مطالب

The positive impacts of fiscal policy could be undermined when accompanied by uncertainty. We examined the effect of fiscal policy uncertainty on economic activities in the provinces of Iran. It includes production, investment, unemployment, and economic participation of the active workforce in these provinces, taking into account the effects of economic sanctions imposed on the economy. We employed two types of shocks: fiscal level shock (representing fiscal policy) and its volatility shock (as fiscal policy uncertainty), which derived from a specified fiscal reaction function. We estimated a Panel VAR model using provincial data from 2003 to 2020. The results of the impulse response function indicated that following the impulse in the fiscal policy uncertainty, the response shows an increase in the unemployment rate in the short run, a decrease in the capital investment, and an increase in the inflation rate in the short and medium terms. In the medium and long term, the response indicates a decrease in GDP growth and a reduction in the economic participation rate of the active workforce.

Although Sociocultural Theory (SCT) was introduced to English Language Teaching (ELT) almost three decades ago, it has not yet started to find its way into the epistemological and practical aspects of English Language Teacher Education (LTE) programs in Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) language institutions context. Not having met the needs of English teachers, teacher educators, and academic and non-academic teaching programs and feeling a pressing need for innovative approaches in language teacher education, the time is ripe for LTE programs to present a curriculum that is globally driven and locally appropriate. To this end, this paper aimed to develop a sociocultural language teacher education (SLTE) curriculum model as an alternative to the LTE programs in the Iranian EFL context. The researchers applied Vygotskian principles and extensions of SCT pedagogy to construct a curriculum model that draws on Graves’ framework of LTE curriculum design and Richards’ model of teacher education that collectively incorporate different aspects, namely context analysis, needs analysis, approach, content, process, teacher educator’s roles, student teachers’ roles, and program evaluation. To present an  innovative LTE program, the researchers extracted and put together the tenets, extensions, and categories of SCT comprehensively and presented them through a complementary curriculum model that is a combination of Graves’ framework and Richards’ model of teacher education. This tentative but dynamic curriculum model might help teachers, teacher educators, policymakers, and other stakeholders to reconceptualize and restructure their mentalities and use the findings when designing small-scale and large-scale LTE programs.

The migration of Indians to various destinations during the past few decades has led to the emergence of a group of writers known as Asian-American authors in literature. These writers, including immigrant women from India spanning the first and second generations, have crafted a substantial collection of short fiction. Jhumpa Lahiri, a Bengali-Indian writer, explores themes of identity, belonging, displacement, and the challenges of straddling different cultural attitudes in Interpreter of Maladies . This article adopts a theoretical approach and utilizes the library research method, drawing on the insights of scholars such as Stuart Hall and Michael Ryan, to explore cultural displacement, identity, and the experiences of immigrants in a new multicultural environment. The central focus is to know how Lahiri addresses displacement and immigration through trans-cultural discourses while challenging cultural diversities in Interpreter of Maladies . By employing such a trans-cultural discourse, this study aims to analyze how Lahiri portrays the complexities of cultural differences, and identity formation in the context of immigration. The narratives in Interpreter of Maladies offer a rich tapestry of characters navigating the challenges of living between cultures, shedding light on the profound impact of displacement on individuals and families. By closely examining Lahiri’s storytelling techniques and character development, this article aims to illuminate how the author captures the nuances of trans-cultural experiences and the facts that ultimately put their impact on the formation of immigrants’ new identities in unfamiliar territories.