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Discourses of Writing in Negāresh Textbooks: The Neglect of Social Practice and Sociopolitical Discourses in the Pedagogy of Persian Writing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2025

Kioumars Razavipour Open the ORCID record for Kioumars Razavipour [Opens in a new window]
Kioumars Razavipour*
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
*
Email: razavipur57@gmail.com
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Abstract

Writing, as a beacon of democracy, is crucial to the ability of citizens to think critically and to exercise their agency in the twenty-first century. Yet the full epistemic and critical potentials of writing are realized only if writing is properly theorized and understood. Although it is commonly held to be a matter of skill or personal creativity, writing is alternatively conceptualized as process, genre, social practice and sociopolitical action. This paper examines discourses of writing and its pedagogy in Iran’s secondary education writing textbooks, known as Negāresh. Analysis of the writing tasks and activities of the textbooks attests to the dominance of discourses (skills, process, and creativity) that narrow the domain of writing to the writer and textual output. More socially oriented discourses of writing are not foregrounded. The findings carry implications for Persian writing pedagogy.

Keywords

Negāresh textbooksPersian writingsecondary educationwriting discourseswriting theory
Type
Article
Information
Iranian Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 21
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Association for Iranian Studies.

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