10 - The Cold War and Education in Science and Engineering in Iran, 1953–1979

Summary

This chapter examines how certain attitudes toward science and technology during the Cold War contributed to the shaping of transformative educational policies in Iran, from the 1950s to the eve of the revolution. Different agents of social change – from the royal court at the top down to high school administrators – embraced modern learning in mathematics and the natural sciences not only as a corpus of essential knowledge but also as a vehicle to advance their respective political plans and ideological preferences. The impact on the transformation of Iranian society can hardly be exaggerated. Among other social indicators, the impact of such policies is reflected in the high number of former students and graduates of engineering and technical schools among the revolutionaries who imagined modernity and progress primarily in terms of construction and control.