The Investigation of Teachers’ Lived Experiences in Primary Schools in Mahabad City about Religious Education and its Components

The purpose of this article is to examine the experiences of elementary school teachers in Mahabad city regarding religious education and its elements. To achieve this goal, the phenomenological method has been used. The research community is all primary school teachers in Mahabad city and the method of selecting participants is purposeful. The number of interviewees is 30 and its tool is a semi-structured interview. To analyze the data, an interpretative analysis method based on Smith, Flowers, & Larkin's model has been used. The findings indicate that regarding the goals of religious education, the overarching themes are knowing God as one of the principles of religion, recognizing resurrection as one of the principles of religion, recognizing prophethood as one of the principles of religion, knowing and understanding God’s Words, knowing religious ethics and the ways of practicing it and knowing the branches of religion.. Regarding the content of religious education, two overarching themes are non-observance of the principles governing the selection of content and non-observance of the principles governing the organization of content. Regarding the religious education method, the overarching themes are emphasis on the active teaching method in teaching religious concepts, emphasis on new teaching methods in teaching religious concepts, paying attention to objective teaching of religious concepts, and the use of new technologies in teaching religious concepts. Regarding the evaluation methods of religious education, the themes are observational assessment themes, descriptive evaluation, performance tests and written academic progress tests. And regarding learning religious education activities, overarching themes are emphasis on interactive and participatory methods in learning activities related to religious concepts, paying attention to the principle of student activity in learning activities, emphasis on educational technology in carrying out learning activities.