en Educational Studies پژوهشي Original <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#339966;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><span style="line-height:2;"><b>Objective:</b> This study aimed to identify the indigenous barriers to implementing participatory curricula and to examine how these barriers relate to cognitive-behavioral motivation, active engagement, and the experience of flow among elementary school students in Zehak County.<br> <b>Methods</b>: This study employed a qualitative design using a phenomenological approach. The study population included elementary school teachers and principals in Zehak County during the 2024-2025 (1403-1404) academic year. Participants were selected through purposive sampling based on the principle of theoretical saturation, resulting in the inclusion of 15 individuals. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis.<br> <b>Results</b>: The analysis revealed four major categories of indigenous barriers to participatory curriculum implementation: Physical and climatic barriers, including the effects of the 120-day winds and weak infrastructure, which negatively influenced students&rsquo; concentration and flow experience; Cultural and linguistic barriers, such as the mismatch between students&rsquo; mother tongue and the language of instruction, as well as parental resistance rooted in traditional beliefs; Professional barriers, including teacher burnout and insufficient skills in curriculum localization; and Managerial barriers, particularly the dominance of quantitative, grade-centered evaluation within the supervisory system. The findings suggested that these barriers undermine students&rsquo; active engagement and flow by weakening adaptive cognitive factors such as self-efficacy and motivation.<br> <b>Conclusions</b>: <span lang="EN">The findings indicate that successful implementation of participatory curricula in the Zehak region requires moving beyond centralized curriculum models toward a contingency-based and context-sensitive approach to curriculum planning.</span></span></span></span></span></div> Participatory Curriculum, Cognitive-Behavioral Motivation, Active Engagement, Flow, Indigenous Obstacles 0 0 http://ijer.hormozgan.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-590-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Hossein Mazloum mazloumh@iau.ac.ir 0000-0000-0000-0000 Yes M.A. in Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Electronic Campus, Tehran, Iran