Objective: The purpose of this study was to explain the process of acculturation based on Islamic teachings with emphasis on the role of schools.
Method: This qualitative research was a hybrid one conducted in three sections: theoretical analysis, fieldwork and final analysis. In the first part, the content analysis method was used and in the second part, the interview method was used. The third part was the analysis of the findings in two parts. The research community in the section of content analysis was the Holy Quran and in the second section, the principals and teachers of the junior high schools of Tehran in the year 1400 SH. Samples were constructed in a purposeful manner until the saturation of the categories with 14 people in a semi-structured interview method. The collected data were analyzed through content analysis and open, centralized and selective coding.
Findings: In the first part, using content-inductive-deductive content analysis, the components of the process of acculturation from the biography of the first prophets in the Quran were identified and classified into 4 categories. At a higher level, each of them was classified into three areas (cognitive, emotional and practical), including: 1. acculturation strategy with emphasis on monotheism with indices of prophetic behavior. 2. preliminaries including cultural studies, audience, empowerment and having an organization, proper timing. 3. Principles such as endurance and tolerance, preserving human dignity, internal commitment and liability, explicitness, and clear message. 4. Methods of institutionalizing values, including invitations to reasoning and giving motivation. In the second stage, based on the components of the process of Islamic acculturation and interviewing, and coding, two categories of roles were identified for schools. 1. Educational role including direct methods (practice and repetition in the gradual process), semi-direct (discussion, debate), and indirect (learning based on experience and action) 2. Giving motivation including cultural self-believing methods, persuasion method and the like.
Conclusion: In the last stage of the research process, it was concluded – based on analysis and synthesis of the theoretical data, - that the teacher should strengthen, based on the principle of love in the process of acculturation, the spirit of monotheism in himself and in students by interacting effectively with his pupils to play a greater role in the process of acculturation.