A Study of Lived Experiences of Student Teachers at Farhangiān University about Issues and Harms Related to Religious Education in High Schools

The purpose of the present research is to study lived experiences of student teachers (practice teachers) at Farhangiān university in terms of religious education issues and harms in high schools. The research method was qualitative and the population consisted of students at Amir Kabir Farhangiān university. Student teachers in social science education at Amir Kabir Farhangiān university in 2022 were chosen as the research sample, among whom 31 members were selected based on purposive or systematic sampling. The number of samples were determined based on the theoretical saturation principle. Data collection method was semi structured interviewing and the data analysis method was based on content analysis. After transcribing the interviews, narrations from student teachers were coded, classified, and thematized. Their experiences in terms of religious education issues and harms in high schools were classified within 3 main themes including curriculum issues, teachers’ issues, and assessment issues. As for the first theme, the students mentioned that the curriculum content of Religion and Life has not dealt with the needs of adolescence and is irrelevant to daily issues. Besides, the content of the book is not interesting and most of its lessons are repetitive and boring. As for the second theme, student teachers acknowledged that theology teachers at schools are not using suitable methods to teach the book and even some of them do not have necessary skills of teaching so they cannot communicate concepts to the students and just deal with explaining mere rules and ignore philosophical and logical interpretation behind religious issues. As for the third theme, student teachers under study stated that religious education lessons at schools have not made any change in their life and learning them is merely for passing the course.