Designing a Tool for History Textbook Analysis
1. Introduction: Searching for Guidelines
This article describes the process by which the design of a tool for analysis of textbooks came about. The impetus for devising such a tool was the clear message in the literature that "we do not yet have instruments and processes at hand for the dimensioning, categorization and evaluations of textbook research" (WEINBRENNER, 1992, p.34; our translation). What is available in more recent literature is some practical advice for textbook reviewers (see PINGEL, 2010) or a list of possible questions to ask when examining textbooks (see NOGOVA & HUTTOVA, 2006), as well as descriptions of the type of analysis possible when using different theoretical lenses (see NICHOLLS, 2005). How exactly the content of textbooks based on these analyses is to be evaluated, or how the criteria put forward in these lists are to be assessed or "measured" is not clear. It points to the problem that the methodological principles that underpin textbook research are not well developed and the area remains under-theorized (FOSTER & CRAWFORD, 2006, p.11). [1]
According to the seminal work done by PINGEL (2010) the main distinction in textbook analysis is between didactic and content analysis; the former being concerned with the pedagogy implied by the text, whereas the latter is concerned with examining the content of the text itself (PINGEL, 2010 p.31). PINGEL (p.72) provides a comprehensive list of possible questions and approaches, e.g. quantitative and qualitative, inductive and deductive, including some examples of how history text analysis could be conducted. He describes hermeneutic, contingency and discourse analyses, among others. However, even though useful, his guide offers more in the way of overall approaches and epistemologies to choose from, rather than a single example of a how a theoretically-founded tool for analyzing textbooks could be put to practice. Hence our aim was to consider the various theoretical strands available for the design of an explicit tool, including those offered about the discipline of history itself, such as the work on assessing historical thinking by SEIXAS (2006). We also aimed to design a single tool that would be comprehensive, holistic, discipline-specific and practically usable. It would be a tool that does not try to be everything to everyone, but a particular example of how one type of theoretical orientation can be used to design a particular tool for a particular discipline. Nevertheless, we believe that by describing the process of this design, other researchers could apply the principles we offer here to devise their own tool to meet their particular textbook analysis needs. [2]
This article was written from part of a PhD study, the aim of which was, among others, to find a suitable approach to textual analysis that could be utilized to construct a model for textbook analysis in general. This was accomplished through the analysis of 10 grade 11 history textbooks. Only certain parts of the books were selected for analysis. These parts related to the curriculum topic of "theories of race and racism and their historical impact." This topic is of relevance not only in South Africa, where the legacy of apartheid continues to make itself felt in every sphere of life, but also in other countries grappling with racial and cultural diversity, difference, prejudice and tolerance. Thus, while addressing this topic seems so central in modern heterogeneous societies, at the same time it may also present limitations: Given its temporal relevance, it may be approached in a manner different from other historical topics that are further removed. In other words, there may be more heated and controversial responses towards this topic than, say, to the industrial revolution. Nevertheless, we believe that the model we present here can be applied to an analysis of any topic in history textbooks and that its principles can be transposed to cognate disciplines such as social studies and civics education. Towards the end we provide an example of how this could be done. [3]
In this article we focus on the methodological principles and are thus not going to present findings of the analysis of the topic itself, which has already been reported elsewhere (see MORGAN, 2010 and MORGAN & HENNING, 2011). Rather, we will present the processes of the tool design, arguing for systematic and theory-based design of instruments that are used to evaluate textbooks, more specifically, history textbooks. [4]
One of the key presuppositions from which the design process started was that textbook research is an interdisciplinary process (see PINGEL, 2010, p.43; COLE, 2010; JOHNSEN, 1997, p.25; and ISSIT, 2004, p.684). In this study, the disciplines involved were history, psychology, sociology, education, and linguistics. From history it derived the subject matter and unit of analysis (chapters in history textbooks). Moreover, the methodology of the didactics of history "can use established methods of psychology and sociology and restructure them to the peculiarity of the historical consciousness" (RÜSEN, 1987, p.286). An historical approach situates the researcher and the object of investigation in a distinctive temporal and changing sociocultural context, which is the basis for using a Vygotskian cultural historical approach. Even though VYGOTSKY was not only a psychologist (he studied a range of topics while attending university, including law, history, and philosophy, as KOZULIN [1990, p.21] explains), in current disciplinary schemas he would probably have been described as a cognitive developmental psychologist as well as a semiotician (see GOPNIK, 2008). The field of semiotic mediation, which forms the basis of the theoretical frame for this study, can also be understood to be both psychological and sociological in nature and also as a linguistic theory. [5]
Linked to history, is also the discipline of psychology. LERNER (1997, p.200) talks about history-making as a function in the healing of pathology. For example, "forgotten" trauma is brought to light through therapy "and in the retelling it is robbed of its evil power, implying that history-making is an essential part of personal growth and healing." Another psychological approach to how texts are appropriated is put forward by GROLNICK (in WERTSCH, 2002, p.43) through "self-determination theory." It involves exploring adaptations to social requirements so that children accept certain values as their own, even if they do not necessarily endorse them. Education as a field of inquiry would provide the practical applicability or purpose of the study through its involvement with a major agency of socialization: the school. [6]
At the outset, trying to incorporate all these disciplines into the design of the tool seemed somewhat overwhelming, but it also motivated the study to find points of interdisciplinary intersection, much as KELLE (2005, p.21) suggests when he discusses the notion of "sensitizing concepts" in grounded theory analysis and the merging of ideas from different theoretical origins in a heuristic framework for such analysis: "[U]sing such a heuristic framework as the axis of the developing theory one carefully proceeds to the construction of categories and propositions with growing empirical content." [7]
Thus, in using this theoretical "axis" we argue that the analysis tool that we devised (arguably the "grounded theory" emanating from the study) was constructed from a deep engagement with data and an interweaving with the points/concepts. The latter coalesced in a central tenet of the work of Lev VYGOTSKY, namely the notion of semiotic mediation (1986), which, in this study, can be seen as the core of the "axis" in grounded theory terms. [8]
In this article we will first set out the different phases of the design of the tool, showing how we followed a hybrid grounded theory procedure after the first phase. Thereafter the five dimensions of the tool (the "grounded" theory) are discussed in some detail. We show how these dimensions could be adapted to analyze textbooks in cognate disciplines. Finally, in the conclusion of the article some reflection is offered on the reliability and validity of the theoretical principles that have been put forward. [9]
2. The Three Stages of the Tool Design Process
The three phases, or stages, of the tool design and development proceeded from 1. a typical grounded theory approach of (open) data coding to 2. a deliberate activity of "going back to the literature," to search for theoretical principles for textbook analysis that would speak to the data that we had come to know closely, to 3. the blending of the first two chronological activities into the third stage, which comprised the formulation of the five dimensions of the analytical tool, or our grounded theory offering. These stages are described next.
Figure 1: The three-stage process—from data to literature to a tool and back to data [10]
2.1 A grounded theory approach to (open) data coding
To begin the coding process, we wanted to first become familiar with the sampled texts. The sample was described within case study methodology. A "case study is defined by individual cases, not by the methods of inquiry used" (STAKE, 1994, p.236). These cases are captured by their "boundedness." In this way, it is different from theoretical sampling offered by grounded theory methodologies. Theoretical sampling "means that the sampling of additional incidents, events, activities, populations [in this case additional text], and so on is directed by the evolving theoretical constructs" (DRAUCKER, MARTSOLF, ROSS & RUSK, 2007, p.1137). By contrast, in this research the sample was selected and bounded before the theoretical constructs were identified. Within a case study design the investigators identify the boundaries, and these boundaries, what is and what is not a case, are continually kept in f