The New Politics of the Textbook : Problematizing the Portrayal of Marginalized Groups in Textbooks

In an age of unprecedented corporate and political control over life inside of educational institutions, this book provides a needed intervention to investigate how the economic and political elite use traditional artifacts in K-16 schools to perpetuate their interests at the expense of minoritized social groups. The contributors provide a comprehensive examination of how textbooks, the most dominant cultural force in which corporations and political leaders impact the schooling curricula, shape students’ thoughts and behavior, perpetuate power in dominant groups, and trivialize social groups who are oppressed on the structural axes of race, class, gender, sexuality, and (dis)ability. Several contributors also generate critical insight in how power shapes the production of textbooks and evaluate whether textbooks still perpetuate dominant Western narratives that normalize and privilege patriotism, militarism, consumerism, White supremacy, heterosexism, rugged individualism, technology, and a positivistic conception of the world. Finally, the book highlights several textbooks that challenge readers to rethink their stereotypical views of the Other, to reflect upon the constitutive forces causing oppression in schools and in the wider society, and to reflect upon how to challenge corporate and political dominance over knowledge production. Front Matter....Pages i-xxx Front Matter....Pages 1-1 A Qualitative Understanding Ofpreservice Teachers’ Critical Examination of Textbook Curriculum Units as Political Text....Pages 3-16 Finding my Serpent Tongue....Pages 17-30 Front Matter....Pages 31-31 Women on the Margins....Pages 33-47 Representation of Diversity in Science Textbooks....Pages 49-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-69 Handling Heteronormativity in High School Literature Texts....Pages 71-85 The Open Court Reality....Pages 87-106 E Pluribus Unum....Pages 107-125 Front Matter....Pages 127-127 Uncovering and Destabilizing Heteronormative Narratives in World History Textbooks....Pages 129-148 The Exclusion and Inclusion of Women in American Government Textbooks....Pages 149-172 Context and Community....Pages 173-194 Textbook Orientalism....Pages 195-213 Swept Under the Rug....Pages 215-233 Don’t Ask about and Don’t Tell the Lies my Teacher Told me....Pages 235-257 Invisible Indians....Pages 259-271 Gender Representation in AP ART History Textbooks....Pages 273-292 Neo—Confederate Ideology & History Textbooks — 1860 to 2010....Pages 293-313 Afterword....Pages 315-318 In an era when corporate and political leaders are using their power to control every aspect of the schooling process in North America, there has been surprisingly little research on the impact of textbook content on students. The contributors of this volume and its partner (The New Politics of the Textbook: Problematizing the Portrayal of Marginalized Groups in Textbooks) guide educators, school administrators, academics, and other concerned citizens to unpack the political, social, and cultural influences inherent in the textbooks of core content areas such as math, science, English, and social science. They urge readers to reconsider the role textbooks play in the creation of students' political, social, and moral development and in perpetuating asymmetrical social and economic relationships, where social actors are bestowed unearned privileges and entitlements based upon their race, gender, sexuality, class, religion and linguistic background. Finally, they suggest ways to resist the hegemony of those texts through critical analyses, critical questioning, and critical pedagogies