Mostafa Hasrati

Instructor

International Foundation Program

Contact

Email: m.hasrati@utoronto.ca

Mostafa Hasrati

Instructor

International Foundation Program

Biography

I am certified by TESL Ontario as: Theory Instructor, Methodology Instructor, Practicum Supervisor, and Academic Coordinator.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Education, King's College London, UK, 2003; M.A. in TESL (Hon.), University of Tehran, Iran, 1996;
  • B.A. in English Literature (Hon.), University of Tabriz, Iran, 1994

Research and Publications

My research is closely relevant to my understanding of the social nature of language and applied linguistics, including socio-political aspects of writing for scholarly publication, discourse analysis, informal learning in Higher Education, globalization and TESOL, and Critical English for Academic Purposes. In a series of research studies in these areas, I have combined quantitative and qualitative techniques to investigate language and literacy related issues in higher education. My interest and work in these areas have resulted in a number of collaborative studies and some very valuable publications with a very strong potential to develop into a more substantial research agenda. My most recent joint paper, “The rise of non-dissertation track master’s programmes: And academic literacies approach” (Hasrati & Tavakoli, 2019), is an investigation of how market-driven policies are affecting universities to drop dissertation writing from TESOL master’s programs, which is an interdisciplinary work on language, education, and socio-politics of academic writing. Another paper, entitled “Material and credentialing incentives as symbolic violence: Local engagement and global participation through joint publication”, investigates joint publication of research articles by university professors and graduate students in an Iranian university by drawing on Bourdieu and Passeron’s (1991) analytic framework of ‘symbolic violence’, and it reports a very interesting account of the socio-political nature of this literacy practice. In this work, I have problematized joint publication not simply as a linguistic enterprise, but as a highly political process affecting and being affected by various social, institutional, and governmental policies. My other paper entitled “Legitimate peripheral participation and supervising Ph.D. students” is an academic literacies approach to advanced academic literacy by taking the focus off language and on the socio-discursive practice of informal learning among postgraduate students in UK universities. It also highlights the social and situated nature of learning by drawing upon “communities of practice” (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). A fourth paper I would like to refer to is entitled “Ph.D. topic arrangement in ‘D’iscourse communities of engineers and social sciences/humanities” in which Brian Street and I explained the socio-political nature of the way Ph.D. topics are agreed upon in some UK universities. We distinguished between ‘discourse’ with a small ‘d’ and ‘Discourse’ with a capital ‘D’ to argue that EAP researchers should not limit themselves to linguistic issues in academic disciplines, but should also address non-linguistic aspects. My paper published in Critical Discourse Studies (Hasrati & Mohammadzadeh, 2012), investigates a very fascinating academic writing practice, namely short notes written at the end of exam papers by some Middle Eastern university students to ask for a higher score. My co-author and I proposed a new understanding of ‘manipulation from below’, i.e. by less powerful people, and we have explored various manipulative strategies used by university students to influence their professors. In another joint work, Street, Habibi and I drew on Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘agency’ and ‘habitus’ to investigate bumper sticker writings in Iran (Hasrati, Street, & Habibi, 2015).

Publications

  • Hasrati, M. (Forthcoming/2022). Social order: A neglected aspect of Brian Street’s work on literacy. Teaching Anthropology.
  • Hasrati, M. (2021). Putting the employment status of faculty into the quality of education: A Canadian case study. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14703297.2021.1948887
  • Hasrati, M., & Tavakoli, P. (2019). The rise of non-dissertation track master’s programmes: An academic literacies approach. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 56(5), 639-651.
  • Tavakoli, P., & Hasrati, M. (2018). MA TESOL dissertations in a changing global landscape: A case from Iran. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 6(1), 109-128.
  • Hasrati, M., Street, B., & Habibi, S. (2016). Vehicle writings in an Iranian context: The interplay of ‘habitus’ and ‘field’. Iranian Studies, 49(1), 1-27.
  • Hasrati, M., & Tavakoli, P. (2015). Globalisation and MA TESOL programmes in the UK. Higher Education, 69(4), 547-565.
  • Tavakoli, P., & Hasrati, M. (2015). MA TEFL programmes in Iran: Change in a globalised era. In C. Kennedy (Ed.). English Language Teaching in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Innovations, Trends, and Challenges (pp. 139-148). London: British Council.
  • Mirzaee, A., & Hasrati, M. (2014). The role of written formative feedback in inducing non-formal learning among master’s students. Teaching in Higher Education, 19(5), 555-564.
  • Hasrati, M. (2013). Why bother about writing a Master’s dissertation: Assumptions of faculty and Master’s students in an Iranian setting. Asia Pacific Education Review, 14(3), 455-465.
  • Hasrati, M. (2013). Material and credentialing incentives as symbolic violence: Local engagement and global participation through joint publication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 27(2), 154-179.
  • Hasrati, M., & Mohammadzadeh, M. (2012). Exam papers as social spaces for control and manipulation: “Dear Dr X, please I need to pass this course”. Critical Discourse Studies, 9(2), 177-190.
  • Hasrati, M. (2012). Quantitative, qualitative, or pragmatic: “Research potentials” for TEFL practitioners. Journal of Teaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran, 6(1), 185- 196.
  • Hasrati, M., & Hashemi, R. (2011). The PhD game in a Middle Eastern setting: A small scale study of science students in an Iranian university. Quality in Higher Education, 17(1), 331-352.
  • Hasrati, M., & Hashemi, R. (2010). Informal learning among PhD students: A case study in an Iranian university. Iranian Journal of Higher Education, 2(4), 176-202.
  • Hasrati, M., Gheituri, A., & Hooti, N. (2010). A genre analysis of Persian research article abstracts: Communicative moves and author identity. Iranian Journal of Applied Language Studies, 2(2), 47-75.
  • Hasrati, M., & Street, B. (2009). PhD topic arrangement in ‘D’iscourse communities of engineers and social sciences/humanities. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8(1), 14-25.
  • Hasrati, M., & Gheituri, F. (2008). Iranian women’s negative face in the construction of their identity. Journal of Teaching English Language and Literature Society of Iran, 2(5), 41-58.
  • Hasrati, M. (2005). Legitimate peripheral participation and supervising PhD students. Studies in Higher Education, 30(5), 557-570.
  • Hasrati, M. (2005). Academic writing in Iranian universities: The lost ring of the chain. Quarterly Journal of Research and Planning in Higher Education,11(1&2), 103-138.
  • Hasrati, M. (2005). An introduction to grounded theory. Iranian Journal of Linguistics, 3, 75-86.