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Abstract

The research aims to understand the phenomenon of knowledge transformation, which means studying a social specialty after completing a university degree in a natural specialty. It also aims to deconstruct the motives of the transformation, its temporal contexts, and its challenges. The research used a qualitative, phenomenological method by interviewing 35 people from several Arab countries who went through this experience. After the data was analyzed thematically by MAXQDA. The research reached several results, the most important of which are: Social constraints, the most important of which are the family, social relations, and the market, played a fundamental role in choosing the first natural specialization after high school, while subjective factors constituted the primary motivation in the cognitive shift towards the social sciences. Most of the transition difficulties were of a social nature, and the passion for the second major played an important role in facilitating the transition. The research proposes a new theoretical approach to understanding the motivations of those switching from studying the natural sciences to the social sciences, based on the concept of the “social dilemma” as a “hidden structure” that constitutes a source of perceptions and practices associated with choosing a specialization (natural or social). The research recommends paying attention to the status of the social sciences and enhancing it socially and academically.

Article Type

Article

First Page

22

Last Page

47

Publication Date

6-15-2024

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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