Auditing Foundational Civic Literacy and Multidisciplinary Social Inquiry in Lower Secondary Education: A Multimodal Analysis of the Grade 7 Social Studies Textbook via the William Romey Framework and CAP Protocol
This open-access research report and benchmark dataset provides a comprehensive, multimodal pedagogical audit of the nationwide Grade 7 Social Studies textbook (24 lessons), serving as the foundational social science curriculum in Iranian lower secondary education (Junior High School). Marking a pivotal developmental transition into early adolescence, this integrated textbook synthesizes civics, geographical reasoning, historical consciousness, and practical social skills. Utilizing an expanded adaptation of the William Romey quantitative methodology, this study evaluates the textbook's structural capacity to stimulate active inquiry, spatial thinking, and civic problem-solving. The empirical audit systematically examines textual expositions, visual illustrations (topographic maps, historical artifacts, photographic documentation, and spatial diagrams), skills workshops/worksheets, and evaluative exercises to calculate Involvement Indices ($Q$-values). To guarantee analytical validity and counteract individual or AI-generated biases, the dataset was compiled through a four-stage hybrid intelligence workflow—the Collaborative Adjudication Protocol (CAP)—engaging student-teachers as "Intelligent Supervisors" and "Bilingual Learning Designers." As part of a national curriculum audit series, this benchmark dataset offers standardized open-data tables for middle school curriculum developers, social studies educators, and AI-driven pedagogical auditors.
Authors
- Hossein Talebzadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4312-1244)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Published
- 2026-07-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21710206
- Primary Topic
- Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy
- Type
- preprint