Extended Abstract
Background and Purpose
This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of physical education in schools in teaching students' individual and social culture and ethics. Although the Education Development Document and the National Curriculum Document of Iran define physical education in the biological and physical aspects and its general objectives include cultural and ethical dimensions, challenges and deficiencies are observed in the field of teaching ethical and cultural values in this lesson. Also, despite the "culture of Pahlavani sports" in Iranian sports literature, which is a symbol of humility, chivalry, and ethics; why should this potential capacity not be used to teach culture and ethics to students? Given these challenges and gaps, it is necessary to pay more attention to the importance of the role of physical education in teaching culture and ethics and to take effective measures to improve the current situation.
Methods
This research was an applied research type in terms of data collection, and was conducted in the category of descriptive (survey) research, which was conducted using a mixed method (qualitative and quantitative). The statistical population in the qualitative section included a number of experts and elites in the research topic, 23 of whom participated in the research through purposive and snowball sampling and based on the theoretical saturation rule of responses. In the quantitative section, the statistical population was equal to the statistical sample and included 91 physical education teachers working in schools in Malayer city, Hamadan province. The research data collection tool in the qualitative section was semi-structured interviews; in this section, the validity and reliability (trustworthiness and credibility) of the data collection tool were examined through the criteria of credibility, transferability, and dependability and the method of estimating the level of agreement of the coders. The data collection tool in the quantitative section was a researcher-made questionnaire in the form of 6 axes and 59 questions (items) and was set on a Likert scale from 1 (very little) to 5 (very much). The validity of the questionnaire was determined through the face and content validity method (opinion of 5 experts) and the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated through the Cronbach's alpha method and in a pilot study at 0.74. In order to analyze the qualitative data (interviews), the six-stage model of Brown and Clark (2021) was used, and for the quantitative data (questionnaires), descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, and percentage) and structural equation modeling in SmartPLS v.4 software were used.
Results
In the qualitative findings section, 99 initial codes were identified, which were arranged in the form of 54 sub-themes and 5 main themes related to the role of school physical education in teaching students' individual and social culture and ethics. The main themes were: contextual role (cultural/ethical), contextual role (psychological), facilitators (supportive), obstacles and challenges, and development and improvement strategies. The results of the quantitative part of the research also showed that the model constructs had a favorable status in terms of reliability and validity (the values of the validity and reliability indices were reported to be higher than the usual threshold); the quality indices of the model also indicated the predictive power and appropriate fit of the model; also, the determination coefficient value for "school physical education" was reported to be very high, indicating the high explanatory power of the predictor constructs for this construct; the determination coefficient for "culture and ethics education" was also about 0.7, indicating a suitable explanation of the prediction. Results showed that all five physical education themes had a positive and significant role in the variable "school physical education". Also, the variable "school physical education" had a positive and significant role in "teaching culture and ethics to students". On the other hand, among the themes predicting school physical education, the contextual (cultural/ethical) factor had the strongest effect, followed by the contextual (psychological) factor and development and improvement strategies, and finally, the main result of the research showed that from the views of physical education teachers, "school physical education" has a positive and significant role in "culture and ethics education" for students.
Conclusion
This study aimed to investigate the role of school physical education in teaching students' individual and social culture and ethics. The findings of this study, which were obtained with a qualitative-quantitative mixed approach and using interviews and questionnaire data analysis, showed that school physical education lessons can serve as a suitable platform for teaching ethical and cultural values to students. Therefore, it is suggested to education officials and managers to take steps to advance the education of culture and ethics through school physical education by applying development and improvement strategies and also removing the obstacles and challenges that have been explained in detail and operationally in the qualitative findings section of this study. To achieve this, it is necessary to revise the curriculum, improve teacher training, attract the support and backing of families and institutions, and design an appropriate evaluation system to measure the cultural-ethical progress of students. Also, using indigenous capacities such as the culture of wrestling and Iranian sports ethical models can help enrich the educational content.
Article Message
The findings of this study showed that school physical education lessons can serve as a suitable platform for teaching ethical and cultural values to students.
Ethical Considerations
This research did not require formal ethics approval, but all ethical principles including informed consent, participant anonymity, and confidentiality of information were observed. Verbal consent was also obtained from all interviewees.
Authors' Contributions
Conceptualization: Hamed Abdi
Data Collection: Hamed Abdi, Mohammadmahdi Rafiei, Abbas Bagheri, Fereshteh Sameie
Data Analysis: Hamed Abdi, Mohammadmahdi Rafiei
Manuscript Writing: Hamed Abdi, Fereshteh Sameie
Review and Editing: Hamed Abdi, Abbas Bagheri
Responsible for funding: Hamed Abdi, Mohammadmahdi Rafiei
Literature Review: Hamed Abdi, Fereshteh Sameie
Project Manager: Hamed Abdi
Conflict of Interest
According to the authors, this article has no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
The authors express their sincere gratitude to all participants who participated in this study. Special thanks are also extended to the Malayer City Education Department for their unwavering support during the implementation of this study.