The Relevance of Philosophical Foundations of Modern Early Childhood Education Approaches and Islamic Philosophy of Education as Iran Indigenous Philosophy

In two past decades, reform discourses in Iran's education system have attracted many researchers and in this way, many documents in governmental level are approved. In another side, poor quality of formal schooling is an important cause to increase families who choose other substitutes such as "Alternative education" and "Homeschooling"; that are not indigenous and are mostly westerns. Although these solutions have high expenses, their significant extension all over the world and their mottoes have made them attractive for some Iranian families as well. However, what about philosophy, specific educator, certain society, and cultural circumstances that shape each approach and their consequences children who live in a different society, Islamic Iran! To what extent the philosophical foundations of these approaches are aligned with the Islamic education as an indigenous philosophy in Iran. To answer this question, this paper compares three European approaches including Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio Emilia and their philosophical basis with Iran educational system reform documents and its Islamic philosophy. It is shown that, in spite of a slight similarity in the preschool level, there is an in-depth gap between these two at the philosophical level. This could be a major challenge for modern educated children to join the mainstream system at the upper level.