Purpose: This study aims to explore gender equality in school textbooks in Georgia. Design/methodology/approach: The research had the following questions: To what extent are women and men visible and represented equally in school textbooks? How do school textbooks promote gender socialization of boys and girls to be treated equally in terms of…

Author describes the Brunswick Institute's work on bias in history textbooks. (Editor/RK)

Records the author's understanding that public texts written by others are not the only texts carrying covert ideological meanings. The article's analysis of the author's own text on Aborigines in Australia reveals ideological positions previously unknown to her. Argues that even a well-intentioned teacher cognizant of how texts work ideologically…

Considers Richard Ohmann's argument that composition texts which instruct students to emphasize concrete details over abstract concepts encourage conformity with the dominant order. Suggests that Ohmann failed to consider the effects of teachers' and students' viewpoints. Cites methods that encourage students to use detail as a device of broader…

Discusses the application of critical thinking skills to teaching about the Columbus quincentenary. Suggests having students explore multiple perspectives on the event and examine coverage in textbooks and other books. Urges teachers to assess critically their own teaching practices and whether they foster racial justice. (WYN)

Since critical thinking is given a prominent place in language study, English education should be concerned with analyzing propaganda, not promoting it. In 1937 the Institute for Propaganda Analysis was founded to combat the prolific rise of propaganda in the U.S. Since then many modifications have grown out of the continuing studies of critical…

Examines the negative implications of special interest group influence on the selection of textbook content for public school students. Suggests guidelines for altering the textbook adoption process to reduce the domination of public testimony by interest groups. Argues that limiting students to one view is not conducive to critical thinking and…

The manual provides some guidelines for the content evaluation and selection of curriculum materials for use in bilingual-multicultural education programs, whatever the target student population. The material is organized as follows: rationale--a brief rationale for a shift in public education policy from a monolingual-monocultural to a…

This study focuses on how U.S. history teachers utilize secondary U.S. history textbooks. The report addresses the questions of: (1) "How do teachers utilize previously studied textbooks in classroom situations?"; (2) "How do teachers deal with the technical knowledge of textbooks?"; (3) "What are possible factors that influence textbook usage?";…

This book is about civic literacy, which is described as "the ability to think critically and objectively about the nation's fundamental premises and practices." The volume examines influential education reports and theorists who have defined the civic literacy debate. The book challenges the dominant perspective of history as presented…

Discusses problems encountered in developing and teaching from nonbiased history books and materials. Explores conflicts between objective or critical history teaching and the use of history curricula and classroom texts to accomplish societal goals. (Author/DB)

Considers the ubiquitous use of textbooks in social studies classrooms and recommends constructing critical-thinking exercises revealing textual bias. Suggested exercises concern issues of emotional or ambiguous language, geographic and cultural inclusion/exclusion, and accuracy of data. Includes several examples of critical-thinking activities.…

Since history textbooks omit and/or emphasize certain data, students are left with a false sense of history. Although the "hard data" presented in history texts is generally regarded as reliable, the selection and organization of that data is inherently manipulative because other data has been excluded. Because authors do not begin with a…

Argues that oftentimes simple parallel constructions and choice of examples reflect an unconscious bias in history textbooks. Reveals a number of these, particularly related to the United States' treatment of minorities in World War II. Advocates using strategies to identify and challenge biases in history textbooks. (MJP)

This document makes the argument that since the European conquest of the Western Hemisphere, society has had a policy of "covering" the history of the indigenous people. The systems of religion, farming, government, education, and the economy of native peoples from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego were outlawed and repressed. Textbooks…