This study aims to identify the characteristics of the discourse landscape in 3rd and 4th-grade elementary social studies textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Curriculum. To achieve this, text mining techniques—including frequency analysis, TF...
This study aims to identify the characteristics of the discourse landscape in 3rd and 4th-grade elementary social studies textbooks developed under the 2022 Revised Curriculum. To achieve this, text mining techniques—including frequency analysis, TF-IDF analysis, keyword network analysis, and topic modeling—were applied to textbooks from six different publishers. The analysis revealed that the core keywords and discourse flows derived from the three methodologies were organically consistent, demonstrating that the 2022 Revised Curriculum's content system and achievement standards are structurally embedded within the textbook texts.
The specific characteristics of each publisher's discourse landscape are as follows: Publisher ‘A’ focused on diversifying learning media and concentrating on specific topics; Publisher ‘B’ interpreted social phenomena macroscopically while emphasizing specific social studies values; Publisher ‘C’ maintained a standard discourse by balancing content across areas and prioritizing student activities and spatial awareness; Publisher ‘D’ strengthened descriptions through key terms in specific subjects like economics; Publisher ‘E’ utilized digital media-based inquiry for micro-level practice of democracy; and Publisher ‘F’ strategically combined competency-based education with specialized topics like traditional culture.
These findings hold academic value by empirically demonstrating how the diversity of the authorized textbook system is implemented at the textual level. Practically, this study provides foundational data for teachers to exercise agency in curriculum reconstruction and suggests that publishers should further refine their differentiation strategies. Despite limitations such as the exclusion of visual data and the technical constraints of algorithms in capturing nuanced contexts, this research contributes to an empirical understanding of social studies education. Future studies should expand to other grade levels and subjects, incorporating multi-modal data analysis and qualitative research on classroom implementation.
Keywords: 2022 Revised Curriculum, Elementary Social Studies, Textbook Analysis, Text Mining, Discourse Landscape