Digital citizenship in social studies textbooks

In the current era, digital innovations and transformations such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) have changed the roles of citizenship. It is important to be conscious citizens who know their rights and responsibilities in the digital world and have the ability to act in accordance with safe, legal and ethical rules. The social studies course plays a major role in helping individuals acquire these skills. In this study, it was aimed to examine the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th grade social studies textbooks within the scope of digital citizenship sub-dimensions. Qualitative research approach was used in the study and document analysis method was employed. The textbooks determined by typical case sampling were analyzed descriptively based on the categorical framework of digital citizenship dimensions. As a result of the analysis, it was seen that the most digital citizenship categories were included in 4th and 5th grade Social Studies textbooks based on digital citizenship categories. The least digital citizenship categories were found in 6th and 5th grade social studies textbooks. It was observed that the category that was not included at all in the textbooks was digital etiquette, and the least included category was digital health (present in 4th grade social studies textbooks). The categories of digital security (present in 4th and 5th grade social studies textbooks), digital rights and responsibilities (not found in 4th and 5th grade social studies textbooks), digital law (present in 5th and 6th grade social studies textbooks) and digital literacy (present in 4th, 5th and 7th grade social studies textbooks) were found respectively. It was observed that informative, reinforcing and supporting assessment and evaluation activities for these digital citizenship categories were missing in the social studies textbooks.