childhood

The aim of this paper is explaining the social education concept in childhood based on the Islamic theory of action. For this purpose, the concept development method is used. Therefore, the prevalent controversies in childhood social education are faced with the Islamic theory of action, and the position of this theory in these controversies is reviewed. After delineating the position of this theory in the continuum of these controversies, it is revealed that this theory according to two statements “two-face identity” and “interactional development “, has the necessary premises to enter the social education discussion and conceptualization about it. The result of this paper showed that the concept of social education in this theory surpasses the society and the individual and is related to a higher concept and formed regarding to centrality of "right and truth". In this case, the definition of social education in childhood in this theory is preparing a situation for the child to have "right-based interaction". On the other hand, in this definition, we can emphasize the social accompaniment of a child. Considerations as a symmetrical interaction with peers, asymmetrical interaction with adults, interpretation of the past and future about “social role creation” and “ current meaningfulness”, a child's relation with all social layers, using the “modeling” methods, “Primary unconditioned kindness, secondary structured kindness, flexible discipline and dialogical necessity in social education and consensus rationality are the social action criteria which are gained in reaching to a social education concept in childhood based on the Islamic theory of action.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between structure and agency in the theory of the human as an agent and its educational implications for childhood.

For this purpose, this research was conducted with a qualitative approach and Analytic-Deductive method in three specific steps. First, the components of the concepts of agency and structure in the theory of the human as an agent were analyzed and described. Then, the relationship between structure and agency was deduced in a systematic framework. Finally, based on the analysis, educational and practical implications were presented for the management of early childhood.

Based on the philosophical concern of the theory of man as an agent, the components of agency included (will, etc.) and the components of structure were discovered in two internal and external parts.Regarding the dual relationship of agency-structure, neglecting the causes of human agency and accepting his inaction and unwillingness in the face of structures on the one hand and unjustified emphasis on the role of structures on the other, there are two sides of the spectrum that we have to turn from.Therefore, interactionism means a middle ground between the extreme edges of the spectrum.For this purpose, in this theory, the concept of "selection and choice of agent" is used the most.

Finally, based on the lack of agency in childhood, adopting the idea of a child as a pseudo-agent and considering childhood as a period of transition to agency, the proposed implications can be preparations for the growth and development of the bases of agency for adulthood.

Human being has been naturally created in such a way that has the possibility and desire to behave good and evil. This is while in education, and especially in childhood education, the good is central and evil has been marginalized. Concentrating on the good and ignoring the evil in education does not seem realistic. The inclination to evil behavior and recognizing wickedness and error in childhood requires an appropriate education. In this study, by expressing reasons for the necessity of recognizing evil and a glimpse of the verses of the Quran, the desire to behave good and evil is recognized in childhood. Considering the concept of evil and the concept of childhood as a spectrum makes sense of talking about evil in childhood. Hence, an alternative approach is proposed to childhood education, called error-tolerant education. Error-tolerant education attempts to recognize the error and wickedness in childhood to provide the possibility of an active encounter to error and thus, facilitate the path of education and truth-seeking for children. “Recognizing the child’s evil inclinations”, “encountering error actively in childhood”, and “maximum welcoming of children’s error” are some of the components of error-tolerant education in childhood

This study aims at investigating and extracting the principles of monotheistic education in the second 7-year period of life. It uses descriptive, analytical, and inferential methods to explore Islamic texts regarding the monotheistic education in the second 7-year period of life called ‘correction period’ in religious teachings. In that period, reduction of egoism and origination of obedience spirit as well as relative promotion of epistemic, emotional and practical parameters prepare the ground for initiation of formal education. In this study, monotheistic education is investigated with the aim of preparing the ground and creating mental readiness in the child in order to create a basis for establishment of monotheistic attitude in other stages of growth in cognitive, emotional and volitional (practical) dimensions. The followings are among its most important findings facing the real meaning of life, preparing the ground for preliminary understanding of the concept of servitude to God, argumentative proof of God’s existence, making the child familiar with God’s attribute of glory and attribute of beauty, knowing God through external journey, formation of affection on the basis of cognition, fostering the sense of responsibility to God, fostering and promoting human’s internal proclivities, encouraging the child to establish relationship with God, creating readiness necessary for facing divine obligations, practical teaching of religious concepts with commitment, and contact with religious groups and communities.

In recent years, we have faced increasing numbers of educated women in Iran and their increasing and sometimes extreme tendency to work. The purpose of this study was to determine the conditions and limits of proper work for mothers (with regards to the challenge between women's occupation and their motherhood roles) in order to decrease the probable consequences on the children. The research method was descriptive – analytical method. To answer the research questions, the views of the Supreme Leader in the areas of: women, family and elite women were used. According to the findings, eight necessities in four clusters were extracted: necessities for women( respect for the differences between women and men and the pride of them to be woman/ prioritization of responsibilities by women); necessities for husbands( men)( appreciation for the efforts of ladies in the family/ avoiding forcing women to work and employing them in heavy works); necessities for cultural activists( a reasonable and moderate look at women's occupation/ avoiding promoting feminist thoughts in the society); necessities for legal and executive organizations (managing and setting up appropriate women's businesses/ the legal protections of working mothers). Finally, based on the findings, some conditions and limits of proper work for mothers were determined and some solutions and suggestions were introduced in this regard.

The aim of this research was to explicate the childhood period based on the social constructionism, using the deconstruction method. Deconstruction is defined as analyzing and rereading each subject through defocusing and finding some aspects of the subject which are usually neglected. Generally, there exist two groups of theories concerning childhood: First, developmental theories that treat childhood as a natural and universal process. The second group considers the childhood as a special period constructed by society. Social constructionism provided a new sphere by challenging the concepts of developmental theories. According to social constructionism, childhood is a social phenomenon. Focusing on social constructionism, we will encounter special implications. In this way, education will take on a sociocultural nature. Knowledge, and consequently contents of subject matters, will get a sociocultural nature and will be shaped under the influence of other poles of education, namely teacher and other factors of educational system. The social process of knowledge construct leads to the preference of collaborative perspectives in education. Along with all these elements, pluralism will be legitimized in content and method.

The purpose of this research is to investigate and identify the principles of monotheistic (Tawhidi) education during the first seven years of life. This descriptive-analytical research follows a deductive method for the study of Islamic texts related to monotheistic education in the first seven years of life, referred to as the “lordship phase” in religious teachings. As this period is regarded as playing a specially significant role in one’s personality according to many psychologists and educationalists, and as it is believed that this period of life receives the first emotional encounter of human with God, it is quite obvious how essential the quality of this happenstance of the first meeting and passing this golden age fundamental importance can be. The effect of this period throughout the entire human life and its ultimate orientation is also very great. Aimed at establishing mental and psychological readiness for the child to found a thoughtful establishment of monotheistic attitude in other stages of development, this research investigated monotheistic education in three dimensions including cognitive, emotional and willful aspects. The most important findings of this research include the following: the possibility of teaching Tawhid as the first formal education in Islam, correcting children's awkward thinking about God, introducing the names and attributes of God instead of trying to prove the existence of God, avoiding the presentation of incomplete and misleading descriptions, the use of appropriate language and literature at children’s levels, imitation from and modeling of parents, compassion orientated education, visualizing merciful face of God in the minds of children, development of particular inner tendencies such as curiosity and aesthetics, fitfulness of practical activities with the desire and freedom of children, and application of the principles of simplification and repetition in the education.

Due to having many functions in different periods of life, religious education has always been one of the important dimensions of education in many human societies. Religious education is especially important in childhood, which is one of the most influential educational periods. Therefore, educators, whose main concern is children's religious education, face two major challenges. The first challenge is to properly understand the content of religious education which is appropriate to the age of the child, and the second challenge is to adopt a religious education approach that is appropriate to the psychological characteristics of childhood. In religious texts, the content of education has been specified to a large extent. So far, various theories have been presented in the field of the development of religion with regard to the psychological characteristics of children. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this research reviews Ronald Goldman's theory, who is one of the experts in this field, with the aim of using the psychological findings for the religious education of children, and by considering the principles of religious education from the Islamic perspective.

The main Purpose of this paper is the exploration of aims and considerations of child’s moral education from the perspective of Islamic view of action. Methods used in this research are the conceptual analysis and the deductive approach. Hence, first, from the perspective of Islamic view of action, the moral action that is permanently the normative behavior upon foundations of cognition, inclination and will was explored. Exploring these triple foundations in childhood led to the conclusion that the preparations of moral action in childhood are traceable. In addition, on the overall look, can say that the moral education in childhood from the perspective of Islamic view of action is the period of responsibly selectivity included three stages: processing options, selecting, and accepting the consequences of selection. Then, given the concept of “pure life” and the relationship of moral action with childhood from the perspective of Islamic view of action were extracted the aims and considerations of child’s moral education. Among these aims are: “understanding of good and evil”, “manipulation with desires”, and “tends to goods and hate from ugliness”. “Providing the moral facts based on the child's cognitive ability”, “the relationship of the child with the rich environment of the social-moral”, “recognition of freedom of negative and positive of the child” and “having a behavior mingled with compassion and kindness to the child” are some of the considerations which can fulfill these aims

This paper seeks to examine the development stages of the emotional component of the faith in God among youngsters and teenagers using a cross-sectional method. 198 boys and girls, 7 to 17 years old have been selected from Qom by the method of stratified random sampling. The research data have been gathered based on a clinical method and semi-structured solo interviews and the results have been scored by five experts. The data have been assessed by the method of variance analysis. The results indicate that with the increase in age, the emotional faith gets stronger. Furthermore based on the results obtained the process of the development of the emotional component of faith in God among youngsters and teenagers has the following steps: Having the feeling that God is kind, confabulating with God, having an intimate relationship with God, having the sense of appreciation or shame before God. Moreover a comparison between girl`s grades and boy`s grades notifies the significant difference of the two sexes in this component, and that the girl`s grades are higher than the boy`s grades.

The main Purpose of this study is the exploration of childhood nature from the perspective of Islamic action theory. For this purpose, conceptual analysis, conception development method was used. So anthropological foundations of Islamic view of action were redefined with regard to the childhood. Regarding the nature of childhood from the perspective of Islamic action theory, on the overall look, one can say that childhood is a period of transition to the agency. In this context, some features of childhood can be noted. Assuming Islamic view and its philosophical perspective on human being, we provide some descriptive foundational statements about child nature. “Child's Fitr desire is purer”, “desires and will are intertwined in children” and “the child has the Thinking ability” are some of anthropological descriptive foundations of the child from the perspective of Islamic action theory.

This research is an attempt to provide a picture of childhood and the aims of device activities through presupposing Islamic action approach and the anthropological framework. The methodology of the research is conceptual generalization. To this aim، firstly، necessary conditions of mediational goals are inferred through elevation analysis in order to elucidate the those childhood conditions that can be actualized. Some of the goals are as follows: health، purity and power of the body، initial familiarity with religious teachings such as human messages، concepts، customs، and manifestation of religion، increasing the capability of selection، fondling with internal wills، and increase in tendency toward benevolence.

This researchr examines educational aims and goals of preschool stage in Iranian national curriculum. This examination is based on Islamic theory of action in childhood and carried out by using conceptual and comparative analysis methods. In a holistic view, it seems that these aims encounter 4 challenges. The first challenge is related to psychological requirements of children during their maturation. The second one is about the vagueness of its value hierarchies. The third challenge is the ambiguity of terms and vocabularies. Disorder in defining the aims is another challenge. It is important to note that some of these aims may overlap each other. In this regard some modifications have been done. Comparative analysis of the national curriculum aims indicates that these aims can be settled in 4 categories. The first group includes those aims which are concordant with the correspond ones in Islamic theory of action. These aims are appropriate. The second and third classes consist of those aims which have essential or inessential oppositions to Islamic theory of action. Upon our investigation, we propose that these aims should be modified or omitted. The last one includes those aims that are neglected in this document. In this case, we suggest some new aims.

The present paper aimed at elaborating on the stages and content of change in the concept of response to prayer in children and adolescents. This research was conducted with emphasis on Islamic sources and texts and based on a cross-sectional design. The sample includes 157 students (82 female and 75 male) from 6 to 17 years olds from Qom city. It should be said that these students were selected through a multi-stage cluster sampling. The data were gathered by a clinical method and a semi-structured individual interview whose questions were framed according to experimental and theoretical foundations of religious concepts and scored by seminary and psychology experts (five experts). The content analysis of interviews and conducting ANOVA showed that understanding the response to prayer includes five stages of ambiguous answers, characteristics of prayer, content features of prayer, value and religious concepts, and rational-religious analyses. Its developmental stages were in four age groups of 6-7, 8-11, 12-14, 15-17 and the rate of understanding the response to prayer increased as age increased. The research findings are discussed with regard to theoretical and experimental foundations of understanding religious concepts and in comparison with other developmental classifications.

The present paper tries to analyze the degree of educator's knowledge and skill to answer pre-elementary and elementary student's questions about God. The statistical sample includes 44 seminary students who are trained as educators and religious instructors of children in two private elementary schools one in Tabriz and the other in Qom. The research method is a descriptive-field study. A semi-organized interview was used in this study and a content analysis method was used to analyze the data. The unit of analysis was individual. Descriptive statistics like frequency and percentage, and central indexes like mean were used in this research. The research findings show that the degree of instructor's knowledge and skill in all categories was between average and good. The instructor's score was the highest with regard to the knowledge of the principles and method of teaching the concept of God and regarding the characteristics of a successful instructor, and their score was the lowest with regard to the knowledge of development of kid's religiousness and their questions about God.

For most of the psychologists who are working on the process of children's understanding of religious concepts it is a belief that teaching of religion to children should be delayed until they can acquire abstract thought. Through the present study, while it was critically assessed, this approach was presented. Referring to documents, the data required for the study was gathered and analyzed in both analytical-descriptive and critical-descriptive method. Results have showed that this approach faced with five basic challenges; first, the theoretical framework, in which religious education was studied and the research instrument for assessing religiosity were not reliable ones. Second, the uniqueness and complexity of religious development was ignored. Third, a vague interpretation of religious concepts was suggested. Forth, it was not conformed to the approach derived from sayings and the fifth, not only the delay in religious education has not been possible, but also it remains inadequate educational effects.

Teaching thinking to children (also called philosophy for children) is a program with the aim to cultivate the thinking skills in children and thus، enable them to become competent in dealing with the problems they may encounter in their future lives. This program benefits from stories as one of its main teaching tools since it is believed that stories can assist children in developing a propensity to question، seek for reasons، make rational judgments، and hence، empower their moral values. The present study aims to signify that children’s literary stories constitute a rich source of philosophical elements and thus، can be used as a tool in the process of teaching thinking to children. The literary riches of these stories permit children to use their imagination as well as their cognitive skills while reading. Literary stories allow educationists to penetrate the constraints of using stories with contents that exclusively support the process of teaching philosophical intentions of the writer. Story reading as an educating activity should be included in the curriculum for it possesses the features necessary for constructing fruitful dialog at schools. Stories facilitate adult/ child interaction and thus، contribute to children’s social and cultural understanding.