
Coexistence
Conflict
Globalization
Subjects
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