Review and Analysis of Religious Education in the Primary School Textbooks of the Islamic Republic of Iran

The purpose of this article is to explain the content of primary school textbooks of the Islamic Republic with regard to the goal of "religious education". The research population included all books of the six grades of the primary school and the sample was limited to examining the contents of the Qur'an and “Gifts of Heaven” textbooks. The research method was qualitative (using the content analysis approach) and the documentary method was also used to collect data. To analyze textbooks, four elements of purpose, content, teaching method and evaluation method were taken into consideration. The findings reveal that there is a wide range of religious goals, which include very complex religious concepts - such as the concept of God, resurrection, alliance & dissociation - and simple concepts such as good behavior with neighbors. Another finding shows that the authors of religious textbooks have tried to teach Iranian children the appropriate content by using texts, poems, paintings and photos, considering the religious goals and the three domains of cognition, emotion and action, although the mechanism of achieving these goals with attention to the different levels of each domain is ambiguous. Also, although the authors apparently emphasize the use of various teaching methods, the active role of the teacher in the cognitive field and active role of pupils in the emotional and action domains have been emphasized more. In order to evaluate the students' performance, criteria such as the teacher's personal opinion and her/his knowledge about pupils - along with the practical performance of religious rituals such as ablution and prayer by the child - have been taken into consideration.