Analysis of Parents' and Students' Demands from the Secondary School History Curriculum

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Al-Zahra University (Corresponding Author)

2 Associate Professor of Al-Zahra University

3 Master of Al-Zahra University

10.22099/jcr.2021.6050

Abstract

Introduction
The main objectives of this study were to understand and discover the demands of parents and students from the secondary school history curriculum over the academic year 2016-2017 and to take a critical look at history curriculum courses in this regard.
 
Research questions
1- What are the demands and expectations of parents from the history curriculum?
2- What are the demands and expectations of students from the history curriculum?
 
Methods
The present researchers have adopted a qualitative approach to research, and more specifically a descriptive phenomenological method of research for conducting this study. The study population consisted of all parents and students in District 7 of Karaj. Purposive sampling strategy and maximum variation sampling were used to semi-structurally interview 20 parents and 20 student in the District 7 of Karaj . The interviewees talked about their views about and experiences of history courses.  The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. Data analysis was, then, carried out through using Brown and Clarks' (2006) six-step thematic analysis procedures.
 
Findings
Based on the findings, 5 open codes, namely understanding and studying history, loyalty to historical events, repetitive history lessons, teacher and methods of teaching history, and  content structure and organization, and 11 central codes were identified. The overall findings revealed that one of the most important demands of parents and students was paying particular attention to the content and method of teaching of school history curriculum. Additionally, parents believed the history course can be very useful in their children's lives.They believed that history courses play a key role in creating national cohesion and solidarity, can help create a spirit of cooperation amongst individuals, and can increase the level of commitment to current governments. Therefore, the accuracy, caution and obsession with which authors compile the content of history textbooks are very important. However, participants believed that the foundation of history textbooks are based on  narration of past events which caused teaching of history to be limited to the preservation of historical events. In other words, participants stated that the content of history textbooks was often about political and military events, and this made the course boring for them. In fact, social, cultural and economic aspects of history had been neglected in teaching history, and thus the concept of the science of history was limited to description of lives of those in power and  political and military elites. Therefore, the history textbooks did not seem to be authentic and were not attractive to students.
Students also emphasized the role of teacher and  teaching methods and their major demands were to use practical teaching methods and to engage students in classroom affairs. In other words, the most important expectations of parents and students from the school history curriculum was that special attention be paid to adopting efficient methods for teaching history. Based on what they stated, history was mainly taught using traditional methods of teaching, the textbooks were the main source of information, and teachers only transmitted information from the textbooks to their students.  This way students became passive in their learning process and the only task which they needed to do was retaining historical information in their head. All of these made students bored and incited their hatred against the course. The interviewees also believed that in order to increase students' power of thinking, questioning, and information processing, and the history classroom should not be textbook centered and limited to transmission of historical information. Rather, teachers must benefits from the use of new effective methods for teaching history. In other words, in the information age, information transfer should not be the goal of education. Rather, attention should be paid to analysis and processing of information. And this will be only possible through using new teaching methods, and appropriate textbook contents. Finally, it should be said that students, as the target  audience of history courses, expected that their history textbooks present a true picture of the past, and make them search and explore historical issues. Considering parents' and students' expectations, history should be taught with regard to its different aspects, conditions for teaching this course should be improved, and history textbooks should be revised. All of these can help making the history course interesting for students. Overall, the findings of this study can explain why paying attention to the demands of parents and students from the school history curriculum can improve the conditions for teaching this course. 

Keywords

References

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Journal of Curriculum Research

Volume 10, Issue 2 - Serial Number 20
Winter and Spring 2021
Pages 110-129

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