An Investigation of the Concept of an Ideal Family from Students’ Points of View

During the last decades many governments have used formal education as a fundamental instrument for educating children and teenagers in order to promote their personal and inter-personal skills and alleviate family-related problems. Nevertheless, due attention has not been paid to this vital issue in the Iranian education system and even Fundamental Reform Document of Education has emphasized adding a course on this subject to the national curriculum. It's important for policy makers to acknowledge the voices of students when addressing the issues that directly impact their lives. Hence, the present research has been designed according to interpretive paradigm and thematic content analysis methodology in order to explain the concept of an ideal family based on students’ points of view and to foster reflection on student voice. The participants were comprised of male and female 10th and 11th graders from six provinces (Guilan, South Khorasan, Hormozgan, Tehran, Khuzestan, and Razavi Khorasan) who were selected via purposive and maximum variation sampling. The results showed that, based on the participants’ opinion, an ideal family is comprised of a good man and a good woman who are also good parents and try together to find peace and love. The students believe that respect, mutual understanding, strong relationship, patience and companionship, piety, consciousness, secrecy, respect for children’s independence, sociability, avoiding humiliation, spending time with family, and doing things together are the most important characteristics of an ideal family.