This study examines how socio-scientific issues (SSI) education is represented in high school Integrated Science textbooks developed under Korea’s 2022 Revised Curriculum and how SSI-related activities reflect democratic citizenship competence. As science education increasingly addresses complex issues such as climate change, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, energy transitions, natural disasters, and environmental justice, textbooks must provide learning opportunities that go beyond conceptual understanding and inquiry skills. Using qualitative content analysis, this study analyzed six Integrated Science textbooks, including Integrated Science 1 and 2, from three widely adopted publishers. SSI-related activities were identified and classified by content area and activity type, and the Democratic Citizenship Framework was applied to analyze eight competence elements: critical thinking, communication and collaboration, information management, empathy, social accountability, science-technology-society relations, self-direction, and decision making. This analysis identified 78 SSI-related activities. New technology-related issues, including artificial intelligence, big data, and robotics, appeared most frequently, followed by eco-friendly energy development, climate change, and natural disasters. Inquirybased activities were common across publishers; however activity formats varied considerably. The findings also showed that cognitive elements such as science-technology-society relations, information management, and critical thinking were strongly represented, whereas affective and participatory elements such as empathy and self-direction were relatively limited. These findings suggest that the presence of SSI topics alone does not guarantee democratic citizenship education. Science teachers and curriculum developers should redesign SSI activities to include ethical reflection, empathy, decision making, and responsible action.

Abstract
1. Introduction
    1.1. Socio-Scientific Issues Education
    1.2. Democratic Citizenship Competence inScience Education
    1.3. Textbooks and the 2022 RevisedCurriculum
    1.4. Research Questions
2. Methodology
    2.1. Research Subjects
    2.2. Data Collection and Analysis
3. Results
    3.1. SSI Content Areas in Integrated ScienceTextbooks
    3.2. Types of SSI-Related Activities
    3.3. Democratic Citizenship CompetenceElements Reflected in SSI Activities
4. Conclusion and Implications
Acknowledgment
References

• Hangil Kim(Okgwa High School, Gokseong 57500, Republic of Korea)
• Young-Shin Park(Department of Earth Science Education, Chosun University, Jeonnam-Gwangju 61452, Republic of Korea) Corresponding author