| This study was conducted in order to examine Iranian higher education and its links with the United States since 1960 and to obtain analytical and conceptual information about Iranian-American higher education relations during these twenty-six years. Educational Policy Studies methods provided the framework for the inquiry. Specifically, three domains were investigated: (1) Iranian higher education policies and programs, (2) the nature of cross-cultural relations among Iranian and American higher education institutions, and (3) the internal and external factors that affected these links.;The researcher compiled oral histories by interviewing fifty-two informants and mailing questionnaires to Iranian and American scholars who have been involved with public and private higher education institutions in Iran. Archival research based on original correspondence, English and Persian documents, was undertaken. The findings of the research contribute towards understanding the causes and effects of higher education relations between Iran and the United States in recent years and provide basic guidelines for this kind of relations with other Muslim or developing countries. This specific educational policy study provides a basis for making some broad generalizations about higher education relations among developed and developing countries.;The findings indicate that, in spite of some strong perceptions that there are few current relations between these two nations, there have been some persistent higher educational links. Most of the informants indicated that earlier higher educational relations were not "healthy" ones. Greater mutuality and understanding are required, they believe, if these two nations are going to re-institute more extensive higher education relations. Iranian higher education has not only been influenced by American higher education policies and practices, but also by pedagogy transferred from several European countries. The study also discovered that most academicians believe large scale higher education relations between Iran and the United States will resume within a decade. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).;Contemporary educational outlooks derived from Shiah Islam, the predominant religion in Iran, are analyzed and interpreted. Confrontations regarding higher education among various types of Iranian secular, modernist, and traditional Muslim academicians are discussed. Finally, further studies, recommendations and possible ways to improve the currently poor higher educational relations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran are suggested. |
