Sources Used in the Preparatıon of the Social Studies Textbooks to Study in Elementary School.
Introduction
The large number of published textbook content analyses suggests these studies are one of the cornerstones of social studies research. In addition to the many published examples of such studies, there are also numerous examples of social studies textbook analyses conducted by researchers outside the field of social studies education, primarily those concerning history. Two of the most cited of these are journalist Frances Fitzgerald’s (1979) America Revised and sociologist James Loewen’s (1995) Lies my Teacher Told Me. While there have been many research studies examining Kindergarten-12 textbooks, there has been little research critically analyzing textbook content analyses and offering suggestions about how the findings of each analysis can be used in the typical K-12 social studies classroom or a college level social studies methods class.
Wade’s 1993 article, published in Theory and Research in Social Education (TRSE) proved to be an exception. She reviewed 25 content analyses of social studies textbooks published from 1982 to 1992 and discovered many limitations. She noted, for example, researchers relied too much on their own perceptions and opinions of social studies topics and failed to cite additional sources to support their claims. This research further asserted social studies textbook analyses lacked inter-rater reliability and data quantification. In many cases, the authors of these works were comparing textbooks to other textbooks, rather than to standards, and were not examining all the texts used in a particular content area. Based on the analyses
read, Wade suspected researchers were analyzing only selected passages that supported their arguments, not the entirety of the texts. Researchers also offered little discussion about where these books were actually being used (i.e., states; school districts, etc.). She concluded the primary weakness of textbook content analyses was they “produced remarkably similar conclusions….almost every researcher finds the topic chosen for study has not been given adequate attention or is presented in a biased, stereotypical or otherwise inaccurate manner” (p. 248).
Wade (1993) offered many suggestions about how textbook researchers and reformers could improve their analyses. She suggested authors question the value of their research from the start and work collectively with classroom teachers, curriculum committees, and national organizations to develop better textbooks. More importantly, she proposed textbook critics widen their views and offer more studies “focused on understanding the effects that textbook learning has on students” in classrooms (Wade, 1993, pp. 249-250). She proposed researchers additionally consider the broader societal purpose of schooling in society and “the ideological basis behind the use of textbooks in schools” (pp. 249-250).