Content analysis of religious education in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This chapter provides evidence to discuss the patterns and determinants associated with religious education from a sociological perspective. The discussion addresses the association between the educational system and religious socialization. This also means that the discussion deals with the two dominant institutions of human society: religion and education (Hungerman 2011). The former is observed as a 'broad-band' construct (Pargament 1999; Seol 2010), and the latter is identified as a fundamental determinant of socialization (e.g. Britton / Lumpkin 1977; Arbuthnot 1984; Bender / Leone 1989; Taylor 2003; Lee / Collins 2008). Due to its key role in the process of socialization, it is critically important to explore how the educational system religiously socializes our children. This study provides a good opportunity to deal with this sort of research question, because the field of this study is a place where religion traditionally plays a vital role in the society and as an interesting place which is substantially dominated by state religion. In the following sections, the literature is reviewed and detailed information about the methodology and field of study are provided. The main patterns observed in this study are then discussed.