The Position of ethnicity in formal curriculum of Humanities discipline (Case Study: Sociology and History books in the New Secondary School System)

Considering that the Iranian society is a rainbow of different cultures of different ethnic groups, the prerequisites and requirements of life in this country should be considered based on the principles of multicultural life. Accordingly, it is necessary for the country's curricula to play the role of multicultural education and disseminate it in different ways. Therefore, examining the status of ethnicity in one of its most special areas, namely curricula, is an urgent and vital need and should be considered in curriculum studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of ethnicity in formal curricula of Humanities discipline in the new secondary education system.

The research method used in this study was documentary analysis and Shannon's entropy content analysis. The content analysis unit consisted of text, images, and textbook activities. The statistical population included 51 books in the field of humanities in the second secondary school. The research sampling method was purposeful sampling and the research sample included 6 volumes of history and sociology books of the second secondary school.

The findings of the present study showed that out of 2467 recorded units, only 122 units were in the case of the 22 desirable components of ethnicity. In other words, only 4% of the content of the books have paid attention to the desirable components of ethnicity. In addition, the findings of Shannon's entropy analysis showed that the highest amount of information load and the significance coefficient among the desirable components of ethnicity related to the component of "addressing the concept of peace and friendship between different ethnic groups" with the value (0.1280) and the lowest of information load and significance coefficient to the components of "Iintroducing different ethnic groups", "creating mutual understanding between different ethnic groups", "The role of all cultures in the formation of Iranian civilization", " Introducing different religions and sects of Iranian ethnic groups", "Awareness to prevent prejudice against different ethnic groups "," Introduction of language and ethnic dialect of different ethnic groups "," Awareness of the geography of life of different ethnic groups "," Helping to tolerate dissenting opinions ", and finally Reflecting the language, literature and music of different ethnic groups .

Research findings showed that ethnicity in formal curriculum of Humanities discipline in the New Secondary School System remained largely neglected. Various causes have been effective in this situation. Factors such as the ignorance of policy makers about how to design and develop appropriate curricula with multicultural components; confrontation and resistance of educators And learners in learning different cultures, the inflexibility of the centralized educational system, the trustworthy and taboo view of ethnicity, the belief in the distorting role of ethnicity in national unity. Therefore, given the multiplicity of Iranian society, it is suggested that the official curriculum of Humanities discipline in the New Secondary School System be thoroughly revised to cover the components necessary for multicultural education and Iranian ethnic diversity.