Democracy is increasingly being challenged, by disengagement and by anti-pluralist movements (Levitsky and Ziblatt in How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future, Viking, New York, 2018; Wikforss in "Därför demokrati. Om kunskapen och folkstyret" [Because of this, democracy. On knowledge and people's rule] Fri Tanke, 2021;…

In today's world, it is a fact that some people want the poor to be helped and some people want poverty to be eliminated. One way to narrow the gap between these two situations is to know what children need. The premise of this study is to evaluate the role of secondary school social studies textbooks in addressing poverty, unemployment and…

Research about social studies textbooks overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that these books are unpopular and often the subject of intense criticisms. These criticisms concern anything ranging from the language they employ, to the way they are utilized by teachers, to the undue influence they exert on shaping and defining curriculum. This…

Basal textbooks are rather popular for social studies teachers to use in the classroom setting. There are selected reasons for this occurring. They do provide beginning and new teachers a framework for ongoing lessons and units of study. The accompanying Manual provides suggestions for learning activities for learners to pursue. Evaluation…

The text samples presented in this document primarily serve to exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Standards require all students in a given grade band to engage with. Additionally, they are suggestive of the breadth of texts that students should encounter in the text types required by the Standards. The choices should serve as…

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…

A brief discussion, with a list of information sources, of the need for enlightened teaching to eliminate stereotyping from social studies instructional materials and teaching. (HB)

Elementary social studies textbooks in the United States are better today than they have ever been before. Changes in the educational climate, the textbook evaluation process, and the marketplace have led to vast improvements in published materials. (RM)

Basal reading, science, and social studies textbooks for elementary school students are too often stilted, boring, inaccurate, and/or confusing. If the children are to enjoy learning, textbook content and quality must be improved. (GC)

To show that in their elementary school years, American students read many pages of inconsiderate text, a segment from a sixth grade social studies textbook is analyzed. Criteria used to determine considerateness are structure, coherence, unity, and audience appropriateness. (RM)

Projects a general description of a 1985 Social Studies Textbook that is based on what text publishers are designing at this time; advocates that educators express their needs to publishers before the judgments are final. (MAT)

Textbooks may indicate the quantity and quality of subject content in a secondary school curriculum. They tend to conform to state departments of education and large local school districts' curriculum guides and to be the dominant instructional medium in high school courses. Examinations of widely-used textbooks may indicate the strengths and…

Integrity in the search for truth is not the aim of the textbook business. Pressures are put on publishers by various political groups. The result is monotonous, bland, glossy, vapid textbooks. The system is largely to blame. Choice and competition must be brought into the textbook business. (RM)

A quality social studies text should be readable and well illustrated, offer a good conceptual and thematic framework, realistically present the element of conflict always found in social development, and be learner-centered. (MB)