Alireza Abedin
@irCDS
Iran’s textbooks make children healthy
An analysis on the comparison of the content of the first elementary school book in three countries: Iran, China and Germany
In a research, it was investigated and analyzed the stories of the first grade Persian book in Iran and compared it with the stories of the first grade language books in two eastern and western countries, namely China, as a representative of collectivist culture and Germany, as a representative of individualistic culture. For this purpose, all the stories of the Persian first grade book in Iran, including 51 stories published in 1391, as well as 44 stories from the Chinese first grade books and 26 stories from the collection of four German first grade books were selected as a research sample. In this research, psychological analysis was done by using one of the most reliable analytical projection tests, namely, the theme retrieval test, which is one of the most suitable tests for story analysis, in order to determine what topics are in the form of the main theme of the story, what needs and what environmental pressures are presented by these books. A lesson is taught to children and what is the difference between these subjects in the world of East and West.
The results of this research showed that the needs of “following” in Iran, “progress” in Germany and “mercy” in China are the first and main needs in the three countries. The need to “follow” is divided into two types of “surrender” and “respect”.
The most frequent need in Iran is “following” of both types, but in most cases it is of the “submission” type, and in China and Germany it is only of the second type, i.e. “gratitude”.
The need for “mercy” is the most frequent need in China, which strongly corresponds to the oriental collectivist structure. In the next order, the need to “understand” and also the need to “present and express” are located in China. In short, it can be said that the Chinese child seeks to be loved, understood and understood. After these three needs, which basically make sense in connection with others (collective needs), more personal needs such as “progress” and “play” emerge in China.
This arrangement of needs in Germany is just the opposite of China. In Germany, the need for “progress”, “play”, and “cognition”, which are individual and self-oriented needs, are in the first place, and after them, the need for “bonding” appears.
So
The Iranian child learns to be a demander and receiver (implying a consumer and lazy);
The Chinese child learns to be a giver and giver (implying a producer and a worker).
And the German child does not ask for anything (independent by implication) but is somewhat giving.
In this way, it can be concluded that the Iranian child learns to be obedient and submissive in his textbook.
An Iranian child’s gaze is either downward or upwards.
The Chinese child looks around and has a circular look.
But the German child has a forward and purposeful look. He has his eyes on a point and goal and only tries to reach it in a specific course and finally succeeds.
This post is written by monese_ghamgosar