The objective of this study is to promote alternative plans on the prejudiced
and distorted parts in school textbooks in the aspect of multi-functionality of
agriculture and rural community. This was done through analysis of the
contents in 47 kinds of schoolbooks in Science (8 of elementary school, 27 of
middle school and 12 of high school). This will lead to promote the
understanding about the multi-functionality and form the proper value system
related to agriculture and rural community for children and juveniles using
schoolbooks. A content analysis which is a research tool to classify all contents of materials containing the properties to become the object of interest in a systematic way, was employed to examine to what extent the contents on agriculture and rural community were reflected in the textbooks for elementary
school, middle school and high school. The content analysis was done in three categories, including presentation form, application method and function view.
The followings are results of contents analysis in textbooks. The most
frequently used presentation forms related to agriculture and rural community
was figures & tables. In analysis of application method, this research found
that the contents related to agriculture and rural community was used to explain
scientific facts and phenomena. In the function view, maintenance of local
society function was most abundant among a variety of multi-functionalities in
elementary and middle school, and food security in high school.
Based on the results of content analysis, findings and recommendations by
part in textbooks for elementary school, middle school and high school have
been drawn, and several examples for the content development to be included
in the textbooks were listed.