Perceptions of War-Peace and Ukraine-Russia in Textbooks Corresponding to Russia and Ukraine Social Studies Course

Abstract

This study examined how the perceptions of war and peace and the perceptions of both countries towards each other are handled in the textbooks corresponding to social studies course in Russia and Ukraine. The analysis of the compared textbooks in terms of targeted images is also related to the current Russia-Ukraine war. In this study designed as qualitative research, the data were obtained through descriptive analysis. The first finding of the study revealed that in the textbooks analysed in terms of the frequency of use of the concepts of war and peace and the target country-nation expression; the concept of war is more frequent than the concept of peace at all grade levels in both countries. The second finding showed that in general, the Ukrainian-Ukraine image in Russian social studies textbooks is neutral, while the Russian-Russia image in Ukrainian history textbooks is negative. Another finding of the study is that the Russian and Ukrainian social studies textbooks use various visuals that evoke the concepts of war and peace. The last finding of the study revealed that various metaphors, implicit messages, or slogan-like expressions in terms of the concept of war, peace and target country-nation were encountered in the textbooks corresponding to social studies course in Russia and Ukraine.