The Interdisciplinary Pictorial Material of Greek Religious Textbooks - A Chance to Meet the Otherness

Abstract

Abstract Introduction:Religious textbooks are always at the front of the Greek educational reality, following the broader tendency of a school study grounded on textbook culture. The present paper focuses on the visual structure of the Greek secondary religious textbooks (in the three grades) and answers the following questions: What kinds of visuals are used in the textbooks? What exactly does the substance of these things consist of? Where can they go, exactly? Moreover, how do linguistic and visual structures relate to one another? On the other hand, the “otherness” problem is also analyzed through the results provided by the implication of the mixed method used. The latter is accumulated in the assumption of the dynamics of the visuals and their capacity to stimulate the participation of the students through their content. The otherness definition follows two main paths: one of an interdisciplinary approach during the learning process and another concerning the personal stimulation of all students through an inter-social and interreligious level. The hypothesis is confirmed through the interesting results of the present research. Methods: For research purposes, it has been used Atlas ti. The software was available for the qualitative type of research. However, there are various accounts of interesting quantitative magnitudes for comparisons. Results:The primary outcome focuses on a frequency balance among the grades using traditional and more modern visuals in their textbooks. Discussion:Pictures could offer an outstanding pedagogical service when used creatively and effectively. The latter means that the meanings of the day’s lesson could be conveyed through visuals to all the students (international students included). Then the religion teacher could initiate a debate in class or assign a related artful thinking activity (providing motivation and inflaming students’ participation. Limitations: The first twenty pages of each religious textbook have been used for research. The above restriction consisted of a research choice to avoid a broader statistical data account, which was not the primary goal to achieve. Conclusions:Disregarding the dominant research frequencies and locations and going further from the correlations issues between textual and visual formations as depicted, it might be interestingly argued that the modern and abstract tendencies and options of Grade A and B’s religious textbooks consist of a pole of appealing of the otherness in an individualistic and spiritualistic level of discussion.