A Comparative Study of Secondary School Art & Culture Curriculum in Australia, Canada, Malaysia and Iran

The aim of this research was to compare curriculum of school subject of arts & culture in Australia, Canada, Malaysia and Iran. This was a comparatively qualitative study and its research population included all countries of the world. The strategy of country selection was "different social systems, different educational results". The method of data collection was documentary included primary and secondary sources - such as art & culture curricula of selected countries, articles, the Ministry of Education’s homepage, and national & international reports. In order to determine the reliability and validity of data, concepts & terms were selected based on a specific definition and researchers’ self-review and opinions of comparative experts were used respectively. The method of analyzing and presenting the results was a four-step method of Bereday. The findings reveal that the content of the art curriculum in Iran and its evaluation method in Malaysia are clearly different from other selected countries. The most similarities of countries are in the teaching goals and method. In goals and evaluation method of the school subject of culture, Australia and Canada are clearly different from two other countries, while all four countries are similar in the content and teaching methods. It is suggested to the curriculum planners of Iran to increase the richness of the curriculum of art & culture through identification of the multicultural aspects of selected countries.