This article presents a detailed example from the Albert Shanker Institute's report that shows the error of U.S. history textbooks and how it is distorting the historical record. One of the most glaring errors in textbooks is the treatment of the role that unions and labor activists played as key participants in the civil rights movement. The…

Recognizing that textbooks play a prominent role in fostering students' understanding of reasoning and proof, the authors conducted a study to examine the extent to which textbooks used in U.S. high schools provide opportunities for students to encounter proof-related reasoning and how the nature of proof-related reasoning in textbooks varies by…

In an increasingly globalized world, writing courses, situated as they are in local institutional and rhetorical contexts, need to prepare writers for global writing situations. Taking introductory technical communication in the United States as a case study, this article describes how and to what extent global perspectives are incorporated into…

Immigrants currently make up over 12% of the U.S. population, with children of immigrants comprising more than 20% of the population. Consequently, English learners are the fastest growing group in U.S. schools today, accounting for 10.5% of the total public school student population in Pre-K through Grade 12 in 2004-2005, a 56.2% increase over…

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…

One of the key requirements of the Common Core State Standards for Reading is that all students must be able to comprehend texts of steadily increasing complexity as they progress through school. By the time they complete the core, students must be able to read and comprehend independently and proficiently the kinds of complex texts commonly found…

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…

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)

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)

This interim report, intended to help textbook authors and publishers, describes the results of a project in which American schools critiqued Soviet textbooks and Soviet scholars critiqued American textbooks. Secondary level history and geography texts were the focus of the study. There are five chapters to the report: Background to the Study;…

A two part examination of the evidence concerning one possible basis for the poor mathematical performance of United States students, the content of the textbooks used in their classes, is presented. The results of a detailed analysis of Japanese and U.S. mathematics textbooks for grades 1 through 12 are reported. Two international studies (1964…

As a part of a doctoral thesis considering the history of teaching physical and chemical change, 641 chemistry/science textbooks have currently been examined. These books are from many different countries and date from the eighteenth century to the present time. The books have described a wide variety of experiments to illustrate the difference…