The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies

Eckhardt Fuchs is Director at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany, and Professor of Comparative Education and History of Education at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He has worked in a variety of academic institutions and served as a visiting professor in various countries. His research interests include the global history of modern education, international education policies, and curriculum and textbook development.
Annekatrin Bock is Deputy Head of the 'Textbook as Media' Department at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Germany. Her research focuses are open education and digital media. She undertook research projects covering areas such as media change, theoretical and methodological aspects of media use, and acquisition of skills and knowledge. She has published on popular media, visual communication, and participant observation.

This volume examines the present status and future trends of textbook studies. Cutting-edge essays by leading experts and emerging scholars explore the field's theories, methodologies, and topics with the goal of generating debate and providing new perspectives. The Georg Eckert Institute's unique transdisciplinary focus on international textbook research has shaped this handbook, which explores the history of the discipline, the production processes and contexts that influence textbooks, the concepts they incorporate, how this medium itself is received and future trends. The book maps and discusses approaches based in cultural studies as well as in the social and educational sciences in addition to contemporary methodologies used in the field. The book aims to become the central interdisciplinary reference for textbook researchers, students, and educational practitioners.

Provides a systematic overview to the diverse field of textbook research and its main trends, theoretical concepts, and methodological approaches

IntroductionPart A: History, Theory and Methods of Textbook Research1. History of the School Textbook2. History of Textbook Research3. Theories and Methods of Textbook StudiesPart B: Textbooks in their Contexts4. Educational Publishers and Educational Publishing5. Textbook Authors, Authorship and Author Function6. Textbooks and Education7. Educational Media, Reproduction and Technology - Towards a critical Political Economy of Educational Media8. Ideas and Concepts for Using Textbooks in the Context of Teaching and Learning in the Social Sciences and Humanities9. Ideas and Concepts on Teaching Science and Geography10. Textbook Quality Criteria and Evaluation11. Materiality and Mediality of TextbooksPart C: Textbooks and their Contents12. The Nation, Nationhood and Nationalism in Textbook Research from 1951 to 201713. Transnational Identities and Values in Textbooks and Curricula14. Regions15. Representations of Class, Race and Gender in Textbooks16. On Normativity and Absence: Representation of Lgbti* in Textbook Research17. Religion as a Subject of Textbook Analysis: An exemplary overview18. Research into Textbook Portrayals of National Socialism and the Holocaust19. Colonialism20. Concepts of the Past: Socialism21. History Textbooks and the Construction of Dictatorship22. War in Textbooks23. How diverse are our textbooks? Research findings in international perspective24. Human Rights as Cultural Globalisation: The Rise of Human Rights in Textbooks, 1890-201325. The EnvironmentPart D: Textbook Use, Effects and Practices26. Textbook Use27. Textbook Effects and Efficacy28. Textbook practices: reading texts, touching books29. New Directions