Application of basic Iranian texts in teaching political knowledge with emphasis on Kalileh and Demeneh

Political science in Iran faces several crises such as disconnection from Iranian tradition, history, and culture, weakness in educational resources, and the issue of Western orientation. Paying attention to Iranian political sources and essential texts can be effective in getting out of this crisis. One of these important texts is Kalila and Damna, whose main purpose is to teach politics, especially to kings and elites, and it seems to have many capabilities in teaching political knowledge even today. Reflecting on the quality of the expression of political secrets in Kalileh and Demaneh shows that this work was written from the beginning with the purpose of teaching politics, governance, and monarchy. The narrative framework of Kalileh and Demaneh shows that it is directly an educational work in which one side is the teacher or narrator and the other is the ruler as a learner and student. The main question of the research is "What are the needs, requirements, and effects of using Kalileh and Damaneh's text in political science education?". With the interview method, we sought the opinions of several prominent professors in this field and summarized their views through thematic analysis. The result of the research is that the political teaching and description of selected parts of the text of Kalileh and Demaneh in different courses of the political science field with the special conditions desired by the professors participating in the research can answer some of the problems of the political science field. The teaching of this text can help to link this field with the history, culture, and tradition of Iranian political thought, attractiveness in education, and to solve the inefficiency and problem of Western-oriented resources. The idea is that by reading and interpreting these texts, students will get to know the basic concepts of political knowledge (such as legitimacy, efficiency, power, sovereignty, meritocracy, justice, etc.)