Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-202). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Supervisors: Sherry L. Field and Mary S. Black. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

No description available.

Since textbooks are a standard feature of social studies classrooms and frequently are considered the central tools of social studies instruction, their content and manner of presentation are critical issues for the social studies. This study concentrated on identification and analysis of the individual people appearing by name in selected secondary world history textbooks. The written words and illustrations of twelve secondary world history textbooks were analyzed for their selection of, and the way in which they portray, individual men and women of world history. Content of the textbooks was analyzed to determine which people are included, which receive the greatest amount of space devoted to them, and the general characteristics of these people as attributed to them by the textbooks. Those who have the most space devoted to them, the most significant people of world history, were further analyzed to determine which people are portrayed as possessing characteristics which identify them as heroes or as villains. The selected textbooks were compared to determine the amount of agreement among them. The study found a large number of individual people identified by name in the selected textbooks. These people represent every corner of the world, area of endeavor, and time period of history. However, some places, events, and times receive greater emphasis than others in all the textbooks studied. These people of world history textbooks are predominately western European, male, and political leaders who are written of in terms of their actions. The limited number of most significant people share the general characteristics of all who are named, but the greater anl0unt of information provided the basis for analysis of the selection of information and the style of writing. This analysis provided a description of those most significant people who share common characteristics which match the characteristics of heroes and of villains. A few of the people exhibit characteristics of both heroes and villains. The textbooks studied are remarkably similar in these emphases. What is different among the textbooks is the exact people included in them and how much narrative text is used to describe and explain them. / Ph. D.

The Holt Social Studies Curriculum and The Americans were social studies textbooks edited by Edwin Fenton, John M. Good, and others at the Carnegie-Mellon Center for Project Social Studies. These textbooks were an effort by Fenton and his associates to meet the demands for change in social studies curriculum and related instructional materials. Being produced during an era of social change, revolts, and an unpopular war, the textbooks reflected on controversial issues of that era which eventually led to restrictions on their purchase in Georgia. These restrictions, however, raised issues which made this study possible. The Georgia State Board of Education in 1972 rejected the recommendations of its Professional Textbook Selection Committee to include the social studies textbooks edited, authored, or contributed to by Edwin Fenton on the state's approved textbook list. Only the textbooks on the state’s approved list could be purchased with state funds. This study is an investigation of the Georgia State Board of Education’s ban on the social studies textbooks from the state’s approved textbook list and the subsequent effects of the State Board 1s action on future textbook selection policies in the state. This was the first time in twenty years that members of the Georgia State Board of Education had acted to remove approved textbooks from the Georgia public schools. This study is also significant because the State Board's wording of its action leaves the impression that they were opposed to the author, regardless of his works. This study describes a step by step account of the events which eventually led to the ban on the textbooks. It also describes the subsequent events which led to a change in the state’s textbook selection policies. While parents did not participate in the controversy, policy changes made their participation more likely for textbook controversies in the future. Although the Fenton social studies textbooks were not adopted by the State Board, the approaches used in them are widely used in other social studies textbooks in Georgia today. For future textbook controversies in Georgia, the writer recommends that the lay representatives on the State’s Textbook Selection Committee be given voting power. The writer believes the controversy reported in this study uncovered an inconsistency between the social science educators in Georgia and the State Board of Education on the goals of the state’s social studies curriculum. Therefore, the writer recommends that the social studies educators develop a clear set of objectives for the social studies curriculum and present them to the State Board of Education for approval. These objectives should be made available to the general public for scrutiny before they become the set goals for the state. Further, the State Board of Education should keep the lines of communication open with the educators of the state. Finally, the writer recommends further study of the uniformity of Georgia's goals in education across the state, especially the social studies goals. Recently, the state has adopted a series of criterion referenced tests which are administered all over the state. A uniform testing system should dictate a uniform set of objectives. / Ed. D.

Thèse (M.A.)--Université d'Ottawa, 2000. / Comprend des réf. bibliogr.

This study was conducted for the following two purposes: 1) to create and test a process by which cultural information in English textbooks in Japan can be analyzed, and 2) to examine what and how much information about foreign culture is taught in English classes in Japan. First, a process was developed from Joiner's evaluation form to gauge the cultural content of EFL textbooks. Action was taken to ensure that the process included both qualitative and quantitative steps. Second, the process entailed an analysis of the cultural content of 10 senior high school English textbooks published in Japan. The process was found to be functional and the analysis revealed that the textbooks were inadequate for the purpose of raising students' cultural awareness. The results of this study may be utilized not only for the improvement of textbooks, but also for future studies which might examine junior high school and college English textbooks. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

Not available / text

The purpose of this study was to discover the degree to which thirty-nine secondary textbooks used in the united States from 1789 to 1939 covered the significant topics that comprised the immigrant experience. Immigrants from Europe, Japan, and China were studied. Using a topic outline as the basis for discussion, authors' comments that were typical representations of their viewpoints were included. Besides this outline, which formed the heart of this study, several other evaluative measures were used. Bias was determined by using an evaluative coefficient analysis system. A picture identification checklist was utilized to classify designated components of each picture. Also, page coverage was included for the topic of immigration as well as by immigrant group classification. The results of this study indicated that immigration was not a significant topic in the early American history textbooks until after World War I. This investigation also revealed that immigration was treated in an biased light by the 1789-1939 historians. Bias that favored the English immigrants was discovered when page and topic coverage was analyzed. Bias by the omission of immigrant contributions was found. Pictures, too, formed a negative stereotype of the immigrant as a victim of crowded cities and the lines of Ellis Island. / Ed. D.

Critical examinations of cultural groups and the ways in which they are presented in schools are missing from current elementary and middle school curricula. Issues of this nature often fall under the umbrella of “multicultural education” or “cultural pedagogy,” but this rhetoric is dismissive in nature. Constructing the non-Western child as “culturally deprived,” “culturally disadvantaged,” or “at-risk” perpetuates an “us/colonizer” versus “them/colonized” mentality. The purpose of this study was to examine critically how the Middle East and its people are represented in U.S. social studies textbooks. Through the use of qualitative content analysis, 10 elementary and middle school social studies books from Florida, Texas, and Virginia were analyzed. Drawing largely from the postcolonial Orientalist work of Edward Said (1978/2003), this study unveiled the ways in which American public schools other children, specifically children of Middle Eastern or Arab descent. Othering occurs anytime an institution in power constructs a certain reality for a marginalized group of people.