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.

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 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.