Volume 25, Issue 99 (1-2026)
refahj 2026, 25(99): 0-0 |
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Sabzeh B, Bazgir T, sameipour M. (2026). Examining the Content of Elementary School Textbooks Based on Child Rights Components. refahj. 25(99), : 8
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4458-en.html
URL: http://refahj.uswr.ac.ir/article-1-4458-en.html
Abstract: (6 Views)
Introduction: Childhood is a vital and sensitive period for supporting and realizing children's rights. The education system can play a significant role in teaching and instilling an understanding of these rights during the elementary years through school textbooks. This study aimed to analyze the content of first-stage (grades 1–3) elementary school textbooks based on child rights components.
Method: A mixed-methods approach (sequential exploratory design) was employed. In the qualitative phase, national and international documents on child rights were reviewed to extract relevant components and indicators, which were then used to develop a comprehensive checklist. The checklist's validity was confirmed by academic experts and two child rights specialists. In the quantitative phase, nine textbooks from the 2024–2025 academic year for the first educational stage (grades 1–3)—including Persian (Farsi), Science, Religious Education, and Social Studies—were purposefully selected for content analysis. The units of analysis encompassed text, exercises, and illustrations, which were manually coded. Inter-coder reliability was established through repeated coding and inter-rater agreement, yielding a coefficient of 0.82. Shannon's entropy technique was used to quantify the importance and weight of each identified component.
Findings: The results indicated an imbalance in the coverage of child rights components. The social rights component received the highest importance weight (0.990), while health rights had the lowest (0.248). Among the textbooks, second-grade Science (with 190 coded items) and third-grade Social Studies (179 items) showed the highest frequency of child rights content. In contrast, first-grade Persian (29 items) showed the least attention to these themes.
Discussion: The findings reveal a pattern of imbalance, dispersion, lack of continuity, and inadequacy in the coverage of child rights components within the analyzed textbooks. This indicates insufficient integration of principles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into the curriculum. The current content requires systematic revision and enrichment to ensure a balanced, coherent, and sufficient representation of all child rights domains, thereby better fulfilling the educational system's role in promoting child rights awareness from an early age.
Method: A mixed-methods approach (sequential exploratory design) was employed. In the qualitative phase, national and international documents on child rights were reviewed to extract relevant components and indicators, which were then used to develop a comprehensive checklist. The checklist's validity was confirmed by academic experts and two child rights specialists. In the quantitative phase, nine textbooks from the 2024–2025 academic year for the first educational stage (grades 1–3)—including Persian (Farsi), Science, Religious Education, and Social Studies—were purposefully selected for content analysis. The units of analysis encompassed text, exercises, and illustrations, which were manually coded. Inter-coder reliability was established through repeated coding and inter-rater agreement, yielding a coefficient of 0.82. Shannon's entropy technique was used to quantify the importance and weight of each identified component.
Findings: The results indicated an imbalance in the coverage of child rights components. The social rights component received the highest importance weight (0.990), while health rights had the lowest (0.248). Among the textbooks, second-grade Science (with 190 coded items) and third-grade Social Studies (179 items) showed the highest frequency of child rights content. In contrast, first-grade Persian (29 items) showed the least attention to these themes.
Discussion: The findings reveal a pattern of imbalance, dispersion, lack of continuity, and inadequacy in the coverage of child rights components within the analyzed textbooks. This indicates insufficient integration of principles from the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into the curriculum. The current content requires systematic revision and enrichment to ensure a balanced, coherent, and sufficient representation of all child rights domains, thereby better fulfilling the educational system's role in promoting child rights awareness from an early age.
Article number: 8
Type of Study: orginal |
Received: 2025/04/17 | Accepted: 2025/11/1 | Published: 2026/01/27
Received: 2025/04/17 | Accepted: 2025/11/1 | Published: 2026/01/27
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