Essential Foundations, Goals and Themes of Social Studies Curriculum in Primary School based on Critical Theory of Horkheimer and Philosophy for Children(P4C) Program

پژوهش نامه مبانی تعلیم و تربیت

Article 7, Volume 11, Issue 1 - Serial Number 21, August 2021, Pages 135-157   

Document Type: پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/fedu.2021.31297.0

Authors

Masoumeh Ramezani Fini¹; Khosrow Bagheri NoaParast^{* 2}; Narges Sadat Sajadieh³

¹Associate Professor, Tehran University

²Professor, Tehran University

³Assistant Prof., Tehran University

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the critical theory of Horkheimer and P4C program in order to present a program for incorporating critical thinking in social studies curriculum. The main question of the study concerns the important capacities of the two approaches for incorporating critical thinking in social studies curriculum. Using a mixed-methods desgin, the foundations and principles of the curriculum were formulated, and then through the application of deductive methodology the major themes were identified and presented. The results of the study illustrated that deduction of foundations rest on four aspects called ontology, anthropology, epistemology and axiology taking into account the the afore-mentioned theoretical approaches and the hard core is P4C program.
In this paper was argued that the goals of the curriculum originate from the goals underlying the two approaches which include the following: educating activist citizen, educating personal and social responsibility morale, attaining the ability for establishing true social relationships, develping the ability of conscious and logical criticism of social acts, developing the ability of judging the aims and functions of social institutes, and developing comprehensive thinking orientations in idenfigying social problems. Also, the following seven essential themes in the curriculum were presented: recognition of basic social concepts, awareness of the reason why these concept should be explicit, getting to know effective social institutes, identification of effective social factors, recognition of natural and unnatural factors influencing the destiny of society, getting to know criteria and their functions, and distinguishing between personal and social aims.

Keywords

critical thinking; critical theory; social studies curriculum; philosophy for children program; foundation; goal; theme

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