The portrayal of the Middle East in school textbooks has been reported to be inaccurate and negative as late as the mid 1990's. Numerous major studies conducted by various researchers and organizations indicate that school textbooks written between the 1970's and 1990's contributed to existing stereotypes of the Middle East held by many Americans.…

Gender bias in textbooks (GBIT) is a low-profile education issue, given the 72,000,000 children who still have no access to schooling, but this article argues that GBIT is: (1) an important, (2) near-universal, (3) remarkably uniform, (4) quite persistent but (5) virtually invisible obstacle on the road to gender equality in education--an obstacle…

This is a report of the Japan/United States Textbook Study Project the goal of which is to improve each nation's textbooks, especially in regard to the treatment of Japan in U.S. textbooks, the treatment of the United States in Japanese textbooks, and the treatment of relations between the two countries in each nation's textbooks. Panelists from…

The Second World War stands as the most devastating and destructive global conflict in human history. More than 60 nations representing 1.7 billion people or three quarters of the world's population were consumed by its horror. Not surprisingly, therefore, World War II stands as a landmark episode in history education throughout the world and its…

Content analysis of 12 Finnish and 18 American primers for grades 3 through 6 published primarily during the 1980s examined story type, plot setting, protagonist's characteristics, dramatic tasks, portrayals of family structure and parental responsibility, and extrafamilial peer and adult relationships. Results suggest that a nation's cultural…

I examine how science curricula are complicit in maintaining the dominance of knowledge production by major powers, particularly the USA, through their efforts to tell the "truth" about certain topics, and whether resistant counter-discourses are being mounted, especially in "peripheral" states such as Canada, Australia, and…

Holds that schools and textbooks utilized in communist block countries serve to indoctrinate students as to the virtues of the system under which they live and bias them against other systems. Cites several examples of anti-United States propaganda in Soviet texts. (GC)

Summarizes results of a cooperative international analysis of social studies texts by the United States/Japan Study Group. The project found books from each country tended to justify their own country's actions while consistently oversimplifying conditions in the other. Teaching strategies to counteract textbook biases are included. (AM)

Examines the representation of South Africa in geography and history textbooks currently being used in American schools. Asserts that these books are flawed with misleading, inaccurate, and racist texts and illustration. Offers recommendations for revising the view American students are given of South Africa. (KH)

Fourteen Japanese and 28 American social studies textbooks, grades 7-12, were exchanged and reviewed by project participants. The purpose of the research was to seek improvements in the treatment each country gives the other in their respective textbooks. Selective findings of the project are discussed. (RM)

Introduces a cooperative project undertaken by the USSR Ministry of Education and by various educational institutions in the United States to assess what youth in each country learn about the other country from geography and history textbooks. The objective was to minimize misinformation. (DB)

An analysis of eight current government publications on citizenship for immigrants to the United States and results of a survey investigating immigration education correspondence courses are provided. In the first part, subjective evaluations of eight textbooks, based on seven designated criteria (copyright, readability, subject matter,…

This review of a 1981 interim report on the United States' and the Soviet Union's distortion of events in history and geography textbooks is intended to encourage educators in both countries to depict the other side more honestly, less aggressively, and more appreciative of each other's virtues and flaws. Organized into two major sections,…

This is a report of the Netherlands/United States Textbook Study Project, the goal of which is to improve each nation's textbooks, especially in regard to the treatment of Netherlands in U.S. textbooks, the treatment of the United States in Netherlands' textbooks, and the treatment of relations between the two countries in each nation's textbooks.…