مطالب

Purpose: The use of solar energy has long been human interest. Some countries are trying to gradually replace fossil energy with solar energy because of special benefits such as lack of environmental pollution, frequency, immortality, and sustainable access. The potential of solar energy provides a good platform for the development of marginal villages and regions that are deployed away from urban centers or rural population centers. However, in some countries, despite the favorable weather conditions, for various reasons, the use of solar energy technology is still not commensurate with the potentials. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research adopted a descriptive-analytical method to explain the potentials of solar energy technology for sustainable rural development in the study area on 400 randomized samples. The potential and process of developing and expanding solar energy technology, as an effective factor, was determined by 34 items under indicators such as education and awareness-raising, knowledge and skills, trust-building, capacity building, participation, and partnership in investment. The dependent research variable was also measured through 106 items in ecological, socioeconomic, and physical dimensions of settlement development. Findings: The results suggested that the utilization of solar energy technology was effective in promoting sustainable development indicators of rural settlements in the study area. Hence, it is suggested to pay further attention to improving training and raising awareness as well as building support for villagers to increase the level of employment, participation, and investment in the utilization of solar energy technology.

Research on high-stakes tests indicates that increasing the stakes of large-scale English language tests will have consequential influence on teaching and learning performance and practices. However, evidence for influence on student ‘motivation for learning English (MLE)’ within such a context is still scarce. Taken this, the present study investigated the motivational level of high school students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of university entrance requirement tests change in Iran (introducing high school national English achievement tests-NEATs- as new requirements for entrance into nation-state universities). For such a purpose, the MLE scale, taken from Gardner’s (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, was translated into Persian, administered among 451 randomly selected students supposed to take the NEATs for their admission to universities, and subjected to confirmatory factor analyses. The results obtained through within-group ANOVA comparisons of the construct-validated subscales revealed that under increased stakes of the NEATs the participants maintained moderately high level of motivation for the two components of ‘desire to learn English’ and ‘attitudes towards learning’; however, the level for the component of ‘motivational intensity’ was neutral/moderate. Similar result (i.e., moderate level) was found in the participants’ perspective of their overall MLE. The findings, overall, indicate that the NEATs-admission programme has not demotivated the learners yet they are not as highly motivated as intended by the change planners. Such a divergence between the ideal policies (i.e., high level of MLE) and what was observed in practice (i.e., neutral/moderate MLE level) has implications for test change contexts and their driving policies.

This study evaluated the cultural content of Vision textbook series that are currently in use in Iranian public secondary school system. The aim was to find the most frequent cultural references as well as the most-frequently-represented cultural senses. For this purpose, frequency counts were used to collect the data and the culture categorization framework (Adaskou et. al., 1990) and cultural reference framework (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999), modified by Tajeddin and Teimournezhad (2014), were used to analyze the data. Results of the frequency counts indicated that the Vision ELT textbooks contained the most cultural content associated with Persian as the source culture. Similarly, the focus was primarily on the esthetic sense of culture, followed respectively by semantic, sociological and sociolinguistic (pragmatic) senses. The study ends up with implications for EFL stake-holders in Iranian context as well as the ELT enterprise in general.   

Shia, as one of the main components of Islamic society, has always had a revolutionary attitude towards other religions throughout history. The Shi'ite school has been the promoter of movements that have stood up to oppression, and this political thought has shaped Shia political and social movements throughout history. Historically, the turning point of the Shia revolution and the formation of Shia protest movements is the Ashura incident in the year 61 AH. And the land of Karbala as the Shias holy shrine of and the place of Imam Hussein martyrdom (a.s.) has always, at all times and places, conveyed the ideological burden of the Ashura event to Shia communities. Thus, the formation and activity of Shia movements can be traced well after the Karbala event and examined in terms of the effects that Karbala has had on their structure and continuity in different categories. The present study aimed to investigate the role of Karbala in the formation and continuation of Shia movements in the context of political geography based on Gatman's theory of iconography. To this aim, Descriptive-analytical methods and library and document studies are used. Based on the results, this influence has not always been the same at different times, and in each period, it has manifested itself in different ways depending on the temporal and spatial requirements and the degree of Shia community readiness. That can investigate the type and extent of this effect on dual format in the Imamiyyah and the Zaydiyyah method. So, the categorization of Shi'ite movements is as following: Imam Hussein's revenge and revenge revolts, Zaydiyya uprisings, movements that led to the formation of the government, and contemporary Shi'ite movements.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, as an Islamic and independent country on the original ideology of Islam, announced freedom of political parties within the Constitution (Act, 26). After the Islamic Revolution victory in 1979, two main political fronts formed, "Principlism Front and Reformism Front." Reformism seems a challenging issue to the Iranian nation as it may appear adopted on the Western ideology. The present study aimed to remove any ambiguity on this issue to help politicians, scholars, and ordinary people. To this aim, the following question should answer: what are Ayatollah Khamenei's criteria for Reformism in Iran? Moreover, the research hypothesis was that Ayatollah Khamenei approves of Reformism in Iran based on some defined criteria. For the analysis, the political thoughts of Ayatollah Khamenei were recorded as written texts which contained the word Reformism and selected and obtained from the following official Website. The collected documents analyzed through Discourse Analysis to elicit and specify the criteria for Reformism in Iran. The results indicated that: Reformism is essential and required, and has to implement in the country; Reformism should be value directed and comply with principles of Islam and the Revolution; the exact definition of Reformism is needed to specify the goals; the Reformism should be organized and controlled from a powerful and aware center according to Constitution foundation; comprehensiveness and concordance, reforms have to implement in all areas in the society synchronically; a tolerable and influential center should control the Reformism to avoid immethodically, and the structure of the Constitution has to protect in Reformism issues.

Justice is a concept that has always been of interest to scientists and thinkers. In the Holy Quran, one of the primary purposes of sending prophets is to establish justice among the people. Achieving this great goal is the duty of governments, but it has always faced many obstacles and problems. Imam Khomeini, as a scholar of Islam and justice Seeker, with a deep understanding of the importance of justice in the Qur'an and Sunnah and the fact that many of the problems and difficulties of the society are rooted in the disbelief or confrontation of the rulers with justice has been commented on many times. This research has been done descriptively and analytically, and its findings indicate that, according to Imam Khomeini, the Islamic government is responsible for eliminating oppression, discrimination, and justice in society and should prioritize this issue and Work through practical solutions to achieve this. He points to some of the essential topics and tasks of the Islamic State in this regard, such as self-sufficiency and independence by eliminating colonial domination, emphasizing internal forces and facilities with public participation, fair distribution of wealth for the benefit of the deprived. In the face of the income and class gap, while considering the criterion of valuing science and piety, establishing equality in all dimensions, including against the law, in elections, in having cultural, political, and economic opportunities, abandoning hereditary, racial, aristocratic and similar privileges.