Digital Citizenship in the Arabic Language Textbooks: Content Analysis

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the level of embedding digital citizenship concepts in the Arabic Language textbooks for the Upper Primary Stage (grades eight, nine and ten). The study sample consisted of the grades eight, nine and ten’s textbooks of Arabic Language for the academic year 2017/2018 authorized by the Ministry of Education in Jordan. The researchers followed the descriptive analytical approach which implies analyzing textbooks according to the unit of analysis determined in the measuring tool; be it a sentence, an image, or a diagram that represent the concept mentioned in the measuring tool. The validity of the study’s tool has been verified by a group of referees specialized in curriculums, teaching methods, measurement, evaluation, and teaching technology to test the items’ language and their suitability to the purposes of analyzing Arabic language textbooks’ content and the relevance of the items to the element to which they belong and to the digital citizenship measurement. The study’s tool composed of (73) items resembling the nine elements of digital citizenship. The study’s tool reliability has been tested through the test and re-test method applied by two higher primary stage teachers (grades eight, nine, and ten); six teachers for each class. Holsti's formula has been used to verify the content analysis reliability. The results revealed the absence of the term “digital citizenship” in all Arabic Language textbooks. Repetitions of Digital citizenship, regarding the digital access element (digital availability) for grades eight, nine and ten, were (11, 12, 13) respectively and (36) repetitions in total. The third item was imbedded once in the Arabic textbooks of grade eight, the rest of digital citizenship concepts were two or less. The researchers recommended the importance of developing Arabic language curriculums of the Upper Primary Stage in the light of digital citizenship, thus enhancing the adequacy of these curriculums and their quality to keep updated with the scientific development, moreover; connecting the Upper Primary Arabic textbooks’ activities with digital citizenship’s criteria so they get to know it during application.

Keywords: Arabic textbooks, digital citizenship, Upper Primary Stage, analytical study