Exploring the elements of global citizenship education curriculum in primary school educational system in Iran: a qualitative study

The main purpose of this inquiry is to identify the key elements of global citizenship education curriculum in the elementary schools of Iran's educational system. The method used in this inquiry is qualitative, which is in turn of a phenomenological type. The statistical population consists of teachers, experts and specialists in the field of global citizenship who have been selected purposefully through the snowball technique. Selection of sample individuals continued until the data saturation. 34 people have been interviewed in total, including 18 teachers and 16 experts and faculty members. In order to analyze the data obtained from interviews, Graneheim and Lundman’s method has been employed. The data has been gathered through semi-structured interviews and has been analyzed during the coding stages which has later been presented in 9 general categories including: necessities and needs, goals, contents, teaching and learning methods, the role of teachers, evaluations, materials and resources, location and time. Moreover, Lincoln & Guba’s method has been used in order to establish validity and reliability with using four criteria of validity, transferability, reliability and verifiability. Finally, the application of Philosophy for Children program in global citizenship education has been investigated and suggestions for the further development of global citizenship education have been proposed.