The Extent to which Concepts of Sustainable Development are included in Social Studies Textbooks in Qatar

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the extent to which concepts of sustainable development are included in social studies textbooks in Qatar. Content analysis methodology was used in this study. The target social studies textbooks were textbooks of the 3^rd grade through the 10^th grade in public schools in the State of Qatar, which accumulated eight textbooks in total. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers developed a list of concepts that included 140 concepts distributed in five domains: social and culture, economy, environment, technology, and information, and politic. The results of the study showed that concepts of sustainable development were distributed among the study domains as the following: social and culture (53.84%), environment (17.93%), economy (16.38%), politic (10.84%), and finally technology and information (1.01%). Overall, the inclusion percentage of concepts in the target textbooks were as follows: third-grade textbook (6.79%), fourth-grade (9.77%), fifth-grade (10.24%), sixth-grade (11.79%), seventh -grade (11.73%), eighth- grade (19.54%), ninth- grade (9.47%) and tenth-grade (20.67%). The number of concepts included in all textbooks was (94), while the number of concepts that were not mentioned was (46). The most important recommendation that the study provided was the need to achieve a balance between sustainable development concepts in different domains in the social studies textbooks in the State of Qatar, in order to achieve integration in the sustainable development system that learners will acquire in the different school stages.