DOCUMENT RESUME ED 374 724 HE 027 730 AUTHOR Fereshteh, M. Hussein TITLE Development of Modern Persian Higher Education; The Western Style. PUB DATE 94 NOTE 17p. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Christianity; *College Administration; *Educational History; Educational Trends; Foreign Countries; *Government Role; *Higher Education; Islamic Culture; *Modernization; *Traditionalism; Traditional Schools; Western Civilization IDENTIFIERS *Iran; Iranian Revolution 1979; Islam; Missionaries ABSTRACT This paper examines the development of higher education in Iran in the 19th and 20th centuries. Itexamines the role of Christian missionaries in the creation ofDarolfunun, the first Western-style Iranian college, founded in1851. The University of Teheran, based on French models, was foundedin 1934. While Western influence on education in Iran wasincreasing, the traditional schools of higher education, the madrasahs,continued to flourish, albeit with declining government support. Evenin the 1970s, with oil wealth providing the impetus for thecreation of many Western-style universities, madrasahs continued to expandand attracts students to their traditional Islamiccurriculum. Since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, the government hastried to cleanse universities of their Western values and curriculum, andunite the university- and madrasah-systems. Other recent trendsin the administration of higher education in Iran are alsodiscussed. Contains 29 references. (MDM) ********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that canbe made from the original document. *********************************************************************** DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PERSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE WESTERN STYLE M. Hussein Fereshteh los ABSTRACT Higher education in the area that is now Iran goes back to pre-Islamic times when the Zoroastrian religion (600 B.C.E. to 642 A.D.) was the official and popular faith. Modern schools were introduced to Iran by Christian missionaries beginning in 1834. The first western style institution of higher learning in the county was established by European and Iranian educators in 1851. It was called the Darulfunun, or Poly-mei-laical college, and was a state school intended to prepare civil servants and military personnel. During the next century, the graduates of the missionary schools and the Darulfunun and its successors became Iran's educational, political and economic leaders. Widespread modernization of Iranian higher education began in 1925 when a faster pace of cultural change was initiated by the Pahlavi dynasty. It was claimed by the former Ministry of Education that, "... the rate of illiteracy in Iran decreased from 90 percent in 1920 to 36.9 percent in 1978." Educational opportunities for women were expanded to thepoint where many women had become leaders in Iranian higher education. Higher education in Iran, However, has had an important social role to play in the people's lives and in socioeconomic development both before and after the Revolution. During approximately twenty years prior to 1978, many American higher educators and institutions of higher education were involved in developing Iranian colleges and universities. Thousands of young Iranians studied at institutions of higherlearning in the United States. These former linkages were abruptly terminated by Iran's new rulers after the establishment of the Islamic Republic. This investigation is designed to analyze and interpret the relationships and interfacing between the American and Iranian systems of higher education before and after the Revolution. BEST COPY AVAILABLE tI DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS INFORMATION E II ATIONAL RESOURCES CENTER (ERICi MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ropfr.1,,roci as Tht, docurIrnt ha; boor P W.:0 I Soqi thevrcor c,r rocon.tabon M. Hussein Fereshteh pbutnallori rThir10 10 Ma, bange,, h1,0 1,000 .1"0r 1,1" 1000,11otin quality 911'; Pnud&, 1;100 01 OnnlIfInS ....t<Itntl 'inetirwo not necey,mly cool TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES colincy . Ihr i.d JE HI ory,d) or INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN PERSIAN HIGHER EDUCATION: THE WESTERN STYLE M. Hussein Fereshteh Missionaries It was early in the nineteenth century that European missionaries started coming toPersia. Most of the missionaries selected to be in the mrthwestem part of the country.The rationale for that perhaps was the closeness of this area to Europe and a higher degreeof exposure to western culture and values there. Another reasca pershps wasthat most of the Iranian Christians lived in the northern part of Iran which very close to Europe. Conductingreligious ceremonies and opening schools for the Iranian Christians were the missionaries'primary duties. Following the European missionaries, American missionaries started coming to Iran. The first American missionary group, the Congregationalists (the American Board in Boston) chose Rezaeh as the site of their mission and in the 1834assignment Dr. Perkins directed its activities. He established a boys' school, also referred to as the Male Seminary at Rezayeh in 1836. In 1878 the school was re-organized as a college; besides offering an academic program, it gave industrial, theological, and medical courses. Almost all the boys who studied in theseschools were Nestorians and Armenians, but the missions were eager to work among the Muslims, too.1 Rezayeh was a suitable town to start their missions, because the town was notentirely a Muslim community, its populationincluded a large number of Nestorians and Armenians. The town also was relatively close to European countries. Some of citizenshad already been exposed to western ways and modern educational thought. Because ofthe missionaries' efforts, ...a Muslim boys' school, called Marefat, wasbegun in 1904 and in 1909 five boys graduated from it. Two years later 3 the school merged with the college to become the American school for Boys. In 1913 the college had 120 Muslim students, some from leading iamilies.2 The missionary activities led to a college being established; About 1915 the Mission purchased forty-four acres of land on what is now Shah Reza Avenue, where a college was built. Affiliated with the elementary and high school program, the American (Albors) College opened in 1925. It received a charter from the Board of Regents of the State of New York, thus making it an accredited liberal arts college.3 Additional information tells us that, Alborz High School and College in its last graduation ceremony in 1940, awarded 106 junior college diplomasand 20 baccalaureate degrees, of whom four were women. Until 1934 in most large cities of Iran such as Tehran, Tabriz, Rasht, and Hamadan, American missionary schools were established, having more than 12 hundred male and female studentsin kindergarten, middle and college levels.4 Just before Mohammad Mussadigh's coup d'etat, three advisors recruited by the United States Office of Education were sent to Tehran in June 1951. "Theeducational di ision was established in July. The three education advisors were each assigned toeach Ostan (Province)."5 Some Americans also came to Iran whose work included economic and financial advisory missions which directly and indirectly added some new cultural andeducational exposure to the Iranian university system. Amongthem were Mr. Schuster, a financial advisor, and Mr. Millspaugh, an economist who went to Iran in 1907 and againin 1922. In this regard Mr. B. Rubin, an analyst of Iranian culture and politics, claims that, The Persians had more success with a new mission of American financial advisors, led by Arthur Millspaugh, who worked in Iran...he had taught economics at several universities 4 before joining the UnitedStates government, wherehe enjoyed some success inIran, and many of hisexperiences were as frustrating as those faced byshuster some fifteen yearsearlier.6 schools, particularly AlborzCollege, American missionaries,through the missionary the way for otherAmerican educational agents and their religiousactivities in Iran, had paved ideas: a) to establish their own to come to Iran.They may also ha,,ftgiven the Iranians two attracted to d. r, westerncultural and independent western-stylecollege; and b) to ,,,come economical, ant. politicalproblems of the educational ideologies inorder to solve educational, time and provide greatersocial mobility. The Survival of theMadraseh western-style Iranian college,it From the formation ofDarolfunun, (1853) the first second institution of highereducation, took over a half a centuryfor Iran to establish its Daneshsara-ve All (1928), nowknown as the called Darol-Moallemin-eAli, and later called the first Iranianuniversity, the University of Teachers' EducationUniversity. Later on in 1934 The formation and growthof the Iranian Tehran, based on Frenchmodels was established. George Lenczowski. higher education systemhas been explained by The old Darulfununwith its six departmentshad declined already under Qajar ruleand by the time of Reza'sadvance to power it was clearthat a new start had tobe made. The first step, taken in 1928, wasto create an Artsand Science Faculty, first called Daral-Moallemin-e Ali and laterrenamed 1934 a Daneshsara-ve Ali (Teacher'sEducation University). In University of final law was issuedcreating an autonomous Tehran with six faculties...Bythe mid-1907's theuniversity counted fifteen distinctunits.? the development andgrowth of similar After the establishmentof Tehran