Visual Discrimination Based on Skin Colour in the Civic Education Textbooks

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the inconsistency of discourses in the field of civic education resulting from the content of textbooks. This article tries to answer the question: Does the officially declared attitude of respect for others, regardless of differences, and the prevention of discrimination (including racial discrimination) stand in contradiction to the interpretation of visual material contained in textbooks? The total of 253 representations of characters presented in three chapters and seven civic education textbooks on the fourth stage of education were qualified for a qualitative and quantitative analysis. The catalogue of variables was based on the concept of the visual material analysis created by Van Leeuwen and Kress. The research identified manifestations of discrimination related to skin colour in the visual material from the textbooks.