Iranian Journal of Curriculum Studies

Iranian Journal of Curriculum Studies

Analyzing curriculum stakeholders’ perception of "the right to choose curriculum": the concept of popular curriculum

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Associate Profesasor, Curriculum Studies Department, Faculty of Psychology & Education, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The purpose of the upcoming research is to analyze the perception of curriculum stakeholders about the "right to choose the curriculum". The discourse of the present research is interpretative-participatory. For this purpose, the perceptions of the four main groups of curriculum activists about who has the right to choose school curricula have been analyzed using the emergent-type grounded theory method. Participants in this research (parents, managers, professors and teachers) were selected through theoretical sampling and theoretical saturation approach. The findings of the research showed the different opinions of the activists about who is more entitled to choose the curriculum. Based on the analysis of the interviews, a total of 344 events, 91 concepts, 35 categories or core codes and 4 fundamental or theoretical codes were extracted, including the popular curriculum, the public sphere curriculum, people of the land of curriculum and the non-popular curriculum. At the end, a conceptual framework for popular curriculum was presented. Based on the findings, the researcher believes that all activists have the right to choose curricula, and failure to respect the rights of various activists, including parents and teachers, as the most entitled groups, causes the failure, distrust and lack of legitimacy of curricula.
Keywords
Subjects

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  • Receive Date 02 July 2025
  • Revise Date 16 September 2025
  • Accept Date 28 October 2025