This study will explore the omission of the Tower of Babel narrative from middle and secondary school world history, world studies, and world geography textbooks and will consider what might be learned from inclusion of the story in the curriculum. A total of 17 textbooks are analyzed. The Tower of Babel narrative is examined within the context of…

This study examined the changing content of history textbooks in Northern Ireland, drawing on a sample of 15 textbooks published from 1968 to 2010. Findings from the content and narrative analysis indicated that following the introduction of the Northern Ireland Curriculum in 1991, history textbooks shifted from a narrative to source-driven…

Independently learning from informative texts becomes increasingly important from the age of 11. Little information is available, however, on (a) how and to what extent late elementary education students already apply specific text-learning strategies, and (b) whether different learner profiles can already be distinguished. In this study, a…

Textbooks are required in most introductory college science courses, but students may not be benefitting from the textbooks as much as their instructors might hope. Word use in the textbooks may influence textbook effectiveness. I tested whether either the amount of technical vocabulary or the readability had a significant effect on students'…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were published by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association in 2010 as part of a widespread standards-based reform movement in the United States. The education marketplace has responded with CCSS-aligned products, including standardised tests, professional development…

Same-sex marriage is part of a global civil rights struggle for LGBQ rights. How this movement is framed, advanced, and critiqued across the globe can be linked to how young people in schools are prepared to deliberate social issues in the political sphere. This article examines national history books as cultural artifacts that present what is…

Through examining a representative Chinese textbook series' presentation of the distributive property, this study explores how mathematics curriculum may structure representations in ways that facilitate the transition from concrete to abstract so as to support students' learning of mathematical principles. A total of 319 instances of…

Meanings in a picturebook are constructed in the space between words, images and reader. Contemporary picturebooks are ideal vehicles for a deep reading of, and philosophical engagement with, texts that move beyond literary and literacy knowledge. Philosophy with picturebooks also offers an alternative to personal responses to these texts that are…

Features of eighth-grade history textbooks were examined through replication of a 20-year-old study that investigated "considerateness" of textbooks. Considerate texts provide clear, coherent information and include features that promote students' comprehension, such as explicit use of organizational structures, a range of question…

To determine how topical coverage in introductory textbooks may have changed from the 1980s to the present, the author examined topic coverage in full-length and brief introductory textbooks from this time period. Because 98% of the teachers use textbooks for the introductory course and the majority do not assign reading beyond the textbook, the…

Heterosexism and heteronormativity are pervasive in the South African society, but to what degree are they present in Life Orientation (LO) textbooks? This question, explored through a content analysis of widely used Grade 10 LO textbooks, was framed by queer theory. The paper quantitatively examines the coverage of sexualities, and qualitatively…

Current reforms in elementary and secondary science education call for students and teachers to develop more informed views of the nature of science (NOS)--a process in which science textbooks play a significant role. This paper reports on a case study of the development of representations of the NOS in a senior high school chemistry textbook by…

This paper examines the textual coverage of the topic of work in Canadian English--language introductory sociology textbooks. Our findings are based on a content analysis of 21 Canadian texts published between 2008 and 2012. We found that only 12 of 21 textbooks included a chapter on work, suggesting that work occupies a peripheral position in…

How have U.S. high school textbook depictions of World War II and Vietnam changed since the 1970s? We examined 102 textbooks published from 1970 to 2009 to see how they treated U.S. involvement in World War II and Vietnam. Our content analysis of high school history textbooks finds that U.S. textbooks increasingly focus on the personal experiences…

Exploring Australian school text censorship has a long pedigree in "English in Australia." This article aims to contribute by observing attempts by parents to censor English texts in religious schools. A brief summary of "EIA"'s previous approaches is followed by an explanation of the method of my research with NSW…