Abstract:

The main purpose of this study is to examine how information about Global Climate Change (GCC) are presented in middle school social studies textbooks. Document analysis which is one of the qualitative research methods was employed in the study. 5th, 6th and 7th-grade social studies textbooks that are used in the middle schools in the 2020-2021 academic year were examined. Descriptive analysis was conducted to analyze middle school social studies textbooks. As a result of the analysis, it is revealed that only 5th and 7th-grade middle school social studies textbooks include information about GCC, 6th-grade middle school social studies textbooks do not include any related information about GCC. Besides, it has been observed that only information about global warming which is the main reason for GCC is presented in 5th-grade social studies textbooks. Moreover, it is seen that 7th-grade middle school social studies textbooks include limited information about the reasons and expected consequences of GCC. The results show that quite limited information about reasons, occurrence and expected negative impacts of GCC are placed in middle school social studies textbooks. Moreover, it has been concluded that no information about economic, psychological and political aspects of results of GCC are not presented in middle school social studies textbooks. In addition, it is revealed that information about preventing expected negative impacts of GCC are too limited in textbooks. At the end of the study, some recommendations are presented based on the results of the research.

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