Arab Educational Information Network

This study aims to identify the media implications of textbooks in the Kingdom of Bahrain in light of the principles of media literacy emanating from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The study is based on the textbooks of Arabic Language and Education for Citizenship for the sixth primary, third intermediate and third secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain for the academic year 2015/2016. The two researchers chose the descriptive and analytical approach to identify the media implications included in the selected textbooks. While conducting their study, the two researchers analyzed the implications of these textbooks based on the principles of media literacy stemming from UNESCO and its three fields, namely: knowledge and understanding of the media implications, assessment of media implications, and creation and use of media implications. The study revealed that these textbooks contained 168 media implications, with many of them concentrated in the field of knowledge and understanding of media implications. Assessment of media implications, and its creation and use came second and third, respectively. In fact, the study particularly revealed that the implications relating to the knowledge of the role of the media in democratic societies and the content of assessing the development of media implications are the most prevalent in the various analyzed school textbooks. This significant finding is highly important from a curricular perspective. It shows that curriculum development in the Kingdom of Bahrain is highly connected to and influenced by a set of interdependent historical and political factors. (As Provided)