First Grade Teachers' Lived Experiences of Adding the Curriculum of Social Skills and Values in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

One of the most important aspects of children's development is social development. Schools, as the most formal institution in the education of children, are responsible for their social development. The quality of life of societies, especially developing societies, depends on the quality of their education. Therefore, how to teach social skills and values is important. In recent years, this topic has been included in the official textbooks of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as an independent lesson. Since the teacher has the main role in education, the teacher's perspective and experiences will be important in creating this lesson. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the lived experiences of first grade teachers of adding the curriculum of social skills and values in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The research method was qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The research community was all the teachers teaching this lesson in the first grade of the elementary school in the city of Kalar, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in the academic year ۲۰۲۲-۲۰۲۳. The participants of the research were ۱۵ people who were selected with a purposeful method. The research tool was semi-structured interview. The interviews were analyzed with the seven-step coding method of Collaizi. The findings showed that the teachers' experiences of this change were not in accordance with the educational goals, so that there was not enough awareness and knowledge for this change. Also, there was no specially trained teacher for this lesson. Therefore, it is suggested that the Ministry of Education of the Kurdistan region, before making changes of this type, should take action to raise awareness and create a theoretical and knowledge base among teachers.

Keywords:

Lived Experiences , Lessons of Social Skills and Values , Kurdistan Region , Iraq