Developing a new paradigm for performance of educating city theory in advanced technology mega-cities, case: Tehran, Iran

AbstractConsidering the growth of the world’s population and the need for educated individuals, the development of technology among the young generation, is now felt more than ever. This issue offers countless opportunities for education. So, many urban managers and city authorities try to consider all available options to achieve this goal. Nowadays, educating cities are the framework for development on local, civil and commercial levels all over the world. Tehran as the capital of Iran is a city where people with different cultures and expectations live. This means that the city authorities must perform various programs to satisfy people’s expectations, thus the role of urban management is extremely valuable, and MPOs must make intelligent decisions in this area. The goal of this paper is to examine the current state of Tehran and the projects related to its potential as an educating city in recent years, and also to evaluate the capability of Tehran to advance to the state of the educating city. The ke...


Introduction
An urban innovation engine is a system which can generate, foster and catalyze innovation in the city (Dvir, Pasher 2004). Cities are regarded as the place where the business of modern society gets done, including that of transnationalization (Holston 1999). Cities with population exceeding an arbitrary threshold of 8 million population, thereby qualifying as mega-cities (Fuchs et al. 1999;Urban Statistical Yearbook of China 2005Liu, Diamond 2005;Shao et al. 2006). "People's awareness of the advantages and opportunities of any town or city, for business, leisure or retail activities, must be developed, especially by the share experiences which will improve the lives of the inhabitants" (International Association of Educating Cities 2011). Although the educating city theory gives priority to children and youth, it does have a commitment to include persons of all ages in lifelong learning. Since people spend much time in the city, public spaces can be a place to promote higher awareness of culture and civil rights. Citizenship Education in Iran has political, social and cultural levels (Mahdavinejad et al. 2012b). The educated citizen has a main role in public participation (Mahdavinejad, Amini 2011); this participation is very important in the contemporary urbanization of Iran (Mahdavinejad, Moradchelleh 2011). Also, other studies show its importance in the socio-cultural aspects of architectural technology (Mahdavinejad et al. 2012a).
In this way, Tehran as a mega-city in order to have a developed city and knowledgeable and effective citizens, we need to teach them the necessary awareness. Citizenship education in Iran includes administrative, social and cultural levels. The administrative scope refers to the aspect of responsibility among the citizens. The social dimension refers to the strengthening of relations among members of the society. The cultural field includes awareness of culturally pervasive values that distinguish one ethnic group from others (Vaziri et al. 2006). Tehran as the capital city of Iran must be the blueprint for other provinces of the country; so, citizenship skills are a significant part of the basic skills for modern life in Tehran. One of the challenges facing the educating city theory in Tehran is to develop balance and harmony between the identity and diversity of all those living in this city. In this regard, Tehran municipality has launched in recent years cultural centers in the city's neighborhoods to advance culture in general.
Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to describe the social and cultural dimensions and features of educating city projects worldwide in order to determine the necessary criteria for advancing Tehran to the status of an educating city. This research was carried out on basis of the "content analysis" research method and is based on international experiences studied by descriptive-analytical techniques.

Literature review
Social and cultural learning Education is necessary to prepare children and adolescents for new experience. In the social learning, change in behaviors is useful for the advancement of understanding and use different things and to acquire certain ideas and values that are identified as learning goals. On the other words, new theories in urban development emphasize the momentous influence of social function on the awareness of residents regarding urban space. Social interest consists of a sense of belonging among others and the community, along with a sense of contributing to their well-being, expressed as empathy "to see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another" (Oberst 2009;Akers et al. 1979). "The Health Belief Model, social learning theory (recently relabeled social cognitive theory), self-efficacy, and locus of control have all been applied with varying success to problems of explaining, predicting, and influencing behavior" (Rosenstock et al. 1988;Hall 1993). Thus learning would be extremely difficult, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to tell them what to do.
Bandura in social learning theory asserts that: people learn through observing others' behaviors, attitudes, and the outcomes of behavior patterns. Social learning theory explains human behaviors in terms of continuous, reciprocal interaction among cognitive, behavioral and environmental influences (Bandura 1997;Mischel 1973). These environmental models play a role of guide for most humans. Social learning is the main pretext for direct and indirect influence on residents' urban behavior. Thus it must be considered a basic dimension of urban development. In the development of culture, the contradiction between life and form is expressed in the objectification of culture and its estrangement from the culture of the individual. The reification and naturalization of culture hides the kinds of questions about power and social change that are currently at the forefront of anthropological enquiry (British Association for Applied Linguistics 1993; Simmel 1980). To put it another way, intrinsic values disappear from culture, and instrumental values -items to which no intrinsic value can be ascribed -apparently take their place.
Researchers reject the idea that cities have either a singular urban culture or many different subcultures to argue that cultures are constantly negotiated in the city's central spaces, the streets, parks, shops, museums, and restaurants which are the great public spaces of modernity (Zukin 1995).The academic purpose of constructing the theory of culture in social sciences certainly implies its reification (Kwang-Kuo 2011), the main goal is to integrate the contents of objective culture into the realm of subjective culture in a novel fashion.

Educating cities
Educating cities started as a movement in 1990 based on the 1st International Congress of Educating Cities, held in Barcelona, when a group of cities represented by their local governments set for themselves the common goal of working together on projects and activities for improving the quality of life of their inhabitants on the basis of their active involvement in the use and evolution of the city itself and according to the approved Educating Cities Charter. Some years later, in 1994, the movement was formalized as the International Association of Educating Cities at its 3rd Congress in Bologna (International Association of Educating Cities 2011).
The political philosopher Isidre Molas wrote that "the contemporary city constitutes a primary setting for social life and interrelation; and subsequently for solidarity". That this should be left to private enterprise or organized collectively by the city itself is an optional aspect, which is not to say irrelevant (City Council of Barcelona 1990). "The educating city is a city with its own personality, forming an integral part of its nation.  The educating city singly is not self-contained; it has an active relationship with its environment, and the other urban centers in the nation, and with cities in other countries. The goal of this relationship is to learn exchange and share experiences and thus enrich the lives of the inhabitants" (International Association of Educating Cities 2011). Pilar Figueras believed that "For the educating city, the great challenge of the 21st century is to deepen the practice of democratic values through appropriate orientation and actions".

Educating Cities' Charter
The city incorporates the principles of the educating city into its projects: I. The Right to an Educating City: the first principle of the educating city includes six sections that are: 1. The right to possess, in freedom and equality, for all its inhabitants. 2. The city will promote education in diversity as well as international solidarity and world peace. 3. An educating city will foster dialogue between generations. 4. The municipal policies shall always consist of social justice and democratic community spirit. 5. The municipalities shall undertake to exercise their powers effectively in matters of education. 6. The persons responsible for urban organization must obtain accurate information on the situation and the needs of the inhabitants. II. The Commitment of the City: this principle is defined in the following cases: 1. The city must know how to discover, preserve and display its own complex identity. 2. The transformation and growth of a city must be governed by a harmony between its new requirements and the preservation of buildings and symbols of its past and its existence. 3. The educating city should encourage citizen participation from a critical, co-responsible point of view. 4. The municipal administration must equip the city with spaces, facilities and public services that are suitable for the personal, social, moral and cultural development of all its inhabitants. 5. The city must guarantee quality of life for all its inhabitants 6. The educational project that is explicit and suggests the city's structure and system, the values it promotes and the quality of life it offers. III. Serving Its Inhabitants: the third principle pays attention to these subcategories: 1. The municipality will assess the impact of all cultural, recreational, informative, advertising-related and other types of activities offered.
2. The city will make an effort to provide parents with knowledge. 3. The city must present its inhabitants with the perspective of their occupying place in the society. 4. The city must be aware of the mechanisms of exclusion and marginalization. 5. Intervention that minimizes differences may take various forms. 6. The city will encourage the formation of associations as a form of participation and civic co-responsibility. 7. The municipality must guarantee sufficient, comprehensible information. 8. The educating city must offer its inhabitants educations, as necessary, flourishing apparatus for community. The educating city must undertake and develop this function while also undertaking its traditional functions (economic, social, political and being a purveyor of services) with its focus directly on the education, promotion and development of all its inhabitants (International Association of Educating Cities 2011).

Inference mechanism and research questions
Global experiences Representation the idea of educating cities is an evidence for, but the uncertain issue here is the determination of the method and the extent of the effect of this city on its resident (Mahdavinejad et al. 2012c). According to this study, identified prototypes are approximately 400 experiences in the department of urban design and educating environmental studies and 200 samples have been selected randomly. The selected samples are classified in four groups, according to their location: 1) the American continent; 2) the European continent; 3) the Asian-Pacific continent; 4) the African continent. Then samples are analyzed based on different criteria. In order to promote the educating city criteria, the eleven categories of these experiences must be enhanced.

Educating City
The Comitment of the City The Right to an Educating City Serving Its Inhabitants 1) Sport and Social Inclusion: these practical experiences consist of variety of sport activities that suit the needs of all ages and improve the quality of life of citizens through nutritional guidance and the fostering of physical activity and provide them with the information about their particular culture. 2) Educational Leisure: these experiences involve a process of learning how to use free time. The purpose of these educational projects is to reinforce success at school along with the integration and holistic development of all young people and to improve their quality of life in an environment which is rich in opportunities and is adapted to their needs.

3) Participatory Management of Public Spaces:
through these projects, the city is scaled back to human size, values of socialization and mutual respect are generated, social action is fostered, covering space is provided and democratic values are fomented through the proper use of free time.

4) Space for Young People in Educating Cities:
The goal of these experiences is that the young participate actively in the method of reducing the digital gap that affects society and also to teach young people that they can be useful and can play an efficient role in the city. 5) Educating Cities acting against the acceleration of climate change: the purpose of this project is to teach young people and children in rural areas to be aware of their natural environment, and to incorporate them in programs that will improve the environment and their quality of life.
6) Digital Inclusion: ICTs for Everyone: these programs are designed to adjust the background of age segregation in society; on the other hand, these exercises invite young people to participate in society. 7) Immigration, Opportunities and Challenges: these projects consist in developing strategies for the integration of recent immigrants. 8) Coexistence, Cooperation and Peace: the purpose of this criterion is to celebrate the spirit of democracy, to promote the peaceful unification of the city, and contribute to the progress of peace and human rights in society with the association of national and international NGOs and activist movements in favor of democracy and human rights. 9) Lifelong Learning: We need vocational training for the young with low income and at risk, in order to fight poverty, so that they can benefit from the opportunities of joining the labor market and being integrated into society. 10) Actions against Racism and Xenophobia: these programs aim at facilitating the integration of children who have recently emigrated from other countries and are in the local society. 11) Fostering Health: due to the distance of different community centers and neighborhoods from sport centers, which means people are not involved in sporting activities in their free time, there should be the possibility of their using their free time in a way that would impede sedentariness.  Continued Based on studies in different countries around the world the results show 11 criteria that affect the lives of citizens. These criteria are: 1 -Sport as an instrument of social inclusion, 2 -Educational Leisure, 3 -Participatory management of public spaces, 4 -Space for young people in Educating Cities, 5 -Educating cities act against the acceleration of climate changes, 6 -Digital inclusion: ICTs for everyone, 7 -Immigration: Opportunities and challenges, 8 -Coexistence, Cooperation and Peace, 9 -Lifelong learning, 10 -Actions against Racism and Xenophobia, 11 -Fostering health.

The scope of research
The great challenges of the 21st century are: 1) Investing in education to strengthen the individual's ability to develop his or her own human potential and position in society. 2) Promoting the conditions for full equality so that everyone can feel respected and can pay respectful to others. 3) Unifying all these factors so that we can create, city by city, a truly knowledgeable society that does not exclude anyone (Charter of Educating Cities: 2004). Therefore, the main goal of this study is the standard dimensions description and the features of the educating city projects around the world to offer the criteria to change Tehran into an educating city.

The theoretical framework
Considering international experiences and the needs of Iranian citizens, eight criteria are presented for Iranian cities which are necessary to change Tehran to an educating city. These criteria are derived from global experiences and then glocalized with the conditions of Tehran. These criteria are: 1) Security, 2) Health and Safety, 3) Beauty (Attractiveness and Palatability), 4) Nature (preservation and biodiversity), 5) Access (transportation and shipping), 6) Neighborhood and community relations development, 7) Cultural and social participation, 8) Islamic and Iranian identity.
Research questions 1) What criteria need be reconsidered to change Tehran to an educating city? 2) How can the principles of educating cities be internalized by the citizens?

Test and analysis
With respect to the principles of the educating city's charter, the implications of these principles in the Health current status of the city of Tehran are discussed. In this regard, different residents of Tehran commented about these principles; comments are evaluated on basis of the Likert scale (with a range of five items) and the results are specified between one and five (Very much, Much, Medium, Low, Very low). Considering the variety of cultural elements in the capitol of Iran, Teheran, this city was chosen as the study case in order to evidence the fact that an educating urban area must have the capability of establishing social concord in cultural variety and answer all residential needs. The collected data relating to the research hypothesis was gathered through questionnaires. The questionnaires of over 40000 citizens show with which of the previously presented indicators Tehran is more compatible. The intended questionnaires have been distributed among Tehrani residents in public, cultural and social centers; the analysis of the responses to these questionnaires can evaluate the spatial features of Tehran's public areas. It is noteworthy to state that, the sum of the numbers that are presented in these tables are not equal to 100(%) or 5 because these items do not supplement each other. With cooperation of social and cultural affairs department of Tehran municipality, these questionnaires have been distributed in 22 municipality districts in the summer of 2012. The statistical population includes Tehran citizens, both women and men with diploma and higher degrees. It is noteworthy to mention that these data have been at the author's disposal thanks to the social and cultural affairs department of Tehran's support of the author's dissertation. Finally, these 200 experiences were classified in eleven special groups in the field of educating the citizens. This categorization has been done according to the intended targets of the article.
Considering to the exploratory of the study results has been accepted with lower levels. The following information is provided to assess the impact of the educating city theory on the behavior of Tehran citizens, including all cultural and age groups between the ages of 18 and 65 years in both genders. There is the preferential view for the purpose of the study and the theoretical framework has been considered to the selected instances. The distribution of the questionnaires was carried out taking into consideration the literacy level, cultural background and occupational status of the individuals.
1) The Right to an Educating City: this concept and its six related principles and the enjoyment level of the citizens are analyzed in this paper. Based on analysis, young people have a higher tendency to be free and to have equality in education and enjoy recreation and in addition, have a lower tendency to promote dialogue between generations.
2) The Commitments of the City: according to the professors, women and the youth, the authorities pay much attention to the improvement of the citizen's quality of life, whereas according to other citizens and the elderly their attentions are toward the protection and promotion of the city's cultural identity. 3) Serving Its Inhabitants: based on studies, it seems that urban authorities do not care much about creative activities in Tehran. Therefore, planning in order to educate parents is necessary for the increase of social innovation.

Discussion
Research about the implementation mechanism of the educating city in the case of Tehran shows that mutual respect between generations is very poor particularly in the opinion of the young (18-35 years old) and the elderly (over 65 years old) in relation to "The Right to have an Educating City" and throughout the passage of time the youth have less and less contact with older generations. The elderly believe that social justice has not been implemented in the community, whereas, the young believe that social justice has been implemented very well. Meanwhile, young people are not satisfied by the quantity of up-to-date information in the city. Based on the data in Table 3 (The Commitments of the City), we can decipher that urban authorities in Tehran have carried out much activity to promote and protect the city's cultural identity. The percentage of elderly satisfaction with respect to cultural diversity in urban spaces is a remarkably low being about 3(%). The young are not encouraged to participate actively in the life of the city and do not participate in various

Conclusions
Based on studies of the educating cities, citizens spend much of their life in the city and can learn many positive or negative cultural and social principles of society. Tehran as the capital of Iran is a city where people with different cultures and expectations live. Nowadays, educating cities are increasingly discussed in the framework of social and economic development in the community as well as emerging economies all over the world. The analysis of the research data shows that Tehran has a limited performance in ten cases. Based on the data in Table 3, we need to pay more attention in the case of ten items to change Tehran to an educating city; these ten items are the top ten priorities. These weaknesses include: 1) Citizens education, 2) Creativity, 3) Dialogue between generations, 4) Up to date information on urban studies and surveys, 5) Education in contrast methods, 6)Transfer of values, 7) Social cohesion amongst its immigrants and refugees, 8) Democratic citizenship values 9) Social justice and democratic people, 10) Citizen participation. Since various groups of the community with different cultures and expectations participated in the survey, varying programs must be performed that are suited to all expectations of the people in Tehran. Considering the conditions of Tehran, completed projects must be implemented in the most critical fields. The gap between the proposed programs and the ideal conditions must be filled by innovative plans and projects. Hence the role of urban management is very valuable and authoritative decisions should be made wisely in relation to future projects. Therefore, as mentioned below, the city authorities in Tehran must perform a variety of programs such as: -Encouraging collaboration and task-specific actions among cities. -Participating and actively cooperating on projects and exchanging of experiences with groups and institutions with common interests. -Enriching the discourse of educating cities and promoting its direct manifestations. -Maintaining contact and participation with different national establishments all over the world.