The Comprehensive Structure of Extracurricular Activities for Female Junior High School Students

An extracurricular activity is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school.  It is demonstrated that involvement in these activities have a positive impact on the participant’s life. Extracurricular activities instill key skills and personality traits that can be helpful in other walks of life. The purpose of the present study was to identify the comprehensive structure of extracurricular activities for female junior high school students in Yazd (District 1) in 2017-18 school year. This study had a mixed methods design (content analysis in the qualitative part and descriptive survey type in the quantitative part). The statistical population was comprised of three groups, i.e., school principals (28 individuals), female students (7000 individuals), and mothers (7000 individuals). In the qualitative part, ten school principals were selected through purposive sampling method and then interviewed based on saturation principle. In the next step, 375 students and 355 mothers were selected by random cluster sampling method and completed two researcher-made questionnaires. The qualitative and quantitative data were analyzed via content analysis and Friedman's ANOVA, respectively. The triangulation of the results showed that the extracurricular activities priorities for school principals, students and their mothers were sports activities, arts and cultural activities, skill-based and vocational activities, autonomous activities at home, educational and academic activities, and religious activities, respectively. The findings of this research can be utilized for designing and implementing extracurricular activities at schools.