Frontiers | Partial substitution in the hidden curriculum of children’s media: a comparative corpus analysis of religion-oriented and general-educational Turkish public broadcasting

August 25, 2026 - 12:10

The study examines partial substitution in the hidden curriculum, meaning how certain values and emotional concepts replace others depending on the broadcast context. Researchers analyzed large text samples from two types of Turkish public children's content: one set with a religious framing and another with a secular, general-education approach. The goal was to see if and how the lexical-semantic landscape shifts between these formats.

Findings suggest that the two program types do not simply add different content on top of a shared base. Instead, they partially substitute core emotional and social vocabulary. For instance, concepts like patience, gratitude, or obedience may appear more frequently in religion-oriented shows, while terms like curiosity, problem-solving, or self-expression dominate the general-educational ones. This substitution is not total, but it is consistent enough to shape the overall emotional tone and value hierarchy that young viewers absorb.

The authors argue that this has implications beyond Turkey. Public broadcasters everywhere make implicit choices about which social-emotional competencies to prioritize. By mapping these lexical patterns, the study offers a method for auditing the hidden curriculum in any media environment. It also raises questions about whether such partial substitution creates a fragmented value system for children who watch both types of programming. The research calls for more attention to the subtle ways media language shapes not just what children know, but how they feel and relate to others.