Reasons for the Tendency of Art Graduates to Postgraduate Studies in Iran from the Perspective of Causal Layered Analysis

The present article aims to analyze the reasons for the tendency of art graduates to postgraduate studies from 2011 to 2021 using a mixed research method. Iran is one of the countries that has witnessed significant growth in the development of postgraduate courses in recent decades. In the field of art, this includes increasing the number of universities, disciplines, admitting more students and increasing faculty enrollment in the two decades of the eighties and nineties, but this slight growth does not seem very desirable because there is a necessary balance between quantitative and qualitative growth. This imbalance has made it necessary to conduct studies and research on postgraduate studies with the aim of better understanding and planning. Among these, recognizing the reasons and motivation of applicants is one of the aspects that can be considered in order to improve the quality of development of graduate courses. Because of the difference and function of the fields, the motivations of the applicants of the mentioned courses will not be the same. Due to its nature and essence, the field of art is different from other specialized fields in terms of aspects such as courses, scientific production and employment, scientific and social status. The theoretical framework of the research is based on the causal layered analysis method, founded in the nineties by Soheil Enayatullah, a Pakistani-born Australian academic, futures studies researcher and a professor at the Graduate Institute of Futures Studies at Tamkang University in Taipei. As such, an attempt has been made to answer the following question from the perspective of causal layered analysis: Considering the unique nature of the field of art, why art graduates are attracted to continue their education in this field. In this process, the effective factors were first extracted with the help of library studies and content analysis method and then they were analyzed based on the "causal layered analysis" method in four layers of "litany", "social causes", "worldview/ discourse" and "myth/ metaphor". In the quantitative part, the obtained layers were measured with the aim of ranking the effective factors by means of a questionnaire and selecting a group of experts. Experts were selected from among people related to postgraduate studies in the field of art in Tehran colleges, which included 30 department managers, professors, professor-student (doctoral degree) and Master's students. The results of the T-test and Friedman test show that the three primary factors affecting the tendency of art graduates to postgraduate studies include discourse (including the two discourses of modernity and credentialism), economic and cultural factors, respectively. Higher education policies and planning, archetypes, metaphors, artistic factors, individual and family factors, interest in acquiring knowledge and expertise, and finally the worldview factor ranked fourth to tenth. As a result, it can be said that obtaining a higher academic degree, which due to the nature of the field of art has affected the economic status and social status of artists, are stronger motivations than seeking science and research in the tendency of this group to graduate education.