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Reading normalised knowledge production from a feminist perspective: A case study
Get PDFThis article presents a feminist reading of the introductory part of a Swedish university textbook from the field of social work. We show how a textbook like this, whose aim is to represent the “normal” state of a discipline, is conditioned by discursive circumstances beyond the control of individual authors, such as the normalisation of what is seen as central and what is seen as less important within the discipline, and how these circumstances reproduce patterns that still challenge feminist standpoints. Although pluralism and tolerance are the explicit aims of the editors, a seemingly neutral narrator voice, and the consequent way of presenting different research methods and theories as perspectives open for choice, come to hide existing hierarchies of power within the discipline. Pluralism and discrimination can thus actually coexist
With Gender Awareness: Improving the reading of gender in educational texts and illustrations
Get PDFThe article gives examples from analyses of textbooks and computer games, observations in 8th grade in a Norwegian school and interviews with some students. The theoretical inspiration comes from gender research on “doing gender”, and gender is studied in constant interchange and negotiation. The textbooks confirm traditional gender and equality of the genders. However, with gender awareness the texts, tasks and illustrations in the textbooks open for exploring femininities and masculinities in plurality. The observations of the students work and interviews with the students working with computer games pointed towards other constructions of femininities and masculinities than the constructions in the computer games. The different constructions of femininities and masculinities are examples of the transformation from computer games published for use in spare time to theirrepresentations in a school textbook
Of ‘wealthy industrialists’ and ‘white protestant Europeans’ - the history of race racism as portrayed in a South African textbook
Get PDFUsing a case study, this article examines parts of a chapter in a South African grade 11 History textbook about race and racism. Framed by a multi-modal theory of sign-making and communication, I use an inductive data categorisation and analysis process. At the broadest level, the analysis of the selected texts and images shows how both the values- and skills driven aims of the curriculum are interpreted and applied in the textbook. Within this broader theme are embedded sub themes such as processes of identity formation, social categorisation, a sense of learners’ agency or empowerment (or lack thereof), and modes of story-telling. The case study shows that the texts in this book tend to offer a dominant (or 'hegemonic') reading whereby the reader isviewed as someone who will uncritically accept the texts’ dominant ideas. Very few opportunities are given to readers to make their own value judgements that they could base on multiple perspectives, and thus to develop critical literacy.Conclusions could be drawn about the interpretation and implementation of the History curriculum into a textbook medium
Motivation to learn about teaching and learning materials: and their use during teacher education in Australia
Get PDFMost research on teacher education has not considered the situated learning contexts and identities of pre-service teachers as they learn in different school and university settings in Australia. Especially problematic are the conflicting discourses that shape learning in these varied contexts. This paper explores aspects of motivation about the learning of teaching practices and pedagogy in the different learning environments of teacher education and school practicum; specifically the development of pedagogy and teaching practices around the use of textbooks and teaching and learning materials and the area of providing resources for student learning by teachers.
Using Nolen’s concept of motivational filters that student teachers develop to select and reject teaching practices, the paper undertakes a qualitative research project to explore such filters in the area of developing pedagogy in the use of teaching and learning materials.
The research presented in this paper demonstrates that the experiences student teachers are being provided with in relation to pedagogies related to teaching and learning materials are unstructured, fragmented and contested.
The motivation to learn about teaching and learning materials and their role in learning and development is dependent on the utility filters developed in school fieldwork and reflects the socio-cultural context of the school.
The critical questions for teacher educators is how do new and developing teachers learn how to mediate teaching and learning materials for their students, and in what form and learning context will this mediation learning take place
Adapting Other Countries Instructional Materials For Teacher Training In Madagascar
Get PDFThis paper briefly explores the problematics of using teaching and learning resources developed in other countries for education and teacher education in Madagascar. The paper initially overviews educational development and reform in Madagascar. It thenexplores different ways of adapting overseas developed resources for teaching and teacher education in the Madagascar context. Finally the paper provides suggestions for future practice
Editorial
Get PDFWe are pleased top present the new edition (Volume 2 Number 1 2009) of the IARTEM e-Journal
Research on textbook use in the United States of America
No full textThe purpose of this article is to review published research literature about procedures used to select textbooks in the USA. The contents of books, collected works, reports and journal articles were analysed, and summaries of the contents were then organised chronologically to present a commentary on this topic. The results showed that procedures for selecting textbooks arose in the states in the late nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, a balance between the numbers of states using state-level or local-level adoption procedures had been established, and a geographic pattern of northeastern and mid-western states using local-level adoption and south-eastern, southern and western states using state-level adoption had emerged. Although early studies researching this phenomenon were limited to tabulating various provisions in selection policies, more recent studies have identified important differences between groups operating within these two types. Research examining the intent of state-level adoption has identified that its practice is most closely associated with controlling the cost of textbooks. Other research suggests that large state-level adoption states influence the content of textbooks used across the USA. Research examining this phenomenon at the local level has identified complexity and diversity among selection procedures, but failedto find a typical pattern from these data. Research comparing the differences and effects between local-level selection procedures in state-level and local-level adoption states has identified that the only significant effect is related to the cost of textbooks
Reconsidering considerate textbooks
Get PDFHow could results from research on learning within science education be transferred to the development of textbooks? With this question as starting point in the article five maxims for good learning texts are suggested. The maxim of optimizing emphasizes the need to meet the reader at his/her level of understanding. The maxim of structure underlines that texts should be well structured. Although this can be considered especially important as learners in school settings mostly approach new areas as novices, some paradoxes deepen the maxim. The activity of readers could be maintained by signals provided by the authors (the maxim of metadiscourse). Extensive research within science education shows problems in learning core concepts, likegravitation, photosynthesis and the movement of light. These problems emphasize the need to confront learners with possible misinterpretations (the maxim of conflict). Finally different ways of enhancing the motivation of the reader are suggested in the maxim of pleasure
What does resource-challenged mean according to educators and educational researchers? A review of the literature relevant to textbooks and education media in Madagascar
Get PDFThe goals of this paper are 1) to attempt to deepen our understanding of the notions already in use in conceptual frameworks of resources and resource-challenges in textbooks and educational media, especially as they have been applied in Madagascar;and 2) to emphasize the need for educational researchers and educators in this area to form our own context-specific definitions of “educational resources” and “resource challenges” before we make recommendations for improved practice and policy concerning textbooks and educational media. The first part of the paper introduces the work presented at the 2005 Dakar TESOL Symposium on English Language Teaching in Resource Challenged Contexts. The second part synthesizes the diverse views ofresource challenges and resource opportunities of leading experts in the field writing about Madagascar. Our conclusions highlight the multiple educational media-related insights and solutions to resource issues discussed in the available literature and point to the need to rethink and revise our existing conceptual frameworks for analyzing the nature and roles of textbooks and educational media in the Malagasy context as well as those of other countries
The Nanjing Massacre: official remembrance and history textbooks in the People’s Republic of China
No full textThis paper analyses the manner in which the 1937 Nanjing massacre is presented and interpreted in Chinese history textbooks and teacher guides for high school pupils. The paper explores the manner in which the construction of a narrative discourse of historical memory in China is powerfully linked to contemporary notions of identity, patriotic and nationalist education in amanner that reflects core ideological, political and social challenges inside China and in its relationships with its Asian neighbours. The paper discusses the notion of school textbooks as ideological discourses and analyses the pedagogical discourse of Chinese history education, this is placed within a context framed by the political and ideological construction of history education in China and the manner in which recent history teaching and public opinion in the People’s Republic has reacted to the publication of a history school textbook in Japan that questions claims of a massacr