Thematic Analysis of Curriculum Studies Researches to Understand the Status Quo (Case Study: Specialized Journals)

The purpose of this study was to describe and thematically analyze the curriculum research studies to identify the status quo. For this purpose, the quantitative analysis of articles in specialized journals was analyzed based on the thematic framework of the Iranian curriculum encyclopedia. Statistical population of specialized journals articles in the last five years (1392-1397) were selected as the sample (whole population). The data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist based on the Iranian curriculum axis that was validated by expert validation and expert opinion and its reliability estimated through inter-group reliability. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze the findings, which finally showed that among the specialized journal articles, the most thematic distribution of articles is related to the curriculum and content areas; and the least distribution  to the “History”, “ Practical Curriculum Experiences and Curriculum Innovations”, “World Celebrities”, “Basics” and “International Statements and Recommendations “. The research results indicated that the titles and topics of the research were limited to a small number of fields of the curriculum encyclopedia and the repetition and parallelism of the subjects and the lack of attention of the research to the new domains of the curriculum studies.