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The exploitation of animals for human purposes raises several ethical concerns in the educational realm that ought to be carefully dealt with. Derived from the content analysis of sample of 39 Portuguese secondary and high school textbooks, this study aims to understand how factory-farmed animals are represented within the following themes: food an...
Citations
... They are subject to the guidelines of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, which ensure they meet curriculum and legislative requirements (Bläsi, 2018;Fuchs et al., 2014). Therefore, textbooks are representative of how state-regulated educational materials can use language to influence the shaping of social norms (Fonseca, 2023;Twine, 2010). ...
... Environmental education often regards nonhuman animals and nature as mere resources, leading to degradation from an anthropocentric viewpoint (Dolby, 2019;Oakley, 2019). Cole and Stewart (2014) and Fonseca (2023) highlight that while British and Portuguese textbooks respectively acknowledge the role of agriculture in food production and environmental impact, they fall short in discussing the adverse effects of animal farming and demonstrating strategies to reduce the consumption of animal products to mitigate environmental or animal welfare problems. Moreover, schools tend to normalize and trivialize the use of animal-based products, avoiding the necessary framing of it as a critical sociopolitical issue. ...
... Textbooks are the only government-approved educational tool in Germany, so the way nonhuman animals are portrayed in school textbooks can influence how moral and ethical issues are taught. Thus, they are not only educational tools but also instruments that shape societal norms and ideologies, framing what is considered "normal" or "standard" within a society (Fonseca, 2023;Twine, 2010). ...
Nonhuman animals are perceived differently depending on their relative use for humans. While companion animals are anthropomorphized and assigned a high moral status, farm animals often do not receive such consideration. To investigate the development of these differing perceptions, we evaluated the depiction of farm and companion animals in German biology textbooks to identify and analyze inherent biases across nonhuman animal species. The varying moral considerations and treatment of nonhuman animals are solely determined by their species membership, reflecting a broader collective orientation toward nonhuman animals referred to as speciesism. Analyzing 35 German biology textbooks, we investigated whether the portrayal of companion animals (dogs and cats) versus farm animals (pigs, cows, and chickens) differentiates between them, manifesting in companion animal speciesism and belief in the emotional and cognitive capacities of animals (belief in animal mind). We developed a set of categories and examined differences in the frequencies of sentence allocation between companion animals and farm animals to test whether speciesism is embedded in German educational materials. The results of our tests indicate significant biases in the representation of companion and farm animals in German biology textbooks. Specifically, companion animals are attributed significantly greater intrinsic value (χ2 = 102.36, p < 0.001, φ = 0.152), concern (χ2 = 20.91, p < 0.001, φ = 0.069), and belief in animal mind (χ2 = 351.22, p < 0.001, φ = 0.269) compared with farm animals. These findings expose speciesist bias in textbooks, where companion animals are portrayed more favorably, while farm animals are depicted with indifference or as mere resources. This raises critical questions about perspectives on nonhuman animals and underscores the need to reevaluate their portrayal in educational materials.
... While the themes of environmental awareness and approaches to non-human animals in textbooks have been studied internationally (Awayehu Gugssa, Aasetre and Lechissa Debele, 2021;Fonseca, 2023;Cho, Kim and Stoltman 2022), these studies have mainly focused on textbooks in science. However, questions concerning the relationship between human beings and nature have always been central in curricula and textbooks of worldview education. ...
Please find our article through this link:
https://journals.lub.lu.se/nordidactica/article/view/25254/22799
Many countries are currently focusing on obtaining financial income through the use of underground resources and promoting awareness of natural hazards. However, geology education, including these issues, is often limited to superficial coverage under geography courses in countries like Greece, China, Indonesia, and Slovenia. In contrast, some countries like Portugal struggles to engage students in their secondary school geology curriculum. While some consider that geology education is too complex for primary and secondary school students, there is evidence that new technologies, such as VR and gaming, can facilitate geology education. This review article aims to clarify the importance of geology education in schools, discussing its scope and the different approaches taken in various countries. Ultimately, the article explores the position and importance of geology education for primary and secondary school students based on existing literature.
