The Evolution of Geography Education in Iranian Schools: Progress and Limitations (1922–2000)

Abstract

Geography education in Iranian schools was initiated with the establishment of the Ministry of Education and modern public schools in 1911. There was a change from texts which were mainly of an encyclopaedic and itinerary type to the predominance of knowing the homeland and other countries. After a change in the educational system in 1979, the goal of geography education was restricted to the student's knowledge of different areas of the earth and its divisions and their homeland. Due to the absence of a standard curriculum as well as the predominance of memorisation, teachers and students confronted numerous problems at schools. A new trend has recently flourished in order to fundamentally renovate geography education in Iran. The result has been the development of a geography curriculum for elementary up to pre-university levels as well as a number of new textbooks. In this renovation there has been an endeavour to help geography education in Iran assimilate current ideas prevalent in the International Charter on Geographical Education (IGU, 1992). The newly developed curriculum and textbooks depict a variety of educational objectives in geography, a wide range of geographic skills, and the encouragement of the students to do research and solve problems. The geography curriculum in Iran aims at a general education in order to prepare responsible citizens. The present study investigates geography education, especially textbooks, before and after the Islamic Revolution.

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