Investigation of middle school social studies textbooks in terms of literacy skills

Social studies is a field of study that aims to educate individuals who can reach and critically approach the information they reach by using scientific means and who can use the information produced by social sciences in their daily life. Social studies education is inherently human and benefits from the content of the social sciences, which are human-oriented. Literacy skills have an important place for social studies, as social studies aims to provide individuals with the knowledge and skills in the content of social sciences through an interdisciplinary approach. The aim of this study is to examine the content of the 5th, 6th and 7th grade social studies textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education for the 2018-2019 academic year in line with the literacy skills included in the 2018 Social Studies Education Program. In this research, one of the qualitative research methods, the document analysis method was adopted. In the study, the social studies 5th, 6th and 7th grade textbooks prepared by the Ministry of National Education for the 2018-2019 academic year were used as documents. A data collection tool has been created in which themes are determined according to the elements of literacy dimensions specified in the studies in the field. The data of the research was analyzed using descriptive (deductive) analysis method, taking into account the themes in this data collection tool. As a result of the research, it was found out that the most content that was included in the 5th, 6th and 7th grade social studies textbooks prepared by the Ministry of Education for the 2018-2019 academic year was related to political literacy themes. In addition, it was concluded that the content related to digital literacy themes was not included in the social studies 6th grade textbook. Keywords: Social studies, Literacy, Textbook.