Summary: | The purpose of this paper is to examine the contents of textbooks texts on sustainable development for pupils in preschool and grades 1-3, from a social science perspective. Based on the study's purpose, the following questions have been formulated: •How does one define sustainable development and what room do the social dimensions have (social and economic) in relation to the ecological? •How is the moral message of the textbooks portrayed and which didactic tools are being used to bring this message to life? •How are the different social orders portrayed in relation to gender and culture in teaching materials on sustainable development? The three selected teaching materials have been analysed using qualitative content analysis which means that the text of the textbooks are picked into smaller parts to create an understanding of the bigger picture. The text is broken down into meaningful units to illustrate how various aspects of society are emphasized when talking about sustainable development. Meaning units are summarized in the analysis to be interpreted in relation to the purpose of the study, issues and theories. The theories are the three dimensions, moral, didactic tools and intersectionality. These theories are used to examine the scope instructional material gives to the three dimensions, the moral and didactic tool are used to impart knowledge on sustainable development and intersectionality to examine how social orders appears in the textbooks. The results show that the ecological dimension is given the most space in the textbooks and the social dimension is given space in relation to the ecological dimension. One of the didactic tools that appear in the text is compassion; the didactic tools have a moral undertone in a way that the author wants to convey morals of sustainable living. It is a noticeable social arrangements in terms of gender differences in the text books, these differences can lead to a lack of human rights, which in turn may hamper the social dimension.
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