Maps in school textbooks in religious studies : A study on the place and significance of maps in a selection of school textbooks on religion

The purpose of this essay is to clarify the use of maps in a selection of religious textbooks and to compare this with the use of maps in historical textbooks which is done by applying a quantitative method. In the religious textbooks the maps that shows religions expanse will be analysed by applying a qualitative semiotic analysis. The positive and the negative aspects of the use of maps will also be made visible in the essay and be related to research about the human memory and memory training. The researched material is SO-serien ämnesbok, Utkik 7-9 grundbok and Prio stadiebok. From all three publishers both the historical and the religious textbooks are studied. After analysis of the researched material it can be established that the use of maps in religious textbooks for high school is limited. In comparison between books from the same publisher, there are big differences between the historical and religious textbook. The use of maps in historical textbooks is relatively widespread. In one of the publisher’s textbooks, they use maps five times more in historical textbook then in religious textbook. Analysis of the maps that portray the spread of different religions around the world shows that various methods are used in different textbooks. Colors are mainly used in the SO-serien Religion: ämnesbok and Prio Religion 7-9 grundbok. Utkik 7-9 Religon grundbok doesn't show any religious spread in the maps, they use pictures that are connected to the maps. This design has several difficulties like the lack of pluralism in religions, colors that are emotionally charged, maps of the world where part of the world is missing, small variations in scale and map projection. Despite this there is benefits in using maps as Lgr11 provides. That the student will work with different working methods and the language of the human mind consists of pictures. By religion, knowledge linked to a geographic context, students get a knowledge context which leads to maintaining knowledge instead of learning isolated facts that tend to be forgotten