Curriculum of citizenship rights in the primary schools from the perspective of Mahabad’s city teachers

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the teachers’ view about curriculum of citizenship rights in elementary schools. To achieve this goal, the phenomenological method has been used. The sampling method of this study is purposeful, according to which 11 people have been selected as participants in the data collection process and its tool is also a semi-structured interview. In order to estimate its validity, the validity criterion and to assess the reliability, the exact interview guidance strategy was used. In data analysis, open, axial and selective coding process has been used. Findings show that the elementary school citizenship rights curriculum in terms of the four elements of objectives, content, methods and methods of evaluation can include cognitive goals of citizenship rights, emotional goals of citizenship rights and  practical goals of citizenship rights, social dimension of citizenship rights content, cultural dimensions of citizenship rights content, political dimensions of citizenship rights content and civil dimensions of citizenship rights content, methods practical representation of citizenship rights skills, observing the concepts and skills of citizenship rights and interactive and active methods of teaching the concepts, values and skills of citizenship rights and in terms of citizenship rights curriculum evaluation practices, functional tests, observational measurements, written academic achievement tests have been revealed.
Introduction
Citizenship rights are one of the most important socio-political ideas of the contemporary era. Citizenship rights are one of the most important manifestations of citizenship. The importance of citizenship rights is such that it is closely related to the position of government. As some sociologists believe, in a society in which the rights of citizens are not institutionalized, the relationship between the people and the government is shaky (Mohseni, 2010: 118).
Today, the issue of citizenship rights is one of the most important concerns of most educational systems. Citizenship rights education is one of the basic necessities of any society and its essential contribution to the real realization of citizenship living standards is undeniable. Familiarizing students with citizenship rights provides a suitable context for a good citizen, establishing order and security in society, increasing the level of civic participation, respecting the rights of other citizens and promoting the virtue of urban society (Sabbaghi ​​and Saadatmand, 2013: 156).
The elementary course is one of the most sensitive and important courses in the education system. One of these necessary knowledge and skills for learning in this course is teaching citizenship rights to students which can turn them into very efficient learners (Duraghi and Shoichi, 2017: 2). Accordingly, it can be said that the lack of a citizenship rights curriculum in primary school period can seriously damage students' citizenship rights skills. The present study suggests that designing and developing a citizenship rights curriculum as a neglected curriculum, especially in Iran’s elementary school, can be a fundamental step in eliminating this defect. The development of a citizenship rights curriculum acquaints students with this type of rights and paves the way for the acquisition of values and human rights in society. This study examines the important elements of the citizenship rights curriculum such as objectives, content, methods and methods of evaluation.
Methodology
The type of this research is qualitative and its method is phenomenological. The population of this research includes all teachers in Mahabad city. The sample size was determined based on theoretical saturation logic and sampling method is purposive which 11 people were selected as the sample. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. To analyze the information in this study, interpretive analysis method was used, which contains three open, axial and selective coding.
Research Findings
Based on the interviews regarding the teachers' views on the goals of citizenship rights, three codes or themes with the titles of 1- Cognitive goals of citizenship rights, 2- Emotional goals of citizenship rights 3- Practical goals of citizenship rights and axial code for theme number one with the titles of “change in students’ knowledge to understand the concepts and skills of citizenship rights, the axial code related to theme number two “to provide contexts for students' tendency and desire for the values of citizenship rights” and a axial code related to theme number three as “the ability to practice citizenship rights skills in school and society”, was revealed.
Conclusion
One of the new patterns of the curriculum is the formation of the program from the bottom to up. The importance of this program is that in assessing the needs and design of curriculum elements, it uses the perspectives of teachers and the experiences gained from their interaction with students. On the other hand, in the Iranian educational system, there is no specific curriculum for teaching citizenship rights. Therefore, the present study, following this model, is a preliminary step to help design and develop the curriculum. To do this, the four elements of the curriculum, including goals, content, methods and evaluation have been considered. Based on teachers' perspectives and findings from the coding process, holistic goals have been achieved in the citizenship curriculum, meaning that citizenship goals encompass all three cognitive, emotional, and practical domains. Content of this program is in line with the theoretical foundations and ideas of experts such as Marshall and the concepts and skills are four dimensions of social, cultural, political and civil rights. Also, teaching methods of the citizenship rights include a wide range of new teaching-learning methods that are both active, such as asking and answering questions about the concepts of citizenship rights, role-playing, and engaging in activities related to citizenship rights skills, and interactive activities such as participatory methods and group discussion. Finally, the evaluation methods proposed in citizenship rights curriculum include functional tests, observational assessment and written academic achievement tests.
Research suggestions
1- Paying attention to three cognitive, emotional and practical areas in designing and formulating the goals of the citizenship rights curriculum.
2- Paying attention to the four social, political, civic and cultural dimensions in designing and compiling the content of the citizenship rights curriculum.
3- Paying attention to active and interactive educational methods in designing and compiling teaching-learning methods of citizenship rights curriculum.
4- Paying attention to process and product-oriented evaluation methods in designing and compiling evaluation methods of citizenship rights curriculum.