Manufacturing visions of society and history in textbooks

Abstract

Interviews with personnel involved in designing secondary-school social-science textbooks, and the findings of previous research in the sociology of work in mass media organizations, reveal three, often complementary, domains of control that influence textbook visual content: (a) industrial-the meaning, relevance, and historical or social significance of an image directed through captioning and accuracy guidelines; (b) commercial-marketing pressures that make aesthetic appeal of great importance to the textbook's production success; and (c) social-interest groups that influence the visual components of the textbook, but because of space limitations the game is zero-sum. This study finds that, in all, the textbook vision of society is homogenized and sanitized to reduce the risk of controversy.

Teaching in a Sanitized World: An Exploration of the Suburban Scene in Public Communication Pedagogy

“…With large market shares in the hands of a few publishing firms, textbooks are highly homogenized. Perlmutter (1997) has documented the effects on history textbooks. He argues that to satisfy the interests of the textbook market, the product is becoming increasingly homogenized.…”

How Have Descriptions of the Arab-Israeli Conflict Changed in High School U.S. History Textbooks Since the 1950s?

“…While Perlumutter (1997) recognized editors as -hard working, well-paid, respected, and talented professionals, with artistic or English backgrounds,‖ he also noted that -Aesthetic considerations are more important than critical questions of educational value; pretty takes precedence over thought provoking‖ (Perlmutter, 1997).…”

“…In 1995, the ‗el-hi' (elementary to high school) market generated almost $2 billion in sales. These textbooks comprised 30% of the entire market for books in the U.S. (Perlmutter, 1997).…”

How the Past is Present(ed): A Comparison of Information on the Hawthorne Studies in Canadian Management and Organizational Behaviour Textbooks

“…While they found that discussions of religion were generally neutral in tone, they also discovered that most of the information about religion in the textbooks surveyed was presented in the context of discussions focusing on cults or mental disorders. An example of an investigation of the textbook production process is the study conducted by Perlmutter (1997), who interviewed 43 employees of six major textbook publishing companies to determine how content and design issues were managed. Perlmutter concluded that "the textbook vision of society is homogenized and sanitized to reduce the risk of controversy" (p. 68); this finding was particularly true for publishers of textbooks aimed at elementary and secondary school courses, since school board members elected by and accountable to the public often made choices for large-scale textbook purchases, and wanted to avoid complaints from textbook users or their parents.…”