Paving the Way to Social Development through Islamic Studies: A Content Analysis of Islamiat Textbooks of Elementary Level in Terms of Social Skills

Abstract

The study was designed with the intention to explore the content, in Islamiat Textbooks of Elementary level (grades 6^th-8^th), that motivates students’ social skills development. Content analysis method of qualitative research to collect and analyze the data was applied. All the textbooks of Islamiat at Elementary level published by Punjab curriculum and textbook board Lahore, Pakistan; for the academic year 2020-21 served as the population of the study. The Textbooks of Islamiat were selected through purposive sampling. A checklist developed in the light of reviewed literature related to social skills, was used as a research tool to analyze the textbooks content. The checklist was also got validated from the experts of the relevant field. In order to find out social skills given in the checklist, the manifest and latent content of the selected textbooks of Islamiat was analyzed. It was found that the Islamiat textbooks contained content that motivates the development of these seven social skills: critical thinking communication, decision making, cooperation, interpersonal relationship, empathy, and creative thinking skills. However, the content of Islamiat motivated the improvement of critical thinking, creative thinking, communication and cooperation skills at low level: empathy skills at moderate level and decision making and interpersonal relationship skills at high level.