The analysis of Ecoliteracy elements in language textbooks

Abstract

This study reports the analysis of ecoliteracy aspects in four Indonesian language textbooks. The textbooks are based on different curriculum and from different publishers. In analyzing the ecoliteracy aspects, we used the ecological literacy framework proposed by Roth (1992)—Ecoliteracy Content Analysis Frame (ECAF). This framework consists of four elements, namely: (1) knowledge, (2) effective tendency, (3) behavior, and (4) cognitive skills. The results show that the aspect of ecoliteracy, which has the least number, is cognitive skills, while the one which has the highest number of frequencies is the knowledge aspect. Affective tendency and cognitive skill elements are missing in two books. Furthermore, the ecoliteracy aspect of each book is different in frequency. It shows that the textbooks need to be revised to meet the purpose of ecoliteracy. Teachers may use it as a consideration in selecting the textbooks for the teaching-learning process.

Keywords:

• ECAF
• Ecoliteracy
• Indonesian language textbook
• Literacy media
• Textbook analysis

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• John Lee, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

SUBJECTS:

• Ecology - Environment Studies; Teaching & Learning; Theory of Education; Teaching & Learning - Education

Introduction

Environmental destruction influences the risk factor of a disaster. This phenomenon has been reported by the World Risk Report 2019. It reported risks of natural disasters, namely earthquakes, cyclones, floods, droughts, or sea-level rise from 180 countries. It shows that 36 countries are in the range of extremely high WorldRiskIndex (10.62-56.71), and 35 countries, including Indonesia (37th of 180 countries, are in the range of WorldRiskIndex index (7.52-10.61). Comparing the five continents, the risk index of Asian is in the fourth number. Most of the country in Asian positioned in the highest placement of WorldRiskIndex, namely the Philippines, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, and Cambodia. Meanwhile, Indonesia contributes third in the global comparison (median 5.93 for 47 countries), one of seven countries in Asia which is included in the group of ten countries with the highest disaster risk (Atwii et al., 2022).

Considering this phenomenon, ecology has been a concern of all elements of society. Learning ecology is essential for people, specifically high school students since they are the agent of change in the future. Ecology merges into a literature study as ecoliteracy. It aims to encourage students to perceive and interpret environmental problems and then take action to solve the problems (Roth, 1992). Ecoliteracy is the consideration of humans toward the place where they and the living or non-living things live through their sense of responsibility, action, and recognition toward nature (Ramos & Ramos, 2011). The attention toward ecoliteracy should be a consideration for everyone; the high priority toward ecology is needed as the reason every aspect of life is affected by human consideration toward nature (Malyan & Duhan, 2018).

Ecological literacy is an urgent matter to be concerned as the critical element where the place of humans to survive their life until the bequeath of the world (Pitman et al., 2017). Ecological literacy believed to have high power to cope with various natural disasters caused by bad human behavior towards nature and the surrounding environment. Efforts to preserve the environment should be a concern of all elements of education. Environmental preservation is not only the responsibility of teachers of Natural Sciences or Science but all subject teachers, as well as Language teachers. Books or other available teaching materials have not paid enough attention to efforts to preserve the ecosystem. For this reason, it is worthwhile to research to develop and find textbooks based on ecological intelligence. Nature-based textbooks might be a guide for students to have ecological intelligence (which is often called ecoliteracy), which makes children able to put themselves in control of their environment (Mccallum, 2008). As stated by Semetsky (2010), the eco literate people will be able to have a capability of self-reflection notably decide a thing deeply through value- judgment.

Sharma & Buxton (2015) emphasized that many sides influence the understandings of students; therefore, the way students perceive the understanding of the environmental issues and its importance is urge matter to be concerned. In other words, some frameworks, pedagogy-guiding has been made as to the consideration of the ecoliteracy (McBride et al., 2013). This ecoliteracy framework has four components, which are called the Ecoliteracy Content Analysis Frame (ECAF). First, Knowledge is the one that includes ecological knowledge, social-politic knowledge, and environmental issue knowledge. Second, the effective tendency is people’s awareness of environmental issues. Third, behavior includes additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior and environmentally responsible behavior. Last, cognitive skill is the skill to recognize environmental problems and how to solve them.

However, in the last decade, textbook analysis studies have been concerned by many scholars across the world through analyzing the textbooks and its relation toward multiple aspects of life and various branches of studies. They analyzed the business textbook, and business articles focus on lexical coverage and the rank of word list based on BNC high-frequency (Hsu, 2011). Hsu explored the representation of religious values in EFL textbooks used in Iranian secondary school (Cheng & Beigi, 2012), and compared electronic and traditional printed textbook and the relation toward University learners’ grade and score (Szapkiw et al., 2013). Some also determined the representation of hidden value (gender-bias) on Japanese EFL textbook (Lee, 2014) and studied the corpus-based text of universities textbook of English major to know the lexical word coverage and word frequency from the academic word list and British National Corpus Frequency-based word families (Hajiyeva, 2015). Others measured the Germany textbooks through Rasch Measurement Model (Batdı & Elaldı, 2016) and concerned the visual and verbal analysis of EFL textbooks in Indonesia and the representation of Gender bias value that construe on the textbook (Ariyanto, 2018).

Despite the importance of ecoliteracy aspects in textbooks, considering the previous studies, researchers have little concern in analyzing this topic. Therefore, to fulfill this gap, this present study attempts to analyze ecoliteracy aspects in Indonesian textbooks. This study systematically analyzed the value of eco-literation in Indonesian textbooks with the high number used by Indonesian school for Senior High School students. It aimed to compare the ecoliteracy elements in four Indonesian textbooks for the tenth grade of senior high school students and find out the difference among those textbooks. Furthermore, it provided suggestions for improving the textbook in an ecoliteracy perspective.

Textbook analysis in education

The textbook has been one of the essential learning sources for students. As a medium to promote ecological literacy, textbooks have strategic roles (Cunningsworth, 1995). First, textbooks are learning sources for oral as well as written materials. Although there are many other learning sources such as videos, audios, games, and, textbooks are still the favorite one among the others. They can give more detailed information than the other sources do. Second, textbooks are also sources for practicing communication and interacting with others. Textbooks contain information on how to build communicative skills and practice it with others. Third, textbooks as reference sources may give students insight on linguistic aspects (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation). Four, textbooks are sources of stimuli and ideas in conducting the teaching-learning process. It gives insight on how to make the teaching-learning process goes well in class. Last, some textbooks give out a syllabus as a source of conducting the class.

We cannot see that the book users or readers as the passive one, so the meaning that represented in the text is not directly absorbed by them instead of still processed it (Canale, 2016). On the other hand, textbooks, however, should contain the information students need. It should give insights relevant to the students’ needs. Furthermore, it should have a good impact on the students’ insight, behavior, and attitudes. It is one of the reasons textbook analysis is essential. Analyzing the content of textbooks gives insights on how relevant the content to the students’ needs and finds out whether the textbooks need improvement and adjustment to meet students’ needs. Sometimes, we do not consider that the textbook may represent the ideas that want to be exposed by the writers through give the special treatments or make some ideas less visible (Eriksson & Hjälmeskog, 2011). Therefore, it is essential to analyze the textbook before it used by the students to avoid some bad ideas or latent value represented there.

Ecoliteracy in language teaching

Ecology has been an essential, critical element in human survival in life (Pitman et al., 2017). How humans conserve the ecosystem cycle and how to solve environmental issues should be a concern to all humans. Furthermore, humans need to have insights into how the Earth functions and supports life (Scholz, 2011). This theory of understanding how the Earth works are called the foundation of ecological literacy (Pitman & Daniels, 2016).

Roth (1992) defines ecological literacy as the capacity to perceive and interpret the environmental system and also to take action to maintain, restore, or improve the quality of the system. He divides this ecological literacy into four main elements namely: (1) knowledge—ecological, social-politic knowledge, and environmental issue knowledge; (2) affective tendency; (3) behavior—additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior and environmentally responsible behavior; and (4) cognitive skills which shape ecological literacy. First, knowledge elements concern about (1) the general concepts of ecology (ecological knowledge), (2) beliefs, political systems, and ecological values of various cultures, (Social-politic knowledge), and (3) the insights of environmental issues (knowledge about environmental issues). Second, affective tendency means that humans may determine individual factors to reflect environmental issues interpersonally. This is a human tendency to notice environmental issues. Third, behavior concerns with (1) additional factors reflecting individual responsibility of environmental issues (additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior) and (2) the responses and active participation in solving environmental issues (environmentally responsible behavior). Last, cognitive skills cover the ones relating to environmental issues, including the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate issues.

Conserving the environment is the task of all humans, including students. They should become agents who are capable of noticing, understanding, and solving environmental issues. Thus, they should acquire ecological ability. Consequently, this urgent matter is not only imposed on science teachers, but language teachers should also take part in giving these insights to the students. In raising ecological awareness, teachers attempted many methods (e.g., Pitt et al., 2019). One of the most promising is through textbooks (e.g., Ramos & Ramos, 2011; Ramos & Ramos, 2014) since they are one of the primary resources of the teaching-learning process.

Method

Research context

The textbooks chosen for this study were the ones used most frequently by students in all over Indonesia. Those textbooks were written in two different curriculums and published by different publishers. The first one is based on the previous curriculum and published by the government. The other ones are based on a recent curriculum named 2013 curriculum. The difference lies in the publishers, one book from government, and the others are from non-government publishers. Table 1 shows the textbooks profile.

Table 1. Textbook profile.

Title of The Book (Code)	Curriculum	Publisher
Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia (BS)	Previous curriculum	Government
Bahasa Indonesia (BI)	Latest curriculum	Government
Cerdas Berbahasa Indonesia (CB)	Latest curriculum	Non-government (BSE)
Bahasa Indonesia (EB)	Latest curriculum	Non-government (Erlangga)

Data analysis

This study used document analysis to analyze the data. The four textbooks, which shown in Table 1, were analyzed based on the ecological literacy framework proposed by Roth (1992)—Ecoliteracy Content Analysis Frame (ECAF). This framework consists of four elements namely: (1) knowledge—ecological, social-politic knowledge, and environmental issue knowledge; (2) affective tendency; (3) behavior—additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior and environmentally responsible behavior; and (4) cognitive skills which shape ecological literacy. Ride et al. (2013) reported that this ecoliteracy framework allows for multicity and diversity analysis of each category. We analyzed all elements of the textbooks (i.e., introduction, texts, assignments, exercises, questions) by highlighting, labeling, and coding the text expressing the ecoliteracy elements. The analysis unit of this study is a sentence or paragraph. To maintain its reliability, two raters analyzed the textbooks separately and then discussed them to determine suitability. Table 2 shows a summary of data analysis methods.

Table 2. Summary of methods.

Sub-aspect of Ecoliteracy	Methods	Data source
	Data Analysis
Knowledge		Textual samples (introduction, texts, assignments, exercises, questions) from the four textbooks namely BIS, BI, CB, and EB
Ecological knowledge	Determining general concepts of ecology.
Social-politic knowledge	Determining beliefs, politic system, and ecological values of various cultures.
Knowledge about environmental issues	Determining the insights of environmental issues.
Affective Tendency	Determining individual factors to reflect environmental issues interpersonally.
Behavior
Additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior	Determining additional factors reflecting individual responsibility of environmental issues.
Environmentally responsible behavior	Determining the responses and active participation in solving environmental issues.
Cognitive Skills	Determining cognitive skills relating to environmental issues including the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate issues.

In addition to document analysis, this study also used informants (Indonesian language teachers in secondary schools) who used books that were analyzed in the implementation of learning at school. Data collection was carried out by means of structured interviews to obtain their views on the elements of ecoliteracy from the books used which were accompanied by an attention form. These data are needed to triangulate data obtained from document analysis. There were 20 Indonesian teachers included in this study (18 teachers with undergraduate qualifications and two teachers with master qualifications) from 10 schools. They are teachers who have had 12-18 years of teaching experience and have a professional educator certificate from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

Findings and discussion

The selected textbooks have been analyzed through the lenses of ECAF to know the structure and distribution of value by determining four elements: knowledge (ecological, socio-political, and environmental issues knowledge); affective tendencies; behavior (additionally determinants of environmentally responsible behavior and environmentally responsible behavior); and cognitive skills.

Frequency distribution of four ecological literacy components

The following table presents the result of four components of ecological literacy in four textbooks.

The results show that those books contain 134 knowledge aspects, 30 affective tendencies, 38 behavior, and 22 cognitive skills. It shows that the aspect of ecoliteracy, which has the least number of frequencies, is cognitive skills, while the one with the highest frequency is the knowledge aspect. We found some missing elements, namely affective tendency in BS and cognitive skill in EB. The less presented elements possibly affect the students’ understanding of ecology since it is highly influenced by reading textbooks rather than direct engagement with observation and experience in ecological phenomena (Hempel, 2014; Stinner, 2001). As a result, the findings strengthen Pilgrim et al. (2007) that ecoliteracy could be obtained from various sources, including textbooks. Also, as empazied by Code (2019), reading ecoliteracy-based textbooks potentially brings change to the student readers toward their perspectives of nature that it enhances their awareness of environmental issues. It means that textbooks with less ecoliteracy elements should be revised to achieve the goals of students’ positive perspectives toward nature.

Knowledge elements

The knowledge element is the essential component of ecological literacy, which is understanding the environment as a concern toward the fundamental aspects of human sustainability (Pitman et al., 2017). It incorporates understanding an ecological, economic, geographical, religious, educational, and political process and comprehension of the impact or effect of humans on the natural system (Roth, 1992). The following text is the sample of data analysis.

Example 1.

CB page 43

… Teknologi penangkapan ikan di laut hendaknya diwaspadai agar tidak sampai mematikan mata pencaharian nelayan tradisional, mengingatkan sistem penangkapan ikan pada zaman modern…

… fishery technology should be controlled to avoid extinguishing the work of a traditional fisherman, looking at the modern system that was used to catch the fish in …

The text (Example 1) shows the representation of the knowledge component that convinces people to understand and realize how the natural systems work and their relation with the social system in society. Knowledge elements in example 1 encourage the readers to think more about saving environmental issues, specifically ocean-related ones. It reinforces students’ understanding of ecological issues (R. Ramos & Ramos, 2014). The presentation of social issues in the textbook could help students encourage critical thinking. As the empirical studies conducted by Chan (2023) emphasized, citizens need to be able to navigate potential tension or viewpoints about environmental context. Moreover, the findings above also can be inferred that students as readers are expected not only as a consumer of knowledge but also capable of reading information critically.

Example 2.

EB page 6

Salah satu langkah dasar untuk menyelamatkan spesies-spesies yang terancam adalah dangan mengetahui lebih banyak spesies tersebut, makanannya, pasangannya, proses reproduksinya, pola tempat tinggalnya, dan perilaku sosialnya.

One of the basic steps to save threatened species is to learn more about them, their food, their mates, their reproductive processes, their patterns of residence, and their social behavior.

Example 2 shows the knowledge component of the endangered species’ environmental issues, reinforcing students’ understanding of ecological issues (Ramos & Ramos, 2014). This text describes how readers can consider understanding the issue of endangered species, such as knowing food, mates, reproductive processes, patterns of residence, and social behavior. Afterward, the following table shows the frequency of the knowledge elements of ecoliteracy in the four textbooks.

Table 3 shows that the highest distribution of sub-aspect ecological knowledge is in the EB, while social-political knowledge and environmental issues are in the CB. The total distribution of the textbook that represents the lowest frequency of the knowledge element is BS. Meanwhile, the highest distribution of knowledge elements is presented in CB. The book that mostly represents the knowledge value is published by a non-governmental textbook.

Affective tendency elements

Example 3 represents the value of attitude and respect towards the environment, called affective tendency elements.

Example 3.

BI page 43

Sampah organik adalah sampah yang dapat diuraikan dan biasanya mudah membusuk. Contoh sampah organic adalah sisa makanan, sayuran, dan daun-daunan. Sampah ini dapat diolah menjadi kompos. Sampah anorganik merupakan sampah yang tidak mudah diuraikan atau undegradable. Contoh sampah Anorganik adalah plastik, kayu, kaca, dan kaleng.

Organic rubbish is a kind of rubbish that easily decomposed. The examples of organic rubbish are food leftovers, vegetables, and leaves. This kind of rubbish can be processed as manure. Meanwhile, inorganic rubbish is difficult to be decomposed or undegradable. The examples of inorganic rubbish are plastic, wood, and can.

The text is about differentiating organic and inorganic rubbish with different benefits and functions. Inorganic trash could be recycled as a more useful thing, such as handcraft (Fisher, 2005; Yang et al., 2019). Meanwhile, organic trash can be composted as manure, which is useful for agriculture (Fagnano et al., 2011). The text discusses the function of organic and inorganic trash as it potentially develops readers’ attitudes and respect to take part in solving environmental issues. Example 3 explained the benefit of recycling to reduce the negative impact on the environment. In line with Pelton, presenting the idea of how to prevent a environmental destruction and cruelty is central to help students to find a better way to live in the world (Pelton, 2022). Thus, it will lead to students’ attitude toward environtment that all of us require.

The following is the other example representing the affective tendencies from the book CB.

Example 4.

CB page 29

Semangat kerja keras dan disiplin yang tinggi harus dipupuk terus menerus…

The spirit of hard work and high discipline must be nurtured continuously…

Example 4 represents the value of respecting the social issue. The text conveys the importance of the spirit of hard work and discipline as the key to success. To increase the potential for environmental awareness, they need to enlarge their spirit and discipline. Afterward, the following table shows the frequency of the affective tendencies elements of ecoliteracy in the four textbooks.

Tables 4 and 5 shows that the number of each sub-element of affective tendencies is not equally distributed. The highest frequency element of affective tendencies from 4 sample books is represented in BI, with 15 texts representing the value of considering natural issues and how to solve those issues. Meanwhile, BS does not serve any of those elements. Neglecting this element affects the students’ attitudes toward ecological issues (Martin, 2008).

Table 3. The frequency of knowledge elementsof ecoliteracy in the textbooks.

Book code	Ecological Knowledge (f)	Social-Political Knowledge (f)	Environmental Issues (f)	Total Frequency Each Book (f)
BS	4	3	5	12
BI	11	13	3	27
CB	11	17	26	54
EB	21	13	7	41

Table 4. Frequency distribution of the four elements of ecological literacy.

Ecological Literacy Element					Total Frequency of Ecological Literacy Elements
	Knowledge (f)	Affective Tendencies (f)	Behavior (f)	Cognitive Skills (f)
BS	12	0	2	4	18
BI	27	15	11	4	57
CB	54	12	16	14	96
EB	41	3	9	0	53

Table 5. The frequency of affective tendencyelements of ecoliteracy in the textbooks.

Title of The Book/ Page	Affective Tendencies (f)
BS	0
BI	15
CB	12
EB	3

Table 6. The frequency of behavior elements of ecoliteracy in the textbooks.

Title of The Book/ Page	Additionally Determinants of Environmentally Responsible Behavior (f)	Environmentally Responsible Behavior (f)	Total Frequency Each Book (f)
BS	0	2	2
BI	7	4	11
CB	10	6	16
EB	3	6	9

Table 7. The frequency of cognitive skillelements of ecoliteracy in the textbooks.

Title of The Book/ Page	Cognitive Skills (f)
BS	4
BI	4
CB	14
EB	0

Behavior elements

The following text is the sample text shows the behavior elements of ecological literacy. Roth (1992) divided behavior elements into the additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior and environmentally responsible behavior. Additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior represents responsible value for the environment and value for their self and self-control. Meanwhile, environmentally responsible behavior represents active participation in solving environmental issues. Roth also emphasized that the behavioral element represents human action based on their environmental knowledge to find the solution or solve problematic environmental issues.

Example 5.

CB page 19

Kemacetan di depan sekolah kita itu saya kira tidak akan terjadi apabila kita sebagai siswa memiliki kedisplinan …

The traffic jam will not happen in front of our school if the students have high discipline …

The utterance ‘we as students who have high discipline’ means that the students should have a disciplined personality to avoid creating an issue dealing with the traffic jams in front of the school. Example 5 explains that a disciplined personality could be one of the main factors that represent respect and responsibility for the environment. It represents the behavioral elements of ecological literacy, showing human action to solve environmental problems. The following is the other example of text that represents the behaviour element.

Example 6.

BI page 173

… Dalam proses diskusi, terkadang terjadi perbedaan pendapat antarpeserta diskusi, yang seringkali memicu terjadinya perdebatan mengenai isu lingkungan…

In the discussion, sometimes there is a different opinion between the participants in which triggers a debate about environtment issue…

Example 6 shows the real phenomena that exist in Indonesia. In some cases, the discussion went smoothly, but debate sometimes occurred. The text informs the knowledge to anticipate any differences during the discussion. The students must be aware that different opinions between participants may exist in every discussion, and they must respect them. Example 6 shows the component of self-control, which includes additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior. Afterward, the following table shows the frequency of the behaviour tendencies elements of ecoliteracy in the four textbooks.

It was shown in Table 6 that the behavior elements are highly represented in CB. High frequency of behavior elements naturally brings positive change to the students’ participation in solving environmental issues, as public active participation in addressing environmental issues is crucial (Tang & Wang, 2013). Meanwhile, BS is the lowest textbook that represents behavior aspects. This finding gives additional evidence that many textbooks limitedly address environmental textbooks (Maravić et al., 2014). However, as this element brings a positive impact, such books need to be improved in behavior elements, specifically on additional determinants of environmentally responsible behavior.

Cognitive skills

Cognitive skills are the elements that represent the competence to determine the problems or issues dealing with the environment (Roth, 1992). The following is an example of the text that shows cognitive skills element:

Example 7.

CB page 43

… pepohonan jenis perdu atau semak ternyata semakin membesar, baik dalam ukuran maupun jumlah, selama beberapa dekade terakhir. Padahal, di dataran beku dan gersang ini, tumbuhan biasanya sangat sulit hidup.

… In recent decades, the kind of tree such as bushes has gotten bigger, both in size and quantity. However, in the frozen and barren land, this kind of plant is difficult to grow.

Example 7 describes the elements of ecological literacy related to the capability to identify the plant condition based on its characteristics. This kind of issue can enhance the students’ competence related to environmental issues. The following is the other example of text that represents the cognitive skill element from the book BI.

Example 8.

BI page 177

…. Jadi, jika ingin mendapatkan kesuksesan di era globalisasi, kita harus menambah atau memperkaya pengetahuan kita di bidang teknologi. Jadi, jika kita memiliki keahlian di bidang teknologi, saya percaya akan banyak orang dari berbagai negara yang akan datang untuk belajar di Indonesia…

…. Therefore, if we want to succeed in the era of globalization, we must increase or enrich our knowledge in the field of technology. Therefore, if we experts in technology, I believe there will be many people from different countries who will come to study in Indonesia…

Example 8 describes the element of cognitive skills that the learners should acquire to enrich their technological knowledge. Children should develop their technological knowledge, so the role of the teacher is to direct and guide them. One of the expected outcomes of the students’ acquiring technological knowledge is increasing the desire of students from other countries to study in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the following is another example of text representing the cognitive skill element from the book BS.

Example 9.

BS 25

• 1. Bentuklah kelompok diskusi, tiap kelompok terdiri atas 4-8 siswa, kemudian ikuti dan kerjakan langkah-langkah berikut!

  •  • Tulislah masalah-masalah yang terdapat dalam teks Kehancuran Hutan Gorat, Kekalahan Masyarakat Danau Toba!

  •  • Buatlah rangkuman berdasarkan masalah-masalah yang Anda temukan itu!

  •  • Diskusikan masalah-masalah itu dan tuliskan tanggapannya!

  •  • Pilihlah salah seorang dalam kelompok Anda untuk memimpin diskusi!

• 2. Setelah kelompok selesai mengerjakan soal 1, setiap kelompok mendapat kesempatan untuk mengemukakan hasil diskusinya di muka kelas. Kelompok yang lain memberikan tanggapan. Praktikkan cara memperkenalkan diri dan memberikan tanggapan yang baik dalam diskusi!

• 3. Sebagai tambahan latihan, carilah materi diskusi lain yang faktual sebagai bahan diskusi!

• 1. Form a discussion group which each group should consists of 4-8 students, then please follow and work based on the following steps!

  •  • Write down the problems contained in the text of The Destruction of Gorat Forest, The Defeat of the People of Lake Toba!

  •  • Make a summary based on the problems you find!

  •  • Discuss the issues and write down the responses!

  •  • Choose one of the member of your groups to lead the discussion!

• 2. After the group finishes working on question 1, each group gets the opportunity to present the results of the discussion in the class. Another group responded. Practice how to introduce yourself and give a good response in the discussion!

• 3. In addition to the exercises, look for other factual discussion materials as the discussion material!

Unlike the previous example, Example 9 was taken from the practice section. The problem or issue dealing with the environment presented in Example 9 concerns forest destruction in Indonesia. To solve this problem, the students need to reflect on the environmental issue about forest destruction. This practice aims to evaluate the students’ analytical skills in responding to environmental issues. To solve the practice, the students must observe, evaluate, and analyze the issues. The expected final results of this practice are in the form of scientific reports presented in the class. Afterward, the following table shows the frequency of the cognitive skill elements of ecoliteracy in the four textbooks.

Table 7 above shows that the elements of cognitive skills are highly represented in CB. However, EB does not represent any cognitive skills aspects of the text in the textbook. As previously reported by Contel et al. (2016), textbooks to enhance students’ competence in addressing environmental issues gradually becomes more important in this industrial era. Thus, texbooks should modified to meet the future needs by considering cognitive skills in education, specially language textbooks, to build the students’ competence of adressing environmental issues.

Conclusion

The finding of this study shows that some of the textbooks do not represent some subcomponents of ecological literacy. Two textbooks, EB and BS, do not represent an element of ecological literacy completely. Considering the basic competence of the Indonesian curriculum, which emphasizes the attitude to be aware of environmental issues, this finding can be used as consideration in selecting the textbooks for the teaching-learning process. Also, it can be used as a base to develop or revise the next textbooks. Furthermore, words carry meanings, so what students read influences how they behave in their life (Code, 2019).

We conducted this study with the subjects of Indonesian textbooks. Thus, the results may not be generalized to other textbooks. However, it gives insights into the ecoliteracy aspects represented in those books. It can be used as a consideration to develop or revise textbooks with more ecoliteracy aspects since it is an essential element of textbooks. Moreover, the findings of this study also can be a consideration of the teachers in selecting the textbooks for the teaching-learning process. The teachers should aware with ecological values and they need to take a part in giving this insight to the students.

Considering the limitation of this study, it will be worthwhile to conduct a similar study with different textbooks. Furthermore, other researchers may also compare the ecoliteracy aspects of textbooks from different nations. Last, as reported by Cutter-Mackenzie & Smith (2003), teachers have misunderstandings of environmental knowledge, so the study on the teacher’s perspectives on ecoliteracy and environmental knowledge can be researched further.

Acknowledgments

We thank all the contributors for supporting this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Research, and Technology Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Indonesia.

Notes on contributors

Sarwiji Suwandi

Sarwiji Suwandi is a professor and head of the language department at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia. He teaches textbook evaluation, language learning assessment, and linguistics. He holds a BA in Indonesian Language Education and an MA and PhD in Language Education.

Nur Arifah Drajati

Nur Arifah Drajati is a senior lecturer in Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. She wrote several articles published in several journals, national and international journals. She currently focuses her researches on education and technology.

Anis Handayani

Anis Handayani is a researcher at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. Her research interests are academic writing, educational technology, and teacher professional development (TPD).

Agustina Tyarakanita

Agustina Tyarakanita is a researcher at Universitas Sebelas Maret, Indonesia. Her research interests include language teacher professional development, English language classroom materials, and educational technology.