مطالب

Inequality and its increasing process is one of the obsessions of politicians and researchers of politics domain all around the world. In political geography terminology the issue is called spatial injustice. In fact, the main focus of spatial justice is identifying and expounding the political, economic and social factors and processes paving the way for injustice and also its consequences. African States affected by imposed and optional factors have the most multiethnic diversity and have also experienced most and dangerous ethnic conflicts in the world. Ethiopia is one of the African States which have experienced long range of ethnic conflicts. This paper using descriptive-analytic method is intended to expound the role-playing of spatial justice in the formation and continuation of ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia. In fact, the main question of the article is, what effect has spatial injustice had on ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia? The research findings show that ethnic conflicts affected by spatial injustice are categorized into two main categories: first, organized and continuous conflicts which are prevalent in Shinaiel and Afdar of Somali region in East of Ethiopia, Central State and OLF conflicts in Oromo and ARDUF conflicts with Ethiopian state; second, ethnic and tribal conflicts which are visible in different regions of Ethiopia.

Just as the political structure of any country can have a positive or negative impact on the democratization process; The opposition bloc, which includes political parties and currents, civic institutions, etc., has a dual positive and negative impact on this process. In Turkey, the influence of the opposition bloc in the democratization process has been relatively positive for a century. However, in the last two decades, with the rise of the Islamist Justice and Development Party to power, the Turkish opposition bloc has adopted varying approaches to the political structure, which has had a more negative impact on democratization process. The current research has examined the performance of the Republic People's Party as the largest opposition party, focusing on three main approaches of Turkish parties towards the political structure. To this end, a historical institutionalism approach has been adopted using library and digital resources. In terms of methodology, this study has employed the process tracing method. Turkish opposition bloc, especially the political parties, though considered to be a major indicator of democracy, seems to have adopted undemocratic political procedures such as "appeasement procedure", "supportive procedure" and "deviant procedure" in the last two decades.

Cultural geopolitics refers to a complex set of interactions among government, power, culture and geographical environment through which the cultural factor, along with the spatial-locational processes formed by the city government, engages actors from various social strata in interaction. It is then very important to identify relationships between the components of the smart urban governance and cultural geopolitics in the political-regional development of metropolises and their globalization process. This developmental research employed a descriptive-analytical method, and the necessary data were collected through library and field research. The collected data were analyzed through decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique using Excel software, and finally, a network of factors was extracted and plotted using Microsoft Visio software. Based on the strength of interaction and affectability of the factors, a network of relations was obtained. The most affecting factor was found to be the participation in decision-making on electronic issues, and the least affecting factor was the political vision and strategy. The other affecting factors were ICT network scope and internet access, online public services, information transparency, and ethnic and national identity (nationalist belonging), respectively. In addition, the most affected factor was the geographical and spatial-locational belonging, and the least affected factor was the political vision and strategy.

Discrepant cultural systems of languages are more likely to reflect challenges for translators maintaining the cultural dynamics of translation. Such perspective is mostly highlighted in the translation of literary texts where the main parts of the equation are language and culture. The present study aims to investigate cultural, historical and religious loss or gain in the translation of culture-specific items (CSIs) along with the rendering procedures used by the translators. To this end, through a comparative analytical and descriptive method based on (Vinay & Darbelent Model, 1995), culture-specific items of three Persian translations of the Huckleberry Finn story were extracted and divided into three subcategories of cultural, historical, and religious; consequently, the procedures applied by the translators which led to the cultural loss or gain were analyzed. The findings demonstrated that the first translation by Mohebbi had the highest degree of loss (17.16%), and the third translation by Daryabandari had the highest degree of gain (41.58%). Also, the highest frequency of lost items belonged to the cultural type with %6/31 in the first translation by Mohebbi and %2/52 in the second translation by Pirnazar. The findings indicated that the policies and normative differences of societies in different periods had an undeniable impact on the transmission of concepts which reflects the degree of loss and gain in translation. The result of the present study could be thought-provoking for psychoanalytical studies on the translator’s decision-making.         

This article tries to delineate different aspects of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) in detail: MLE as a model of learning in psychology, MLE as a dynamic assessment methodology, and MLE as a basis for designing a course. This article tries to delineate different aspects of Mediated Learning Experience (MLE) in detail: MLE as a model of learning in psychology, MLE as a dynamic assessment methodology, and MLE as a basis for designing a course. MLE, well-known as Feuerstein's theory, is presented as a model of learning in psychology for enhancing cognitive functioning and problem-solving skills in children with cognitive challenges. Some other studies and scholars such as Poehner (2008) consider MLE as a dynamic assessment methodology because in dynamic assessment, assistance emerges from the interaction between the mediator and the learner. The other studies look at MLE as a holistic and integrative approach which is able to prepare a course. Definition of MLE principles and a meticulous and elaborate analysis of the first five MLE principles in different studies, entitled as MLE Taxonomy, are presented in a table at the end of the article.

Prior to Covid-19 pandemic, online education was given little importance in the educational system of different countries, including Iran and Turkey. Actually, previously there was no need for online education. However, in pandemic situation the need for online classes and its significance in language learning became more ubiquitous. Thus, in view of the paucity of research on perceptions toward the efficacy of virtual learning, particularly the sheer dearth of comparative work on the issue, the researchers in the current study intended to investigate the practicality of commonly used online platforms in Iran and Turkey, i.e. Adobe Connect and Zoom. To this end, a total of 10 EFL professors (5 Iranian and 5 Turkish) participated in the interview session to deeply investigate their attitudes on the platforms of Zoom and Adobe Connect as regards issues related to materials and resources, instruction, and assessment. As the results of the interview showed, both Turkish and Iranian university professors had similar ideas towards the online platforms and they listed some merits such as easy access, attractiveness, and applicability for teaching and learning in Covid-19. Also, the demerits were low interaction and communication, being demotivating for non-disciplined learners, and so on. In general, based on the participants’ points of view, both online platforms were useful in terms of materials and resources as well as instruction; however, they had less control on cheating of tests, in terms of assessment. Different parties such as teachers, syllabus designers and materials developers will benefit from the outcomes study.

This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effects of dynamic assessment employed by teachers on promoting Iranian EFL learners’ stances in academic writing. For this purpose, three intact writing classes were selected by convenience sampling from BA students of English translation at Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University. The Quick Oxford Placement Test (QOPT) was administered to them, and those whose scores matched the intermediate band score of QOPT were selected. In general, 35 homogeneous students were selected from each class and randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. A writing test was administered to all groups as the pre-test at the onset of the semester. The experimental groups were taught by the researcher and passed five different quizzes during the semester. The three groups were post-tested at the end of the semester. The results illustrated that both teacher and peers’ dynamic assessment effectively improved Iranian EFL learners’ stance in academic writing.

As a result of the advent of the COVID-19 outbreak, online assessments are being implemented in universities and schools worldwide. Nevertheless, regardless of the extensive use of online assessments, many researchers have proposed several barriers to the effective application of this form of examination in different language learning contexts. A combined qualitative and quantitative methodological approach was used to investigate 154 Iranian English language learners’ opinions of the relative benefits of online examinations in terms of pedagogy, validity, reliability, affective factors, practicality, and security during the COVID- 19 pandemic. To this end, an electronic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed. This study identified online assessment as having significant benefits over traditional, paper-based examinations, comprising accessibility, using cutting-edge technology, providing immediate feedback, automated grading, creating a question bank, and long-term efficiency in terms of time, effort, and costs. Nevertheless, many challenges have been identified by students while successfully implementing online exams regarding validity and reliability, emotional and security issues.