Coursebook Evaluation on Social Justice

Posted On 12/1/2019 6:36:00 PM, 1Comments

In a lesson, the most important material after the teacher can be seen as a coursebook. Today, the dependence on single textbooks in teaching shows a decreasing tendency. The most important shareholder in this regard is the increase in the number of textbooks in the market. The increasing number of books makes it difficult for teachers to select textbooks, but also reduces the quality of the content produced. Since the selected book will be used in teaching, content quality is very important. Many checklists have been produced to determine the quality of the books and book selections are made according to the results. Within the scope of this project, I examined the content of the book within the topics of Social justice.

I chose the book used by MEB from 7th grade English courses. One of the main reasons for choosing this book is that it is a book that I know from the school experience course as well as being used in English teaching currently.

 

                                  

Units in the book; Appearance and Personality, Sports, Biographies, Wild Animals, Television, Celebrations, Dreams, Public Buildings, Environment and Planets.

One of the most important things that struck me about the content of the book is; in general, the negative sexism of the professions and sports I have seen in most books is not done.

For example, in the second unit on page 25, in the picture which put there to represent football, boys and girls are playing football in a mixed way, as is the case in volleyball. Also on page 30 we can see a blind athlete Öznur YILMAZER, and Yasemin ADAR, a female wrestler.

                              

                             

In the third unit Biographies we can see the gender equality too. Such as not only mentioning men figures but also women too. For example William Shakespeare and Marie Curie.

On the other hand In unit 8 Public Buildings, we can clearly see whitewashing. Almost all of the people in the pictures are White. And this can be cause racial problems in the classrooms.

And lastly Unit 9 Environment.  This unit is probably the best unit for the social justice because most of the activities are about raising awareness about environmental problems. For example on page 108 activity 1, there is a request from students to talk about what they know about those environmental problems.

                  

And on page 113 book wants from students to choose or create a campaign for those problems.

    

As a result of evaluation, as a teacher, I would certainly use this book in the context of social justice problems. Because I think it is appropriate for both social justice content and students' levels.

Comments (1) -

Cristyn Elder
3/15/2020 9:01:31 AM #

Fahri, you've done a nice job of identifying the ways the example textbook you looked at both succeeds and fails when it comes to social justice issues. I'm wondering if, while looking at the textbook, you considered ways you might supplement the textbook with your own materials.

Best,

Cris

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