The topic of humanitarianism encompasses concepts such as compassion, care for others, solidarity, empathy, mutual assistance, and understanding. The central question of this master’s thesis was how topics related to humanitarianism are presented in textbooks for Enviromental and Social Studies in primary school. In the theoretical part, it is explained what humanitarianism actually is and which principles and values are important within. We also defined the connection between humanitarianism and human rights and responsibilities, which are two closely related topics. We addressed the definitions of vulnerable groups and humanitarian organizations. Existing opportunities for integrating humanitarianism into the school environment were reviewed and presented. In addition to explaining key concepts, teaching methods, and Bloom’s taxonomy, we also defined what we meant as a textbook. For the purpose of our research, the term textbooks included workbooks, independent workbooks, and officially approved textbooks for teaching Social studies in primary school in the 2023/24 school year.
In the empirical part, we used the descriptive method of pedagogical research, applying both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. By analysing 58 textbook materials intended for teaching Enviromental and Social Studies in primary school we answered six research questions.
We explored the extent to which humanitarian content is included in these materials, specifically in terms of the number of pages and visual materials. An important part of the research was also the analysis of which humanitarian topics and concepts are present in the materials. We examined the included learning objectives, teaching methods, and the levels of question difficulty (based on Bloom’s taxonomy). We were also interested in how many different categories of vulnerable groups are addressed in the textbook materials. Both textual and visual content were analysed.
The research showed that humanitarian content can be taught in every grade, as the topic is extremely broad. In each grade, there is at least one learning objective through which it is possible to incorporate content related to rights and responsibilities, mutual assistance, humanitarian organizations, compassion, vulnerable groups, and other related topics.
|
