PROPAGANDA-INFORMED VISUAL DISCOURSE IN GEOGRAPHY OF ROMANIA SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS, DURING THE 1980s
Oana-Ramona ILOVAN 
Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Faculty of Geography, and Territorial Identities and Development Centre, ROMANIA.
Email: oana.ilovan@ubbcluj.ro
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2075-1808
ABSTRACT
This research examines the images (mainly photographs) included in four Geography of Romania school textbooks published in the 1980s, with the aim of identifying recurring themes that align with the broader propaganda discourse on socialist territorial development. By doing so, the study addresses a gap in the literature regarding the role of geography textbooks in shaping representations of the national territory in Romania during both the socialist and post-socialist periods. I conducted a thematic analysis of both the visual materials and the texts accompanying those images. After identifying the key themes, I interpreted them in relation to communist propaganda as manifested in Romanian society and the educational system. Accordingly, the study employs critical visual methodology for the analysis of images and discourse analysis for the textual material. The Romanian case illustrates the instrumentalization of geography education in reinforcing socialist ideology and cultivating a collective socialist identity based on reiterative representations of territorial unity and socialist development.
KEYWORDS:
communist propaganda, socialist development, geographical education, critical visual methodology, discourse analysis
Full text
Cite this article as:
Ilovan O.-R. (2026). Propaganda-Informed Visual Discourse in Geography of Romania School Textbooks, During the 1980s. Romanian Review of Geographical Education, 15(1), 5-45. http://doi.org/10.24193/RRGE20261