An analysis of social studies textbooks in terms of children's rights

The present study aimed to examine the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th year Social Studies textbooks in terms of children's rights. The descriptive case study design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used for this purpose. Document analysis was preferred as the data collection method. The documents covered by the study comprised the Social Studies textbooks on the EBA online social education platform created by the Ministry of National Education and widely used by teachers. The textbooks were analysed according to the basic categories specified in the text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (2004). It was seen as a result of the analysis that in the Social Studies textbooks, children's rights were mostly addressed in the learning domain of "Individual and Society". It was observed that children's rights were not covered at all in the learning domain of "Production, Distribution and Consumption" in any year level in these textbooks. Children's rights were also not encountered in the learning domains of "Science, Technology and Society" in the 7th year, "People, Places and Environments" and "Global Connections" in the 5th and 6th years and "Culture and Heritage" in the 6th and 7th years in the textbooks. Thus, these learning domains can be enriched with content related to children's rights in social studies textbooks. It was found out that, compared to others, the 4th year Social Studies textbook was the one which addressed various children's rights the most. The least number of types of children's rights were in the 6th and 7th year textbooks. The most content related to children's rights was found in the 5th year and the least content in the 6th year textbooks. It was determined that, among the Social Studies textbooks, the "right of children with special needs" were least common in the 4th and 6th year books and completely absent in the 5th and 7th year textbooks. It can be argued that this right is one of the most fundamental rights that need to be improved in the textbooks. Although the books generally differed from each other in terms of the diversity of children's rights, it was observed that variety and content was limited especially in 6th and 7th year textbooks. The subject matter textbooks should be enriched with various rights of children. Keywords: Social studies textbooks, children's rights, learning domains