THE PLACE OF CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION IN IRANIAN SCHOOL PROGRAMS

The philosophy of establishing educational institutions and schools is preparing students to perform in society as active citizens. Thus, schools are expected to organize their curricula in such a way that students, after experiencing general education, acquire necessary qualification to go on their social life and establish an effective interaction with others. The purpose of this study was to determine the place of citizenship education in Iranian educational system. The main questions of the research were as follow:
1 – What are the qualities of a good citizen for Iranian society?
2 – How much attention is paid to the values and qualities of citizenship at the stage of programs design?
3 – How much attention is paid to the values and qualities of citizenship at the stage of programs implementation?
4 - How much attention is paid to the values and qualities of citizenship at the stage of programs evaluation?
Methodology
The present study employed a survey in which the teachers’ perceptions in secondary schools in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, are investigated. The samples are selected through a random stratified sampling method.
In this research a questionnaire is administrated consisting of two sections; the first section is related to the good citizen qualities and the second section includes the adaptation of curricula with these qualities.
The following approach has been employed by research:
1. Documentary study : For developing the first section of questionnaire a primary form has been developed, based on the works conducted by Ichlov (1990); Dynneson (1992); Holden (1999); Lee (2004); G. Benn (2000); Prior (2005),…. and from which the good citizenship items have been drawn and organized in three domains; civic knowledge, civic abilities, and civic attitudes. For studying the degree of attention to good citizenship characteristics in school curricula, research uses a modal proposed by Beauchamp (1998) consists of three main domains; curriculum design, curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation.
2. Pilot study: in the next stage, a pilot study was conducted with 30 participants, based on that, data has been analyzed, employing psychometric techniques, specially loading factor and discrimination index. Then, through a face-to-face interview with a few university professors, the questionnaires items have been modified.
3. Field study: the final instrument is implemented and the result has analyzed by different descriptive and inferential statistics (one sample t test, ANOVA …)