Examination of Legal Matters Covered in Elementary School Textbooks

Theoretically speaking, among topics that need to be covered throughout the elementary school years, legal ones loom large. In order to determine the extent to which this coverage is actually present in elementary school textbooks, a set of 17 such books from among 51 in total, deemed appropriate for such matters to be covered in, was selected and content analyzed utilizing concepts related to moral values and social norms in addition to the expressed social goals for the elementary level of education. Results indicate that most of the textbooks covered in the analysis lack a legal perspective. Only in the Social Studies textbooks of the last four grades of primary school both direct and indirect attention is paid to legal matters. It is, therefore, suggested that in-service courses be offered in order to familiarize teachers with legal matters not covered in the textbooks so that the goals of elementary education in regards to producing law abiding citizens come closer to being achieved.