Content Analysis of Elementary School Textbooks in Terms of Covering Renewable Energy Sources

Content Analysis of Elementary School Textbooks in Terms of Covering Renewable Energy Sources     E. Saalehi Omraan, Ph.D.* M. Aabedini Beltork, Ph.D.** G. Mehralitabaar Firoozjaa’i***   The world is facing an energy crisis brought about by the ever increasing consumption of fossil fuels that leads to pollution and health problems. The renewable clean energies must be used if we are to witness economic development and reduce fossil fuel consumption. To this end, educational systems play an important role as they are the initial stage wherein the concept of clean/renewable energies can be dealt with. Solar, wind, geothermal, and biogas energies that are clean, renewable, and abundant, need to be covered in our textbooks in order to prepare the grounds for the expansion of their use.  Whether that is the case in Iranian elementary school textbooks or not, 2836 pages of all such textbooks were content analyzed. The findings show that solar energy coverage has the highest frequency and significance, while tidal, geothermal, and waves energies are the least frequently covered topic in these books.     Keywords: content analysis, renewable energy, elementary school, textbooks     _______________________ Date received: Aug. 14, 2016                   Date accepted: May 6, 2017 *Professor of Education, University of Mazandaran (Corresponding Author).  [email protected] ** Assistant Professor of Education, University of Mazandaran.  [email protected] ***M.A. in Educational Planning, University of Mazandaran. [email protected]