A critical analysis of the progressive citizenship education approach in elementary school curriculum of Iran

The aim of this study a critical analysis of progressive citizenship education approach, highlighting its evidence, and examining its status in Iran’s elementary school curriculum. Used method was made of a descriptive approach and content analysis to critically examine the relevant curriculum content. The samples of the content analysis involved fourth and fifth grade curricular textbooks sampled purposively from the elementary textbooks of humanities. Data collection instruments included objective an inventory of objectives analysis, inventory of textbook content analysis and am inventory of teacher's books content. Their validity was established by professors who have researched citizenship education. The unit of analysis involved sentences contained in the body of textbooks, objectives, as well as in teacher’s guides. The content analysis of the objectives, most importantly, indicated that there was in the average of 21.93 percent agreement between the objectives analyzed and those suggested by progressive citizenship education which falls short of a desirable an average. indices extracted from textbooks analysis showed in average agreement of 3.87% and these obtained from teachers book provided an average of 1.70%, both of which are too low to fulfill the goals of citizenship education great extent by the curriculum.