Identifying and Evaluating Indicators Of Civic Responsibility Among Physical Education Teachers. (Case Study: Shahrekord)

Introduction

Improper and unprincipled implementation or the duty to leave the law in some specialized jobs such as teaching can bring irreparable consequences and expose the perpetrator to civil risk (Jabari., 2009). Institutions and legal rules in any society are born of needs, materials, habits customs and cultural characteristics and they change and evolve by being affected by the conditions, environment, social ethics and the requirements of the time. Rights are the rules of social life. Human society is also constantly evolving and legal rules are also growing and evolving (Tabibi Jebeli & Majidi Dastjerdi., 2017).   

Responsibility means being obliged to do something (Montezari., 2011). A responsible person is someone who has a responsibility towards another, and if he refuses to fulfil it, he will be called to account. Therefore, it is always associated with the obligation to compensate for damages if someone causes damage to the legal rights of other persons with her behavior and is forced to compensate the other person's damage, it is said that she has "civil responsibility" against her (Katouzian., 1995). Article 1 of the Civil Law states that "everyone without legal permission intentionally or as a result of recklessness harms life, health, property, freedom, dignity, business reputation or any other right created for individuals by law If he causes damage that causes material or spiritual damage to another person, she will be responsible for the damage caused by her action "(Montezari., 2011). The rules of civil responsibility include a set of laws that are used to protect the rights of individuals against the unreasonable interference and aggression of other individuals (Dobbs., 2001). And it must oblige the wrongdoer to compensate the injured party. In other words, the first duty of civil liability law is to remove the loss from the victim and hand it over to the cause of the loss, changing the position of the victim to the state before the loss was inflicted. The purpose of civil liability is not to punish people for their illegal actions; rather, it seeks to compensate the injured person through the formulation of the required laws. Civil responsibilities in sports have many uses because sports activities are always dangerous and people participating in sports activities are exposed to all kinds of physical and mental injuries. In sports and sports teams, the relationship between the athlete-coach and the manager of the club and the media should be sincere, reasonable and appropriate and based on the law, norms and customs of the sports community. Therefore, guaranteeing the implementation of violations of rules and regulations that cause loss and damage to athletes is a civil liability (Naderian Jahromi., 2020). Civil responsibility in sports includes all those who are directly or indirectly responsible for sports activities. And in case of an accident, depending on the case, they may be held responsible. The damage caused can be caused by physical or financial injuries. In education, the discussion of the civic responsibility of physical education teachers is based on two pillars: one is that the teacher is responsible for teaching physical education and another thing is that he is also responsible for taking care of the student. Emphasis is on these two basic issues, which gives the civic responsibility of physical education teachers a distinctive face from other persons. The occurrence of accidents and incidents during sports activities in schools, especially in elementary schools, is inevitable. Because the students of six to ten years mostly lack sports skills and they are ignorant of sports rules and regulations and during the game, the excitement is evident in their behavior. An important and noteworthy point is the legal duty and responsibility of teachers and coaches in the prevention and management of sports injuries and that sports teachers should accept that the process of injury prevention and management is part of the philosophy and method of sports coaching (Aghaie-Nia.,2012). Considering the population of approximately 16 million students in the country and the injuries that happen to students during sports hours (Malekzadeh et al., 2012), in a legal society, any negligence of a physical education teacher can expose him and the school to legal charges. In 1990, Vander Simssen announced that the largest number of accusations against physical education teachers was due to insufficient protection and safety of equipment in schools. Adequate protection depends on the ratio of the number of students in a physical education class, teaching methods and teachers' exercises, how to control and make up students while performing sports movements and skills and games, at the time of the accident and compliance with safety rules (Ramezani., 2012). Of course, this does not mean that the sports teacher has specialized and professional information about all types of injuries and provides perfect performance for any type of serious damage, rather, the meaning is to have basic information about injuries, first aid and informing specialized centers in special cases.     

One of the most important reasons for making a mistake leading to legal responsibility during sports activities and exercises is the lack of sufficient knowledge of sports teachers and coaches about their legal duties and powers, this means that people may try to do something that causes responsibility, But they have done this because they are not aware of being responsible. Sports coaches, physical education teachers and managers are among the people who are most involved in the implementation of sports programs. Therefore, the occurrence of any problem during physical training classes and even sports competitions may create responsibility for them. There are many evidences of sports accidents that are caused by the negligence of physical education teachers. But it has been found that they did not consider doing that thing or not doing that thing to be responsible or sometimes people due to ignorance of the rights that have come upon them as a result of being injured in the sports environment basically, did not come in pursuit of their rights. In such conditions and while the variety of sports activities is developing day by day, physical education teachers' lack of awareness of their responsibilities can be responsible.

Torkfar et al. (2022) showed in their research entitled The Evaluation of the Level of Familiarity with Sports Law among Physical Education Teachers in the West of Fars Province among the 39 identified components, four factors: There is a significant relationship between the standards of equipment and places (0.689), the responsibilities of the manager and the administration expert (0.701), rules and regulations (0.598) and training (0.756) with the components of familiarity with sports law among physical education teachers. As a result, it can be said that if teachers and trainers perform their duties conventionally, they will not be responsible for accidents (Torkfar et al., 2022).

Sadeghian et al. (2021) in their study titled the causes of increasing civil liability citations due to physical activities in the sports facilities of Qom showed that Three main concepts of software, hardware and human resources and 9 sub-themes were identified regarding the reasons for the increase in citations. Therefore, officials and those involved in sports venues should pay attention to these matters in order to prevent legal consequences and civil responsibilities.(Sadeghian et al., 2021)

Keramipor et al. (2021) in their research entitled The Legal Nature of the Civil Responsibility of Sports Clubs and Institutions state that the legal relationship of sports clubs with athletes and coaches is based on labor and employer relationships except in special cases such as regulations and circulars of the relevant federations, it is subject to the labor law. Clubs are vicariously responsible for damages caused by athletes and coaches to third parties, including opposing athletes and spectators. The basis of civil liability of sports clubs in Iran's legal system is based on the assumption of fault. The most important task of sports clubs is to comply with safety obligations provide standard equipment and protect athletes in the club environment, failure to comply with it will lead to civil or disciplinary liability of the respective club. Therefore, the responsibility of sports institutions for damages resulting from their activities is subject to Article 12 of the Civil Liability Law and is a type of vicarious liability (Keramipor et al., 2021).

Kazemi et al. (2022) undertook a research in which identification and ranking of civil liability criteria in sports law were sought. After the investigations, they identified 18 criteria as civil responsibility criteria in sports law and according to the results, it was determined that the formation of special branches to deal with sports claims in the courts with a normal score of 0.167, paying attention to the theory of fault as the basics of sports responsibility with a normal score of 0.145 and teaching skills to prevent injuries during the implementation of sports techniques with a normal score of 0.138 are the most important criteria of civil responsibility in sports law (Kazemi et al.,2022).

Abbasi et al. (2021) in their research entitled "Reviewing the legal methods of removing the responsibility of physical education teachers in Iranian schools during sports accidents", showed that technical factors, managerial factors, educational factors and legal factors affect the responsibility of physical education teachers when sports accidents occur; Therefore, it is suggested to increase the level of legal awareness and civil responsibilities of physical education teachers, while paying attention to the improvement of the educational qualification of physical education teachers, by paying attention to holding in-service classes and informing through brochures, installing educational boards and the like. (Abbasi et al., 2021)

Sani Khani (2021) in his study on the subject of the civil responsibility of sports coaches in Iran's legal system states the coach is considered one of the important and fundamental pillars of sports activities, who must have completed special coaching training courses and obtained a coaching license from the relevant organizations and he is obliged to provide a set of organized activities and guidelines for the promotion, progress, evolution and success of an athlete or a group of athletes in terms of physical, mental, moral and social abilities, in compliance with all legal, safety, health and ethical standards. In Iranian law, if there is a fault in the damage caused by the performance of any of the tasks, it is a civil liability and the trainer is required to compensate for the damage (Sani Khani., 2021).

Soori et al. (2021) in their research titled "development of the conceptual framework of the legal development of Iranian sports" showed that education, legal culture in sports and human resource empowerment according to scientific and research topics and legal supervision and inspection are the most important factors in the development of sports law in Iran(Soori et al.,2021).

Babakhani (2021) in his study titled "Inspection of civil liability insurance of martial sports trainers" emphasized that when a sports coach causes damage to another person according to certain moral rules, those who cause harm on purpose are condemned and condemned and he is responsible to the victim and must compensate him for the loss. When a martial arts coach makes a mistake in training athletes and cause harm to them or lack technical competence, the coach is responsible for the harmful act and when the coach does not have a continuous presence in the sports programs, he is responsible because of his omission and failure to perform his duties (Babakhani.,2021).

Haghighi et al. (2018) in a research titled "Analysis of the level of awareness of sports managers and coaches about indicators of civic responsibility in the field of sports activities" showed that there is a significant relationship between the level of legal awareness of civil responsibility indicators and the level of specialized scientific capabilities of managers and members of sports boards also, there was a significant difference between men's and women's views on the knowledge of civil responsibilities indicators. Regarding the service history, there was a significant difference between the views of the managers; this means that the managers who had a higher service history had more noble legal knowledge (Haghighi  et al., 2018).

Mirsafian (2017) in his research entitled "Inspection of sports coaches' knowledge of their legal duties towards athletes" showed that coaches do not have adequate knowledge of any of their legal duties, and in this, the factors of gender and degree of coaching did not affect their knowledge. In this connection, the system of training coaches with the authority of sports federations, resources to improve the knowledge of coaches, lack of media support and generally little knowledge and inadequate attention of the sports community to legal issues related to sports can be among the factors affecting the inadequate knowledge of coaches about these topics)Mirsafian., 2017).

Dashkovska et al. (2021) expressing sports activities is one of the most harmful activities for the occurrence of physical conflicts in some sports fields (Dashkovska et al., 2021). Colditz et al. (2018) stated in their research that there is still no comprehensive legal framework to cover the aspects related to sports events (quoted by Shaker 2020). Williams et al. (2016) stated that the management of physical education and sports classes requires continuous organization, supervision and control. Students' tastes are changing and they want to change their sports activities continuously. Some of them do not have the necessary desire and motivation to perform preliminary movement activities and some of them are fans of sports competitions. These special features in the physical education class have made the professional responsibilities of teachers heavier and it has made careful management and planning inevitable (Williams et al., 2016).

Monitoring sports activities in terms of their dangerousness is one of the important duties of physical education teachers and sports coaches and if this task is done conventionally, physical education teachers in physical education classes will not be directly responsible for sports accidents and injuries. Therefore, the supervision of physical education teachers in schools depends on their continuous presence during the activities, paying attention to the age, physical and mental condition of the students and the type of activity (Flook et al., 2013).

By reviewing the results of the research, we come to the conclusion that the capacities of sports rights in creating a safe sports environment are understood as an important and necessary issue and physical education teachers need other information and expertise in the specialized knowledge of their field. Considering the process of developments in the field of education, along with access to new findings in the field of teaching and learning physical education teachers should not neglect their rights, duties and responsibilities towards students and consider themselves without the need to learn new findings. Considering that in our country, the sciences related to sports rights and civil responsibility are nascent sciences and in many incidents related to physical education lessons, there is no law. It seems necessary for physical education teachers to gain more knowledge of their duties in order to reduce the amount of accusations against them in addition to reducing the injuries of students with a clearer view of the scope of their powers and duties. Considering the many injuries for the million student population during sports hours and also the increase of accusations against physical education teachers therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with their civic responsibility to teach with the knowledge and understanding of the scope of their duties and authority and position and to prioritize the safety and health of the students and make the necessary predictions to prevent any possible accident. On the other hand, it is necessary to perform a duty and responsibility correctly, to have awareness and knowledge in that field therefore, sports teachers need knowledge and information in these fields to perform legal, supervisory, care, educational, awareness and timely warning duties to students, and help measures in the event of sports injuries and if this knowledge and awareness is acquired at the optimal level, it will cause correct and effective performance, and ultimately prevent physical and mental injuries of students also, recognition, attention and care of physical education teachers in the field of legal duties and powers is necessary and necessary.

Research Methods

The current research is a descriptive survey type and according to the purpose of applied research. The research was conducted qualitatively and quantitatively (mixed). In order to identify the components of civil responsibility, research results were used in reliable scientific databases such as Human kinetics, Emerald, science direct sid.ir and Samane Ganj. In this regard, civil responsibility was identified in three areas before the start of the class (4 components), during the class (3 components) and after the class (2 components). In order to identify the items of each of the components according to the local situation of Shahrekord from the in-depth interview, 12 native teachers with a master's degree or higher and at least 25 years of experience were counted. A researcher-made questionnaire with 39 questions (in nine components) was used to evaluate the information. To check the validity of the questionnaire, face validity was used and the opinions of 12 experts and teachers over 25 years of service were used. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire, and its value was calculated by SPSS software. For this purpose, the questionnaire prepared by the researcher was distributed on two occasions among 30 people and Cronbach's alpha was estimated at 84%. In this questionnaire, the Likert scale (ordinal scale) was used to grade the answers. In order to analyze the data, two methods of descriptive and inferential statistics (one-sample t-test) were used. The statistical population of the quantitative part was 296 physical education teachers of the first and second primary and secondary levels of the 1st and 2nd districts of Shahrekord in 2023, Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was 256 people; this number of questionnaires has been randomly distributed among teachers.

Findings

According to the results of Table 1, the demographic characteristics of the statistical sample showed that approx. 38.68% of the sample were men and 61.32% were women. 29.7% of the teachers had an associate degree, 52.2% had a bachelor's degree, 35.76% had a master's degree, and 3.64% had a doctorate. 39.60% were working in elementary school, 61% in first and second secondary school and about 5% of teachers are less than 5 years, 14% between 5-10 years, 20% between 10-15 years, 15.50% and 26% between 15-20 years and 24.5% between 20-25 years and 15% between 30-25 years. They had a teaching experience.

Table 1- Demographic characteristics of physical education teachers

Table 2- The criterion and priority of the respondents regarding the research subjects

Table 2 shows that the item "In an accident that leads to an injury in physical education classes, the physical education teacher is directly responsible for it” has priority with a total average of 4.44. The item "there are no written instructions about teaching basic skills in physical education classes" has the last priority with a total average of 2.00.

Table 3- The results of the one-sample t-test related to the level of teachers' familiarity with the components of civil responsibility (Test Value = 3)

According to the results of Table 3, the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with the components of informing and warning, awareness of standards, Sports equipment and facilities, goals and missions of physical training, organizational duties of the manager and general administration are above average. In the field of training, monitoring and control, evaluation and reporting, it is average and in the field of awareness of laws and regulations, it is below average.

Table 4- The results of the one-sample t-test related to the level of familiarity of teachers with civil responsibility (Test Value = 3)

Table 4 shows that the average of the hypothesis of physical education teachers' familiarity with civic responsibility at the level of 0.95 (P ≤ 0.05) is higher than the average because the upper and lower limits of this variable are both positive. It means that the value of this variable is more than 3. So hypothesis H0 confirms that physical education teachers are familiar with civil responsibility.

Discussion

Knowing one’s duties and responsibilities when it comes to physical education teachers, leads to the effectiveness of the class and reducing the responsibilities caused by neglect and negligence, supervision, insufficient knowledge and inappropriate training. To analyze and explain the issue, the scope of duties and civil responsibilities of physical education teachers was divided into three interconnected areas before the class, during the class and after the class. The responsibilities and duties of physical education teachers before holding the class were divided into four items: awareness of rules and regulations, awareness of equipment standards, awareness of the organizational duties of managers and general administration, and awareness of the goals and missions of physical education. The current research shows that the level of awareness of physical education teachers in the index of awareness of laws and regulations is below average; in confirmation of the above findings, it should be mentioned that the physical education teachers have not been trained in the rules and regulations related to the physical education class. On the other hand, empirical observations show that in many cases, when accidents occur, physical education teachers, instead of pursuing the issue through legal means, friendship solves problems; For example, math is taught in physical education class or the absence of the physical education teacher might bring other colleagues in the class. Aspects of the rules and regulations of the physical education class include attention to the number of students in the class, not allowing students from other classes to participate in their non-curricular hours in sports class, not leaving the class even for justified reasons and with the permission of the principal, not using other colleagues during illness and trouble, attending class on time that complying with this category of rules removes any responsibility from physical education teachers. Therefore, whenever the accident, injury and damage caused to the students is caused by the act or omission in the correct and timely implementation of the rules and the performance of duties, the physical education teacher bears civil responsibility which has also been emphasized in the research of Flook et al. (2013) and Williams et al. (2016) and Babakhani (2021)  .On the other hand, there is no clear ruling, silence or weakness of the law regarding the civil liability of physical education teachers and other professions in the research of Karamipor et al. (2021). Kazemi et al. (2022) stated that in most businesses, the subject of civil responsibility and the laws and regulations related to them have remained silent and it is suggested that legislators and competent experts try to formulate regulations in all occupations and fields, especially the civil responsibility of physical education teachers.

Based on the results of the present research, the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with the standards of sports facilities and equipment is higher than average. In support of these results, it should be noted that physical education teachers are involved objectively and concretely with the space and sports equipment from the student's time and the characteristics, quality and appropriate standards of sports equipment and places have been understood over time and with experience. For this reason, they have gained a lot of knowledge about the features and standards of sports equipment and venues and they have well understood the consequences and responsibilities of using inappropriate equipment and places.

In the index, the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with the organizational responsibilities of the director and general administration was above average. According to the results obtained from the research, physical education teachers like other teachers know that the director and expert of the physical education department have a hierarchy of authority they are in close interaction with them to solve their needs and equipment and to provide suggestions and receive plans. A lot of cooperation and interactions have led to a better understanding of the duties of these two groups. Although familiarity with the duties and powers of the manager and physical education expert has less civil responsibility for the physical education teacher, however, the authority of managers in sports planning, providing suitable equipment and supplies, cooperation of the school principal and the expert of the physical education department with other organizations and departments and he use of their facilities for teaching and making this lesson more effective is also significant.

In the index, the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with the goals and missions of physical education in schools was higher than the average. The goals of physical education in schools, different dimensions of students' growth include the physical, mental and emotional development and prosperity of students and it has caused the importance of physical education among other subjects. Teachers with the vision that the goals of physical education in schools are in line with the goals of education and the goal of educating a healthy person is to have a healthy society, they do not only rely on the training of movements and sports skills, but they refine and nurture the students' minds and thoughts and they walk in line with the hadith of a healthy mind in a healthy body.

In this research, the responsibilities and duties of physical education teachers during the class were divided into three topics, including informing and warning, monitoring and controlling, and teaching methods. In the topic of informing and warning, the familiarity of physical education teachers was higher than average. Failure to inform and warn physical education teachers causes civil liability for them, which was also confirmed in Kazemi's research (2022).  Therefore, in order to reduce any responsibility in the field of warning and informing students, all teachers have the duty to inform students about incidents and events around them. The physical education lesson is done in the school yard and outdoors and it is related to the health of students, it makes physical education teachers responsible for the health of students to warn them of the consequences of all kinds of movements and skills, which both prevent possible accidents and minimize the number of accidents and also protect themselves from the law. Informing physical education teachers to students verbally, not allowing students to perform dangerous movements and not encouraging them when performing these movements, due to the commitment and responsibility for their physical and mental health, Installing warning notices in the use of harmful devices, acquainting students with incidents caused by unconventional and unprincipled movements and skills, also, incidents related to equipment and facilities, both verbally and in the form of installation on the walls of the school hall and yard or next to any sports equipment, are simple ways to inform and warn students.

The current research showed that teachers' familiarity with civil responsibility in the field of supervision and control is average. If the physical education teacher knows about the possibility of an accident and does not perform the task of taking care of students on time, it is possible to consider him responsible and ignore his immunity due to the shortcoming and violation of this duty. Physical education teachers with the insight that the bell of physical education is the bell of happiness and excitement of students who should be free to do activities and skills and not taking physical education hours seriously by the teacher and the teacher's less importance than effective attendance in physical education class, It is the basis for unfavorable control and supervision. On the other hand, the large number of students in the class, the lack of a dedicated space for sports, makes it more difficult for physical education teachers to control and monitor closely. Any incident due to students' violence towards each other, in case of teacher's indifference or lack of timely intervention, will cause him to be responsible. Controlling hyperactive and disorderly students, either intentionally or unintentionally, are the cause of accidents. On the other hand, the teacher's familiarity with first aid and its timely use in the event of an accident, checking sports equipment and space and ensuring the health, standard and safety of any equipment that creates danger in the yard or sports space (moving equipment such as handball goal, volleyball bars, etc.), It is one of the activities by which the teacher can reject any responsibility arising from them.

The present study showed that the level of familiarity of physical education teachers in the field of appropriate education is at an average level. Proper expression technique and high physical fitness to convey concepts and information are essential characteristics of physical education teachers for proper education. Having these features makes teachers have a relatively good understanding of their duties during education and create a safe environment for training or train in an environment free from the possibility of any accident and finally, to reduce the occurrence of accidents and their responsibility. The weakness of teachers in presenting concepts and techniques causes the lack of progress in physical education. Physical and skill preparation suitable for a teacher, familiarity with technical and tactical principles and rules of various sports. getting to know the physical and mental characteristics of students, getting to know the scientific principles of exercise, familiarity with various teaching-learning methods, identifying students with disabilities and special diseases and holding organized exercises for them and their less involvement in the programs of regular students, the relevance of the educational content of the physical education course in all grades, the basic factors in the process of education are quality and accident-free. The use of physical education books as a teacher's guide in different educational levels and its implementation can be of great help, so that if a student has to leave his current school in the middle of the year for any reason and to go to another school in another city, like other subjects, math, physics and geography should be the subject of the curriculum.

In this research, the responsibilities and duties of physical education teachers after holding a class were investigated in two subjects, including evaluation and report writing. The results of the research showed that the level of familiarity of the physical education teachers in the evaluation subject was average. Physical education teachers should do the final evaluation of students based on standard software. The evaluation of the physical education lesson is done in the first and second time. The purpose of evaluating students is to inform them and their parents about their progress and physical condition and strengthening the spirit of effort and obtaining the necessary information about the physical condition and abilities of students and guiding them to appropriate sports fields according to their talents and abilities, identifying physical and movement weaknesses and trying to fix them, it is the awareness of the students' learning of sports skills. Some physical education teachers evaluate students under the influence of the intervention of the principal and deputy and also based on the amount of participation in other school work or based on the grade point average of other subjects, they perform the evaluation process of the physical education course, which shows that the physical education teachers have distanced themselves from the correct implementation of their responsibility.

The present study showed that the level of familiarity of physical education teachers in the field of report writing is average. Physical education teachers should record the summary of their daily activities to complete the teaching process and also complete their workbooks and related checklists completely and accurately and finally, they can determine the strengths and weaknesses of each class and their curriculum.

Conclusion

The results of the main hypothesis of the research showed that the level of familiarity of physical education teachers with civic responsibility is higher than average. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to investigate the level of knowledge of physical education teachers about civil liability and after that implicitly compensation for damages in the event of an accident, According to Article 1 and 2 of the Islamic Law of Iran approved on 7/9/1339, both material and moral damages can be claimed and any material and moral damage must be compensated in the best way if civil responsibility is taken seriously in all fields people who cause damage by their negligence will be more careful.

According to the research findings, it is suggested:

- Sports institutions, in cooperation with the media, education and other institutions, to reduce sports accidents such as traffic accidents, turned civil responsibility into a national discourse among the sports community, especially physical education teachers.

- Physical education teachers pay attention to the safety standards and appropriateness of tools and equipment in holding practice sessions and physical education classes, if the sports facilities and equipment are unsuitable, refrain from holding the class or inform the principal of the school in writing that they will not accept responsibility in case of any accident.

- To establish an archive of school sports incidents in cooperation with sports courts and provide necessary suggestions to prevent the recurrence of incidents and the emergence of responsibility in the centers of the provinces.

- Legislators and sports law experts should formulate clear laws about the civil responsibilities of physical education teachers to solve the legal vacuum related to school sports and as soon as the new laws and regulations are formulated, in-service training courses for teachers should be held.