Aesthetic Foundations of Citizenship Education for Developing a Curriculum Model for the First Cycle of Primary Education

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify and explain the aesthetic foundations of citizenship education and to develop and validate a curriculum model for the first cycle of primary education. This study was applied-developmental in purpose, descriptive-survey in nature, and conducted using a mixed-methods approach. In the qualitative phase, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with experts in curriculum planning, primary education, citizenship education, philosophy of education, and educational aesthetics and were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants were selected through criterion-based purposive sampling, and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Subsequently, the relationships among the extracted components were examined using interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis. In the quantitative phase, 106 teachers and administrators from the first cycle of primary education participated. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire and analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling. Factor loadings ranged from 0.70 to 0.91, Cronbach's alpha coefficients from 0.84 to 0.91, composite reliability from 0.89 to 0.94, and average variance extracted from 0.61 to 0.72. All major structural paths were statistically significant. The strongest path was from teacher role to teaching-learning strategies (β=0.51). Teaching-learning strategies significantly predicted creativity and aesthetic expression (β=0.48), social participation predicted aesthetic ethics and behavior (β=0.47), and aesthetic perception predicted civic identity and belonging (β=0.45). The model explained 0.56 of the variance in civic behavioral outcomes, and the SRMR value was 0.067. The proposed model demonstrated that aesthetically grounded citizenship education has a multilevel structure beginning with philosophical foundations and teacher role and progressing through curriculum content, learning environment, aesthetic experience, identity, creativity, and social participation toward civic behavioral outcomes.