Mohammad Hasanzadeh; Behrooz Rasuli; Elmira Karimi
Abstract
Purpose: Considering the importance of theory building in scientific progress and development, the Iranian policy-makers have focused on this issue in policy-documents related to science, technology, and innovation. But it seems that in spite of the importance of this phenomenon in Iran, theory building ...
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Purpose: Considering the importance of theory building in scientific progress and development, the Iranian policy-makers have focused on this issue in policy-documents related to science, technology, and innovation. But it seems that in spite of the importance of this phenomenon in Iran, theory building has not been able to make significant progress. The purpose of this study is to examine the extra-organizational barriers to the growth of theory building capacity in Iran.Methodology: Through a qualitative approach and Miles and Huberman method for analyzing qualitative data, 12 experts at Tarbiat Modarres University have been interviewed, and gathered data were analyzed and coded by MAXQDA software. Thus, extracted codes categorized in major themes to address research questions.Findings: According to the findings, the barriers to the theory building can be categorized into organizational and meta-organizational groups. Since the focus of this study is on extra-organizational barriers, these barriers can be found in seven general categories, namely, the weak link between science and society, country's economic challenges, ineffective management of higher education, inefficient higher education, the difficulty of theory building, inappropriate educational policy, and inappropriate research policy.Originality: Theory building is one of the key phenomena of higher education, which should not be neglected in the scientific progress; the first step towards realizing this phenomenon is identifying obstacles and challenges in this regards. The present study is conducted through a qualitative approach which provides an overview of the barriers of the theory building and allows policy-makers to think differently about the matter.
