Contradictions in a distance course for a marginalized population at a Middle Eastern university

Irshat Madyarov,Aida Taef

doi:10.19173/irrodl.v13i2.1180

Abstract

<p>This study explores six cases of non-native English speaking students engaged in a distance English-medium course on critical thinking at a university in Iran. Framed within activity theory, the study investigated students’ course-related activity systems with a particular focus on contradictions that underlie any human activity. The construct of contradictions provides a theoretical lens to understand a web of relationships among a number of elements in course-related activities situated in a cultural-historical setting beset with political controversies, technological challenges, and needs for a bilingual curriculum. The findings indicate that all student participants had multiple activity systems within the course environment. Most participants had primary, secondary, and quaternary contradictions that had positive and negative consequences on the expansion of their activity systems. Discussion also includes practical implications for the distance university under study that could potentially be applied to similar distance schools.</p>

Highlights

This study explores six cases of non-native English speaking students engaged in a distance English-medium course on critical thinking at a university in Iran
The study has grown out of their personal motive to analyze the inner workings of this distance university placed within a unique sociopolitical setting
The advent of new technologies has made it possible for the affiliated global faculty (AGF), which consists of many professors outside Iran, to assist the Institute in offering courses in a distance or blended mode

Summary

Introduction

This paper discusses a qualitative case study of a distance course offered in English to nonative English speaking college students in Iran. The advent of new technologies has made it possible for the affiliated global faculty (AGF), which consists of many professors outside Iran, to assist the Institute in offering courses in a distance or blended mode. The Institute has been successful in providing students with needed knowledge and skills, the oppression does not seem to cease and the faculty and students have been subject to numerous arrests, periodic raids, and confiscation of school equipments To investigate this complex web of interrelations and understand how distance learning operates under such conditions, the researchers have chosen a qualitative method of inquiry with a case study design framed within activity theoretical perspective. What follows is a concise chronological description of activity theory as presented by Engeström (1987, 1999a, 1999b, 2001)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion