ABSTRACT
An individual’s spiritual world begins to take shape at a very early age (Selcuk, 2000: 347) and it is very vulnerable. Unfortunately, some social problems easily affect children’s and young people’s spiritual worlds (de Souza, 2016, p. 1). For example, gender discrimination is a social problem but, even today, it may affect some textbooks and educational institutions (Guvenç Çetinkol, 2008). This study was carried out in an effort to highlight the need to improve the visual components of particular religious education textbooks in terms of their effect on the spiritual nurturing and wellbeing of female students.
The textbooks were examined using the method of visual content analysis. It was found that they contained no pictures of women other than those pictures depicting women’s performance of the salah prayers and the du’a supplication. This study also found that women were generally pictured in the home, whereas men were generally pictured outside of the home. An additional finding was that the visual components of these textbooks relating to vocational activity reinforced traditional gender stereotypes. These findings have serious implications for the sense of identity and wellbeing of girls during religious education classes in Turkey since they identify reasons why girls and women may feel disadvantaged in terms of equality, status and therefore, opportunities for their future lives. The image of women contained in the visual components of the textbooks was found to vary according to a number of factors, including the policies of the Ministry of National Education in the period in which the book was published, the author, and age of the person composing the picture.
Finally, the findings of this study were discussed in relation to pertinent literature in the field.
