Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education: Proceedings of the 13th IARTEM Conference 2015, Berlin 3030803457, 9783030803452

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Péter Bagoly-Simó Zuzana Sikorová Editors

Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education Proceedings of the 13th IARTEM Conference 2015, Berlin

Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education

Péter Bagoly-Simó Zuzana Sikorová •

Editors

Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education Proceedings of the 13th IARTEM Conference 2015, Berlin

123

Editors Péter Bagoly-Simó Geographisches Institut Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Zuzana Sikorová University of Ostrava Ostrava, Czech Republic

ISBN 978-3-030-80345-2 ISBN 978-3-030-80346-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9

(eBook)

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Textbooks and School Subjects. An Introduction

Educational media continue to play a central role in the process of teaching and learning. The Covid-19 pandemic and its multiple challenges tied to homeschooling brought about the textbook’s renaissance even in economically developed countries, leading to an overall decrease in educational media diversity (Bagoly-Simó et al. 2021). Despite some common tendencies and trends, school subjects display unique structural features and usage patterns of educational media, the reason why research on textbooks and educational media is always attentive to the disciplinary framework it explores. However, interest in textbooks and educational media rarely remains at the forefront of scholarly work in the subject education disciplines. Primers constitute one of the few exceptions as they enjoyed continuous and broad interest over the decades and from various disciplines. Research primarily focused on selected topics, such as diversity (Itkonen and Paatela-Nieminen 2015), representation of minority groups (Suckow 2015), children and childhood (Stürmer 2014), or writing and reading (Barausse 2014). However, a growing body of literature displays a second, spatial approach focusing on current national states and historical ones, such as the USSR (Bezrogov 2014, Yaqub 2014, Silova 2014). In contrast, research on Science and Geography textbooks is rich, heterogeneous, discontinuous, and constantly oscillating between the content of educational media and their usage in the process of teaching and learning (Bagoly-Simó 2018). Thereby, positivist approaches aimed to improve, based on evidence, the learning experience in Science and Geography classrooms prevail. Nevertheless, research on Geography and STEM textbooks lacks methodological continuity and innovativeness. Aware of the school subject’s multiple approaches and their importance for the global discourse on textbooks and educational media, the International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational MediaI (IARTEM) decided to dedicate its 13th conference to subject-based perspectives. The conference, which took place in September 2015 at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, brought together scholars from numerous subject fields and intensified the dialogue between experts in subject education and general Educational Studies, Psychology of Education, and

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Textbooks and School Subjects. An Introduction

Media Studies. Publishing houses and teachers actively shaped the event contributing to the intersectional nature of the conference. This volume documents the 13th IARTEM conference results that brought together scholars representing 17 disciplines and perspectives from 27 countries. Rather than stressing research methods or content-related questions, the present volume clusters its chapters around school subjects. The first chapter offers a broad theoretical framework by exploring Media Studies’ perspectives to further the dialogue in the different subjects. Chapters 2–5 contain essays that give additional impulses from relevant fields. Before turning to individual school subjects, the volume first explores textbooks and educational media in preschool (Chapters 6–8) and primary education (Chapters 9–10). Perspectives from eight (groups of) subjects (Chapters 11–32) offer insight into research at different stages. While some chapters summarize (empirical) results from selected subjects to draw up a future research agenda, others introduce new (empirical) evidence partly originating from larger projects. In essence, the chapters dedicated to the subjects mirror the diversity of conceptual, methodological, and disciplinary approaches to textbooks and educational media. In temporal terms, the chapters reflect the state-of-the-art spanning the interval between 2015–20. Given this volume’s peculiar path-dependency, only chapters requiring an imminent update underwent revision. Nevertheless, all chapters maintain their relevance to the field and offer urgently needed impulses to textbook and educational media research in different subjects and beyond. Finally, Chapters 33–36 explore matters of resources and digital resources. That the topic choice of school subject of the 13th IARTEM conference and, implicitly, this volume, contributed to the intensification and diversification of research in selected subjects is best exemplified by the emerging vibrant community of scholars working on didactic materials in Music Education. Vicente Álvarez et al. (2020) documented the results of the First International Symposium of Music Education and Didactic Materials, which IARTEM organized in Santiago de Compostela in 2019 and constituted the first of several events aimed at placing textbooks and educational media into the spotlight in various disciplines. The present volume, however, also underlines the necessity for novel and more consistent methodological approaches, particularly in the field of textbook and educational media usage. Another vastly unexplored area is the linkage between textbook and educational media authorship, design, production, and revision. Finally, input from a series of subjects, such as Physical Education, Fine Arts, and Information Technology, is necessary to explore subjects both within their disciplinary boundaries and in cross-curricular terms. We hope that the present volume will inspire scholars, particularly at the early stages of their career, to explore the world of textbooks and educational media and, in doing so, to contribute to an evidence-based or conceptual improvement of students’ learning experience.

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References Bagoly-Simó, P. (2018). Science and Geography Textbooks in Light of Subject-Specific Education. In: E. Fuchs & A. Bock (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies (pp. 141–155). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Bagoly-Simó, P., Hartmann, J., & Reinke, V. (2020). School Geography under COVID-19: Geographical Knowledge in the German Formal Education. Tijdschrift poor economische en Sociale geografie. Journal of Economic and Social Geography, 111(3), pp. 224–238. Barausse, A. (2014). Learning to Read and Write in Italy in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century: Primers and Reading Exercise Booklets; Publications, Ministerial Control and Teaching (1861–1898). History of Education & Children’s Literature, IX(2), pp. 109–142. Bezrogov, V. (2014). Consolidating Childhood: Children and Warpage in Soviet and Post-Soviet Reading Primers 1945–2008. History of Education & Children’s Literature, IX(2), pp. 168– 182.Itkonen, T., & Paatela-Nieminen, M. (2015). How is the Other Produced in Two Finnish ABC (E-)books: An Intertextual Reading. In: F. Dervin (ed.), Diversities and Interculturality in Textbooks (pp. 37–60). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Silova, Y. (2014). Pedagogies of Space: (Re)Mapping National Territories, Borders, and Identities in Post-Soviet Textbooks. In: J. H. Williams (ed.), (Re)Constructing Memory: School Textbooks and the Imagination of the Nation (pp. 103–128). Rotterdam: Sense Publications. Stürmer, V. (2014). Kindheitskonzepte in den Fibeln der SBZ/DDR 1945-1990. Beiträge zur historischen und systematischen Schulbuch- und Bildungsmedienforschung. Bad Heilbronn: Klinkhardt. Suckow, D. (2015). Das kleine ABC der Exklusion: “Zigeunerbilder” in Buchstabier- und Lesebüchern um 1800. In: Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma (ed.), Antiziganismus (pp. 168–182). Heidelberg: Dokumentations- und Kulturzentrum Deutscher Sinti und Roma. Vicente Álvarez, R.M., Gillanders, C., Rodríguez Rodríguez, J., Romanelli, G., & Pitt, J. (eds.) (2020). Music Education and Didactic Materials. Santiago de Compostela: Grupo STELLAE/IARTEM. Yaqub, M. M. (2014). Re(Learning) Ukrainian: Language Myths and Cultural Corrections in Lliteracy Primers of Post-Soviet Ukraine. In: J. H. Williams (ed.), (Re)Constructing Memory: School Textbooks and the Imagination of the Nation (pp. 221–246). Rotterdam: Sense Publications. Péter Bagoly-Simó Zuzana Sikorová

Contents

Textbook as a Medium: Impulses from Media Studies for Research on Teaching Materials and Textbooks in Educational Sciences . . . . . . . Zuzana Sikorová and Péter Bagoly-Simó

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Colombia’s Social and Political Conflict in Primary School Textbooks on Social Sciences: Narrative and Historical Representation (2003–2013) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Miguel Ángel Gómez Mendoza, Luisa Fernanda Duque Gómez, and María Victoria Alzate Piedrahita

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Textbooks for Rural Schools: Conflict Between Norms and School Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia, Edilaine Aparecida Vieira, and Roseli Borowicc The Shifting Landscape of Text and How It Is Comprehended . . . . . . . Bruce Allen Knight and Susan A. Galletly

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Bhaskar’s Theory of Publishing and Its Contribution to Theorizing (Evolving New Forms of) Educational Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Christoph Bläsi

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The Use of Community Resources for the Inclusion of Preschool Students in Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . María Montserrat Castro-Rodríguez

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The Role of Teaching Materials in Educational Innovation in Early Childhood Education. Initial Reflections and Analysis of Good Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Denébola Álvarez Seoane and Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez Research Background in the Field of Textbooks and Music Teaching Materials in Preschool Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rosa María Vicente Álvarez and Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez

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Images of Antiracism and the Crisis of White Patriarchy in Swedish Primary School Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Angerd Eilard Analysis of Visual Components in Czech History Textbooks for Lower Grades of Elementary Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Ondřej Šimik Doing Research on Geography Textbooks. An Overview of Methods, Samples, and Topics in International and German Journals (1960–2020) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Péter Bagoly-Simó Geography Textbooks as a Political Tool to Promote Energy Transitions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Matthias Kowasch and Sylvie Joublot Ferré Geographical Reading of the “Global Warming Ready” Advertisement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Markus Hilander Well Designed Digital Textbooks–Users’ Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Yvonne Behnke Didactics as a School Discipline: A Study of General Didactics Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Léia de Cássia Fernandes Hegeto Manuals Aimed at Guiding Teachers in Teaching Physics for the Initial Grades of Elementary School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia and Fernanda Esthenes Nascimento The Teaching of Botany in Portugal: An Analysis of Primary School Textbooks (1900–2000) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Fernando Guimarães Images as Resources in Biological Science Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Camille Roux-Goupille Pedagogic Practice and Science Textbooks: Experiences of the PDE/PR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Edna Luiza de Souza and Nilson Marcos Dias Garcia Selection and Transformation of Resources by Physics Teachers: How to Explain the Diversity of Choices Processes? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 Pascale Kummer Hannoun Multimedia Materials in Brazilian Physics Textbooks: An Analysis Following the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Daniel Sucha Heidemann and Nilson Marcos Dias Garcia

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Cypriot Physics Teachers’ Use of Physics Textbooks in Their Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Demetrios Philippou and Kostas Dimopoulos Teachers Designing Their Lessons: The Complex Stage of Educational Resource Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Anita Messaoui The New Status of Music in Brazilian Schools Since 2012 and the Role of Music Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Guilherme Gabriel Ballande Romanelli Criteria of Educational Media Selection for French Secondary School English . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 Margaret Bento, Estelle Riquois, and Aurélie Beauné Memory Practices and Media Use in Educational Contexts: Relationships Between History, Politics and Memory in Schools . . . . . . 315 Roman Richtera Easy Readers for Young Adults in Swedish Classrooms–Learning Material or Literature? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 Anna Nordenstam and Christina Olin-Scheller The Function of Fiction. Textbooks After the 2011 Swedish Senior High School Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 Caroline Graeske History Textbook Evaluation by High-School Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 Edilson Aparecido Chaves and Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia The ‘Scramble for Africa’ in German and English History Textbooks: Politics of Memory During Decolonization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 Lars Müller Fostering Historical Thinking with Textbooks. A Case Study of Tasks in Austrian History Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376 Christoph Bramann Being a History Teacher: Handbooks for Teachers Produced in Brazil Between 1984–2014 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396 Osvaldo Júnior Rodrigues and Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia An Analysis of French Teachers’ Digital Resources Production: From Personal Resources to Formal Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 Georges-Louis Baron and Solène Zablot Learning Resources and Massive Open Online Courses–What’s Going On? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 René Boyer Christiansen

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The History of Textbook in the Library Fund of INDIRE . . . . . . . . . . . 424 Alessandra Anichini Edu.Data – Textbook Systems Worldwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Anna-Lea Beckmann Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Textbook as a Medium: Impulses from Media Studies for Research on Teaching Materials and Textbooks in Educational Sciences Zuzana Sikorová1(&) and Péter Bagoly-Simó2 1

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University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic [email protected] Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Abstract. The rise of digital media questioned traditional definitions of the textbook construct. This chapter aims to explore the options that contemporary findings from the field of media studies offer to understand the substance of a textbook and, concurrently, to illuminate the concept of a textbook from the perspective of educational science. The main questions addressed are how a textbook operates as a medium at present, what its unique and typical features are, and if the change in technologies also means the change in medium, i.e., if educational texts in digital form can be regarded as textbooks. First, typical features of current media – transmediality, hybridization, and remix culture – are described in how they manifest themselves in textbooks and other learning resources. Second, with the help of the affordance concept, the primary quality of the textbook is explained and argued that the textbook construct goes beyond material carriers, symbolic systems, or techniques of distribution. Third, in the quest to capture the substance of the textbook as a medium, Lorenz Engell’ theory of three media layers was applied. The detailed analysis based on the textbook concept operating between the objectif layer, dispositif layer, and symbolic form showed, among others, that a textbook as a medium could exist in a printed, digital, or hybrid form and that its substance stays the same regardless of the technology. Keywords: Textbook culture


Medium
Transmediality
Hybridization
Remix

1 The Concept of a Textbook and Contemporary Problems with Its Definition When Johnsen (1993) defined a textbook in one of the seminal monographs published in the field, he pointed out a certain inconsistency in the international terminology and that the notion of the textbook is neither exact nor stable. In his reading, this inconsistency originates, on the one hand, in both the multifaceted and versatile nature of the textbook and, on the other hand, in the variety of disciplines dedicated to textbook research. Nevertheless, prior to the 1990s, there was a certain consensus among researchers on what can be considered a textbook. Many experts (among others © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 1–22, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_1

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Westbury 1994 and Průcha 1998) defined the textbook as a pedagogical text that serves as a source of information and ideas, a curriculum project, and a basic tool for teaching and learning. Nowadays, the situation is much more complicated. Everybody who deals with curricular resources, pedagogical materials, textbooks, and other text and image materials faces the fact that the number and variety of these materials, as well as their forms used in classrooms, increased exponentially. This variety includes a range of textbooks – printed and electronic – published by renowned publishing houses and created by expert teams of authors, as well as digital materials made by teachers themselves and third-party material more or less randomly found online with the help of a search engine, such as tests, animations, presentations or images. In addition, there is a shift in paradigm from the traditional instruction-based teaching towards approaches that target students’ activity in practice (e.g., constructivism, progressivism, inquiry-based learning), which changes the role of textbooks and other materials. Wikman and Horsley (2012, p. 46), two important researchers in the field, add: Textbook research gives reason to use the concept of ‘textbook’ with considerable care and caution. Varying educational traditions, contexts and settings load the concept with different meanings and offer sometimes different and competing discourses. […] Many definitions encompass a primary conceptualisation that textbooks are texts produced for educational use within educational institutions like schools. They are also considered to be ‘adapted’ texts that convey a special form of approach to knowledge. This discourse provides some frames for the concept of ‘textbook’, but the meaning of ‘textbook’ can be considered elusive and can only be considered in relation to very highly articulated contexts. The transition to digital media questions traditional definitions of textbooks.

Eckhardt Fuchs (2011, p. 17), current director of the influential German institution for international textbook research, Georg-Eckert-Institut/Leibniz-Institut für internationale Schulbuchforschung, considers textbook research to be “[…] something of a chimera. While over the last forty years the textbook has become the subject of scientific analyses, with diverse methodological approaches and disciplinary contexts, it is still far from becoming a clearly defined object for research.” Therefore, according to Fuchs (2011, p. 17), it would be more correct to speak of “[…] textbook-related research rather than textbook research, the former existing in a wealth of diverse forms, yet in the absence of a common denominator for individual research projects.” In essence, many authors avoid defining the concept of a textbook or a pedagogical/didactic text. While this chapter is not yet another attempt to define the textbook, we agreed on a working definition. In our reading, the educational construct of a textbook is a didactic text, i.e., a text intended for didactic communication in education and, therefore, didactically transformed exhibiting five main characteristics. First, the textbook primarily serves as means to organize the curriculum and as a tool for teaching and learning used in situations of formal education. Second, it is a complex structure that can consist of many parts and exists in a printed, digital, and hybrid (combined) form. Third, textbooks include various structural elements of verbal and iconic nature, especially interpretive texts, elements directing students’ learning (especially exercises, and an orientation/navigation apparatus). Fourth, a textbook is professionally designed, created, and published. Fifth, professional institutions, such as publishing houses, public or state institutions (e.g., research institutes, ministries, professional [teacher] associations, universities) edit and publish textbooks.

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Experts working on textbooks agree that the research of textbooks and teaching and learning resources is strongly under-theorized, which may result – among other things – from the above-mentioned problems. Along with educational science, myriad disciplines, such as linguistics, sociology, cognitive sciences, psychology, media studies, and others contribute to research on textbooks and educational texts. The view that textbooks are educational media along with the rise of digital technologies led to an intensive participation of educational technology experts in textbook studies. These colleagues mainly work with terms such as educational objects, digital teaching material, sometimes also electronic textbooks, and digital textbooks. The terminology, however, is yet to become stable and consistent. This also applies to the definition of the concept of educational media, both from the field of information and communication technology as well as from education or media studies. Nevertheless, we believe that media studies (or media science) can significantly help educational research in the conceptualization of a textbook. The main aim of this chapter, therefore, is to explore the options contemporary findings from the field of media studies offer to understand the substance of a textbook and, concurrently, to illuminate the concept of a textbook from the perspective of educational science. We are particularly interested in the following questions: (1) How does a textbook work as a medium in these days and what are its unique and typical features? (2) Does the change of technology entering education induce a change of media? In other words, is the textbook still timely or can/will other media replace it? Can educational texts in digital form be regarded as textbooks? (3) Should both versions be considered to be textbooks, what is the difference between learning from printed and digital texts? Does the form of a textbook have an impact on the process and outcomes of students learning?

2 Contemporary Media and Transmediality In general, media are regarded as means or tools used to store or transfer information. They are one of the means or channels of communication in society. The MerriamWebster Dictionary defines one of the meanings of the term medium as “[…] a means of effecting or conveying something” or as “[…] a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment” (Medium 2018, w.p.). In the reading of Chromý (2011, p. 65), “[a] medium is one of the means of communication which serves as a materially energetic carrier of signs containing information”. In professional discourse, the concept is traditionally linked to specialized institutions serving as workplace, such as print media, photography, advertisement, television broadcasting, publishing, etc. The term also refers to the cultural and material products these institutions release. Some of these are the distinct forms and genres of news, road movies, soap operas (which took the material forms of newspapers), paperback books, movies, tapes, and discs (Lister et al. 2009). Media studies (or media science) is a field of study which examines the content, development, and impact of media, their social and cultural importance, and also “[…] the wider processes through

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which information and representations [the ‘content’] of ‘the media’ were distributed, received and consumed by audiences” (Lister et al. 2009, p. 9). According to Lister et al. (2009), the phenomenon of trans-mediality challenges this traditional definition as it materializes as clearly defined borders between media genres fade, hybrid texts emerge, media experience a growing hybridization, the distinction between users, producers, and consumers of a media content dilute, and economic rules in the field evolve (e.g., a new network of small minority markets replaces mass media markets). Quick and constant technological innovations along with complex interactions between technological possibilities and established media formats serve as drivers of this process.

3 The Relationship Between Media and Technologies New technologies are no longer a random, rarely seen element, but an integral part of our daily lives. In our culture, they are not marginal, but a commonplace element, as the whole culture is based on technologies. As Lister et al. (2009, p. XV) pointed out, “[…] all culture is technological”. While this situation disquiets many people, just as many are enthusiastic. Their enthusiasm manifests, for instance, in an uncritical celebration and support of new media, their implementation in the public and private sector, as well as a strong belief that they hold to key to many contemporary challenges (e.g., in education). Concerning educational media and textbooks, it is crucial to point out that they are no only pedagogical elements but also subjects of extensive business and tools for political influence. However, the increasing penetration of technologies to all spheres of our lives does not equate to them determining culture in a predictive and absolute way. Thereby, the essential fact is that media cannot be reduced to technologies, they are “fully social institutions” (Lister et al. 2009, p. 9). While technologies may provide many possibilities, not all of them are used. In the context of media research in general and in textbook research in particular, some scholars use the concept of affordances (Lister et al. 2009; Hiller 2012; Remillard et al. 2012). In our reading, affordances is a useful concept not only for media use, but particularly for textbooks. “Affordances […] refers to the perceived and actual properties of [a] thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used. […] A chair affords (‘is for’) support, and, therefore, affords sitting. A chair can also be carried. Glass is for seeing through, and for breaking” (Norman 2002, p. 9). Affordance is an original concept coined by the psychologist James J. Gibson in the 1960s. It is derived from the verb afford, which means to make available, give forth, or provide. Gibson’s (1979, p. 127) widely known definition illustrates the concept using an example from animal life: The affordances of the environment are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes, either for good or ill. The verb to afford is found in the dictionary, the noun affordance is not. I have made it up. I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment.

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Technologies, however, cannot be viewed only with regard to cultural meanings and social application given their material and physical properties (Lister et al. 2009, p. 14). The physical nature and construction of a certain technology supports or suppresses certain ways and purposes of its use and functioning. Summing up, acknowledging that individual media technologies can be used in many ways, some of which are dominant and some marginal, due to reasons which can be cultural, social, economic, political, but also technological, is one the important ways how to understand what a medium is. From the point of view of the theory of educational media in general and the definition of the concept of the (digital) textbook in particular, the distinction between medium and technology is crucial. Is a printed textbook a different medium than a digital/electronic textbook? Can a teaching and learning material in a digital form be called a textbook? Does the substance of a textbook as a medium stay the same if the technology changes (i.e., printing vs. digital form)? If the technology used changes, does the substance as a medium change at the time when the printed textbook is converted into portable document (or any other digital) format? Is it justifiable to call a digital textbook a textbook? Across the international community of experts dealing with teaching and learning resources, there is no prevailing terminology. Publications in English and German often use the concepts textbook or Schulbuch for both printed and digital versions. Some authors, however, exclude all digital formats from the definition of a textbook. One possible explanation for this conservative decision links back to linguistics. Unlike other languages, both the English and the German concept textbook contains the compound book – a direct reference to a book. At the same time, the majority of authors who presented empirical research comparing the usage and effects of printed vs. digital/electronic materials referred to the form of a textbook or material. We believe that the main characteristics, i.e., the potential of a textbook as an affordance, are clear: a textbook as a medium, source, material, text intended to support student learning – it exists to support student learning. Digital textbooks may provide other opportunities for learning for other types of learning. While the substance of printed and digital textbooks is the same, the question remains whether their potentiality is used and if so, in which ways.

4 Two Paradigms: Do Media Determine Culture/Society or Are They Determined by Culture? The massive arrival of new technology during the 1960s flared up an essential discussion in media studies that is of fundamental importance for grasping the role of a textbook/teaching and learning resource at present. The discussion gravitates around two different paradigms, two opposing epistemological approaches to media research. Thereby, the central question is whether media technologies have the power to transform culture and society, whether media or technology determines culture, or whether they are determined by culture. The main opposing arguments rest on the work published by media theorists Marshall McLuhan and Raymond Williams during the 1960s and 1970s.

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Marshall McLuhan not only coined concepts, such as the global village, he also introduced – among others – the aphorism the medium is the message. In recent years, his original views have experienced a renaissance and he has significant and influential adherents. McLuhan’s approach is sometimes called the technological determinism (Lister et al. 2009). He did not distinguish between a medium and technology, and he strongly underestimated the importance of the content media communicate. The aphorism the medium is the message highlights the thought that the medium is essential, while the content is irrelevant. More precisely, McLuhan (1967, p. 8) argues that distinguishing between content and medium seems an unreasonable thing to do: “Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which men communicate than by the content of the communication.” It is the very nature of media that determines their usage, human intention (producer’s or user’s intention) has nothing to do with it. For five centuries, the culture of a printed book determined society. Letterpress printing and the prevailing rational, linear thinking – based on cause-effect relations – had a significant impact on the social order. Williams, on the other hand, claimed that media cannot be reduced to technologies. Technologies alone cannot bring about changes, as, on the one hand, it is impossible to separate them from the ways they are used, and, on the other hand, they are created on the basis of human intention and activity. This concept, thus, may be considered as part of the humanistic stream of thought (Lister et al. 2009). In social groups, intentions are created in order to satisfy a need or interest, and these interests are specific both in historical and social terms. Media can influence culture only through existing social processes and structures, and, therefore, they will reproduce existing patterns of use and basically maintain existing power relations. Behind all fast technological changes that we witness, there are rational and manipulative interests which direct the use of technology in certain directions. It is often implicit for Williams that “[…] a medium is a particular use of a technology; a harnessing of a technology to an intention or purpose to communicate or express” (Lister et al. 2009, p. 88). With his insightful and systematic works, Williams basically laid the foundations of media studies as an academic discipline. He outlined the theory of media as a form of cultural production and determined the direction of scholarly thinking in the mainstream of media studies (Lister et al. 2009). Nonetheless, adhering completely to Williams’ approach by viewing media solely as social and cultural phenomena would be short-sighted. If we reduced technologies to mere tools people used, we would leave the technology itself unconsidered and only focus on its use (i.e., what are the purposes of technology use and what determines these purposes). It is necessary to separate the technology itself from its usage. However, when information and communication technologies became part of our environment, they became environmental and they interconnected with networks. As it became impossible to localize them, their material basis is also challenging to isolate. As Lister et al. (2009) remind us, McLuhan already pointed out this environmental character of technology. At the same time, it is not possible to reject McLuhan’s ideas concerning the influence of technology on society: technologies have their own power and effects that cannot be reduced to their social usage.

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Many contemporary theorists in the field of media regard the dualism of either culture/society or technology as outdated. Media and society develop in a coevolutionary manner; they go through the same development during which they adapt to one another (cf. Giesecke 2005).

5 Hybridization of Media Many theorists in the field of media claim that we live in an era of the system of hybrid media (Chadwick 2017). According to a pragmatic, yet very apt definition by the Business Times, hybrid media mean “[…] the strategic use of traditional and new media to communicate your message in a more effective way” (Jones 2011, para. 1). This applies both to business and a classroom. The development over the last decades and the expansion of new media led to a state which Benkler (2006) called the hybrid media ecology, an environment that has distinctive characteristics and rules. It essentially means that, on the one hand, we cannot completely dismiss old media and replace them with new ones. On the other hand, it means that the environment of traditional or new media is too limited to examine and explain the functioning, role, and impact of media. When researching the use and effects of media, it is important to integrate the research concerning traditional and new media and propose holistic approaches which will take into consideration the fact that differences between the two types of media may have limited importance. It is also necessary to study innovated media – traditional media that adapted and integrated the logic of newer media (Chadwick 2017). The hybrid media system is based on interactions between the logic of traditional and newer media, where logic is defined as “[…] bundles of technologies, genres, norms, behaviors and organizational forms – in the reflectively connected social fields of media and politics” (Chadwick 2017, p. xi). Even though Chadwick (2017) examines hybrid media systems in politics, similar methods may be useful for educational media studies as well. One of the typical features of a hybrid environment is an ongoing differentiation between linearity and liquidity, between straightforwardness and changeability of media use. Media industries push, “[…] on the one hand, to rationalize their production through relying on formulas, franchises, and other premarketed material and on the other, to insure audience engagement through innovative, flexible, and expressive goods and services” (Jenkins and Deuze 2008, p. 8). An example of linearity in cultural production can be a series of films about James Bond, other parts of a soap-opera, new variations of a favorite video game or a new edition of a printed textbook already tested in practice. The liquid differentiation occurs when media companies create completely new, ground-breaking products, which use, for instance, hybrid genres, transmedia strategies and others. An example from the field of educational media is a textbook in form of a comic book. The interesting thing is that the same companies and often the same experts are involved in the creation of both types of media products. These dialectic processes are characterized by the fact that media companies support standardization as well as innovation in this way (Jenkins and Deuze 2008, p. 8). As for the current development of textbooks, publishing houses very often create various types of

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textbooks ranging from an ongoing production of (traditional) printed educational texts to printed textbooks complemented by CDs or DVDs (most typical), to digital versions of textbooks (e.g., in portable document format), or purely digital, interactive, and multimedia textbooks (with different versions of the same text). During the second half of the 1990s, the moving-image culture underwent a fundamental but inconspicuous change, which Manovich (2007) called the invisible revolution, and which gradually spread to other media. Media that traditionally was clearly separated (cinematography, graphics, photography, animation, and typography) began to be combined and intertwined in various ways. The results are multifaceted. While some media stands next to each other in juxtaposition, others are connected in a way that blurs their borders. Nevertheless, they always appear in one shared framework (copresence). The convergence of media, their production and usage, is a bidirectional process, assisted from top to bottom (from producers to users) as well as from bottom to top (from users to producers): Media companies are learning how to accelerate the flow of media content across delivery channels to expand revenue opportunities, broaden markets and reinforce consumer loyalties and commitments. Users are learning how to master these different media technologies to bring the flow of media more fully under their control and to interact (and co-create) with other users. Sometimes, these two forces reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding, relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes the two forces conflict, resulting in constant renegotiations of power between these competing pressures on the new media ecology (Jenkins and Deuze 2008, p. 6).

In education, the convergence of media is most visible in blended learning settings that combine approaches of a direct face-to-face learning and e-learning. Thereby, the convergence of different textbook formats is very typical with the production of printed paper textbooks in decline and a rise of hybrid texts using printing along with digital means – especially CDs, DVDs, links to websites, etc. The tendency to use media in linear as well as in a liquid way, and the typical convergence of media mean that today’s digital culture can be characterized as a remix culture or a culture of remixing. A remix in music means a transformation of the original music recording leading to a new record that differs from the original sound. The original recording can be enriched with other music elements, rearranged, supplemented with natural sounds, looped, mixed from two or several different original pieces, etc. Nowadays, people retrieve information from various kinds of sources, subsequently remix them only to share them with others on a common platform. As users increasingly become producers, authors, and creators of new media messages, they use the modularity of new media for this purpose. Modularity is not a requirement for remixing but a great advantage. A typical example of remixing are Wikipedia articles. As for educational resources, teachers develop teaching and learning materials mostly based on remixing. Apart from the professional production by publishing houses specializing in textbooks and other educational materials, there is also a big amount of materials created and shared by users themselves. In the Czech context, digital learning materials (DLMs) are best-known. Teachers design – mainly using the methodological portal rvp.cz – DLMs of various extent, level, and quality. Editors of the rvp.cz (as of 2019) portal characterize the materials in a broad way: “Digital

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learning materials are available in a digital form; they can be used in teaching without any further adjustments. They are mainly worksheets, presentations, audio and video recordings. It is expected that they will be linked with particular educational outputs in the framework educational programmes.” At present (2019), there are over 10,000 materials available. The portal supports the culture of remixing and modularity by publishing shared digital learning aids, such as smaller electronic objects (pictures, maps, videos, audio recordings, etc.), for the design of digital learning materials.

6 Three Layers of Mediality Understanding the role of a textbook as a medium requires a detailed examination of the theoretical substance of media effects. The concept of media coined by a leading German theorist of media, Lorenz Engell can be useful in this endeavor. Engell’s (1998) concept is based on overcoming the traditional dichotomy between technologies and culture, and it is oriented towards the media effects and impacts. As we explained above, with the philosophical postmodernism and technological digitalization, the borders between culture and technology become blurred. A growing range of media displays, which are connected with differentiated and diverse communication ways of the circulation of meaning, accompany this social movement (Zirkulationsweisen von Sinn; Engell 1998). Engell (1998) defined three oscillating layers of mediality (cf. Fig. 1) enabling the contact between the technical logic of purpose (Zwecklogik) and cultural logic of meaning (Sinnlogik). According to him, a medium is a unity (synthesis) of differences; it exists, affects, functions, operates where media layers intersect and a united force field of a medium ermines and operates. 1. The first layer is the objectif layer. Every medium is linked to a particular real object, thing, machine (e.g., a film to a camera, a video game to a DVD, a printed book to a printing press and paper). In addition, this layer includes institutions that surround these objects (e.g., factories, movie theaters, offices). This layer also reflects the obvious purpose of a medium, especially common technical functions of media, such as sending, receiving, storing, and transmitting information. 2. The second layer is the dispositif layer. It includes conditional structures and circumstances that occur when using a medium. Every medium has conditions of its usage and a context of reception. Media have power effects; they impose certain game rules on users, which further influence media users’ perception and actions. Therefore, conditional structures can be understood as conscious or unintentional rules, which occur when using media. 3. The symbolic form is the third media layer, which expresses how media can reshape people’s individual semantic schemes, and, thus, influence their attitude to the world. Every medium enables the user a cognitive access to the world using certain symbolic forms, and, in essence, an individual creation of meanings and knowledge

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Fig. 1. Media force fields according to Lorenz Engell. (source: Treutler 2006, p. 27, amended).

The dispositif layer is essential in clarifying the role and function of media. Michel Foucault used the concept dispositif in relation with the discourse analysis to examine historical forms of the relationship between power and knowledge. As Šubrt and Balon (2010, p. 140) point out, “[i]f discourses connect individual utterances according to certain formal rules, dispositifs then represent power strategic connections of discourses and practices, i.e., knowledge and power”. Foucault (2008, p. 119–120) views the dispositif as a heterogeneous set of elements of discursive and non-discursive character: [an] ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, […] regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions […]. The apparatus itself is the system of relations that can be established between these elements. […] [what] I am trying to identify in this apparatus is precisely the nature of the connection […] I understand by the term ‘apparatus’ a sort of – shall we say – formation which has as its major function at a given historical moment that of responding to an urgent need. The apparatus thus has a dominant strategic function.

The effect of the dispositif is limited by space and time and bound by the fact that its rules will be followed and institutions used. At the same time, individual elements can be part of several dispositifs. The system which connects the elements of the dispositif can be viewed as a raster for decision-making, which forms and directs people’s opinions. The objectif layer is rooted in the logic of the purpose of technology, the symbolic form in the logic of the meaning of culture and the dispositif layer stands between them (Hiller 2012). Engell’s concept represents, in our reading, a suitable framework for the examination of the substance and status of a textbook in current school education. In particular, we focus on the dispositif layer, which is tied to media use and the relationship between knowledge and power. An inspiration and source of many interesting thoughts during this contemplation was Hiller’s (2012) book Das Schulbuch zwischen Internet und Bildungspolitik. Unlike Hiller (2012) who defined the textbook as a

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printed book, we argue that the substance of a textbook as a medium is not bound to the letterpress printing technology, but has a hybrid character at present. Textbooks, in our view, can exist as printed artifacts, in a hybrid form combing traditional and digital technologies, and also as exclusively digital products. The following section contains the analysis of a textbook according to Lorenz Engell’s concept of media, which will enable us to grasp the specificities of this medium. During this reflection, we also explore the question whether differences in technology necessarily mean different media.

7 Specifics of the Textbook as Medium 7.1

The Objectif Layer – The Context of a Product, Technologies: Connected with the Logic of Purpose

Technological characteristics of a textbook as a medium will probably be the most debatable point related to the question whether printed, digital, or hybrid textbooks are one and the same medium. The differences between forms are most prominent here. A printed textbook as a paper book is bound to the letterpress printing technology. As an object, it has certain characteristics. Its content is closed, it means it is fixed and can be updated only by a relatively money-demanding process of making a new edition (Hiller 2012). This closedness also means that an alteration according to user’s needs (e.g., font type or size) is impossible. It is a static medium that uses various forms of a text (verbal, iconic). Books are also heavy, which is an important argument especially when taking children into consideration. Books can get damaged or lost. Should the need to complete them with other sources (e.g., dictionaries, encyclopedia or just pictures) arise, this information is sometimes difficult to access and not at hand. On the other hand, access to any technology is not always mandatory. The use of a printed textbook is not bound to the use of any device, source of electricity or Internet connection. They are easy to use and feature rather simple instructions (e.g., go to page 56). Textbooks generally are relatively durable objects used repeatedly by different users over years. They can also be sold, lent, archived in a library, and digitized entirely or in part. The advantage of digital textbooks is primarily the easy access. Possession of the appropriate device grants access to them from anywhere. Digital textbooks cannot be lost or damaged physically, except for their deletion. They are bound to the hardware (computers, tablets, smartphones, readers, etc.). Multimedia elements digital textbooks feature are interactive and enable an easy access to additional sources. In addition, they can be updated easily. Students can also adapt the graphical and typographical appearance to a certain extent according to their needs. Unlike printed textbooks, digital textbooks are great for carrying and storing information, as a whole range of textbooks for all subjects for a given grade can be saved on one device or accessed online. On the other hand, Internet access is almost always a requirement. Students are required to have a good Internet access not only at school, but also at home. Additionally, they often must own relatively expensive and quite fragile mobile devices. Technical problems with devices may force the teacher to change spontaneously the

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planned lesson. Teaching students how to use the devices and understand the digital textbooks also takes time. Especially small children and students with special needs may encounter difficulties when using these devices. Some parents who are used to printed sources and are unfamiliar with digital textbooks may lack the necessary skills to use these devices. In addition, a digital textbook exhibits some limitations due to its licensing. Most digital textbooks cannot be transferred, may have a limited license (usage time or page numbers), are difficult or impossible to sell or lend (except with the device, in some cases), and copying and printing are usually forbidden or restricted to a small number of pages/content elements. After having mentioned advantages and disadvantages of both types of technologies, it is important to mention that, currently, the most frequently used textbooks are probably hybrid textbooks consisting of a printed book enriched with additional digital materials on a CD, DVD, or extra materials available online (as links to the webpage of the publishing house or stored in their cloud). There is currently little verified empirical research on the usage of hybrid resources, particularly on how they interact with other resources used in teaching and learning and what the specific role of the textbook is. Nonetheless, there are significant indications that the function of traditional, professionally created textbooks shifts from the (sole) source of knowledge towards a coordinating, integrating and legitimizing role. The objectif layer, the second to be discussed here, is connected to the logic of purpose. What is the main purpose of a textbook? What is the gain when thinking about textbook affordances (see above) in terms of the characteristics or features defining the possible use of a textbook or which show how a textbook can or should be used? Textbooks are meant to create opportunities for student learning – more precisely, to assist students learn the content presented in them with the finality of developing various features of their personality. This is the main purpose and meaning of the existence of printed, digital, and hybrid textbooks, regardless of the technology they use. Institutionally, textbooks as media are firmly anchored in publishing houses, where they are created, in schools, where they are used, in educational offices, such as ministries of education, where rules governing their use are decided. The development of textbooks is a highly professional activity, which includes teams of experts working on the final product. In the majority of developed countries, publishing houses operating on a commercial basis take over this role. However, other institutions, such as the state administration (e.g., in South Korea), non-profit organizations (see open educational resources), and education institutions themselves – especially universities, but also primary and secondary schools – may also take over this role. Teaching and learning materials for vocational subjects are a good example as quite often secondary school teachers themselves author them given that textbooks for their subjects are unavailable due to the small markets they represent. Publishing houses often tend to be reluctant to enter such fragmented markets, especially in small countries, such as the Czech Republic or the Baltic countries. Textbooks are both intended for and primarily used at schools. Nevertheless, students also use their textbooks at home to prepare for instruction and do homework. Within the education policy, state authorities responsible for education, such as ministries of education, set frameworks for the textbook usage.

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The school systems of most developed countries code the concept of education in society and societal expectations in the formal planned curriculum included in school documents. Textbooks are a means to explicitly express these expectations. Thus, we are approaching another media layer, which is connected to the use of textbooks and to the relationship between knowledge and power. 7.2

Dispositif layer – The Context of Usage: Between the Technical Logic of Purpose and the Cultural Logic of Meaning

According to Foucault (2008), dispositifs can be viewed as strategies of relations of forces supporting and supported by types of knowledge. As Hiller (2012, p. 168) explains, “[…] textbooks represent an authorized approach to fields of study and influence knowledge acquisition of their users, they also influence their attitudes, values and norms. They create their own power structures because, on the one hand, they organize the teaching process, and, on the other hand, they direct acquisition of knowledge of various fields”. Textbooks as media have power effects, which are evident during their usage: they impose certain game rules on users which further influence their perception and behavior. Textbooks, by their purpose, are directly intended for teachers’ teaching and students’ learning at school. “They are […] directly linked to the context of teaching processes, they serve to ensure success in learning, and, most importantly, they direct the teaching discourse through teachers” (Hiller 2012, p. 175). The use of textbooks in teaching involves specific methods – it is ritualized and habitualized. The medium of a textbook is used in certain places (schools, classrooms), in certain situations (for instance when a teacher encourages students), and in a certain way (usually following the instructions the teacher provides). Both textbook types – printed and digital – fulfill common functions of media by storing and carrying certain contents and making them available to their users. These contents are not random as authors have to respect certain rules of education policy. Based on the curricular conception which prevails in a given society, a canon of a given culture determines the content of textbooks. This canon encompasses – among others – values of a given society and their reflection in science and art, but also the citizens' needs in the current information society (e.g., key competences) and the current and future employers’ needs. The content of textbooks is primarily based on content originating from science and art disciplines that becomes the curricular content through an ontodidactic transformation. The process of ontodidactic transformation involves a selection and organization of the content from individual fields into a formal planned curriculum and/or educational standards. Through the psychodidactic transformation, the curriculum contents become learning contents, a subject matter, on the level of the implemented curriculum. Janík et al. (2009) argue that the psychodidactic competence mainly rests on the adaptation of the curricular content to students’ level of development, their abilities, and experience. Both teachers and textbook authors carry out this process as one of the key functions of a textbook is the transformation function, which is based on the psychodidactic transformation of curricular contents. Textbooks are pedagogical/didactic texts intended for the pedagogical communication in education.

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Educational standards, educational programs, and other curricular documents are, on the one hand, often very general and very little operationalized. In consequence, specific activities through which students can acquire the curricular content remain unspecified. On the other hand, the content of textbooks includes implicit models of teaching as a process and also explicit patterns inducing activities in teaching using certain structural elements, such as exercises and tests. Thus, a textbook represents a potentially implemented curriculum (Valverde et al. 2002) that provides teachers with operationalized elements for classroom teaching. In essence, teachers very often use the textbooks despite their primary target audience being students. Textbook authors carry out the selection, organization, and psychodidactic transformation of educational content into textbook content. While these processes may seem random, an institutional framework sets a rigid corset that limits authors’ choices. In some countries (e.g., Hungary), designated state institutions design and develop textbooks. In other countries, commercially created textbooks are subjected to an approval procedure by a central or local authority. This is the case of several German federal states. However, even in the least centralized systems, where the decisionmaking powers regarding textbook selection rest in the hands of schools and teachers, authors are obliged to follow the educational – and even more, the curricular – policy framework. The selection and development of textbook content has to reflect the formal curriculum to a certain extent so that teachers and students who will work with them can achieve the aims of school education. The methodological concept implemented into the textbook content and the way the textbook directs students’ learning has to imply or explicitly offer teaching strategies, which are both accessible to and acceptable for teachers. They need to be in accordance with their approach to teaching or at least close to it, feasible in teaching now and here, in a given socio-cultural and historical context. Society legitimizes textbook content both directly (through approval processes) and indirectly (through its teachers). As Hiller (2012) aptly points out, textbook content is a publicly accepted framework for the analysis and interpretation of reality. In a situation where teachers use resources of various origins and quality for lesson preparation, teaching, and student work, textbooks legitimize special content and forms of knowledge. Practice proves that some teachers create teaching materials based on randomly chosen online resources and share them with their students. These can be videos found on YouTube which they assume to appeal to their students but whose content does not have to reflect current knowledge of a given field. Similarly, students write papers and study at home with the help of materials found using online search engines that are of arguable quality. These assumptions, however, are yet to be verified by empirical research, as there is very limited empirical evidence to date in the field. Nonetheless, on the one hand, the variety of resources can provide a plurality of approaches and opinions. On the other hand, the intended, implemented, and achieved curriculum is pervaded by content which can include misconceptions, mistakes or intentional manipulation with opinions. In this situation, an authorized and legitimized resource in form of a textbook is more than useful. Theoretical and empirical research on the authority of textbooks looks back on a long tradition that started in the late 1980s and early 1990s the latest (cf. Luke et al. 1989; Johnsen 1993; Stray 1994; Kalmus 2004). Among other things, scholars were

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interested in the sources of textbook authority. If authority is to be understood as “socially-approved use of power” (Shepard and Greene 2003, p. 22), power effects of textbooks are derived from their status of a socially approved, institutionally accepted text. Olson (1989) concluded that the authority of textbooks comes from the text itself, from its specific linguistic structures and impersonal character (suppression of the author) and refers to the role of books in our culture, which makes it the final authority in disputable matters. Examining Olson’s arguments thoroughly from the perspective of the current status of a book in the world of the Internet and social networks seems like a fruitful endeavor. Contrary to Olson, Luke et al. (1989, p. 250) argue that sources of the authority of a textbook are related to the difference between the text per se and the text in use, or more precisely, “[…] the text in use in the rule-bound classroom” and it is influenced by factors related to teaching as an institutionalized process. Their main argument is the situation of a text. Firstly, every text connected to a certain field of study or practice necessarily presupposes references to this very field or area. Secondly, textbooks base their authority on interaction methods related to the use of a textbook text in teaching and for teaching. Both create historical and contemporary context of a text. Accepting this argument means that technology becomes secondary: the authority of textbooks will manifest itself in their use of any form. Certain empirical evidence proves the power effects of textbooks that are manifested during their use. The 1990s mark the beginning of extensive studies focusing on the use of textbooks and other educational media (Zahorik 1991; Sigurgeirsson 1992; Sosniak and Stodolsky 1993; Fan and Kaeley 1998; Haggarty and Pepin 2002; DeCesare 2007; as for more recent ones Kong and Shi 2009; Hill and Charalambous 2012; Remillard et al. 2012; Janík et al. 2014; Stará and Krčmářová 2014). The most important variabales proved to be intercultural differences between individual countries, school subjects, and teachers’ style of using textbooks. However, the majority of researchers concluded that textbooks influenced teaching, especially its content. Many studies confirmed at least a partial impact of textbooks on teachers’ teaching strategies (for more details see Červenková 2010; Sikorová 2010). 7.3

The Layer of the Symbolic Form – The Cognitive Context

In connection with the media layer of the dispositif, we dealt with conditional structures, circumstances which are related to the use of textbook media and also how textbooks impose certain rules on users while using them. This applies to authors, school officers, teachers, but especially students. This subsection will focus on the third layer, which expresses how media can transform users’ individual semantic schemata and, thus, influence their attitude to the world. Through certain symbolic forms, every medium enables a user the cognitive access to the world (Engell 1998) and, in consequence, also an individual formation of meanings and knowledge. This applies to textbooks even more. From the perspective of affordances, textbooks primarily exist and are used to mediate knowledge to students and enable them the access to the world. As Hiller (2012) argues, they can be regarded as a concrete formation of a cultural memory of a nation and serve as tools for the direction of the canon and discourse for the education policy. Their essential and unique trait is the formative intention. Contrary to media, which we use in our free

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time, textbooks aim to mediate knowledge to students with individual development’s perspective (Höhne 2005). Textbook content serves as means to develop students’ personalities both in cognitive and affective terms. Curriculum contained in textbooks, however, includes both specialized knowledge, facts, and concepts and other curricular elements which intentionally lead to the development of cognitive operations, communication, and other skills, competences, and attitudes. The textbook as a medium is very well adapted for this purpose. It includes, on the one hand, symbolic linguistic elements in form of a written language and/or musical, mathematic, computer, and other notation systems. On the other hand, it features iconic elements of two types. Pictorial iconic elements are, among others, drawings, photos, films, and animations. Dramatic iconic elements include maps, diagrams, charts, etc. (Hansen 2018). Besides the apparatus of curriculum, a textbook also contains an apparatus directing learning and another apparatus facilitating orientation in a text. It also includes structural elements, such as tasks, questions, tests, opportunities to practice, revise, diagnose. In essence, it assists content learning through its macrostructure and microstructure of individual chapters. The whole textbook conception is adapted to achieve the goal of facilitated student learning. On the one hand, it is adapted to the age and presupposed abilities of a model user (student). On the other hand, it contains linguistic, graphical, typographical, and other means which support learning (for instance illustrations, diagrams, chapter summaries, advance organizers, signal words, frames, various types of fonts, color differentiation, and – in digital materials – interactivity and variability of a text). All these means serve to make textbook content well arranged, comprehensible, easy to read, and interesting. Thanks to the fact that the research on textbooks viewed the textbooks as products for decades, we have a relatively clear idea about a textbook as an object, artifact – especially about the textbook structure, its elements and functions. Nevertheless, from the pedagogical perspective, little is known about the functioning of structural elements inherent to digital teaching resources, such as animation, interactive elements, hypertext and others. As already mentioned, there is at least some empirical evidence related to the use of textbooks. However, we know very little about the way textbooks influence students, whether or how they specifically contribute to their learning, and how they influence the development of their thinking and attitudes. As for the textbook as a medium, the situation is more complicated because a student’s relation to a textbook is not direct, but mediated by a teacher. Teaching methods determine a practical context within which the reading and interpretation of the text happens. We also know that teachers transform the textbook text further in a psychodidactic way by reconstructing it to suit their students’ needs. The majority of teachers modifies a text from a textbook in different ways. For example, they select essential content, shorten, clarify, skip some parts, make it more understandable or interesting (Průcha 1998; Sikorová 2002; Sikorová 2010). Some authors derive the influence of textbooks on teaching from the rate of their usage in teaching as well as lesson planning, which is a necessary, but certainly not the sole condition. Several studies done since the 1990s (e.g., Tulip and Cook 1993; Nicol and Crespo 2006; DeCesare 2007; Sikorová 2010; Červenková 2010) confirm that textbooks primarily influence teaching content, especially the choice of topics, their order, breadth and depth, and sometimes they do so to a large extent. Some results showed that textbooks

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also influenced teachers’ teaching strategies when they mediate given content (cf. Sigurgeirson 1992; Tulip and Cook 1993; Fan and Kaeley 1998). Sosniak and Stodolsky (1993), on the other hand, argue that the influence of textbooks is not as clear-cut. Nevertheless, the majority of these studies derive the influence of textbooks indirectly and did not examine a direct influence on learning processes and results of students’ learning. The situation has radically changed with the rise of new technologies. An essential question emerged: Does learning from a printed text differ from learning from a digital text? Many studies compare the impact of a printed and digital format on students’ learning. Some studies examined whether the differences in technology lead to differences in learning (cf. Eden and Eshet-Alkalai 2013; Mangen et al. 2013; Margolin et al. 2013; Rockinson-Szapkiw et al. 2013; Singer and Alexander 2017a; Stoop et al. 2013). The results of empirical studies, however, are very heterogenous and often come to contradictory conclusions and provoke lively debates. Singer and Alexander (2017b) did a meta-analysis of empirical research focusing on reading from printed and digital text published since 1992. A general statement about higher effectiveness of learning or text comprehension from one or the other format is, however, impossible. The diverging results from these pieces of research are partly connected to methodology. Essential aspects seem to be the definition of the concepts of reading or reading digitally and the way comprehension and reading is measured. The analysis also highlighted that important factors that influence results are the length and type of a text (for instance, it seems that we understand texts in a paper form better) and individual differences between readers (besides memory and academic skills, there is also our knowledge of vocabulary and whether the text deals with a familiar topic). The type and level of comprehension is yet another important factor. For example, differences in format are not significant when asking about larger subjects and more general things, such as the key theme of a text. However, when it comes to more specific or detailed questions, readers react significantly better if they studied a printed text. This is related to another factor and it is the nature of tasks given to respondents and the way they are communicated. The factors also influence each other. For example, when beginner readers (children aged 5 to 6 years) read simple texts, the form does not have a significant influence on comprehension. However, for secondary-school readers who read more complex texts, differences were evident. It seems that they read digital texts faster but less thoroughly. A digital device from which we read can also play a role: frequent scrolling of a text leads to worse comprehension.

8 Conclusions This chapter aimed to contribute to the (re)conceptualization of the textbook construct – one of the main concepts in the field of educational media research that experienced challenges during the transition to digital media. Against the background of current findings in the field of media studies, we approached the textbook as a medium, described its features, and characterized how it operates as a medium. The issue of the substance of a textbook is closely linked to a question vigorously discussed by researchers into educational media and teaching and

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learning resources: Does the change in technologies entering education also mean the change in medium? Can didactic texts in a digital form be regarded as textbooks? If we accepted the premise that a textbook can exist in a digital form, another question arises: Can the form of a textbook influence the process and outcomes of students’ learning? The new findings media studies produce are located in a setting of transmediality. In other words, sharp lines between media genres and forms disappear and media hybridize. Research on media requires a perspective that is based on hybrid media ecologies – an environment which has its own distinctive characteristics and principles. The system of hybrid media rests on interactions between the logic of old and new media and it is distinguished by the tendency to use media both in a linear and fluid way. When doing research on teaching and learning resources, it is also necessary to note that current digital culture not only manifests as a culture of remix and remixing but the differences between the producer, user, and consumer of the media content become blurred. It means that besides typical printed textbooks, workbooks, teacher’s books, and traditional additional resources designed for teaching and learning purposes, such as dictionaries, songbooks, atlases, spelling rules, books with physical and chemical tables, and educational films, we encounter and will increasingly encounter various combinations of the above-mentioned and many other resources in the printed, digital, and hybrid form. The culture of remixing brings a large number of texts into schools that teachers themselves create, re-create, and share. These resources can complement textbooks or replace traditional educational media. What role does a textbook play in this situation? The main feature – potentiality in the sense of affordance – is clear: it is a medium, source, material, text aimed to support students’ learning and, thus, to support teachers’ teaching. Its raison d’être is to offer support when providing opportunities for teaching and learning. Digital/electronic textbooks may provide different opportunities, maybe for a different kind of teaching and learning, but the question remains whether and how the potentialities of the same substance are used. Even though the physical nature and construction of certain technology supports, or suppresses, certain ways and purposes of its usage and functioning, we believe that the concept of a medium goes beyond material carriers, symbolic systems or techniques of distribution. In other words, media cannot be reduced to technologies. On its quest to capture the substance of the textbook as a medium, this chapter rests on the concept of medium according to Lorenz Engell (1998). According to Engell (1998), each medium exists and operates at the intersection of three media layers. The objectif layer is connected with the technological logic of purpose. Textbooks are designed to create opportunities for students’ learning, more precisely, to help students master their content based on which they can develop various features of their personalities. We argue that – regardless the technologies they use – this is the main purpose of the existence of printed, digital, and hybrid textbooks. The dispositif layer is linked to the context of usage. Textbooks as media have power effects, which are manifested during their usage. They also impose certain rules on users, which further influence their perception and actions. The usage of textbooks in teaching and learning presents specific procedures and is ritualized and habitualized. Textbook content is not random, as authors have to respect certain rules of the education policy, the explicit or implicit concept of a curriculum, and the models of usage.

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The transformation of the curriculum into textbook content that textbook authors carry out is not a random process but strongly influenced by the institutional framework. Society, either directly through approval processes or indirectly through its teachers, legitimizes the content of textbooks, where the source of authority lies mainly the situatedness of the text. Firstly, every text related to a certain field or area of experience necessarily presupposes references to this field or area. Secondly, textbooks base their authority on interaction procedures tied to the usage of a textbook text in teaching and learning and for teaching and learning, which follow given rules. Both create historical and current context and power effects of textbooks, which are manifested during their usage. From this point of view, a textbook can be characterized as a means for the explicit expression of societal expectations concerning educational institutions. The layer of the symbolic form is connected to the cultural knowledge of cognition. An essential and unique trait of textbooks is their formative intention. Contrary to media which we use in our spare time, the aim of textbooks is to mediate knowledge to students with the perspective of individual development. A textbook as a medium is well-adapted for this purpose; through its typical structural components, it can fulfill many functions in teaching and learning: informative, transformative, managing, controlling, motivational, coordinative, integrative, and others. Another issue concerns the ways both offer and usage of individual functions change, especially concerning changes in the conception of teaching and learning. The specificity of the textbook medium concerning the symbolic layer of cognition is based on the fact that students’ relation to a textbook text is not direct but mediated by a teacher. Teachers transform, modify, and reconstruct the textbook text for the needs of their students. The teaching methods they use, determine the practical context of text reception and intepretation. Using the theory of three layers of mediality, we sought to show that a textbook as a medium can exist in a printed, digital, or hybrid form and that its substance stays the same regardless of the technology its production rests on. Textbooks fulfill many functions; their role is many-sided, both in relation to teachers, students, and parents as well as to society. However, it is crucial to become aware of the role textbooks play in the support of students’ learning. At present, research needs to provide quality empirical evidence on the impact of how textbooks and other teaching and learning resources influence the processes and outcomes of students’ learning.

References Y. Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2006) I. Červenková, (Žák a učebnice: užívání učebnic na 2. stupni základních škol. [Student and Textbook: Textbook Use in Lower Secondary Schools] (Ostravská univerzita, Ostrava, 2010) A. Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017) J. Chromý, Materiální didaktické prostředky v informační společnosti (2011). http://www. extrasystem.com/9788087570494.pdf M. DeCesare, A textbook approach to teaching: structural uniformity among American high school sociology courses. Am. Sociol. 38(2), 178–190 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12108-007-9007-9

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Colombia’s Social and Political Conflict in Primary School Textbooks on Social Sciences: Narrative and Historical Representation (2003–2013) Miguel Ángel Gómez Mendoza(&), Luisa Fernanda Duque Gómez, and María Victoria Alzate Piedrahita Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Pereira, Colombia [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter presents the way social science textbooks for grades 3– 5 introduce the didactic transposition of the social and political conflict that characterizes the Colombian society. Qualitative analysis served to evaluate textbooks published between 2003–2013. The first step consisted of the review and analytical study of a specialized document corpus on the Colombian ‘conflict’. The second step focused on the evaluation of the textbooks. Lastly, step three consisted of hermeneutical content analysis to map frequency and meaning connotations. This chapter specifically aims to present a state of the art on the conflict in Colombia through the review of a specialized corpus on a set of studies conducted by different Foundations (NGOs), reports on the conflict published by the National Center of Historical Memory and three reports on violence and conflict in Colombia, in order to establish a categorization of the historical, political, economic, and cultural items of the so-called Colombian ‘conflict’. This is all related to the knowledge that is going to be taught using Colombian school textbooks on social sciences, which were taken as a reference of the process of didactic transposition. Keywords: Conflict Colombia


School textbook
Social sciences
Narratives


1 Introduction In so far as school is a place related to culture, both knowledge and values, school textbooks contain and express representations of the culture that is to be transmitted and they are supposed to represent a selection of the issues that a social group considers fundamental, which are to be taught and learned. In the same way, they include indications as to the nature, construction, and value of knowledge, offering ways to acquire it. According to Alzate et al. (2000), these claims are controversial, because a school textbook is generally and traditionally considered to only present information; however, this perspective needs to be made clear.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 23–34, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_2

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Beyond their traditional representation, contemporary textbooks experienced recent development and transformation in terms of reading, readability, and structure in order to meet the needs of responding or corresponding in a contingent way to modernity and its cultural tendencies of access to information and new ways of reading texts and images that students experience. In this sense, the content of school textbooks is considered to be structurally organized in stages and adapted to the basic knowledge that students are supposed to acquire; this contains references from the outside world. The basic implicit idea in most textbooks is that this is not made to create or provide advanced knowledge, but to present some knowledge that was already learned. This transformation implies a problem that involves delimitation, selection and reformulation of knowledge. Based on research on social representations (Alzate et al. 2000) and the concept of didactic transposition (Chevallard 1991), the school textbook is believed to present a reformulated knowledge (from specialized scientific consensus, i.e., the academic knowledge), which is to be appropriated and contextualized by the teacher and students (concerning the knowledge to be taught). This is the correspondence that is intended to be established in this chapter based on the analytical categories of social representations of the Colombian conflict, within the framework of national specialized documents and school textbooks on social sciences in primary education. It seems necessary to show how the categories being used by the Colombian conflict analysts (especially historians, anthropologists, political scientists) are reflected, adopted or transposed in the country’s school textbooks on social sciences for primary education. It is an exercise of didactic transposition: transformations that specialized academic knowledge exhibits in school knowledge. Social science textbooks are a kind of autobiography of states and nations. They account for the interpretation of the past that a society wants to convey to future generations. Unlike other historiographical products, school textbooks are supported by a broad social consensus. This turns them into a seismograph of the state of mind, or at least big sectors of society–and of the conflicts they are involved in and how they are assumed and solved. Such textbooks are fascinating primary sources for scientific study and contemporary political instruments. Thus, school textbooks, as objects of study, are part of the historical research and show conceptions of social development with their expected results. Given their structure and design, school textbooks might appear to inevitably coagulate knowledge, introducing it as unique and not controversial. However, the teacher and the textbook link different types of academic knowledge that circulates in different research fields in a particular academic discipline at a given moment in history. This contact is made through two mechanisms: (1) The translation of knowledge made by teachers according to working conditions; and (2) the organization of that knowledge in didactic procedures in the same textbook. This discourse device is called didactic transposition, giving rise to the transformation of academic knowledge by instances of the noosphere into knowledge that can be taught. Chevallard (1991; quoted by Alzate et al. 2000), considers that the didactic transposition emerges from the needs of education. This means that a new reorganization, some logical connections, and some ways of presenting knowledge produced by scientific communities are performed based on the school textbook.

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Therefore, this chapter is based on the perspective represented in a specialized sample as part of the academic knowledge in relation to the knowledge that is to be taught in the school context of textbooks. In this case, the sample encompasses, on the one hand, Colombian primary school social science textbooks, and on the other hand, scientific documents produced on the Colombian conflict. Each of the found representations constitutes a scientific source that gives rise to shared collective visions of a referred social object to “[…] facilitate communication between members of the same socio-cultural context” (Alzate 2003, p. 120). The Colombian conflict is the common denominator of all representation discussed in this chapter project.

2 How Can the Colombian Conflict Be Defined? To begin with, different sources name alternative starting points of the conflict. Some authors analyzed the conflict since the 1920s; others did so beginning with the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s. This shows, from the outset, the different approaches to and understandings of the origins of the conflict. While some explanations emphasize economic dynamics, others focus on political ones. Researchers talk about the relationship between conflict and the modernization process in Colombia. These approaches analyze, for example, how, at some point in time, the social conflict that is inherent to the political system became an armed conflict. In this sense, the subversive response (guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia–FARC) is considered to be one possible response on how the existing order attacks the existence of social subversion. Authors, such as Moncayo and Pizarro (2015) describe the Colombian conflict as mainly political in nature in which democratic logics and political regimes enter a dialogue. The weakness of the state over the years and its inability to be present in the Colombian territory are issues that, for some people, have had a strong influence on both the emergence and the length of the conflict. In this perspective, Colombia is considered to have had great disadvantages when facing the transition from dictatorship to democracy and from war to peace; especially a weak state and a weak army. Sánchez and Machado (2013) along with other social scientists refer to agricultural issues, the state-building process, international interference, and limited modernization processes when discussing the conflict. In this regard, the construction of the state based on violence and state terrorism, and the weakness of the political regime and parties were both the main cause and enduring factors of the internal conflict. However, other authors (e.g. Sánchez and Peñaranda 2012) believe that the causes themselves are not enough to understand and analyze the Colombian conflict. Among others, drug trafficking is a powerful factor influencing the political economy generated by illegal activities, such as drug tafficking and mining operations. Another factor being analyzed is the interference of the United States of America in the history of Colombia and the conflict. Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris (2013) supports this perspective and believes that the relationship between the interference of this foreign country, counterinsurgency, and state terrorism bare special importance.

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Regarding this last issue, the criminalization of society has prevented the consolidation of an alternative political project and has reinforced the creation of internal enemies. The weakness of Colombian democracy also requires further exploration. Consequently, the Colombian conflict and its continuation in time have occurred due to the inability to recognize that democracy entails uncertainty. From the beginning, the denial of this uncertainty has prevented the perception of others as adversaries that must be respected, as mentioned before. Regarding the consequences of the Colombian conflict, there are different explanations. Beyond recognizing the victimization of Colombian society, the analyses manage to include other issues that are extremely important for an eventual postconflict scenario. For supporters of this perspective, the strengthening of an economic model that has made this country very unequal in the world is one of the most important impacts (cf. Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris 2013). Another issue associated with the conflict is the moral and legal deregulation in the Colombian society over the past decades, which has been transmitted to the ruling class and to the institutions; thus, one of the main challenges is the institutional design that is going to take place in the future. In this sense, it is important to reflect on the importance of recognizing that the responsibilities are collective but differentiated, as well as the need to remake the future politics in Colombia. Being aware of all these perspectives enriches the understanding of the conflict and how an end to the Colombian armed conflict will be perceived (Moncayo and Pizarro 2015).

3 Method and Sample Based on the aforementioned issues, this chapter focuses on the underlying representations that were found in the process of didactic transposition based on the translation of academic knowledge and its transformation into pedagogic knowledge proposed in the contents of the school textbooks. Data collection and analysis rested on two sub-samples. On the one hand, qualitative content analysis served to analyze the iconographic and discursive content on conflict in Colombian social science textbooks. On the other hand, specialized literature consisting of three types of documents happened. This corpus consisted of three reports on violence in Colombia, the conflict conducted by the National Center Of Historical Memory, and a set of specialized studies. These two sets of sample allowed establishing a typology and categorization of historical, political, economic, and cultural issues related to the so-called Colombian conflict. Categories were obtained in three steps: (1) review and analysis of the specialized document corpus on the Colombian conflict; (2) analysis of the selected Colombian social science textbooks; (3) qualitative approach to identify frequency and meaning connotations by hermeneutical content analysis.

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4 Perspectives and Representations of the Conflict in School Textbooks The presentation of the results on the Colombian conflict follows the sub-samples. This approach enables the discussion of different viewpoints on a conflict that has lasted for more then half a century. To go into detail with the results on the representations, a conceptual synthesis will be made in each of the obtained insights. The concepts of the conflict are not a reduction of the viewpoints identified in the corpus. They are a synthesis based on a juxtaposition of research results and representations encountered in primary school textbooks. The most recent synthesis document on the Colombian conflict is coordinated by Moncayo and Pizarro (2015). The report contains 14 essays authored by experts. According to Moncayo and Pizarro (2015, p. 5), this report is “[…] an essential input for understanding the complexity of the conflict and the responsibilities of those who have participated or had an impact on it, in order to clarify the truth”. The fourteen narrative visions featured in the report follow five basic and general criteria that were formulated as questions: (1) When did the Colombian conflict begin? (2) What are its root causes? (3) Why the counterinsurgency as a State policy? (4) Is the conflict fair? What is the role of drug trafficking? (5) Was the National Front useful? Academic research on the conflict found that Colombian NGOs allude to a social order in search of solutions to the conflict as a national effort particularly sensitive to the issue of child victims, and stressing the distinctiveness of armed groups operating outside the law. Table 1 depicts the conflict in the view of NGOs. Table 1. The conflict in the view of NGOs (source: authors). Specialized corpus Publications by Colombian NGOs (Ideas para la paz; Nuevo Arco Iris; FESCOL; Seguridad y Democracia)

Colombian conflict defined The Colombian conflict is understood as a longterm phenomenon having specific impact on different sectors, such as the industry, trade unions, and population–especially child victims, who have been involved in the dynamics of violence. Although it is assumed that the conflict requires the quest for solutions, the NGOs have opposite viewpoints. On the one hand, they have a specific view on the rapprochement between guerrillas, government, and international organizations to raise political spaces for dialog and negotiation. On the other hand, through the armed attack on the guerrillas, so that they become weak, the peace talks are to lead to a certain failure. NGOs have assumed that the conflict involves knowing both the reality of the illegal armed groups, as well as the victims, so that national policies that pave the way to a post-conflict context could be implemented

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For knowledge to become school content–for example as part of textbook content– it needs to undergo a certain process of modification. As a result, this altered knowledge will serve educational objectives instead of research purposes. Observing this process is one essential field of analysis as it unveils both how knowledge is decontextualized in its context of production, and how it is to be re-contextualized in a given school context. In light of the model of didactic transposition (Chevallard 1991), every content element is subject to transformation and selection of contents to be addressed. For this process, it is crucial to observe discourse correspondences on the conflict between the academic knowledge set up by the academic documents provided by national NGOs and the knowledge to be featured in school textbooks. Table 2 contains a few examples of categories on the representation of social organization as identified in both sub-samples. Table 2. Representation of the social organization (source: authors). Comparative category

Discourse example of specialized corpus Discourse example in school textbooks from NGOs

Finding solutions to “In 2009, through the National the conflict Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, based in the Department of Bolivar, a reconciliation process is commenced in Los Montes de Maria, El Canal del Dique and Cartagena de Índias, creating opportunities for reflection and analysis in the context of peaceful coexistence. Thus, victims, perpetrators, public and private institutions have participated, in order to generate social practices aimed at reconciliation” (Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris 2012, p. 25) Dynamics of armed “All armed groups involved in the groups operating Colombian conflict have used antioutside the law personnel mines for different purposes, since they constitute a defensive and secure area of territory and resources” (Fundación Seguridad y Democracia 2006, p. 125) Victims of the “All children, as victims, should equally Colombian conflict be treated, so that they can obtain benefits and protection, independently of the group that has recruited or used them” (Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris 2013, p. 95)

“The Colombian government has some major challenges; it must can develop a proposal for peace in which all citizens freely participate, reducing social inequality, preventing forced displacement, improving living conditions of citizens, and increasing technological and industrial development in the country” (Prahl et al. 2008, p. 220)

“Armed outlaw groups: illegal military groups organized to commit actions against society, the government, the army and the police” (Chaustre and Pulido 2003, p. 139)

“In Colombia, a large number of children belongs to the most vulnerable population that has been hit by violence in our country. Due to this, many displaced children and their families end up living in big cities where they become involved in crime and begging” (Benítez Páez and Barragán Bernal 2003, p. 70)

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Regarding the representation of social organization, the above examples display a certain similarity between the perspectives of NGOs as centers of independent thought and school textbooks. The similarity lies in the nature of the conflict referring to organizational approaches on social entities mainly interested in helping to solve it. In doing so, academic and pedagogical knowledge share both the language used to communicate ideas and the intention behind information communication to recipients/users. The aim of the entire process of didactic transmission is to emphasize success, continuity, and synthesis (Alzate et al. 2007). A process of knowledge classification enables the presentation of such a positive image to students, namely the omission of ever unsuccessful research project and endeavor. Similarly, the process of teaching is set out to be continuous. Interruptions and time required for research remain unconsidered, as the process of teaching is the historical transmission of successful research projects (Alzate et al. 2007, p. 25). Lastly, synthesis refers to an economy of depiction where intensive research phases are considered to be matter of detail. In consequence, addressing the concept of conflict requires the selection and transformation of the relevant aspects of the story and their impact to be addressed in school. Table 3 introduces yet another view in line with those described above. Table 3. Concept of conflict according to the National Center for Historical Memory (source: authors). Corpus, specialized documents Recent reports from the National Center for Historical Memory

Concept of the Colombian conflict The armed conflict in Colombia, which is also considered violent and long-lasting, is the combination of accumulated structural problems and past conflicts on which the national logic of war and the strategic decisions of each armed actor are inserted. In a context of conflict, many foci of analysis are possible; these foci come from some particular situations in different scenarios of the territory. It is in this territory where actors (perpetrators, victims, the State, people who have not been affected, those who have demobilized), and events that can trigger a violent dynamics meet, so that a specific vision can be imposed. Overcoming a post-conflict condition depends on a joint solution from the nation itself, based on the reconstruction of a historical memory of what has happened

The National Center for Historical Memory uses a concept that reflects a network of components leading to the Colombian conflict. Some of the outlined events lead back to the past. However, they continue to be important to victims and certain territories. Along these lines, the Center issues reports that aim at rebuilding cases that relate massacres, forced displacement, resistance, land disputes, and territory control by different armed forces. In doing so, the Center gives voice to myriad perspectives that leads to the plurality of memories of a censored truth.

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Within the framework of didactic transposition, the distinct approach followed by the National Center for Historical Memory enables a correspondence between the academic and the pedagogic knowledge. Its strength lies in the multitude of discourses interpreted by individuals under different circumstances. For the primary school setting, students receive a broader context in addition to their textbook that enables them to access the Colombian conflict in a broader way. Table 4 presents some examples of historical memory in this reading. Table 4. Representation of historical memory (source: authors). Comparative category Violent dynamics of the conflict

Discourse example from specialized corpus by the CNHM “The armed conflict causes displacement of entire families; they want to avoid forced recruitment or being killed. They do not want family members to enroll the armed group as an option to earn money and gain power” (Sánchez et al. 2011, p. 27)

Scenarios of the conflict

“Dispossessing land from those who illegally took possession of it and from front men, so that landowners can be restituted their land; this is also a deep change in the understanding and management of the armed conflict” (Sánchez and Matchado 2013, p. 122) Consequences for the victims of the conflict, “[…] the memory of the Cauca indigenous people is reconstructed, based on their political participation and their survival in the displacement and massacres. Their struggle is concentrated in three demands: land unit, unity of cultures, and autonomy” (Sánchez and Peñaranda 2012, p. 72)

Consequences for the victims of the conflict

Discourse example in school textbooks “Another structural problem of the Colombian society is the continuation and escalation of violence in recent decades with such crimes as blackmail, kidnapping, terrorism, and towns being seized by guerrillas and paramilitaries” (Barbosa 2011, p. 170) “Abandoned rural areas by farmers due to violent raids by armed groups outside the law” (Melo et al. 2003, p. 111)

“Displacement caused the disappearance of the cultural traditions of many indigenous groups and afro-descendants; when they left their ancestral lands, they spread out and severed family ties” (Buitrago Piñeros et al. 2013, p. 167)

The examples presented in Table 4 show a variety of different ways leading to the construction of the historical memory of human groups affected by the conflict. This encounter with the past thrives for acceptance on the grounds of particular cases occurred to victims and not within a normative national history supported by government agencies. Adopting such perspectives and being confronted with the facts reveals alternative views of the conflict. They are particularly useful in school as they help students to understand, in more detail, the circumstances affecting individuals. Overall, the aim is reconciliation and those involved in the conflict should agree on the stories.

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There is a case where an internal conflict is shown, which has sought to be understood not only by academics in terms of academic knowledge. It also became interesting for the process of education due to its relevance and impact on history. Scholarly work specialized on the conflict is rich and encompasses both studies advancing the theoretical discussion and empirical projects. In consequence, scholarly work represents a solid ground awaiting implementation into formal education to discuss the longevity and duration of the Colombian conflict. However, along with its duration, the conflict also bears a deeply historical aspect. Table 5 offers an overview of concept of conflict based on the analysis of reports. Table 5. The concept of conflict in historical reports (source: authors). Specialized Corpus Key reports on the Colombian conflict (published in 1962, 1987 and 2013)

Concept of the Colombian conflict From an academic perspective, the conflict in Colombia is considered to be a complex issue which is permanently evolving. In 1962, the conflict was conceived as “[…] a social process that takes place when two or more parties try to impose exclusive values […] within a context where positions and resources are scarce in order to influence the behavior of groups and determine the direction of social change” (Moncayo and Pizarro 2015, p. 25). In a 1987 report, at a time where the conflict was considered to be a social problem, this was stimulated by multiple inequalities which usually tend to be solved by means of violence, contrary to what might normally be done using unarmed channels. In 2013, based on the dimensions of violence, the armed conflict in Colombia is recognized to be one of the bloodiest in modern history of Latin America, with different leaders and victims. All three reports conclude that is necessary to take actions and search for solutions to the conflict and violent issues in the country

Contemporary society is shaped by concurrent processes. On the one hand, our societies are shaped by globalization, multi-ethnicity, and voluntary or forced integration–processes that reach beyond national borders establishing new representations and sense of belonging to societies or groups thereof. On the other hand, we also witness the compensatory process of nation building where history serves as the main argument and an important tool of legitimacy in order to understand, explain, and resolve such conflicts as the one in Colombia. Therefore, it is important to dedicate attention to history itself, as told in both historical representation and social science school content (Table 6).

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M. Á. G. Mendoza et al. Table 6. Historical representations (source: authors).

Comparative category Historical background on the conflict

Conflict defined

Discourse example from specialized corpus from key reports When the conflict uses violence in order to reach a rational goal or when it appeals to the common good, it is said to be in a stage characterized by its goals (e.g. between 1930 and 1932; this is the time when the ruling parties, in their opinion, claimed the right to impose their ideas, so that Colombia would become a better country, without going through the next stage, which is more destructive). However, when physical coercion is exceeded towards aggression, hatred, political opposition, and destruction, there is a stage of open conflict (in Colombia, this climax was reached between 1950–1953 and 1956– 1958). This latter type of conflict is what is generically referred to as violence in Colombia; this is technically different from the classic violence (Guzmán et al. 1962, p. 25) “Based on the evidence in Colombia, the conflict can be defined as a social process that takes place when two or more parties try to impose particular values within positions and resources that are scarce in order to influence the behavior of groups and determine the direction of social change” (Guzmán et al. 1962, p. 409)

Discourse example in school textbooks “The death of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan generated the crudest stage of violence in the country; this caused such serious consequences as the fires in the main public buildings in Bogota; formation of the communist guerrillas, supported by the Liberal Party, and the paramilitary groups supported by the government; farmers lost their land; poverty, social breakdown, and anarchy” (Barbosa 2011, p. 164)

“Over 60 years ago, Colombia has been involved in an irregular conflict, in which various groups outside the law (guerrillas, paramilitaries and local self-defense groups) face each other or the security forces” (Moreno 2006, p. 22)

The historic representation undergoes during the process of didactic transposition a certain reduction from academic knowledge to school content. During this process, certain events receive special attention and are considered to be of key importance for the development of a conflict originating in social issue and leading to the massive emergence of guerrillas.

5 Conclusions School textbooks are one of the media that contain in a materialized way the socially remembered and shared knowledge. As pointed out by Alzate et al. (2000), textbooks are a cultural medium providing students with tales and featuring certain social

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representations. These representations stand for education authorities’ interpretations of reality perceived by them–unconsciously–as socially learned. Therefore, it is of great importance to uncover the underlying social representation structure to reveal how narrators cognitively mediate events that occur and the values they bring in with the finality of achieving better judgment. The better understand the Colombian conflict, the content of primary social science textbooks published between 2003 and 2013 was juxtaposed with academic knowledge. The reorganization of knowledge featured in school textbooks starts with its production in the scientific setting. Social representations evolve and change during history. Although there are similarities between academic and pedagogic knowledge, the latter only entails parts of the former. For example, the action framework of guerrilla fighters acting as perpetrators is missing from textbooks. Similarly, little information is given on visions concerning the shared effort in achieving the post-conflict stagger on the impact of the conflict on Colombia and its international relations. It remains an open question whether and to what extent teachers are able and motivated to teach a history of controversial conflicts. Nevertheless, primary social studies textbooks published between 2003 and 2013 introduce different academic discourses concerning the representations of social organization, the reconstruction of the historical memory, and the history of the entire conflict. In doing so, several textbooks feature one or several academic perspectives and also amend them as part of content revision over time. Research on the issue of representation in primary school textbooks is very important as they play a crucial role both in students socialization and the construction of their identity. Regarding the specific case of the Colombian conflict, Lozada (2007, p. 387) stresses that “[…] in conflict situations, social representations are an important tool in understanding the psychosocial mechanisms involved in the construction of the other”. Thus, the conflict can be viewed as a collectively shared image based on structured social representations or determined by knowledge that is resistent to change.

References M.V. Alzate, Infancia: Concepciones y Perspectivas (Papiro, Pereira, 2003) M.V. Alzate, M. Gómez, F. Romero, Representaciones Sociales de La Familia En Los Textos Escolares de Ciencias Sociales En La Educación Básica Primaria Colombiana. 1960–1999 (Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira-Colciencias, Pereira, 2000) M.V. Alzate, C.L. Lanza, M. Gómez, Usos de Los Libros de Texto Escolar: Actividades, Funciones y Dispositivos Didáctico (Postergraph, Pereira, 2007) A. Barbosa, Ciudadanos Competentes 5 (Educar, Bogota, 2011) L. Benítez Páez, F. Barragán Bernal, Herramientas Sociales 4 (Santillana, Bogota, 2003) C.A. Buitrago Piñeros, M.Á. Pulido Albarracín, O.V. Maraboli Salazar, Los Caminos Del Saber, Sociales 5 (Santillana, Bogota, 2013) Á. Chaustre, Ó. Pulido, Identidades 4 (Norma, Bogota, 2003) Y. Chevallard, La Transposición Didáctica. Del Saber Sabio al Saber Enseñado (Aique, Buenos Aires, 1991)

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Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, Secando el Llanto Que no Quisimos. Memorias de un Proceso de Reconciliación (2012). http://www.arcoiris.com.co/2012/06/secando-el-llanto-que-noquisimos-memorias-de-un-proceso-de-reconciliacion/ Corporación Nuevo Arco Iris, 12° Informe Anual del Secretario General Sobre Los Niños y los Conflictos Armados (2013). https://www.arcoiris.com.co/2013/06/12-o-informe-anual-delsecretario-general-sobre-los-ninos-y-los-conflictos-armados/ Fundación Seguridad y Democracia, Conflicto y Minas Antipersonal en Colombia (2006). http:// www.acnur.org/t3/uploads/media/1726.pdf?view=1 M. Guzmán, O. Fals, E. Umaña, La Violencia En Colombia: Estudio de Un Proceso Social (Ediciones Tercer Mundo, Bogota, 1962) R. Lozada, Las Elecciones de 2006 En Colombia. Una Mirada Desde La Reforma Política de 2003 (Editorial Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, 2007) V. Melo, O. Feo, A. Chaustre, I. Pulido, Identidades 5 (Norma, Bogota, 2003) V. Moncayo, E. Pizarro, Contribución al Entendimiento del Conflict Armado en Colombia. Historical Commission of the Conflict and Its Victims (CHCV) (2015). http://www.humanas. unal.edu.co/observapazyconflicto/files/5714/6911/9376/Version_final_informes_CHCV.pdf M. Moreno, Nueva Ciencias Sociales 3 (Grupo Editorial Educar, Bogota, 2006) A. Prahl et al., Aprendo Ciencias Sociales 3 (Ediciones SM, Bogota, 2008) G.G. Sánchez, A.C. Machado, La Política de Reforma Agraria y Tierras en Colombia. Esbozo de una Memoria Institucional (2013). http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/ informes2013/agraria/politica-agraria-tierras.pdf G.G. Sánchez, D.R. Peñaranda, Nuestra Vida ha Sido Nuestra Lucha. Resistencia y Memoria en el Cauca Indígena (2012). http://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/ informes2012/cauca.pdf G.G. Sánchez, M.N. Bello Albarracín, J.A. Cancimance López, L.M. Díaz Melo, V. Melo Moreno, La Masacre de El Tigre. 9 de Enero de 1999. Reconstrucción de la Memoria Histórica en el Valle del Guamuéz, Putumayo (2011). http://www.centrodememoriahistorica. gov.co/descargas/informes2011/informe_el_tigre.pdf

Textbooks for Rural Schools: Conflict Between Norms and School Practices Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia1(&), Edilaine Aparecida Vieira2, and Roseli Borowicc3 1

Programa de Pós Graduação em Educação/Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas, Universidade Federal do Paraná/CNPq, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected] 2 Escola de Ensino Médio Paulo Freire; NPPD/UFPR, Abelardo Luz, Brazil [email protected] 3 Escola Básica Municipal José Maria (SC); NPPD/UFPR, Abelardo Luz, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter aims to analyze elements of the National Textbook Program for rural schools (PNLD Campo), which was created by the Brazilian Government with the specific purpose of distributing textbooks to the student population of schools located in rural areas. Commercial publishers produced the textbooks in accordance with the requirements established by the Federal Ministry of Education. The Ministry also determines their editorial, curricular, didactical, and methodological characteristics by means of Public Notice releases. The central issue discussed in this study is the government project of offering different textbooks to rural and urban schools. The empirical study encompassed two stages. In the first phase, we analyzed official documents, which regulate and organize the PNLD Campo program (Notice and Guideline), verifying the characteristics of the textbooks designated for rural students and comparing them to the legal orientations and to the characteristics of the textbooks designated for urban schools. In the second phase, a survey was conducted with teachers who work at the schools of an Agrarian Reform Settlement, whose pedagogical orientation is enacted along with the educational principles of the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). The results unpack various mismatches between the conceptions of Rural Education and Countryside Education existing in the organization of the schools, textbooks, and official documents. They also suggest how these tensions affect the selection and use the textbooks by the teachers. Keywords: Textbooks


Rural schools
PNLD Campo
Brazil

1 Research Context In order to understand the background of this paper, it is necessary to elaborate on the concept of Rural Schools in Brazil. Although being a country based on the primary sector (agriculture), it was only in the 1930s that Rural Education was consolidated with a specific objective. As a result of a movement called Pedagogic Ruralism, the defense of a particular way of organizing schools in rural areas started to gain power, as did the realization of the need to define specific contents and methods for teaching. The © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 35–46, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_3

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main goal of this movement was to create conditions to help keep the population in the rural areas, avoiding the huge migration to the cities that had already been occurring over the course of the two previous decades. Over the twentieth century, the curriculum proposal was based on the Brazilian project of social and economic development known as an industrial urban model. Its objective was to “[…] foster a social and economic development project for rural workers, conceived by big business, […] a tool for the reproduction of the dominant values in society, which are the urban values” (Gritti 2003, p. 151). It is because of this that the concept of a Rural School in Brazil was constructed based on the idea of the countryside as a non-developed place, with a population deprived of culture in need of education to join the process of industrial development. An ongoing debate since 1990 focused on the use of the concept Rural School and aimed at proposing a new model of rural schools “[…] with a political-pedagogical project linked to the causes, challenges, dreams, history, and culture of the working people from the countryside” (Fernandes et al. 2004, p. 27). This new concept is related to the idea of the countryside as a place that also produces life, and is not solely exploited for profit. This new approach is called Countryside Education (in Portuguese, Educação do Campo, which differs from Rural Education) and it aims at developing schools in rural areas with an educational model that is formulated by the countryside workers and their organizations, assisted by public policies, but guided by the social interests of the communities who live in the rural areas. This educational model should incorporate elements of the work, culture, and knowledge of these groups, acknowledging their social struggle and the clash between different projects for humanistic formation (Caldart et al. 2012). Therefore, public policies have started to consider a set of features for the countryside schools in the last decades, especially after the beginning of the Workers’ Party (PT) mandate, so as to meet the claims being put forward by different social movements, on particular the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). One of the actions developed was the creation of a program for the distribution of textbooks to the countryside schools. Since 1985, there is a National Textbook Program (Programa Nacional do Livro Didático, PNLD) in Brazil, which distributes free textbooks for all subjects, to all students enrolled in basic education (which corresponds to primary, lower, and upper secondary schools) at public schools (about 50 million students). As a substantial action of this Program, since the 1990s the textbooks have been evaluated by committees of experts and teachers in charge of evaluating the quality of the textbooks considering the criteria established by the Ministry of Education. Every three years, teachers from each phase of basic education select the textbooks that will be used in their classrooms. Commercial publishers must conform to the criteria if they wish to participate with their textbooks in the Program. The textbooks must be submitted for evaluation every three years. If approved, the titles are included in a Textbook Guide for each educational level and for each school subject. The guide contains the results of the evaluation on the collections that teachers can choose from. The criteria cover the following: content, teaching methodology, graphic design and quality, and citizenship construction. There are eliminatory and classificatory criteria since 1997. The Textbooks Guide, aiming to guide their choice of titles, also discloses these criteria to public school teachers. Those criteria apply to all school subjects and include manifestations of

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prejudice, conceptual mistakes, and the mismatch between the methodology declared by the author in the teacher’s book and the content of the student’s book (Garcia 2011). As a result of this evaluation policy, textbook quality has increased over the last two decades. We would particularly like to stress the aspects, First, nowadays, prejudices and stereotypes are less recurrent. Second, there is more coherence between the methodology declared by the author in the teacher’s book and the content of the student book. Third, conceptual mistakes became less frequent. The evaluation process rests, therefore, on criteria that are made public. As a result, commercial publishers can access the evaluation results of their products and can amend their rejected textbooks accordingly. Rejected and amended textbooks can be handed in within the next evaluation process. In 2011, the Federal Government created PNLD Campo. This program provides rural schools with particular books that are different from the ones distributed to schools located in urban areas (Vieira 2013; Vieira and Garcia 2013; Vieira and Garcia 2014). The new government action was proposed to meet the claims of the Countryside Education Movement, especially the criticism expressed by this group concerning another program aimed at the rural areas, called Active School. This program was created based on a Colombian model and aimed at developing teacher education activities and distributing didactic materials in schools located in rural areas. Both social movements and researchers passed strong criticism on the quality of the distributed materials. The media also pointed out mistakes and challenges. Hence, PNLD Campo was produced in a field of tensions and conflicts. The popular government of the Workers Party (PT) reacted to the demands of the social movement by providing better material and better education to the rural communities. This paper presents selected results of the empirical study aiming to understand some effects of the National Textbook Program on schools located in rural areas. The main purpose was to identify conflicts that might have been generated when the educational proposals were converted into school practice. Along these lines, we followed two objectives: on the one hand, to analyze the PNLD Campo from the perspective of legal documents, discussing their relationship with the conceptual proposals for Countryside Education, and, on the other hand, to examine the textbook selection process by teachers from schools located in an Agrarian Reform Settlement, verifying if their choices are based on the conceptual proposals for Countryside Education.

2 Methodological Procedure The empirical portion of the research presented in this chapter involved nine teachers working in public schools in an Agrarian Reform Settlement in the state of Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil. These teachers worked in four schools in this settlement and only the teachers who taught grade 1–5 participated in the research. Two institutions were multi-grade schools encompassing kindergarten and the first five years of the elementary school, each with approximately 15 students. In these small schools, teachers generally taught simultaneously several grades. The two other schools also offered kindergarten and full elementary (grades 1–9) education for 800 students. In this case, teachers generally taught one group of a specific grade.

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To better understand the sample and the choice of the case study, it is important to highlight that the history of this location is strongly marked by fights over the land, with the first MST occupations happening in 1985. Over the course of two decades, occupation through encampment led to the rise of 22 settlements, with a total of 1,447 families living in the area. This process not only resulted in transformations in land distribution, but also led to geographic, demographic, and economic changes. As the families started to generate income and ensure subsistence and consumption, local commerce expanded and targeted social and political change. In 2014, the fight for land was reignited in the area through a new encampment of around 500 landless families. Against the background of this particular dynamics, the research presented in this chapter is interested in highlighting the efforts of the local community to secure their right to education, which happened through the establishment of schools in the settlement areas for all educational levels–from kindergarten to primary and secondary schools, technical education, and even the possibility of higher education through projects currently being implemented. In order to answer the research questions, the empirical work was carried out in two phases. The first phase focused on the analysis of the following documents: official documents from the Federal Government regarding the PNLD Campo program; the Textbook Guide containing the descriptive and evaluative review of the approved textbooks aimed at assisting teachers during textbook selection; and, nine volumes of one approved textbook series (Girassol) for different school subjects. The analysis aimed at verifying the inclusion of the concepts of Countryside Education into the official documents. Thereby, most attention was dedicated to the Textbook Guide that contained the textbook evaluation results carried out by experts. The same experts produced tables comparing both positive and negative aspects resulting from the comparison of theoretical principles of the Countryside Education with the highlighted elements. In addition, the approved textbooks were analyzed to identify how the authors intertwined textbook content of the different subjects with the countryside reality, considering that this aspect is essential for the overall conception of Countryside Education. Reality, along these lines goes beyond one unique experience, as Martins (2014, 78) argues: “[…] it is necessary to know the diversity in which the subject lives, his experiences, his practices and the social, cultural, political contexts, to understand the essentiality of the life enclosed in the diversity of the country people”. The categories of analysis covered references about the countryside social life, about people and their jobs, their activities, tools used to work, as well as cultural rituals and products. We paid close attention to the representation of population diversity in Brazilian rural areas by focusing on groups, such as the quilombolas (descendants of Africans), the ribeirinhos (people who live close to rivers), and the different indigenous groups. Furthermore, we focused on images used to illustrate rural life, highlighting some positive and negatives examples. The second analytical phase encompassed data collection by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews from nine educators teaching grades 1–5 in Agrarian Reform Settlements. Data collection aimed at understanding the textbook selection process along with the criteria inherent to it. Special attention was paid to the

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way references of the Countryside Education conception and MST orientations were considered within this process. All nine teachers were females and looked back on a teaching experience of 2–20 years and six years in average. The questionnaire contained three main parts. The first questions collected personal data, such as education and professional experience. The second part focused on both textbook selection in the individual schools and teacher involvement in this process. Lastly, the third part explored teachers’ opinion on the textbook with an emphasis on its usefulness to their classroom teaching. This part of the questionnaire included questions concerning the criteria teachers used when selecting a textbook. It also explored teacher opinion on textbook adaptation to the countryside reality and to the MST orientations for the settlement schools. During data collection, it was possible to additionally observe the textbook selection process in one of the schools. In consequence, complementary information was collected by means of an interview with all the teachers. This additional step particularly aimed at deeper understanding the relations between the textbook selection and the countryside life elements present or absent in the textbooks.

3 Results and Discussion Considering that the National Textbook Program for schools in rural areas (PNLD Campo) was created to meet the specific requirements of these schools, their students and teachers, it is relevant to discuss if, in fact, the official documents and programs are close enough to the claims made by the social movements. The empirical work regarding the content analysis in the first phase was centered on the implementation process of this program and covered the documents aimed at guiding the process of textbook selection in schools (the Notice and the Guidelines). The Girassol textbook series, approved by the PNLD Campo 2013, was also analyzed. 3.1

What Do the PNLD Campo Official Documents Express?

The analysis on the main official documents produced by PNLD Campo showed that the conceptual constructions of Countryside Education, as formulated by social movements, were incorporated into government proposals. Among other issues, they highlighted the need to respect the rural people’s identity and to overcome the fragmentary nature of the teaching contents, providing integration and significance to the community. The fragment below, originating from the Guideline presenting the expert assessment of the approved textbooks, highlights this finding: The PNLD Campo presents a public policy recognition of Countryside Education as a main reference point in our thinking about the countryside and its subjects, as the textbook generates content, texts, themes, activities, educational proposals, illustrations, and curricular organization (Brasil 2012, p. 9).

Even though the evaluators approved two book series, they also pointed out challenges connected to the materials distributed to the students. The following fragment refers to the textbooks published by Girassol:

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The Federal Government, thus, expressed its intention to meet the educational proposals for schools in rural areas, as based on the claims made by social movements, in PNLD Campo’s official documents. The document analysis also identified that there are explicit references to the theoretical fundaments of Countryside Education which were developed by experts from universities and social movements. It is an evidence that the demands brought forward by the social movements regarding textbooks were incorporated by the public policies in the last decade. Through the official documents like the Notice and the Guide, the federal government conceived the Countryside Education as a program aiming to respect the diversity of the Brazilian rural areas and value the local cultures. Thus, the demands formulated by social movements were transformed into educational policy. 3.2

What Do the Textbooks Express?

The commercial publishing companies handed in 18 book series to be assessed in the PNLD Campo 2013 program. Rural school teachers had the opportunity to select one of the two multidisciplinary book series approved by the experts and included in the Guidelines. This section introduces some of the findings resulting from the analysis performed on the Girassol collection, which received the best evaluation in the Guidelines for teachers. The Girassol collection comes with a teacher’s manual that describes the differences between the old Rural Education and the new proposals for Countryside Education. While doing so, it also introduces the legal background of Countryside Education. The authors included some references to explain the theoretical framework of the new paradigm (Caldart et al. 2012). Thereby, all the above-mentioned official documents serve as an explanation of the great issues in the theoretical field of Countryside Education. The authors emphasize the necessity to consider the local reality of rural schools when organizing the process of teaching and learning. The official documents insist on the consideration of the local reality and research also found evidence that the issue was incorporated in the pedagogical discourse of the teacher’s textbook. In sum, the theoretical framework explicitly presented in the teacher’s textbook approved in the PNLD Campo (even in a synthetic way) is appropriated to a new Countryside Education proposal and it also meets the claim of the social movements. Content analysis of the student textbooks brought some evidence. First, countryside social elements are both recommended by the documents and claimed by the social movements. The results show that continuous and non-continuous text contains only few elements. For example, the mathematics textbook exhibited similar content and methods as its counterpart written for urban schools. Specific content and real-life situations inherent to the countryside, such as units of measurement commonly used by rural residents, remained–as teachers pointed out–unconsidered. While some non-continuous text elements visualized daily life in the countryside, they remained within a repetitive framework. For example, the image of a machine

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working on a large plantation contrasting with a man working alone in a small area was a recurring element. Non-continuous text of this kind, if repeated in different contexts and without any discussion, might be understood as an abstractionism (Mills 1982) as it despises the multiplicity and the contradictions of the reality, ignoring the scientific knowledge and reproducing common sense. In other words, as Heller (2004) argues, in sociological terms, ultra-generalization is a characteristic of daily life. While it is not a grand challenge, if practices fail to reject one thought, ultra-generalization can become harmful in certain circumstances.

Fig. 1. Textbook page discussing the topic Work in the city (source: Figueiredo and Miranda 2012, p. 121).

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Textbook content analysis revealed other challenges concerning life in the countryside. Even when elements of rural life were included, they remained rather general. In addition, the textbook produced for students living in rural areas featured the topic Work in the city (Fig. 1). Both continuous and non-continuous text explained that medical doctors, engineers, dentists, and teachers are professionals belonging to the city. Despite the precarious situation of many Brazilian rural communities, this statement is false. In doing so, the textbook reinforces the image of the countryside being a less developed place and also reproduces the idea that rural communities, unlike urban settlements, are in no need of medical doctors, dentists or other professionals. This aspect is strongly tied to the second central finding of this study, namely the nature of stereotypes and prejudices in textbooks for rural areas. It is necessary to point out that the National Program contains specific criteria– named eliminatory criteria (Brazil 2012)–concerning this aspect that are aimed at building citizenship. Therefore, once the evaluation process in the 1990s began, textbooks in PNLD Campo experienced amendments. Furthermore, starting with 2004, specific educational laws were passed to avoid improper representation of African, African-Brazilian, and indigenous people. As a result, textbooks must include elements of African-Brazilian and indigenous history and culture in a manner that respects their particularities and differences and depicts their diversity without leading to prejudice or stereotypes. These shortcomings are by no means new results. Traditionally, textbook analysis repeatedly described the discrepancy between daily life and school contents. However, in the particular case of Brazil, the criteria adopted by PNLD Campo insisted on this point, and, while being far from perfect, textbooks for urban schools improved significantly. Regarding continuities, PNLD Campo, created to meet the claims of the social movements incorporating the contributions of academic debates on the new paradigm of Countryside Education, a new paradigm, continues to carry the concept of Rural Education. Despite the presence of the theoretical framework in PNLD Campo’s teacher’s manuals, evidence shows that student textbooks–despite the requirements of the Countryside Education perspective–fail to consider the particularities of countryside social life. Lastly, results also showed that, that many approved textbooks introduce the urbanrural relationship in a faulty manner as they ignore interdependences and reinforce both stereotypes and misconceptions. 3.3

How and Why Do Teachers Choose the Textbooks?

The second empirical phase used questionnaires and interviews to better understand the way teachers working in settlement schools created as part of the MST action selected textbooks. Rural school followed three types of textbook selection processes: (1) Selection process with high level of participation: holding meetings at the school under the involvement of teachers, pedagogic coordinators, and management; (2) Selection process with limited participation: city council meetings with school representatives to choose the textbook to be used by all schools.

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(3) Selection process with low participation: without meetings, the administration of the local educational system defines the selection, based on the report of multigrade school teachers. In addition, teachers pointed out that–despite their availability–they rarely consulted official guides. The general practice was to analyze the textbooks upon their availability. Commercial publishers tend to send whole textbook series to the municipal secretary of education instead of each school in part. In consequence, employees of the municipal secretary gradually took over the responsibility of choosing the textbooks without the participation of teachers during this last stage of the selection process. Based on the official documents, only rural schools experienced this change, not their urban counterparts. Regarding criteria of textbook selection, teachers listed–in order of their importance–the following: (1) Possibility to be adapted to the municipal education network’s curriculum. (2) Possibility to be adapted to the Learning Rights presented by the National Literacy Pact in the Right Age (Federal Government program which includes a teacher training program based on specific teaching and learning materials). (3) The relationship between textbook content, methods, formal characteristics and students’ reality. (4) Appropriateness of the content in light of students skills and learning conditions. Teachers were asked to offer additional information on classroom usage of textbooks. Along these lines, information regarding the choices made during textbook usage was also collected. The teachers indicated that their choices were mainly based on the content featured in the school and municipal curricular programs. Thus, the curriculum is the defining factor when selecting textbooks. However, teachers also pointed out that they selected textbooks featuring such content that followed the suggestions and orientations from yet another program, namely the National Literacy Pact in the Right Age. Overall, curricular documents are the reference when selecting units, text or activities featured in the textbooks. Teachers make these decisions in monthly meetings held to collectively plan the teaching activities. Almost all teachers stated not to use the textbook as a whole. In addition, textbooks were not the grounds based on which content to be taught in class is selected. Textbooks were viewed rather as one of many tools used in the construction of knowledge in the school. Beyond the above aspects, the most relevant criterion mentioned by the teachers–in light of the aims of our research–was the relationship between textbook content and students’ reality. This is a complex issue because the concept of students’ reality–or even the concept of experience–raises issues in need of further exploration.

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4 Final Considerations: Evidenced Conflicts Empirical research brought to light a complex network of pedagogical orientations. On the one hand, there are the well consolidated orientations produced by the MST, and, on the other hand, the official school programs, such as the national, state, and municipal school guidelines. All these orientations coexist in a manner that sometimes generates tensions and conflicts. A first conflict arises from the discrepancy between the official guidelines of PNLD Campo regarding teacher participation in the process of analyzing and selecting textbooks and the actual lived practices at the level of schools and local educational systems. A second conflict originates from differences in the definitions and requirements published in the Notices of the Ministry of Education and the editorial and pedagogical design of the approved books. Although positively assessed by expert committees, according to the teachers, the books depict the situation of rural life in a less adequate manner. A third conflict emerges from the interrelations of the didactic design of the textbooks, the orientations given by the federal programs (e.g., National Literacy Pact) that each school must develop, and the school curriculum. Regarding textbook usage, according to the teachers, there are difficulties and tensions in adapting, reorganizing and replacing the elements of the school curriculum and the classroom practices based on the textbooks. One of the teachers explained the tension that arises from due to the different programs the teachers must consider to plan their classes and their decisions referring the textbook usage. Often, they prefer to produce materials based on other sources and the textbooks fail to comply with the function to be a teaching and learning support as settled in the National Textbook Program. I think that just as each region is different from another, so are the countryside and the city, and it would be interesting [if the textbooks were different], but I understand the financial demands [...] for each region to be able to have textbooks that discuss their specific characteristics [...] as well as the countryside and the city, since our students are not able to identify themselves with the content of the textbooks. For this reason, I prefer to work in class with other materials rather than following exactly what is in the book (Teacher A).

Summing up, many elements supported by social movements were included in the concept of Countryside Education and attached, over the course of the last decades, to the documents produced by the Federal Government, especially during the mandates of the Workers’ Party. Nevertheless, our document and textbook analysis further stresses the complexity of textbook production and evaluation for rural schools. Despite the educational conceptions held in the historic construction of the MST, the teachers prioritize other criteria, such as the congruency with municipal educational network curricula. The principles assumed by the social movements that were meant to guide Countryside Education were missing from the list of criteria teachers used to select textbook. Teachers welcomed the process of exploring and understanding their specific opinion and needs regarding rural education. They emphasized the importance of understanding that the reality of the students was still missing from most textbooks. Furthermore, teachers mentioned their limited knowledge on the content of textbooks produced for urban schools, which makes comparisons rather difficult.

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The main problem for teachers in the lack of content compared to textbooks produced for urban schools. While textbooks for urban schools are dedicated to individual subjects, their counterparts for the Countryside Schools are multidisciplinary. In multidisciplinary textbooks, each subject shares the space with two or three other subjects and, thus, looses individual space. As a consequence, the contents of each subjects was reduced. Overall, this issues is connected to the Rural Education–a discriminatory perspective–allowing to teach less content to certain communities and more to other social groups (Caldart et al. 2012). In Brazil, this problem has been associated with processes that have historically excluded the rural population of the social development by establishing barrier to gain access to education and cultural products. While textbooks are always incomplete in the sense that they always lack certain content and elements of diversity, their incompleteness must be addressed, given their social and pedagogical consequences. This applies even more for educational systems as diverse as the Brazilian one. Along these lines, it is essential to remember that prior to 2011, urban and rural schools used similar textbooks based on a common National Program. Nevertheless, the process of distinction between rural and urban schools seems to be far from conclusion. Regarding Countryside Education, the results presented in this chapter showed that textbooks with less suitable content may force teachers to develop own teaching materials sensitive to their local culture as an alternative to the limitations of the National Programs. Projects carried out at universities, such as Recreating Histories (Garcia and Schmidt 2011) have shown that it is possible to develop textbooks for specific groups based on their local culture. Nevertheless, the participation of local communities bears various challenges (cf. Vieira and Garcia 2013; Molina 2014).

References Brasil, Guia de livros didáticos: PNLD Campo 2011 (Ministério da Educação, Secretaria de Educação Continuada, Alfabetização, Diversidade e Inclusão, Brasília, 2012) R. Caldart, I. Pereira, P. Alentejano, G. Frigotto (eds.), Dicionário da Educação do Campo (Escola Politécnica de Saúde Joaquim Venâncio, Expressão Popular, Rio de Janeiro, 2012) B.M. Fernandes, P.R. Cerioli, R.S. Caldart, Primeira Conferência Nacional Por Uma Educação Básica do Campo: texto preparatório, in Por uma educação do campo, ed. by M. Arroyo, R.S. Caldart, M.C. Molina (Vozes, Petrópolis, 2004), pp. 19–63 T.M. Figueiredo, S. Miranda, Girassol. Geografia e História. Segundo ano. (FTD, São Paulo, 2012) T.M.F.B. Garcia, Textbook production from a local, national and international point of view. Brazil, in Local, National and Transnational Identities in Textbooks and Educational Media. The 10th International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media, ed. by J. Rodríguez Rodríguez, M. Horsley, S. Knudsen (IARTEM, Santiago de Compostela, 2011), pp. 30–46 T.M.F.B. Garcia, M.A. Schmidt, Recriando Histórias a partir do olhar das crianças (Unijuí, Ijuí, 2011) S. Gritti, Educação Rural e capitalismo (UPF, Passo Fundo, 2003) A. Heller, O cotidiano e a História (Editora Paz e Terra, São Paulo, 2004)

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M.F.A. Martins, Por uma diversidade cultural camponesa no PNLD Campo, in Livro didático e educação do campo, ed. by T.G. Carvalho, M.F.A. Martins (Faculdade de Educação da UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2014), pp. 77–92 C.W. Mills, A Imaginação Sociológica (Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 1982) M.C. Molina, Políticas Públicas em Educação do Campo, in Livro didático e educação do campo, ed. by T.G. Carvalho, M.F.A. Martins (Faculdade de Educação da UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2014), pp. 25–51 E.A. Vieira, Livros didáticos para escolas do campo: aproximações a partir do PNLD Campo 2013 (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Curitiba, 2013) E.A. Vieira, T.M.F.B. Garcia, Manuais Didáticos para a escola do campo: questões para o debate, in Desafios para a superação das desigualdades sociais: o papel dos manuais didáticos e das mídias educativas, ed. by T.B. Garcia, D.C.L. Picanço, L.S. Bufrem, J.R. Rodríguez, S.V. Knudsen (IARTEM, NPPD, UFPR, Curitiba, 2013), pp. 84–93 E.A. Vieira, T.M.F.B. Garcia, Livros didáticos para as escolas do campo: um olhar sobre o programa a partir da análise dos documentos, in II Seminário Internacional de Educação do Campo. Educação, memória e resistência popular na formação da América Latina, ed. by R. F. Wizniewsky, J. Cancellier, T. Almeida Netto, L. Lourenzi, L.J.M. Menezes (Universidade de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, 2014), pp. 1563–1584

The Shifting Landscape of Text and How It Is Comprehended Bruce Allen Knight1,3(&) and Susan A. Galletly2 1

Central Queensland University, Townsville, Australia [email protected] 2 Speech Pathologist, Mackay, Australia 3 University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic

Abstract. Literacy is a critical foundation for individual, community and economic growth. Whilst English is a rich language used effectively by its many successful users, its complex spelling system wreaks havoc for at-risk and struggling readers. Anglophone nations have excessive numbers of struggling readers who achieve limited success as evident in results from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) studies. This chapter considers the reading and literacy skills needed in a digital world. It explores the orthographies nations use and how these impact students’ reading and writing development. Issues relevant for text designers and developers to strengthen comprehension are discussed. Keywords: Struggling readers comparisons


Text comprehension
International reading

1 Introduction: The Shifting Landscape of Reading Text The education challenge facing every nation is for their students to reach the levels of skill and competence essential to not only function but to also contribute to a contemporary knowledge-based society. To this end, “[…] students still need high levels of traditional literacy as a platform to build high-level functioning to actively participate in a super complex economic and social order” (McWilliam 2010, p 288). Literacy is a critical foundation for individual, community and economic growth. The effective teaching of reading and other literacy skills then is arguably the most critical aspect of educating students for school and life success (Slavin et al. 2009). These skills allow students to participate in and contribute to society. The often-quoted twenty-first-century skills of the 4Cs, namely creativity, communication, collaboration, and critical thinking (OECD 2015) rely on basic reading and literacy skills that enable text comprehension. This chapter has five sections. The first section briefly discusses reading and literacy skills in a digital world. The next section explores the orthographies nations use and how these impact students’ reading and writing development. The third section outlines Orthographic Advantage Theory which is to be used to investigate the optimization of all students’ reading development in which the cross-linguistic differences can impact that development. The fourth section reflects on the achievement of students using different orthographies. It analyzes data from international reading comparisons © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 47–58, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_4

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in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) reading comparison studies. The final section discusses issues important for text developers and designers to consider in optimizing students’ reading and literacy development.

2 Reading and Literacy Skills “Reading texts is a complex skill involving actioning and integrating multiple perceptual and cognitive processes, and diverse brain areas. Texts’ words are processed visually, then matched to phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations to build integrated understanding of texts’ clear and subtle meanings” (Knight and Galletly 2020). Reading and writing are underpinned by oral language. “Language and reasoning are central to all literacies, with learning to read and write the path from fully oral literacies to meaningful reflective participation in shared verbal and print literacies” (Knight et al. submitted). The task for the individual in learning to read then is to discover how print maps onto spoken language (Tunmer and Hoover 2019). Reading comprehension and written expression build to the extent of students’ language skills, thinking and intelligence, empowered by their proficiency in reading and writing words. Children need to be taught reading skills so they can decipher text. If a reader is not cognitively engaged in reading the text, comprehension is not possible (Knight and Galletly 2005). Research reports that reading with comprehension depends on cognitively engaging and understanding at least 95 percent of the words of a text (McTigue and Slough 2010). Reading comprehension then can be defined as “[…] the ability to extract and construct linguistically based meaning, both literal and inferred, from written text” (Tunmer and Hoover 2019, p. 77). In the twenty-first century, literacy skills are used to comprehend text not only in hard copy but also increasingly in digital formats. With the development of digital technologies, multimedia and the ever-expanding internet, new options are emerging that replace, supplement and extend hard copy texts and books as students actively participate and create knowledge. Rather than reproducing content, students are encouraged to discover and build knowledge by retrieving, assessing, and integrating content (Friesen 2013). Multimodal literacy emphasizes the need for students to be able to interact with and respond to the corpus of diverse texts accessed in a digitalized society (Kress 2003; de Oliveira et al. 2014). “The static, linear modality of written text [including the book] is now supplemented by an increasing complexity of multimodal, dynamic, and interactive representations, thus taking on different meaning-making roles” (Mangen and van der Weel 2016, p. 116), as readers take on the process of encoding and decoding text and representations on screens to gain meaning. Reading itself is changing as students network with resources using a responsive tool. Digital Literacies have transformed the concept of literacy as “[…] a multimodal intentional representation with purposes and boundaries understood within a given sociocultural domain” (O’Brien and Scharber 2008, p. 66). Mangen and van der Weel (2016, p. 117) propose that reading in this new digital age encompasses human-technology interaction and personified processes. It “[…]

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invites closer scrutiny of associations between ergonomics (sensorimotor, haptic/tactile feedback), attention, perception, cognitive and emotional processing at different levels, as well as subjective experiential dimensions of reading different kinds of texts for different purposes (e.g. various literary genres, news reading and study reading)”. The Mangen and van der Weel (2016) framework suggests that there are several mediating fundamentals to be reflected in text design. These include the reading device used, interface aspects, length and type of text layout and structure, comprehension level, students’ reading levels, purpose and motivation to read. Text designers and authors therefore need to take note of the effect of these variables on students’ comprehension of texts, as well as the use of the texts by teachers (Knight 2015). The argument today is that students are reading differently as they engage with text, with some such as Baron (2015) lamenting an in-depth, immersive and mindful practice of reading being replaced by shallower forms of reading as the screen supersedes books. Baron’s (2015, pp. 230–231) concern “[…] is that deep reading and rereading, uninterrupted reading, and tackling longer texts are seen by fewer and fewer people as part of what it means to read”, as opposed to watching or playing games requiring less intentional effort. Knight and Horsley (2013) have described how students have less preference for lengthy textbooks and readings, preferring web resources and guides. It has been reported students are more likely to use an electronic medium for leisure reading whereas reading for study tends to be performed from paper (Aharony and Bar‐ Ilan 2018). Of course there are many other factors such as motivation, student self-efficacy, home environment, and teacher knowledge and skills which can impact reading development (Tunmer and Chapman 2012; Knight et al. 2019). It is not the purpose of this chapter to discuss these issues, but relevant to this chapter is the variable of the regularity and consistency of spelling patterns (orthography) used by students and its impact on students’ learning of literacy skills which will now be discussed.

3 Orthography While English is a highly successful spoken language causing few lasting difficulties for its successful users (Bryson 1990), for at-risk and struggling readers it is a different story. “Studies investigating the effect of orthographic consistency have done so usually in comparison with the extreme, namely English. The transparency of an orthography can be best thought of as a continuum. Whereas it is difficult to be confident where exactly on this continuum each orthography is objectively located, the extreme positions are certain” (Aro 2004, p. 12). English is one of the most irregular alphabetic orthographies, while Finnish is very regular (Galletly and Knight 2011, 2013; Knight et al. 2019). Students from countries using different orthographies include those who are high achievers as well as low achievers. A complex orthography can make it very difficult for low achieving and high-risk students to effectively learn literacy skills (Knight and Galletly 2016; Knight et al. 2019). Investigating Anglophone countries, for example, there has been little improvement in reading outcomes for the bottom quartile of students over the last 20 years. In contrast however, it has been reported that some

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regular-orthography nations (using regular spelling systems) show most students are fully accurate word readers and writers early in their education (for example by the end of their second year at school) (Seymour et al. 2003; Lyytinen et al. 2006; Landerl and Wimmer 2008; Share 2008; Torppa et al. 2015). What this suggests is that these students who use a regular orthography have mastered learning to read and thus are ready for reading to learn. Consequently, these students are ready to interrogate texts and media resources to fulfill their learning potential, whereas students in nations using complicated orthographies find it much more difficult for low achieving and high-risk students to crack the code of beginning literacy skills. It is hypothesized that the cognitive load of learning to read and write words impacts word-reading and spelling development. Initially, the cognitive load of transferring meaning using reading and writing is high, as working memory needs to be shared between meaning making and word decoding roles (Luke and Freebody 2000; Knight and Galletly 2017; Knight et al. 2018, 2019). Fortunately, as word decoding becomes increasingly proficient and more automatic, the need for working memory allocated to decoding words disappears (Knight et al. 2018). Finland’s and Estonia’s orthographies, for example, are almost completely regular, having less than 40 grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) to be learned. When compared to English with more than 500 GPC’s, these children in comparison will experience slower and more difficulty to master word-reading and spelling. It will also involve many years of learning. A cross-linguistic gap starts with word reading and word writing, and, unless otherwise specified, the terms reading and writing in this chapter refer to word reading and word writing, rather than broader literacy aspects. At times, for brevity of expression, the term reader rather than reader and writer is used, when logically both reading and writing are being discussed. Similarly, unless otherwise stated, the term regular orthography refers to nations whose orthographies are almost completely regular, e.g., Finland and Korea. The term all children is used in the sense of virtually all children, perhaps 97 percent of the school population, the level China achieved in PISA 2012 (Thomson et al. 2013). Orthography Impact on Reading A nation’s orthography is its spelling system, which is the number and types of spelling patterns it uses. Spelling patterns are often discussed as Grapheme: Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs), the ratio of Graphemes to Phonemes. For example, the sound /f/ has four spellings (as in if, off, phone, laugh) giving it a GPC of 4:1, [f, ff, ph, gh]: /f/. Most nations use relatively regular spelling systems (orthographies). For example, Korean, Finnish, Estonian, Welsh, and Japanese Hiragana are almost completely regular, with GPC ratios close to one: one, with every grapheme (letter) saying just one sound (phoneme), and every sound having just one spelling pattern. Finnish, for example, uses 23 letters to write its 23 sounds (Torppa et al. 2015). In regularorthography nations all words are regular, thus the curriculum of learning to read and write words is to master phonemic recoding (often called sounding-out). In these nations, children learn their letters and their sounds, and how to blend and list them to read and write words. They can then read and write all words, slowly at first, then with increasing fluency as there is only a low cognitive load of learning imposed by the

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orthography. This in turn accelerates the development of word-reading and spelling development (Seymour et al. 2003; Knight et al. 2019). Learning to read in regularorthography nations is therefore rapid when compared to a complex orthography as children can self-teach with little need for adult support. While many nations use regular orthographies as their complete orthography, China, Taiwan, and Japan use two orthographies, complex logographic Kanji and a fully regular alphabetic orthography used prior to, and then in parallel with Kanji. Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese children quickly master their regular orthography (Pinyin, Hiragana, and Zhu-Yin-Fu-Hao) in Year 1, and then use it for reading and writing and self-teaching of Kanji. English is one of the more complex orthographies, with 26 letters representing 40 common sounds using well over 500 different spelling patterns (GPCs). Its GPCs are rarely one: one. Many are many: one, for example 8:1 for the sound /sh/, as in she, chef, sure, schwa, nation, passion, gracious, ocean. There are also a lot of one: many, for example the letter C has a 1:4 GPC ratio, being used in graphemes for four different sounds, as in cat/kick/school, rice/scent, cheese, Cher/social/ocean. The confusion English spelling creates has strong negative effects on beginning readers (Venezky 2004, p. 139): Knowingly or unknowingly, countries have adopted orthographies that favour either the early stages of learning to read or the advanced stages, that is, the experienced reader. The more a system tends towards a one-to-one relationship between graphemes and phonemes, the more it assists the new reader and the non-speaker of the language, while the more it marks etymology and morphology, the more it favours the experienced reader. Most English words and syllables are regular with letters using their commonest GPCs, those taught as letter-sounds when children master the alphabet. However, beginning readers meet many less-regular words for which phonemic recoding does not work, for example, all the words in ‘Their young boy was here last night.’ English words have three orthographic grain sizes (Ziegler and Goswami 2005), namely phonemes, multi-letter spelling units, and whole words. These create three different types of words and syllables, and children learn three different reading strategies for reading and writing them. Regular words and syllables use phoneme grain size (the only grain size used in regular orthographies) and beginning readers read them using phonemic recoding, for example, vet, flaps. Pattern words and syllables use multi-letter spelling-pattern grain size, for example, ball, day, and beginning readers read them using rhyme and analogy (If I know ball, I can read and write tall, wall, fall). Tricky words and syllables have highly irregular spellings thus use whole word (or syllable) grain size, for example, one, was, Wednesday and are read by remembering what the word or syllable looks like. Regular-orthography students experience early success in decoding all words. In contrast, Anglophone students meet with many difficulties from the start of learning to read words. They confront both highly frequent words with irregular spelling (e.g., one, was, who), and common vowel spelling patterns that they have not yet learned (e.g., car, boy, now). English letter-names also add confusion. Unlike Finnish where letter names all contain their letter sound, twelve English letters have names not containing their sound (a e i o u c g h q r w y), and five start with another letter’s sound (c g u w y).

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It is evident then that right from the start of learning to read words, students from different nations face numerous challenges when initially learning to read which can affect their motivation and engagement in reading and learning (Skues et al. 2016).

4 Orthographic Advantage Theory This chapter provides a gallery view of literacy in many nations, both Anglophone and regular orthography. Orthographic Advantage Theory was developed as a tool for reflecting on early literacy development (Knight et al. 2019) and provides a lens to investigate options towards optimizing all students’ reading development. In its simplest form, Orthographic Advantage Theory states that each nation chooses its orthography (spelling system), either deliberately or inadvertently; and that this strongly impacts the ease for children to initially learn to read and write. This in turn creates a range of diverse impacts for beginning readers because of the cognitive load generated. For example, in Anglophone countries there can be large numbers of a cohort of students (25%) struggling to learn to read the complex orthography. Orthographic Advantage Theory is proposed not in a narrow form wherein orthographic complexity operates as a sole factor, but in a broad form. It is recognized that factors, such as proficient multilingualism may mimic and combine with orthographic advantage, that reading instruction methods may mitigate orthographic disadvantage, and that development of reading fluency for text reading will be impacted by language features, for example, long Finnish words using syllables which carry diverse language features. It is emphasized, however, that orthographic complexity is a major and important factor directly impacting initial speed of development of word reading, word writing, reading comprehension, written expression, and independent reading and writing. Cross-Linguistic Differences Impacting Development This section provides a précis of key research findings establishing major differences in reading development, difficulties, learning and instruction between Anglophone and other regular-orthography nations. Firstly, Anglophone word-reading and writing development is excessively slow. For example, Finnish and Taiwanese children take ten weeks or less to master word reading and writing accuracy to an independent reading level (Aro 2004; Huang and Hanley 1997). Secondly, the word-reading accuracy of Year 1 children from ten regular-orthography nations is reported as 90–98 percent, whereas for English Year 1 and Year 2 readers it is only 34 and 76 percent, respectively (Seymour et al. 2003). This can impact students where Anglophone struggling readers may experience greater social-emotional trauma because of the difficulties of learning to read. Studies of Anglophone weak readers show anxiety, depression, poor attention and low reading self-concept relate strongly to and interact with reading difficulties. For example, longitudinal studies show early reading problems predict subsequent inattentive behavior and poor reading self-perceptions, which in turn predict subsequent development of increasingly severe reading difficulties (Prochnow et al. 2013).

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Word-reading difficulties are at paradigmatically different levels for different orthographies. For example, a study of German and English weak readers (Landerl et al. 1997) reported German readers reading difficult words (three syllable pseudowords, including quaduktrisch, miktanie) with greater accuracy than English readers read one syllable pseudo-words, such as foo, bish and zeer. English readers also made 16 times more vowel errors (342:20 errors). These differences have an impact on the reading and learning outcomes for students, as will now be discussed.

5 International Reading Comparisons The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) studies and the Progress in International Reading Study (PIRLS) compare regular-orthography and Anglophone nations on the reading achievement of 15-year-olds (PISA) and Year 4 children (PIRLS). They show regular-orthography nations having fewer weak readers, much less impact of socio-economic status (SES), education outcomes being improved over time, and with relatively low spending budgets (Thomson et al. 2013; Thomson et al. 2012). OECD and PIRLS analysts do not include the impact of cross-linguistic differences in reading development in their analyses (Schleicher & Stewart 2008; Jensen et al. 2012; Thomson et al. 2012; Thomson et al. 2013; OECD 2015), with no description of orthography included in nations’ profile information. This results in what may be inappropriate conclusions. For example, Korea’s and Finland’s high outcomes are attributed to teacher and curriculum excellence, with no mention of orthographic advantage and rapid reading and writing development. There is also minimal emphasis on the early primary school years, and yet it is likely to be these years that launch nations’ paths for optimizing education. Figure 1 shows the distribution of weak readers in PISA 2012 for sixteen selected nations, while Table 1 provides 2013 OECD demographic data available for eleven of these nations. All sixteen nations have data for PISA 2012, whilst twelve have PIRLS 2011 data, and eleven have OECD 2015 data. Eight nations have orthographic advantage for beginning literacy while seven have potential multilingualism advantage. Finland, Poland, Estonia, and Sweden are monolingual regular-orthography nations using a single, fully regular orthography. Korea, China, Japan, and Taiwan use two orthographies, their fully regular orthography used initially as a sole orthography, and their complex logography (e.g., Kanji). China and Taiwan also have strong multilingualism which can assist students. Hong Kong and Singapore use English orthography but have strong multilingualism (e.g., Singapore has four official languages), which is likely to override potential orthographic disadvantages. Six Anglophone nations are used. The UK, USA, and Australia are predominantly monolingual, whereas Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand are somewhat bilingual (with a small proportion of the population multilingual and a relatively strong focus on bilingual education from the start of school). These countries thus have a potential multilingualism advantage, but this would be minor relative to that of Hong Kong and Singapore.

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Fig. 1. Distribution of low achievers at or below level 2 in PISA 2012 (source: authors based on Thomson et al. 2013).

From Fig. 1 and Table 1, it can be seen that, with the exception of Sweden, regular orthography nations have fewer low achievers which can influence student outcomes. Anglophone nations have considerably more low achievers despite longer school hours and considerably higher spending. China had only 3 percent of children achieving below Level 2 in PISA 2012, and many regular-orthography nations had few children at Level 1a, 1b, and below; with 10 percent or less below Level 2. In contrast, Canada and Ireland are the only Anglophone nations achieving at this level. This may reflect multilingual advantage combined with effective reading instruction. PISA and PIRLS data shows theUK (PISA 2012) and USA (PIRLS 2011) making gains in mean achievement and reducing the number of struggling readers. For primary school readers (Year 4), in PIRLS 2011, Australia and New Zealand had one quarter of their readers achieving at Low and Below Low levels (24% and 25%, respectively). In contrast, Hong Kong and Finland, the two top achieving nations, had 7 and 8 percent respectively. It appears then nations with lower proportions of weak readers also have higher proportions of high (as opposed to average) readers, need less schooling hours, and can improve education over time. There are of course many factors beyond orthographic complexity and multilingualism that can impact reading development. These include family work ethic, staff training and expertise, teacher workload, adult-child ratios in reading instruction in early primary school, age beginning reading instruction, teaching and learning conditions, classroom climate, and the features of reading and literacy curricula used. These interacting variables therefore make it impossible to assert conclusive statements from OECD, PISA, and PIRLS data.

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Table 1. Demographics on primary school education factors impacting student learning (source: OECD 2015). Nation

Code

Spending (% GDP)* Rank

No.

Rank

No.

Rank

No.

Rank

No.

Rank

No.

Poland Estonia Finland Sweden Korea Japan Ireland Canada New Zealand USA Australia OECD Av Totals

Pol Est Fin Swe Kor Jap Ire Can NZ

7 11 7 5 7 10 1 5 1

2.4 2.0 2.4 2.5 2.4 2.1 3.2 2.5 3.2

9 7 10 6 8 5 3 4

635 661 632 754 648 762 957 919 –

8 9 6

629 619 677

11.2 13.9 12.3

667 736 840 796 922

11.1 13.0 13.2 12.7 17.3 17.4 16.4 14.0 16.4

1 3 2

7 5 3 4 1

1 3 4 2 10 11 8 5 8

6 7 5 4

16.8 17.4 16.4 16.2 –

US Aus OAv

4 2

2.7 3.1 2.5

2 1

967 1010 794

2

– 879 769

6 7

15.3 15.6 14.9

(11)

Child school time

(10)

Teacher teaching time

(9)

Child-teacher ration

(11)

Class size

8

– 17.9 15.2

(8)

*

Note: Primary & Lower Secondary Education

6 Issues for Text Design and Development Across all nations, there is a need to reduce the effects of different orthographies on reading performance and to optimize instruction using well-designed resources, including textbooks in schools. There is a need for knowledge mobilization and engagement of researchers, teachers, text developers and designers to augment the development and use of well-designed resources in classrooms. This can help reduce the research-practice gap (Levin 2013; Sheard and Sharples 2016). The orthography used in different nations has implications for the design of texts for learners using different orthographies in a digitalized society. Text accessibility is critically important for all learners. McTigue and Slough (2010) use this term to describe the features which add to the coherence of the text and therefore changes the text accessibility. The first feature is the concreteness of the text. Concrete language encourages connections between text and images which promotes learning through clarity of the text. Secondly, the voice of the author is actively promoted when words, images, and other media are used to convey the content. This encourages students to engage and connect with the material. Next, a coherent writing structure will aid student comprehension through a logical and consistent scaffold. Berkeley et al. (2014, p. 217) describe this as the “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 types dispersed within and at the end of chapters and highlighted new vocabulary”.

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McTigue and Slough (2010) also note the importance of being selective in the use of visual information, and the need for integration of the verbal and visual information which will add to the flow and student engagement with the text, no matter which orthography is being used.

7 Conclusion Successful early reading instruction depends on explicit instruction in reading individual words, teaching effective reading comprehension strategies and building students’ resilience for managing the challenges of learning to read in a digital world. An orthographic complexity lens as described in this chapter is useful for examining early reading development. This chapter explored the orthographies used in different nations and how these can impact students’ reading and general literacy growth. There is potential for improving reading and literacy instruction and outcomes in powerful, paradigmatically new ways as students master word reading and writing through efficient word-reading instruction using well designed and developed resources. This has the potential to empower all students’ literacy development. Acknowledgment. This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage research grant (LP13100612).

References N. Aharony, J. Bar-Ilan, Students’ academic reading preferences: an exploratory study. J. Librariansh. Inf. Sci. 50(1), 3–13 (2018) M. Aro, Learning to Read: The Effect of Orthography (University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla, 2004) N. Baron, Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World (Oxford University Press, New York, 2015) S. Berkeley, M. King-Sears, B. Hott, K. Bradley-Black, Are history textbooks more “Considerate” after 20 years? J. Spec. Educ. 47(4), 217–230 (2014) B. Bryson, Mother Tongue (Penguin Books, London, 1990) J. de Oliveira, M. Camacho, M. Gisbert, Exploring student and teacher’s perception of eTextbooks in a primary school. Communicar 42, 87–95 (2014) N. Friesen, The past and likely future of an educational form: a textbook case. Educ. Res. 42(9), 498–508 (2013) S. Galletly, B.A. Knight, Because trucks aren’t bikes: orthographic complexity as an important variable in reading research. Aust. Educ. Res. 40(2), 173–194 (2013) S. Galletly, B.A. Knight, Differential disadvantage of anglophone weak readers with language and cognitive processing weakness. Australas. J. Spec. Educ. 35(1), 72–96 (2011) H. Huang, J. Hanley, A longitudinal study of phonological awareness, visual skills, and Chinese reading acquisition among first-graders in Taiwan. Int. J. Behav. Dev. 20(2), 249–268 (1997) B. Jensen, A. Hunter, J. Sonnemann, T. Burns, Catching Up: Learning From The Best School Systems In East Asia (2012), http://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/130_report_ learning_from_the_best_detail.pdf B.A. Knight, Teachers’ use of textbooks in the digital age. Cogent Educ. 2(1), 1–10 (2015)

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B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, The role of metacognition in reading-accuracy learning and instruction. Aust. J. Learn. Disabil. 10(2), 63–70 (2005) B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, The effects of an intervention program on middle school students’ literacy skills. Spec. Educ. Perspect. 25(1), 7–17 (2016) B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, Effective literacy instruction for all students: a time for change. Int. J. Innov. Creativity Change 3(1), 65–86 (2017) B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, Practical school-level implications of cognitive processing and cognitive load, in Advances in Psychology Research. ed. by A. Colombus (Nova Science Publishers, New York, 2020), pp. 1–90 B.A. Knight, M. Horsley, The ecology of change and continuity in the use of textbooks in higher education (2013), http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue23/content.htm B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, P. Gargett, (Submitted). Bridging the Gap between Reading Theory and Teacher Practice. B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, P. Gargett, Orthographic advantage theory: national advantage and disadvantage arising from impacts of spelling complexity. Asia Pac. J. Dev. Differ. 6(1), 5–29 (2019) B.A. Knight, S. Galletly, J. Morris, P. Gargett, Reading instruction strategies to reduce cognitive load. Practical literacy: the early and primary years. Pract. Literacy 23(2), 8–9 (2018) G. Kress, Literacy in the New Media Age (Routledge, London, 2003) K. Landerl, H. Wimmer, Development of word reading fluency and spelling in consistent orthography: an 8-year follow-up. J. Educ. Psychol. 100(1), 150–161 (2008) K. Landerl, H. Wimmer, U. Frith, The impact of orthographic consistency on dyslexia: a German-English comparison. Cognition 63, 315–334 (1997) B. Levin, To know is not enough: research knowledge and its use. Rev. Educ. 1(1), 2–31 (2013) A. Luke, P. Freebody, Further Notes On The Four Resources Model (2000), http://www. readingonline.org/past/past_index.asp?HREF=/research/lukefreebody.html H. Lyytinen, M. Aro, L. Holopainen, M. Leiwo, P. Lyytinen, A. Tolvanen, Children’s language development and reading acquisition in a highly transparent language, in Handbook Of Orthography And Literacy. ed. by R. Joshi, P. Aaron (Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, 2006), pp. 47–62 A. Mangen, A. van der Weel, The evolution of reading in the age of digitisation: an integrative framework for reading research. Literacy 50(3), 116–124 (2016) E. McTigue, S. Slough, Student-accessible science texts: elements of design. Read. Psychol. 31, 213–227 (2010) E. McWilliam, Learning culture, teaching economy. Pedagogies Int. J. 5(4), 286–297 (2010) D. O’Brien, C. Scharber, Digital literacies go to school: potholes and possibilities. J. Adolesc. Health. 52(1), 66–68 (2008) OECD, Education At A Glance 2015: OECD Indicators (2015), https://doi.org/10.1787/eag2015-en J. Prochnow, W. Tunmer, J. Chapman, A longitudinal investigation of the influence of literacyrelated skills, reading self-perceptions, and inattentive behaviours on the development of literacy learning difficulties. Int. J. Disabil. Dev. Educ. 60(3), 185–207 (2013) A. Schleicher, V. Stewart, Learning from world-class schools. Educ. Leadersh. 66(2), 44–51 (2008) P. Seymour, M. Aro, J. Erskine, Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. Br. J. Psychol. 94, 143–174 (2003) D. Share, On the anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: the perils of overreliance on an ‘outlier’ orthography. Psychol. Bull. 134(4), 584–615 (2008)

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M. Sheard, J. Sharples, School leaders’ engagement with the concept of evidence-based practice as a management tool for school improvement. Educ. Manag. Adm. Leadersh. 44(4), 668–687 (2016) J. Skues, E. Cunningham, S. Theiler, Examining prediction models of giving up within a resource-based framework of coping in primary school students with and without learning disabilities. Int. J. Disabil. Dev. Educ. 63(2), 224–245 (2016) R. Slavin, C. Lake, B. Chambers, A. Cheung, S. Davis, Effective reading programs for the elementary grades: a best-evidence synthesis. Rev. Educ. Res. 79(4), 1391–1466 (2009) S. Thomson, L. De Bortoli, S. Buckley, PISA 2012: How Australia Measures Up (2013), www. acer.edu.au/documents/PISA-2012-Report.pdf Thomson, S., Hillman, K., Wernert, N., Schmid, M., Buckley, S., & Munene, A. (2012). Highlights From TIMSS & PIRLS 2011 From Australia’s Perspective. https://www.acer.edu. au/files/TIMSS-PIRLS_Australian-Highlights.pdf. M. Torppa, K. Eklund, E. van Bergen, H. Lyytinen, Late-emerging and resolving dyslexia: a follow-up Atudy from age 3 to 14. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 43(7), 1389–1401 (2015) W. Tunmer, J.W. Chapman, The simple view of reading redux: vocabulary knowledge and the independent components hypothesis. J. Learn. Disabil. 45, 453–466 (2012) W. Tunmer, W. Hoover, The cognitive foundations of learning to read: a framework for preventing and remediating reading difficulties. Australian J. Learn. Difficulties 24(1), 75–93 (2019) R. Venezky, In search of the perfect orthography. Written Lang. Literacy 7(2), 39–63 (2004) J. Ziegler, U. Goswami, Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory. Psychol. Bull. 131(1), 3–29 (2005)

Bhaskar’s Theory of Publishing and Its Contribution to Theorizing (Evolving New Forms of) Educational Media Christoph Bläsi(&) Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Mainz, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Enterprises which are usually categorized as educational publishers increasingly develop and market products like learning platforms. Such products are at least to a considerable extent pieces of software rather than products based on content in the sense of texts, images, and maybe moving images or sounds (which typically constitute products of the media industries). Michael Bhaskar’s The Content Machine. Towards a Theory of Publishing (2013) represents one of the most comprehensive theoretical approaches to publishing in recent years. This contribution discusses, how far products like learning platforms can be described as results of acts of (educational) publishing or can be considered (educational) publishing products, respectively. From an industry as well as from an educational point of view, this would seem logical. It turns out, however, that to mirror this from a theoretical perspective even Bhaskar’s theory with its remarkably abstract and broad church approach to publishing has to be modified. Keywords: Educational publishing
Theory of publishing platform
Michael Bhaskar
Target group


Learning

1 Introduction In spite of constituting a varying, but always very considerable share of publishing in all book markets of the world and in spite of the ubiquity of educational media in school education, the scholarly interest in educational media and, more specifically, educational publishing does not seem to mirror this adequately. This observation applies to various disciplines of both educational studies, such as school pedagogy and subject education, and media studies (e.g., book/publishing studies). Regarding mediaoriented scholarly approaches, this is particularly surprising since educational media have been subject to a whole range of substantial transformations over the last years. These transformations encompass the necessity for educational media to be adapted to new pedagogical paradigms like competence-based education. In addition, they also refer to various attempts to amend established solutions with respect to the provision of these materials targeting an increased state control (centralization) or increasing empowerment (decentralization). Finally, the most visible and crucial transition refers

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 59–66, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_5

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to the effects of the digitization of publishing on the one hand, and, on the other hand, school teaching becoming more digital. Looking at current products in this segment, following a naive approach to educational media as products of educational publishers for a start, one can find among them increasingly complex products, such as learning platforms. Here, the question arises, if the development and marketing of such learning platforms (in essence, pieces of software) can sensibly be described as publishing (that is what publishers do, already along an argument of etymology). Comparable questions also arise in other sectors of publishing, particularly in b2b publishing, where some publishers, in their vertical markets, offer, for example, workflow solutions (in essence, also pieces of software) for enterprises. The question, if bringing such products to the market can sensibly be described as publishing, is not so easy to answer–but it reminds people in the book studies community (and related ones), if not so much in the industry, of the fact that even before cases like the ones in focus here, it was not easy to capture concisely what publishing is. Moreover, previous attempts of different scope and formality to define what publishing–as a cultural practice with an extremely high impact–is, could hardly consider all requirements vis-a-vis such a concept at the same time, from making sense of the very diverse phenomena through the course of the long history to covering more recent phenomena, such as software or music publishing. In his 2013 book The Content Machine, Bhaskar (2013) has taken on the ambitious task to give this fundamental issue for book/publishing studies–and, as he argues, also for publishing as a cultural practice and a business–another go, with a fresh view and very mindful also of the phenomena suggested above that make things difficult. He did that under the ambitious subtitle Towards a Theory of Publishing. In this chapter, I will introduce Bhaskar’s approach in some detail and then apply it to phenomena in educational publishing where the range of products by enterprises described or describing themselves as educational publishers has become particularly diverse in recent years. In doing this, it will turn out that some of these products (e.g., learning platforms) are bound to stretch Bhaskar’s already rather wide concept of publishing. If we, however, do not want to have some of the phenomena in focus covered by a concept of publishing, we will have to either sort some of them out (i.e., give reasons why we should not see them as outcomes of instances of the same kind of publishing) or include them into another, even broader theoretical foundation than called upon by Bhaskar in his approach to publishing. This chapter starts with an introduction of Bhaskar’s theory. Subsequently, I will give examples of products in which educational publishers, according to Bhaskar, clearly do what publishing is. In a next step, I will present examples from the intersection of the publishing and the educational world that might look like educational publishing at first sight, but cannot sufficiently be analyzed as such using Bhaskar’s approach. Thereby, I will examine which arguments Bhaskar uses in his perspective chapter to approach phenomena in the wider environment of the ones in focus, to indicate connections from the core of his theory towards them. Finally, I will propose different options how to best capture the addressed phenomena within Bhaskar’s theory of publishing by proposing some modifications.

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2 Educational Media In a pre-theoretic understanding, educational media can be described as media used in (formal) education, in the context given more specifically in school education (excluding higher education), for example, as media for the institutional education from pre-school to K-12 in the US or A Levels in the UK, respectively. These materials can be in printed or in digital form–in the latter case they can contain elements of media beyond text and illustrations. In some cases, educational media can contain or even consist of artifacts, such as a set of geometrical objects for mathematics teaching. Leaving aside the aspect of who pays for these materials here (i.e. the state or parents, to mention the two most common options), educational media are, in some cases, specified and approved by the school (or hierarchically higher administrative levels of the educational system) or they can, in other cases, be selected by the students or their parents (in countries where there is no all-day schooling, the latter materials constitute what is known as the afternoon market). Educational media can be used for different purposes from structuring and supporting the presence teaching in the classroom via presenting exercises and tasks for further work at home to helping during revision for exams. They can be read/view-only, allow writing in them or cater for additional forms of interactivity. The digitization of school education is a controversial and ideologically charged topic in many countries. The matter what exactly requires digitization (and ideally also why)–a rather broad, vague, and daring concept to begin with–certainly requires further exploration. Without the pretension of completeness, an unsorted initial list of what can be indications for a digitized/digital school education should comprise, among others, the use of digital devices like smartphones, tablets or PCs, the use of interactive whiteboards, the use of learning management and communication systems, and, of course, digital textbooks. Digital textbooks range from the ones that are basically analogues of printed books to the ones that are enhanced or digital-born courses altogether and, therefore, typically make natural and considerable use of the specific affordances of the digital. Finally, the school-related use of non-dedicated social networks (e.g., Facebook or WhatsApp) as well as a digitized school administration could be mentioned as possible indications for a digital/digitized school education. Digital educational media can hence be placed at the intersection between educational media and phenomena of a digitized school education. As mentioned above, educational media typically originate from educational publishers (except for Open Educational Resources, where this is obviously not the case). The central question this chapter addresses is following which concept of publishing certain products (e.g., learning management systems without pre-integrated content) can be considered as outcomes of (educational) publishing.

3 Bhaskar’s Theory in a Nutshell Beyond just pragmatically capturing what publishing is, Bhaskar’s objective is a theory of publishing (not only of books), leaving surface readings without real explanatory value behind, e.g., the one given by Bernard Miège who essentially lists the choice of

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works, the assembly of a production team, and the organization of production and reproduction (cf. Bhaskar 2013, p. 134). Bhaskar’s scope beyond books, newspapers, journals, and magazines also includes phenomena like software or game publishing; this is based on the insight that “[t]here are different businesses, attracting different people with different cultures. Yet they share at least one feature: content” (Bhaskar 2013, pp. 169–170). The central role of content in Bhaskar’s approach gives him the opportunity to introduce two of its four basic concepts, frames, and models, and to bring them into direct relation with content: “The word content implies content of something. In other words, implied is an element not included in the word itself: that which content fills. This is the frame. Equally, content doesn’t just appear. An interplay of causal factors, goals, motivations and ideological underpinnings shapes and provides the raison d’etre for content: this is the model” (Bhaskar 2013, pp. 79–80). Beyond what a concept often used in earlier attempts to define publishing, the one of the container, can do and in the face of the wide range of phenomena to be covered, it is important and necessary for Bhaskar that frames can be material and immaterial, abstract and concrete as well as general and particular. “[F]rames are the distributional and presentational mechanisms for content plus their attendant and subjectively experienced modes. ‘Frame’ is a convenient shorthand for grouping these interlinked concepts, the material and the immaterial aspects of presenting content” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 89). For Bhaskar (2013, p. 96), “[f]rames accommodate the abstract and concrete, the general and the particular–we can talk about ‘The Book’ or ‘The Web’ as frames, but also the Greenville Folio, a Wagner box set or a download of The Wire as specifically instantiated frames”. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that intermediaries spend “a great deal of time and energy getting them right” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 96). Models are the concept for the context that brings content into being. It is the representation of the environment that captures not least the why of publishing, the intentions, the motivation, the values aimed at. Bhaskar (2013, p. 98) states pithily: „content happens for a reason“. Using the concept of value that “saturates publishing” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 160) to describe essentially the same fact, Bhaskar (2013, p. 160) holds that values “[…] whether aesthetic, political, religious, etc.” can coexist “[…] in complex assemblages of motivation and opportunity. What we might call ‘mono-models’ are the exception”. In Bhaskar’s (2013, p. 139) reading, this can all also be seen pragmatically in the sense that “[p]ublishers tend to have models not to understand the world, but to do things with it. They don’t have models ‘of’ so much as models ‘for’”. Even in cases in which the model does not contain the intention to make profit, however, “[…] publishing is always economic, if not [necessarily, C.B.] profit oriented” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 138). The remaining two basic concepts of Bhaskar (2013, p. 104) to postulate what publishing is are filtering and amplification. For the purpose of this chapter it suffices to say that filtering can be seen as a broader term for what is usually referred to as selection, a task mentioned in virtually all accounts of what publishers do. On the basis not least of an inspiring thought experiment asking, if leaving a manuscript on a park bench is already an act of publishing (in the sense of making public)–and what about 1,000 manuscripts on 1,000 park benches?, he goes on (Bhaskar 2013, p. 18)–he introduces the concept of amplification as “[…] getting to the heart of what all cultural intermediation […] is all about” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 114). Amplifying means “[…]

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acting so that more copies of a work or product are distributed or consumed, or are distributed and consumed by different people without the intermediating act” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 114). Obviously, this includes all measures of marketing. To sum up: “Models undergird the process and introduce risk and value into the equation. Filtering precedes framing and amplification; amplification happens through the framing process, which collectively form the idea of cultural intermediation” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 168). This summarizes what, for Bhaskar (2013), publishing means.

4 Open-and-Shut Cases of Educational Publishing Products. Problematic Cases in Other Sectors of Publishing It is easy to see that printed schoolbooks, from textbooks to exercise books and possible other elements of complex educational products, can be seen as publications in the sense just outlined following Bhaskar (2013): materially and also with respect to their distribution channel(s), they represent a complex frame for content that is brought to the market by a publisher to earn money with it and/or to contribute to better education and/or to show competitors a benchmark. To do this, contributions from authors had to be selected (filtering) and the product made known to and perceived favorably by potential customers (amplification). All this is also true for digital schoolbooks, e.g., digital analogues of printed schoolbooks, with or without enhancements (i.e., links to additional material like videos or audios), or indeed proper e-learning products with interactive exercises, communication options, (self-)evaluation instruments, etc. Before we proceed to considerations concerning products of educational publishers that are less obviously acts of publishing in Bhaskar’s (2013) sense (learning management systems with or without content, MOOCs with real-time/synchronous components, etc.), let me present a few similarly concept-challenging phenomena in other sectors of publishing. Following an extended mission, the academic publisher Wiley is not merely publishing academic journals and books any longer, but sees itself as a company that supports all or at least a whole range of activities along the research cycle (in which most of its customers operate), from grant application writing via data management and data analysis all the way (and that was previously the core activity) to publishing results–and beyond (e.g., in the form of competitive intelligence support for possible next grant applications). Haufe, a German b2b publisher also in the area of human resources management, seeks to satisfy deep needs on the side of its customers in the following sense: these customers might not want to read a book about the desired and necessary features of certain types of documents (e.g., employer references), but rather prefer a piece of software that helps them to compose correct and effective instances of such documents right away. Duden, the German (consumer) reference work publisher, does not even have orthography dictionary publishing as an important segment of its product portfolio any longer, but–responding to logical requirements on the side of its customers–now concentrates on spell-checking software that helps customers to write orthographically correct texts. In all these cases, a question arises analogue to the one that arose concerning the second bunch of educational media products mentioned above: Can spell-checking

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software, document authoring systems, or data management software be seen as results of acts of publishing in the sense of Michael Bhaskar?

5 And What About Evolving New Forms of Educational Publishing Products? Concrete instances of the less obvious cases of educational publishing products I had mentioned can be seen in an announcement like this: “[…] Global education leader Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) announced today that it has partnered with Agilix Labs, Inc.–a leading provider of innovative teaching and learning platforms–to provide its quality educational content within a single, personalized learning platform for K–12 students, educators, parents and administrators” (HMH website https://www.hmhco. com/, Jun 24, 2013/Sep 10, 2015) or are dealt with in educational research like in a paper called MOOCs for High School by Michael Horn (2014). Bhaskar (2013) addresses related kinds of phenomena. On the extreme example of massively multiplayer online games, Bhaskar (2013, p. 31) proves clear awareness of the issue: “Here what is being published is not so much a discrete product as the wholesale simulation, maintenance and monetisation of reality. […] [T]here is almost nothing in common here [compared to simpler forms of games and other publishing products, C.B.] except interactivity. Interactivity itself is what’s published”. Bhaskar (2013, p. 179) also mentions Pearson’s purchase of the self-publishing platform Author Solutions, “[…] moving the company towards services at the expense of products”. He also refers to the venture capital activities of publishers that often support a specific type of start-ups and their products: “The companies and products [financed, C.B.] tend to be tools and services around content, rather than content suppliers” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 189). Typical services around content are increasingly “[…] tools and services to package content, rather than the act of packaging itself” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 181). Bhaskar (2013, p. 181) puts this colorfully: “The creation of the means of production is the new means of production. This isn’t necessarily publishing as such. […] The principle is: don’t dig for gold in a gold rush; sell shovels”. Moreover, there is publishing-as-a-service, e.g., in the form of automated professional editing on demand. Bhaskar (2013) also quotes other thinkers in the field. Brian O’Leary, one of the initiators of the shift of focus from containers to context, considers that content “[…] is no longer just a product. It’s part of a value chain that solves readers´ problems” (Bhaskar 2013, p. 187). Stephen Page postulates that publishers should become “[…] a creative interface between readers and writers“ (Bhaskar 2013, p. 187). The key issue here is, in how far content is an essential part of publishing products. In a central statement, Bhaskar (2013, pp. 169–170) is pretty clear about this: “There are different businesses, attracting different people with different cultures. Yet they share at least one feature: content”–Bhaskar does leave things more open in other places, though, as we have just seen. If we follow these lines of argumentation there is indeed a perfectly Bhaskarconform analysis that not least shows a certain connection between the traditional and the new activities of (former, educational) book publishers: they are publishers of products that are no longer content-based (at least of the traditional sort: texts,

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illustrations), but can nonetheless be seen as publishers, as publishers of software (as content of another one of the types allegedly covered explicitly by Bhaskar’s theory). This, however, is not a really satisfying option, since it does not insinuate an association between the two instances with an explanative power–the analysis takes a detour, as it were, and states the transformation of the originator from a publisher of one type of content to a publisher of another (very different: software) type of content. This is counter-intuitive and misses aspects in common, for example, along the lines of supporting learning/teaching processes in both cases. Is there a better alternative option to integrate phenomena like the ones mentioned into Bhaskar’s theory? Instead of building on Bhaskar’s content-based thinking prevailing throughout the book, it could be a momentous option indeed to go right back to square one, as it were, and take an even more abstract approach as a central point of departure when it comes to shared features between all kinds of publishing. Building on a view taken by Stephen Page (see above), publishing could thus alternatively be seen as to serve as a creative interface between people with ideas and target groups, as to be a target-group manager. For the case of books, newspapers, and magazines we would have to postulate contingent (!) content-centric historical phases from the Ancient World to 1990 and (after the digitization on the product side had started across the board) from 1990 to just about now, the time of learning platforms. If none of these two solutions seems acceptable, we would have to see such learning platforms as instances of diversification (in the broad business studies sense) of a book publisher into the field of a software publisher–this is in a way similar analysis to the somewhat notchy one within the framework of Bhaskar’s approach above–and, in looking for an explanation that fulfills all requirements, explicitly move out of the range of Bhaskar’s theory.

6 Conclusions Innovative products can challenge common conceptions in and about industries. In the educational media segment, products like learning platforms are like this. These products often still originate from companies formerly known as educational publishers. Bhaskar’s original go at a theory of publishing presents a suitable background to think about the question, if such products still can be seen as outcomes of acts of publishing. A view on publishing with content as the one essential core of publishing offerings (a stance taken by Bhaskar) seems to be too restrictive to cover a new range of products and particularly to capture a plausible development line between these products and traditional book publishing products. Bhaskar’s (2013) approach deserves to be modified to fully and convincingly integrate such offerings, since they are and will increasingly be publishing reality. This chapter brings forward two proposals: (1) Take non-content offerings or offerings that contain non-content components, i.e., components that are not text or illustrations or also videos, as content, as content of a higher order, as it were. This would be true, for example, for content-based software, content handling software, etc. However, in doing so, the corresponding

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company is analyzed as having crossed the line between different creative industries, from book/media industries to the software industry. This is not particularly plausible and leads to a loss of helpful categorizations–considering that the company just extended its product portfolio in a process that might have looked utterly consistent and seamless from the strategic point of view of that company. (2) Raise the level of abstraction once more: the core shared feature of book (and other forms of) publishing is not content, but being a creative interface between people with ideas and target groups, between demand and supply of typically immaterial goods, acting as a target-group manager. The first option is not really satisfying and the second one triggers a fundamental rethinking of Bhaskar’s (2013) theory.

References M. Bhaskar, The Content Machine. Towards a Theory of Publishing from the Printing Press to the Digital Network (Anthem, London, 2013) M. B. Horn, MOOCs for High School. EducationNext 14(3) (2014)

The Use of Community Resources for the Inclusion of Preschool Students in Schools María Montserrat Castro-Rodríguez(&) Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, Spain [email protected]

Abstract. The use of diverse resources in preschool education institutions constitutes an opportunity to work from a perspective of greater inclusiveness. This chapter presents selected results of a study carried out at the preschool level. The aims of the research were, on the one hand, to identify the kind of information contained in school blogs and websites regarding activities and resources carried out during the last three courses, and, on the other hand, to identify the materials four preprimary schools in Galicia used. In addition, the study aimed at assessing whether these materials were contextualized in the local social and natural environment of each school. The qualitative methods used encompassed observation and document analysis, especially of videos and pictures elaborated by teachers and students in rural schools. In addition, activities and resources were recorded on video. Some of the main findings are that all schools used many community and environmental resources, however, to a different extent. They also differed in terms of online dissemination of resources and activities. Overall, the teaching staff seemed keen on sharing material within their institution and with other schools. However, in the rural setting, there was a stronger trend to also share materials with non-educational institutions. As a result, more families were willing to contribute with their own materials. In most schools, the teaching staff dedicated more time to select and amend materials than design their own educational media. Keywords: Resources


Preschool education
Inclusive resources

1 Introduction In Spain, the majority of children attend school from the age of 3, although this level of education is not compulsory. The statistics reveal that, over the last 25 years, more than 95 per cent of Spanish students in this age range were enrolled in school (JiménezDelgado et al. 2016). One of the basic principles of the inclusive school is the contextualization of its teaching-learning, in terms of the human component as well as the local socio-cultural and natural environment (Abundis 2014). While this contextualization is essential for multiple reasons, we would like to highlight its motivating potential for students. In addition, students also need to understand their environment in order to interpret it critically. From a pragmatic point of view, access to materials coming from the daily © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 67–76, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_6

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life in class can foster direct significant learning, as well as higher levels of fairness and shared knowledge among peers. We believe that preschool teachers, as Sánchez-Blanco and Castro-Rodríguez (2015, p. 89) point out, should pay particular attention to “[…] design, selection and/or adaptation of materials in the pursuit of inclusive environments”. These are vital tasks in which teacher teams bear a great responsibility, given the great effort required for “[…] all students, without exception, to develop their potential to the maximum” (Sánchez-Blanco and Castro-Rodríguez (2015, p. 90). From this epistemological standpoint, there is a justifiable need to identify the educational practices and resources being used in Galician schools, and whether they are contextualized in the local natural and social environment.

2 Materials in Preschool In the first years of life, children need and want to learn to understand the natural and social environment in which they live (Navarrete 2015). During this process, materials are functional elements of education and they must assist students to identify, distinguish, and interpret everything that surrounds them, including such things as specific objects, words, facts, and living beings. Materials can also facilitate the acquisition of knowledge of other realities, cultures, and spaces that are more distant and often more abstract. Especially in these early years, the learning process must be nourished by appropriate didactic strategies adapted to the students’ needs (Ruiz and Abad 2016). The focus should be on observing, touching, experimenting, tasting, interpreting, analyzing, searching, finding, and comparing everything that surrounds them. Knowing one’s environment means interacting with resources and materials that exist in that specific location. Contextualizing the teaching-learning process in children’s own environment can help foster the active participation (Ruiz and Abad 2016) and understanding of all students, especially those with specific educational needs (Booth and Ainscow 2011). Moreover, it democratizes accessibility to resources and materials that are mostly available for free. The process of evolving from the near to the distant can be greatly enhanced by information and communication technology (ICT) (Sánchez 2017). Students see, observe, and play with something proximate, and can even capture it afterwards with technological resources in formats, such as photographs, videos, and sounds. This not only allows them to develop digital skills, but also lets them see how these resources capture reality subjectively. In other words, the same object or situation can be seen differently depending on perspective, distance, and purpose. All these practices can help to develop complex teaching-learning processes from an early age on, because children recognize the value of their own environment (both what is positive and what requires change), look for ways of disseminating it, and raise awareness in others using technological and other means.

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3 The Schooling of Preschool Students in Rural Galicia The present study was carried out in Galicia, in Northern Spain. Demographic dispersion has given rise to a very interesting and complex school map. In Galicia, there are various types of schools with preschool education students aged 3–6. CEIP (Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria, Combined Preschool Center and Primary School) schools educate both preprimary and primary school students. Other types of schools enrolling entirely or mostly preprimary students are the EEI (Escuela de Educación Infantil, Early Childhood School) and CRA (Centro Rural Agrupado, Unified Rural School Center) (Table 1). Both types of schools, but particularly the latter, can be found in rural areas. The present study focuses on EEI and CRA schools, which are mostly located in towns with small populations or rural areas close to large cities (Feu 1998) and which increasingly work as scattered settlements (aldeas). Table 1. Characteristics of the EEI and CRA (source: author). Preprimary Schools (EEI)

Grouped Rural Schools (CRA)

• Independent schools with students aged – 6 years • Each individual school with students aged 3–6 years • Some schools teach students up to 8 years of age (but it is • Several classrooms • All students share the same physical space in one or currently not frequent) • Individual schools located in different villages (no more buildings physical space is shared) • Administratively, the individual schools belong to a single school

4 Objectives, Methods and Sample The justification for choosing websites and blogs as tools for analysis was that the Galician government has invested vast funds over the last two decades to equip schools with Internet access, computers and a platform for building websites and blogs. In recent years, both school blogs and websites have been used as a showcase for their daily activity and for implementing their educational project. For this reason, we considered it interesting to conduct a review of the use made by schools of websites and blogs to disseminate their work, analyze the activities carried out, the resources used, and the extent to which these teaching resources are contextualized in the local environment. The study presented in this chapter follows two objectives. On the one hand, it aims to identify the kind of information presented in school blogs and websites regarding activities and resources over the last three courses. On the other hand, it intends to identify the resources and materials used in four preschool education schools in Galicia, and to assess to what extent they are contextualized in the local social and natural environment. The empirical study consisted of three phases. The first phase encompassed the review and analysis of the website and blogs of all Galician EEI (129 institutions) and CRAs (27 institutions) involved in Preprimary Education.

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The second phase entailed the web and blog analysis based on the acquired data and information and targeted the identification of different models. Based on the results, schools used four types of blogs and websites. Schools following Model I used their websites and blogs to explain many kinds of activities and used a great variety of proprietary and foreign resources. These, however, were always contextualized within he local environment. In the images and videos, students show how carry out the activities. Model II is very similar to the previous model, however, the way students carry out the activities was not shown. The websites and blogs of school belonging to Model III merely showed the celebration of special cultural events. Finally, Model IV school followed the same pattern as Model III institutions, but much less frequently. The sample (Table 2) presented in this chapter is limited to one school for each of the four Models. School selection was based on the following criteria: (1) each school represents a model identified in the general study; (2) number of students enrolled; (3) specific geopolitical framework; (4) school websites and blogs running for the last three years consecutively. Table 2. Characteristics of the sample (source: author).

EEI1 rural school EE2 rural school EEI3 urban school CRA Total

Number of classrooms 6

Number of locations 1

Number of students 150

1

1

11

12

1

300

8

5

130

27

8

591

Remarks Two units/level One mixed unit, students of all ages Four units/level Groups with students of different ages

Qualitative methods served to answer the research questions. Along with the analysis of activities and resources available in different types of preprimary schools through their websites or blogs, interviews with teachers drew additional information regarding the resources used in their classrooms. The Index of Inclusion by Booth and Ainscow (2011) served as a reference for to identify whether resources used in classrooms promoted educational inclusion. This Index presents a long list of items that make it possible to analyze to what extent politics, culture, and educational practices facilitate the inclusion of all students in the classroom. For this study, we selected indicators and questions related to use of materials from the local environment: mobilizing resources (C.2); student difference (heterogeneity) is used as a resource for teaching and learning (C.2.1); staff expertise is fully utilized (C.2.2); school resources are distributed fairly so that they support inclusion (C.2.5). For each indicator, Booth and Ainscow (2011) proposed several questions to guide the analysis. We selected these indicators given their wide acceptance.

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5 Results and Discussion This section presents the types of materials found online. In doing so, it follows the indicators and questions provided by Booth and Ainscow (2011). 5.1

What Materials and Resources Do the Analyzed School Use?

In general, all schools made use of various, numerous, and local materials and resources in one way or another. Their number oscillated between 27 materials in the EEI and the 100 in the CRA. Fair access to resources contributes to greater equality of opportunity, as it ensures that all schools have access to resources their specific profile requires (Abundis 2014; Bolívar 2015). The use of local resources, given their immediate availability in most cases, opens up a wide range of opportunities, while favoring greater social inclusion of students in their environment (Guerra and Zuccoli 2014). This facilitates students in both better understanding their local environment and adopting a critical stance to it (Mooij 2007). At present, natural and social environmental resources entail, for example, access to ICT. This, in turn, allows students to gradually get to know the world beyond their own experienced realities (Sung et al. 2015). Along this road, children learn to understand a diverse world where everyone has their own reality–a reality that is neither better nor worse, just different. From this standpoint, all schools gave relevance to their way of understanding education, although the information published on their websites and blogs requires further details to deeply understand the extent to which they promote the educational and social inclusion of their students. 5.2

Analysis of Inclusiveness Indicators

Three inclusiveness indicators (cf. Table 3) offer detailed insight into the way schools dealt with resources. Indicator C.2.1 measures whether the school resources are distributed fairly to support inclusion. While adequate supply with resources is an essential requirement of an inclusive education considering the broadest possible diversity, both their quantity and quality needs to be considered. Schools need both sufficient and quality materials and resources tailored to the specific needs, interests, and potential of their student population. Overall, Galician schools receive the sufficient amount of materials (Rodríguez-Rodríguez 2009). Moreover, there is a change in the government strategy consisting of giving up the mass mails of generic materials to all school and moving towards adopting more autonomous strategies to acquire materials suitable for the school’s individual needs. The results of this study show that teaching staff never mentioned shortage of specific materials on school websites and in blogs. Regarding existing resources, they acknowledged the fair distribution of resources across the various grades. In addition, teaching staff related about a culture of sharing resources in their institutions with some schools (CRA) even sharing with other community institutions. The analyzed

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webpages and blogs contained no explicit references to resource adequacy or any shortcomings in need to be addressed. The specific profile of each analyzed school may be decisive as to whether the distribution of resources and materials is fair, shared, and/or personalized. In general, all schools used their spending budgets to acquire their own resources from the local natural and social environment in addition to those provided by the education administration. The culture of sharing within the school and between the institutions, however, may have more to do with the specific profile of each school. In general, all the studied schools had a large variety of resources and educational experiences at their disposal, which may help address students’ interests, motivations, needs, strengths, and tastes (Guerra and Zuccoli 2014). The nature of these resources bears no obstacles to participation, even with respect to people with functional diversity (Haya Salmón 2011). Especially in CRA, the abundance of materials from the local natural and social environment allows students to participate in daily life. These materials have versatile uses and are easily interchangeable. Teachers’ comments highlighted a broad knowledge of local resources and materials. However, we found facilities to show varying levels of adaptation. For example, again in CRA, some classroom facilities were outdated and, in some cases, unsuitable for the needs of disabled people. The second indicator, C.2.2, explores whether community resources are well known and taken advantage of? The results show that not all schools made room for community life in the same way or with the same intensity (María and Serrano 2016). The differences are striking. Contributions of materials and resources from the community are known to exist, but only in CRA do pictures reflect and make explicit reference to space and time for students to bring materials that interest them to class (Haya Salmón 2011). For example, students frequently visit local facilities to participate in the activities that are normally carried out there. In three consecutive years, the researcher visited all local public and private institutions. The neighbors participated in the classroom by teaching students about their professions and hobbies. They even opened the doors of their homes and private businesses so that all children could learn, experiment, and discuss interesting aspects of the daily life of these homes and businesses. These activities were carried out as educational projects following the purpose to study and, subsequently, analyze educational experiences in the classrooms. In contrast to CRA, other school carried out considerably fewer activities of this kind, regardless of their location in urban or rural areas. The only institution that maintains a relationship with all four schools is the municipal library. All schools go to the library to attend library-promoted initiatives or activities where students perform storytelling, plays, etc. In this regard, an overall fruitful collaboration was observed. All across the sample, it is very difficult to find educational projects that were truly shared with the rest of the community. CRA are the only exception, as families can propose ideas and participate in the classroom. The results concerning the educational community also apply to the family. The involvement of families differs greatly and depends on the school. For example, in EEI, families collaborated with the school providing a variety of materials and pictures from

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Table 3. The results of the analyzed inclusiveness indicators (source: author). Indicator C.2.1

C.2.2

C.2.5

Fair and open distribution Flexible and multipurpose for different ages Independent learning Attention to specific educational needs Use of the school library Community collaboration in the educational project Family involvement in the classroom Use of community professionals Resources and materials are recycled Teachers are aware of local resources Use of ICT as a resource for knowledge acquisition

EEI1 (rural) A A

EEI2 (rural) A A

EEI3 (urban) A A

CRA (rural) A A

S A

N A

N A

A A

S N

A N

S N

A A

S

S

N

A

N A

S A

N A

A A

S

A

S

A

N

A

N

S

their homes, participating in the preparation of meals and costumes for celebrations or bringing animals to the class. Still, they were, in very general terms, rarely present in the classroom. Something very different occurred in CRA. Families actively participated, from collaboration in school initiatives to offering their own home for the organization of school-wide events to talking about their jobs. This is a good form of collaboration between schools and families. A similar situation existed in EEI2 rural school. The third indicator (C.2.5) explores how teachers generate resources to support learning and participation. Our results draw the picture of a society that is still largely divided regarding which resources enhance learning and participation. ICT play an important role in some schools, while other schools encourage different types of resources. As already mentioned, a fundamental characteristic of the analyzed schools is their dynamic nature. Teachers working at these institutions promoted a wide variety of materials, resources, and experiences. The work carried out over the three years revealed that new conent from previous work was constantly introduced as new content. These new projects are in one way or another linked to concluded projects. This demonstrates the above-mentioned dynamism and also highlights the professional competence of teachers for opening new knowledge possibilities. However, not all teachers at all analyzed schools are familiar with the schools’ community and environment, neither do teachers always show a positive attitude toward using community content in the classroom. This was evidenced by the fact that the local community and environment were much less present at some schools.

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Summarizing the results for each school in part, EEI2 rural school addressed a variety of topics and also mobilized a multitude of resources. This provided opportunities to all students to develop different skills by addressing different intelligences. Some initiatives that stood out involved recycled materials, for example decorating the school with props from their theater productions, and the use of ICT from the perspective of utility for daily life (Sung et al. 2015). This school integrated different types of resources and materials in such a way that students used them for specific practical purposes in their daily life. It also facilitated children in acquiring technological competence, defined as knowledge that can be transferred to any area of life. Obviously, this is a way of contributing to greater student inclusion through technological resources. Judging by the published images, ICT was barely present in the classrooms at EEI1 rural school and EEI3 urban school. There are significant differences between the two schools. EEI1 rural school seems to have supported a lower variety of educational experiences and initiatives. These also seem to be independent from their contextualization in the local or more remote environments. In contrast, EEI3 urban school second school dealt with a broader variety of topics, materials, and resources contextualized in both the local and more distant environments in a balanced manner. The dynamism of CRA was evident throughout the study. However, students seem to have made less frequent use of ICT. Nevertheless, their blogs and websites presented the work done in greater detail and revealed an appreciation for the value of local resources, which were used flexibly and in such a way as to allow transferability to other situations. Moreover, numerous activities involved recycling materials from the local environment.

6 Conclusions The analyzed blogs and websites contain a considerable amount of information. However, they also bear a number of limitations, such as the predominance a specific type of image (either photo or video), some images are enriched with text comments, and the (un)conscious subjectivity of the person who manages online resources. All these limitations must be taken into account when analyzing the online information. Based on our results, we recommend schools to train their teachers to become professional information managers. This seems to be an essential skill to oversee and exploit the multitude of dissemination opportunities. The results of this study show an overall wealth of resources and materials in preschools. This can contribute greatly to promoting student inclusion because a wide range of possibilities can better address the needs of each student in key aspects, such as motivation and interests. Standardized and generic option still outnumber materials and resources from the local natural and social environment. The latter, however, are key mediators in the teaching-learning process, reason why their importance should be reconsidered. In preschool education it is necessary to first contextualize the teaching-learning process in students’ immediate and daily reality. Starting from there, the path towards more abstract experiences and thinking can be easily initiated. Students unable to relate the learned content may experience challenges in their educational and social inclusion.

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In the case study presented in this chapter, the socio-political environment (rural/urban) of each school may explain the extent to which resources and materials from the local context are part of the teaching-learning process. The particularities of the Galician rural society may favor a practice more open to local resources and materials, but we also detected a strong presence of more standardized resources. The results also shed light on how schools can make use of community resources and materials by integrating them both inside and outside of the classroom. However, the involvement of the community in terms of human resources remains less common, and only one school showed a clear commitment in this area. Strengthening community relations, however, is an urgent strategy of making better use of resources. This study found no explicit evidence concerning the teachers’ knowledge of the resources that can be provided by the educational community. However, there seems to be an interest in publicizing the school work being done to the community, hence, in the dissemination by means of virtual space. Future research should focus on the management and use of educational resources in the various educational institutions. Thereby, of particular interest is the contrastive analysis of the content published on their websites and blogs as well as their actions during daily classroom activities. Similarly, an important aspect in need of further research is listening to the voices of students, teachers, and family members concerning the value they attribute to the educational resources in general, and everyday life artifacts, used in the classroom.

References A. Abundis, Atención y Función Ejecutiva: Desarrollo e Impacto de Factores Socio-Ambientales (Universidad de Granada, Granada, 2014) A. Bolívar, Justicia social y equidad escolar. Una revisión actual. Revista internacional de educación para la justicia social 1(1), 10–45 (2015) T. Booth, M. Ainscow, Index for Inclusion: Developing Learning and Participation in Schools. Bristol: Centre for Studies in Inclusive Education (CSIE) (2011) J. Feu, La transformació del món rural: el sentit de “l’escola rural” en un món que es desrulalitza. Temps d’educació 20, 287–314 (1998) M. Guerra, F. Zuccoli, Unconventinal materials from the infant toddler center through school, in 77th International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, ed. by L. G. Chova, A. Martínez, I. Torres (ICERI, Sevilla 2014), pp. 6494–6499 I. Haya Salmón, Dar Voz al Alumnado En La Construcción de Escuelas Inclusivas: Dos Estudios de Caso Sobre Proyectos Locales de Mejora (Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, 2011) M. Jiménez-Delgado, D. Jareño-Ruiz, D. El-Habib, La expansión de la educación infantil en España: entre la igualdad de oportunidades y la segregación. Revista Iberoamericana de Educación 72, 19–44 (2016). https://doi.org/10.35362/rie72034 M. C. Ruiz-Torres, R. Mérida-Serrano, Promover la inclusión de las familias a través del desarrollo de Proyectos de Trabajo. Un estudio de caso. Revista Complutense de Educación 27(3), 943–961 (2016). doi:https://doi.org/10.5209/rev_RCED.2016.v27.n3.47022 T. Mooij, Contextual Learning theory: concrete form and a software prototype to improve early education. Comput. Educ. 48(1), 100–118 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2005. 01.002

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I. Navarrete, Estudio Caracterológico y Diferenciado de Adolescentes Con Trastorno Del Espectro Del Autismo, Otras Discapacidades y Desarrollo Típico (Universidade da Coruña, A Coruña, 2015) Rodríguez-Rodríguez, J. (2009). Os materiais curriculares en Galicia. Vigo: Edicións Xerais. A. Ruiz, J. Abad, Lugares de juego y encuentro para la infancia. Revista Iberoamericana de educación 71, 37–62 (2016). https://doi.org/10.35362/rie7103 C. Sánchez-Blanco, M.M. Castro-Rodríguez, Dilemas en relación a los materiales y recursos para una educación infantil inclusiva. Reladei 4(1), 87–104 (2015) C. Sánchez, Desarrollo de Valores a Través de Los Cuentos, Con Metodologías Tracdicionales o Tics, En La Etapa de Educación Infantil (Universidad de Córdoba, Córdoba, 2017) H.Y. Sung, G.J. Hwang, H.S. Chang, An integrated contextual and web-based issue quest approach to improving students’ learning achievements, attitudes and critical thinking. Educ. Technol. Soc. 18(4), 299–311 (2015)

The Role of Teaching Materials in Educational Innovation in Early Childhood Education. Initial Reflections and Analysis of Good Practices Denébola Álvarez Seoane(&) and Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter presents an initial reflection on the role of teaching materials in the process of educational innovation in early childhood education. Its main aim was to shed light on good practices at this educational level and to create a pluralistic and flexible framework based on case studies. The chapter begins by addressing the theoretical approach to four issues, namely the importance of teaching materials in early childhood education, their roles, criteria for selection of good practice case studies, and the role of teaching materials in the processes of innovation. Regarding the main stages of the project and the instruments analyzed, the paper goes on to present selected examples of good practices in early childhood education that illustrate the role given to materials and to present some initial conclusions. Keywords: Teaching materials Good practices


Educational innovation
Early childhood


1 Introduction This chapter explores selected aspects of a larger study concerning the identification, analysis, representation, and visibility of good practices in early childhood education. The overarching study intends to do so in an international (involving research teams from different countries), multicultural (looking for models that meet the characteristics of the cultural context), and multidisciplinary perspective and followed two main objectives. On the one hand, it targeted the identification, analysis, and representation of a hundred good practices in the various components and dimensions that characterize and influence early childhood education. On the other hand, it sought to establish a flexible and plural framework of the analyzed examples by tracing both the uniqueness of each example and the transferable to other examples. Linked to these two main objectives, there is a third purpose as well, namely to establish an international community of researchers and practitioners able to create strong dynamics of cooperation and exchange. The selection of good practice examples happened on the grounds of preestablished criteria derived from previous research. In agreement with the institution, each of the examples and the selected practices was studied in situ by means of a triple © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 77–89, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_7

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approach: (1) interviews with managers and/or teachers (depending on whether it was an institutional or class-centered practice); (2) practice observation and evidence collection (recordings, products, patterned observations); (3) analysis of institutional and professional documents (educational project, learning schedules). The team consisted of 31 researchers and six collaborators (22 women and 15 men) from seven Spanish universities. Additional international teams will work simultaneously in their own contexts in Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Bolivia. One of the essential understandings the main study rests on it questioning the idea that there may be a universal model that is effective and transferable to any situation. Consequently, the identification of good practices sought to find ways of responding effectively to the diverse demands of context (Benavente 2007) in a manner that satisfied participants. Along these lines, the concept of good practices is applicable to any field of human activity, from public policy to the specific actions of individuals. Moreover, international literature is not limited to considering the idea of good practices but raises the level of demand to best practices–to what works best in a given context. The merging concept of best practices has a relativizing quality, as it is not an absolute and general superlative (the best that can be done, unsurpassable), but instead is relative and contextual: the best that is done in the context to which we refer, the best that can be done in a particular framework of conditions, the best existing practices, which might even be the least negative ones. The overall objective of the research presented in this chapter was to select, analyze, and visualize a battery of good practices in early childhood education to understand more deeply the conditions of good educational work with young children, provide adequate models, and help improve the quality at this educational stage. Thereby, special attention was dedicated to the fact whether learning activities helped teachers to carry out innovative practices in the sense of aiding curricular implementation in a way that adapts to student pace and integrates the various members of the educational community.

2 Theoretical Framework 2.1

Teaching Materials in Early Childhood Education

The definition of teaching materials for early childhood education underlying this study encompasses all resources developed for the fundamental purpose of facilitating the process of knowledge construction by students and teachers. These resources can manifest in a variety of different forms and symbolic systems. They also can serve the purposes of a program or educational project. Additional materials that were initially designed for other purposes but were attributed didactic purposes during their use are also considered to be teaching materials. The conceptualization process first focused on the existing classifications of teaching materials for early childhood education (cf. Zabalza 1987; Romero 2003; Area 2004; Rodríguez and Montero 2002; Pascual 2006; Villalva 2006; Pérez and Malagarriga 2010). In addition, the classification of educational software as proposed by

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Vidal Puga (2015) was considered: drill and practice programs, tutorial programs, programing and problem solving, simulation programs, educational games, interactive stories, multimedia books, and learning objects. The latter classification rests on the work of various authors (Cabero et al. 1993; Liguori 1995; Feria 1998; Valente 1999; Solano et al. 2001). The main purpose of this conceptual review and terminological clarification was to address the need for a framework for example description and interpretation. Both the diversity of materials and the lack of a precise terminology in the field made a clear conceptualization necessary. 2.2

Features of Teaching Materials in Early Childhood Education

In general terms and as a guideline, following features of teaching materials in early childhood education were considered (Parcerisa 1996): – innovation, by means of introducing new teaching material (on occasion, the change may be only superficial and not a true innovation); – motivation by capturing students’ attention; – structuring, since each material is presented in specific ways; – configuration of the type of relationship that students have with the learning content, seeing as each material encourages a certain type of mental activity; – controlling of the contents to be taught; – soliciting, seeing as materials act both as a methodological guide that organizes the training activity, and a communicative guide, since materials are a basic structural requirement of the pedagogical cultural communication; – formative–in general or strictly pedagogic sense–since materials aid the learning of certain attitudes along their characteristics and usage; – as a deposit of method and professionalism, since materials are precisely what close the curriculum and adapt more to the needs of teachers than those of students (especially in the case of textbooks), which explains why excessively innovative materials often fail. At the same time, materials determine the method and the performance of teachers; – as a consumer product that is bought and sold, albeit in a unique manner because purchase is mandatory and under almost oligopolistic conditions. In light of the above, this chapter aims to identify, analyze, and explain both the educational thinking and practices of leaders and professionals from various childhood education areas that can be described as good practices. A deeper understanding and documentation of good practices in early childhood education is expected to serve as starting point to establish the basic coordinates that characterize good educational practices so that it becomes available to supervisors and professionals working at this level, but also for those involved in initial teacher training.

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3 Methods and Sample A mixed methodology served to collect and analyze data. The three fundamental elements for the study of good practices were the personal view of the participants (the foundation of practice), the practices themselves (the visible dimension of practice), and the relationship between the two. Based on these three elements, various patterns of knowledge and experience transfer were analyzed. Regarding the role of teaching materials, special attention was dedicated to analyzing functions that may be playing a role in the development of good practices. The sample consisted of 50 good practice examples from early childhood education. Fur the purposes of the study presented here, a total of three good practice examples were selected.

4 Results The three analyzed good practice examples show different ways of designing and using teaching materials. 4.1

First Good Practice Example

The title of the first learning experiment is Intergenerational Work in a School with 3and 4-Year-Old Children and was dedicated to the topic of intergenerational work between young learners (aged 3–6) and senior citizens from the Sar Quavitae nursing home. Consequently, the targeted persons were students in the first year of early childhood education and senior citizens. Under the coordination of Lorena Martínez Seoane (Escuelas de Educación Infantil Os Ánxeles-Brión, preschool), the project involved several stakeholders, such as early education teachers, the school head, senior citizens from the nursing home, parents, and socio-educational instructors employed at the nursing home. The project followed three main objectives: (1) development of intergenerational attitudes between students and the elderly; (2) promote attitudes and values relating to solidarity; and (3) contribute to the emotional and social development of the students. The main activities targeted encounters between children and senior citizens. During these meetings, it was equally important to also carry out other activities, such as crafts, painting workshops, literacy activities, etc. Teaching materials played various roles. Table 1 contains details on the role and function of teaching materials for the good practice. Overall, a considerable part of the early childhood education materials on the market show a very limited contribution to intergenerational student activities in schools. The same applies to other educational levels, such as primary education (e.g., Zapico 2012). Materials used in this case study proved helpful for the overall objectives of the research project and had following functions:

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Table 1. Teaching materials used in the first learning example (source: authors). Type of material

Description

Function

Participating authors

Letter production

These are letters that the children and grandparents send to each other (The children deal with subjects involving visits, invitations or other more ‘unpredictable’ issues and grandparents write about the places where they come from, peculiarities of their region, etc.)

Teaching staff, students, and seniors Nursing home staff

Elaborated materials (murals)

Photographs of such things as meetings, trips, birthday parties of students and seniors

Structuring reality, as it helps to organize life experiences of both children and the elderly Motivating, catching the attention of students and seniors Innovative, by bringing new work routines into the classroom and providing an alternative to textbooks Intergenerational exchange Motivating, catching the attention of students and seniors Stimulating, encourages contact between students, the elderly, the environment Intergenerational exchange Motivating, catching the attention of students and seniors Synthesis of life experiences and activities in the nursing home and in the school jointly (on visits, parties, joint activities etc.) Structuring of reality by the particular way of presenting the experiences Intergenerational exchange Informative, dissemination of activities

Audiovisual documentaries

Website

Students, seniors, teachers

Students, seniors, teachers

Teachers

– innovation: facilitating intergenerational practices in the classroom that are alternatives to textbooks. In addition, it also stands for an alternative way of looking at relationships within school. In terms of organizational issues, both the school and other stakeholders were actively involved in the process; – motivation: catching the attention of children and seniors and enabling them to approach reality in a different and attractive way; – community work: enabling joint initiatives between the school and the community, especially the nursing home. Letters and e-mails are clear examples of resources that enabled informative and formative exchange. In addition, these materials fostered an approximation to students’ contextual reality;

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– structuring reality: primarily by helping to collect and organize life stories and experiences of senior citizens who participated in the initiative, and through the structuring of student experiences and activities; – complementarity: adding new elements to the function of other materials, especially considering that intergenerational aspects are scarcely addressed in other educational resources; – stimulation: induced by the exposure of students, teachers, and senior citizens to educational interests differing from those traditionally included in textbooks; – the initiative contributed to the development of a project work methodology at school; – the materials enabled a stronger consideration of students’ reality. 4.2

Second Good Practice Example

Carrying the title Attention to Diversity in the Early Childhood Classroom: An Experience Based on Mathematics, the second learning example explored under the coordination of Patricia Cinza Sanjurjo (Centro de Educación Infantil y Primaria Sagrado Corazón de Lugo, preschool and primary school) the topic of logicalmathematical learning (i.e., numbers, quantity, differentiating geometrical shapes, and symmetry). While students (aged 5) enrolled in early childhood education were the main target group, other stakeholders involved were teachers. The project followed two main and three specific objectives. General objectives were, on the one hand, to foster the comprehensive and individual development of students, and, on the other hand, to support students in the field of mathematics by doing complementary activities without using the typical index cards or materials. The specific objectives encompassed the reinforcement of logical-mathematical concepts (e.g., shape-background, geometric shapes, number and quantity, color), to contribute to a climate of respect during classroom activities, and to organize complementary activities in the field of mathematics. The main activities covered the division of the day into a number of time slots, including entry routines, assembly, individual work, corners, snack, recess, large-group activities, workshops, and group games. A number of teaching materials contributed to identifying the roles and functions of materials as a factor of good practice concerning diversity (Table 2). The alternatives to the textbook used in the second example supported students of different achievement levels and of different background. The differentiating alternative teaching materials offered a variety of materials to address student diversity and enable logical-mathematical learning. In generally terms, the materials served the following functions: – innovation: alternative materials were made available. In certain cases, students became the authors of their own materials as family involvement supported material plurality; – motivation: the diverse materials better responded to student interests;

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Table 2. Teaching materials used in the second learning example (source: authors). Type of material

Description

Function

Games (Sudoku, clip set, making images, Tangram, number association, perceptive games)

These games are used throughout the year for different purposes and goals, especially for practicing mathematical content

New technologies (digital whiteboard)

It is mainly used to incorporate different types of games

Motivating, catching the attention of students Training, since the material assist the acquisition of certain skills and mathematical content. These games tend to suit the type of project that is being carried out Adaptation to students with special education needs Personal and social development, because students get used to working with different classmates Motivating Structuring reality

Participating authors Students (receptors of materials and authors of some by painting, building, etc.) Teachers and families (by bringing in materials and using them with students)

Students, seniors, teachers

– evaluation: throughout the course, materials underwent evaluation by teacher observation and the analysis of learning activities. Following their introduction, evaluation assessed their efficacy and led to required changes; – complementarity to textbooks, as most textbooks available to students contain no activities tailored for special educational needs; – adapted: in general, the teaching materials used are low cost and originate from the Internet. The main challenges seem to be tied to printing and laminating the materials; – the teaching materials contributed to the development of a project work methodology in the school. 4.3

Third Good Practice Example

Sandra Dios Suárez (Escola Infantil Municipal da Madalena, Ames, preschool) coordinated the third learning example titled The Elaboration of Own Materials by Teachers. The topic emerged from the educational project of a newly opened municipal school on educational partnership. Educational materials used in the school are developed and designed by the teachers with community participation. Thereby, the

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main target group were students (aged 0–3), while teachers, families, the City Hall, and municipal services were other stakeholders involved. The project followed no specific objective, as the teaching staff restrained from formulating aims. In contrast, teachers stressed that the project contributed to family participation in school activities and to informing parents about their children’s learning. The main activities started with teaching material design resulting from the conclusion that commercial offers were less congruent with the school’s educational philosophy. Teachers designed and produced their original teaching materials during lesson planning that involved students, families, and the community. The assessment of this process involved teamwork and required rethinking the daily practice of teachers; an evaluation of family participation is also done, which is evidence for procedural student assessment. Table 3 describes the function of the teaching materials in the classroom practice in an example where teachers become educational media designers. The third example involving the design and production of own teaching materials arose in response to the shortage of educational resources for early childhood education (students aged 0–3 years), the lack of contextual adaptation, and the methodological dissonance with existing resources. Such exercises greatly contribute to teachers’ personal and professional growth. In general terms, the materials fulfilled the following functions: – innovation: introducing collaboration between teachers and families, making the school more open to the community with an educational project built by and for the community. The design and production of own teaching materials by teachers is not an isolated event, but is instead related to the conception of the educational project by the school; – motivation: the design and production of teaching materials is a creative process. The end product involves the educational professionals, families, and the local community and moves students to the center of the learning process (materials reflect the personality, skills, and the development of each child as an individual with their own identity); – structuring students’ reality, given its emphasis on the local perspective and immediate vicinity; – contributing to a climate of tolerance and freedom; – controlling contents: by recapitulating the work done in the classroom, the teaching materials help orientate both teachers and families in theater of each child’s learning processes; – requiring methodologies that are student-centered, project-based, organized in educational pairings in the classroom, and that continuously assess students, teachers, and schools; – formative: acting as a learning aid; – evaluative: teaching materials are both the process and the outcome of the formative activities, continuously assessing the learning processes and aiding the reflection on, evaluation of, and improvement of the teaching process; – realistic: in terms of their feasibility as the materials produced are low cost with printing involving the highest cost. The economic and human resources involved are already available at the school.

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Table 3. Teaching materials used in the third learning example (source: authors). Type of material

Description

Function

Didactic material A Miña Vida en Papeis (My Life on Paper)

Book put together during the school year with students aged up to one year, for work with the course content and evidencing the maturation of each child during their first year

Didactic material Por un sorriso un doce (A Sweet for a Smile)

Collaborative recipe book put together during the school year with students aged 2–3, for promoting involvement by families and the municipality. It was so successful within the school community that the city published 500 copies

Educational project

The educational project of the school has been built and negotiated with all stakeholders (educational and service staff at schools, families, politicians, and external parties)

Innovative, involving teacher and community collaboration Motivating, because students are at the center of learning and because families are involved in the learning of their children Structuring of local reality Controlling and orientating content Formative Evaluative Innovative, involving teacher and community collaboration Motivating, because students are at the center of learning and because families are involved in the learning of their children Structuring of local reality Controlling and orientating content Formative Evaluative Innovative, schools are open to the community Configuring a climate of tolerance and freedom Requiring didactic methods and educational organization

Participating authors Students, teachers, families

Students, teachers, families, city hall

Students, teachers, families, city hall, community

5 Discussion The analysis of three good practice examples uncovered a number of core challenges. One of the central issues is the need for teaching materials to be contextualized to meet the needs of students who might otherwise be deprived of educational resources addressing their (special) needs (Braga et al. 2013; Rodríguez and Braga 2015).

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All three examples integrated locally contextualized elements, which fostered the development of motivating initiatives in accordance with the needs of the classrooms under study. The observed practices also showed that teaching staff is required to employ flexible teaching methods to adapt their teaching materials to the students’ sociocultural diversity. These results are in line with the findings of numerous other studies (e.g., Parcerisa 1996; Diz and Fernández 2015; Sánchez and Castro 2015). Another common aspect of the three examples is their main focus on the students. Moving students to the heart of the teaching and learning process enables greater personalization and inclusiveness (Sánchez and Castro 2015). As children’s own activities and daily life experiences constituted the true context, they became coauthors of the materials and teachers acted as facilitators and modulators of initiatives. This, in essence, promoted project work, which is missing from many conventional teaching materials. The examples also showed the need for training in the use of new technologies to facilitate the incorporation of complementary activities into projects. In this respect, some studies described examples and suggested solutions (cf. Guerrero et al. 2009; Romero et al. 2016). Adaptability is another central aspect in need to be stressed. As teachers adapted their teaching materials to a great extent, students with functional challenges saw their needs met. Unfortunately, most commercial materials produced for early childhood education exhibit low levels of flexibility which makes them difficult to adapt. With respect to the formal characteristics of teaching materials, the three analyzed examples exhibited diverse formats. Most materials aimed at a higher inclusion of more interactive elements to target greater student involvement. Teaching materials analyzed in this study featured values (e.g., concerning intergenerational aspects) that are usually absent from commercial materials for early childhood education. These findings indicate the necessity of further research on school curricula and textbooks at early childhood and primary level concerning specific topics, such as the intergenerational relationships (Zapico 2012). Finally, one of the key challenges lies in the lifespan of such examples as the three described in this chapter. Developing and implementing strategies to secure continuity for the individual initiatives could establish real alternatives to textbooks.

6 Conclusions In a general way, the analysis of good practices uncovered several characteristics present in each one of these cases that could mean a determining factor of what good practice is. This also happens when we focus our attention on our study object: in the three described experiences we observed that teachers–by adapting textbooks or other resources, designing their own learning materials or even using a high variety of teaching resources–give a contextualized response that solves the problem of the totalization of cultural selection and social reproduction usually associated with textbooks (Gimeno 1989).

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The three examples of examples also highlight that both teachers’ choice of commercial teaching materials and individual material design and production are rooted in a realistic and analytical underlying ideological discourse that pays attention to students’ local context and socio-cultural diversity. Visibility is given to minority groups without reproducing stereotypes (for example, through an intergenerational presence), a variety of school tasks are proposed in an attempt to adapt to educational needs and anticipate learning difficulties (for example, through continuous assessment and community involvement), and new technologies are integrated as a motivating tool (e.g., learning mathematical logic with digital resources). In addition, teaching material design and production by teachers for their classroom activities stands for a transgression that breaks with the curricular hegemony of textbooks in primary, secondary, and, increasingly, early childhood education (Martínez and Rodríguez 2010). Such practices also liberate teachers both from the curricular concretion represented by the textbook and market economic interests. Concurrently, they stimulate teachers’ critical thinking and empowerment, foster their collaboration and coordination activities, and contribute to their continuing education. This professional context, where teachers take on the task of planning and evaluating learning experiences, provides great opportunities for experimentation and action research that contribute to educational innovation (Montero and Vez 1992). Changes in modern society increased the responsibilities assigned to schools (care, custody, socialization etc.) to compensate for the challenges the family and the local community bear (Vera 2007). However, in the three examples analyzed here, educational practices and the teaching materials used are characterized by helping to establish relations between schools and their communities, generating a culture of collaboration that counteracts the trends of competition, professional isolation, and social and cultural inequality (Torres 2001). The three examples presented here work with teaching materials that were specifically designed and selected for the early childhood education project and not the other way around. These schools are flexible and open to the community, and their school projects consider the local context as an educational content, a learning vehicle, and a partner in education. Students also participate in the educational process by playing an active role in the design of teaching materials, promoting intellectual curiosity, critical capacity, and reflection. Acknowledgment. The work presented in this chapter is part of the research project Curriculum Design and Best Practices in Early Childhood Education: An International, Multicultural and Interdisciplinary View coordinated by Professor Miguel Zabalza and was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under its National Research Program, subprogram for non-oriented Basic Research Projects (EDU2012–30972). The authors would like to express their gratitude for the funding opportunity and also thank Lorena Martínez Seoane (teacher and experience 1 coordinator), Patricia Cinza Sanjurjo (teacher and experience 2 coordinator), and Sandra Suárez Dios (pedagogical head and experience 3 coordinator) for their support.

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References M. Area, Los Medios y Las Tecnologías En La Educación (Pirámide, Madrid, 2004) A. Benavente, Good Practice: An Example to Prove the Rule or a Lighthouse to Guide Our Steps? (2007). http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Poverty_alleviation/Seminaires/5e Seminaire_Maurice_juin07/5eSeminaire_Maurice_juin07_Annexe6_EN.pdf T. Braga, P. De Lima, Santiago L. Bufrem, J. Rodríguez Rodriguez, V.S. Knudsen (eds.), Challenges to Overcome Social Inequality: The Role of Textbooks and Educational Media. (IARTEM/NPPD, Curitiba, 2013) J. Cabero, J.M. Alba, J.Mª. López-Arenas, J.L. Pérez (eds.), Investigaciones Sobre La Informática En El Centro (PPU, Barcelona, 1993) Mª.J. Diz López, R. Fernández Rial, Criterios para el análisis y elaboración de materiales didácticos coeducativos para la educación infantil. RELADEI 4(1), 105–124 (2015) A. Feria, Posibilidades del material multimedia en el terreno educativo, in: Recursos tecnológicos para los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje, ed. by M. Cebrián de la Sema, pp. 84–88. (Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, 1998) J. Gimeno, El Curriculum, Una Reflexión Sobre La Práctica (Morata, Madrid, 1989) Z. Guerrero, M. Tibisay, H. Flores, C. Hazel, Theories of learning and instruction in the design of computerized didactical material. Educere 45, 317–329 (2009) L. Liguori, Desarrollo de las Nuevas Tecnologías, in Tecnología Educativa, Política, historias, propuestas, ed by E. Litwin (ed.), pp. 19–32. (Buenos Aires: Paidós, 1995) J. Martínez, J. Rodríguez, El currículum y el libro de texto. Una dialéctica siempre abierta, in Saberes e incertidumbres sobre el curriculum, ed. by C. Zalpour (Morata, Madrid, 2010), pp. 246–268 L. Montero, J.M. Vez, La elaboración de materiales curriculares y el desarrollo profesional de los profesores. Qurriculum 4, 131–141 (1992) A. Parcerisa, Materiales curriculares. Cómo elaborarlos, seleccionarlos y usarlos (Graó, Barcelona 1996) P. Pascual, Didáctica de La Música. Educación Infantil (Pearson, Madrid, 2006) J. Pérez, T. Malagarriga, Materiales para hacer música en las primeras educativas: Ejes del triángulo formación, innovación e investigación. Revista Complutense de Educación 21(2), 389–403 (2010) J. Rodríguez Rodríguez, T.F. Braga García (eds.), Materiales y recursos didácticos para la Educación Infantil. Reladei 4(1) (2015) J. Rodríguez Rodríguez, M.L. Montero, Un estudio de las perspectivas y valoraciones del profesorado sobre los materiales curriculares de la LOGSE. Enseñanza 20, 127–156 (2002) R. Romero Tena, J.J. Gutiérrez-Castillo, M. Puig Gutiérrez (eds.), Libro de Actas del I Congreso Internacional de Innovación y Tecnología Educativa en Infantil (CITEI'16) (Grupo de Investigación Didáctica, Sevilla 2016) J.B. Romero, Los Medios y Recursos Para La Educación Musical En Primaria (Tesina) (Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, 2003) C. Sánchez Blanco, Mª.M. Castro Rodríguez, Dilemas en relación a los materiales y recursos para una educación infantil inclusiva. Reladei 4(1), 87–105 (2015) I.M. Solano, M.B. Alfageme, M.T. Rodríguez Cifuentes, Tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en el ámbito educativo. Actas Taller de software educativo. I Jornadas Nacionales TIC y Educación. (Centro de Profesores y Recursos de Lorca, Lorca 2001) J. Torres, Educación En Tiempos de Neoliberalismo (Morata, Madrid, 2001)

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Research Background in the Field of Textbooks and Music Teaching Materials in Preschool Education Rosa María Vicente Álvarez1(&) and Jesús Rodríguez Rodríguez2 1

2

University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain [email protected] University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Abstract. The purpose of this chapter is to review the research literature on various perspectives on textbooks and teaching materials in music education. The research lines considered in relation to textbooks cover their role and influence in the classroom practices, teacher professional development, ideological discourses, formal aspects, impact of educational reform on the features of educational media, educational and curriculum discourse analysis, and guidelines for educational media analysis and evaluation. Furthermore, we explored studies on curricular discourse as well as US-American educational media evaluation tools and their influence on music education in Europe. While we analyzed a large number of studies, the overview only explains in part some of the multiple variables tied to early childhood music education. Nevertheless, this chapter offers a good overview of current trend on knowledge as well as educational media usage and selection by teachers in the field. The chapter concludes by pointing out research fields and questions in urgent need of future research. Keywords: Textbooks
Teaching materials technology
Research overview


Music education
Educational

1 Introduction Unlike primary and secondary schools, preschool education does not look back on a rich tradition of using printed or digital edited materials. Nonetheless, edited and published educational resources have been gaining importance (Vicente 2011). However, the analysis of these resources also brings to light the shortcomings of the publishing market of printed and audio-visual materials, regardless of the education stage. Over the last three decades, publishers specialized on educational, literary, and cultural genres induced a proliferation of didactic and music materials. In addition, educational media published by publishing houses specialized in education have the largest share of the education market, and are, therefore, used by the largest number of schools. According to Gillanders (2011), 70% of all music teachers educating students between 6 and 12 years of age in the Galicia, Spain use these materials. This also © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 90–100, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_8

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applies to almost half (49%) of the teachers teaching music lessons to children between 3 and 6 years of age (Rodríguez and Vicente 2015). Regarding the selection of educational media, among others, Ballesteros (2010) as well as Pérez and Malagarriga (2010) highlight the influence of the publishing market, economic interests, and product offer of the major publishers on the selection and use of music and teaching materials. These materials are of great variety with some of them containing example songs and activities (e.g., the songbooks edited and published by the Early Childhood Education). Other materials feature teaching units (didactic units) consisting of worksheets and rhythmic tasks aiming at conventional music acquisition, melodic dictations, writing music on the music staff based on listening to music, learning to play an instrument etc. Given the growing interest of publishers in this stage of education and the publishing activity of the academic community, a review of literature seems to be timely. Therefore, this chapter outlines the main lines of research on published materials related to music in preschool education.

2 Sample The sample of this study encompassed the following scientific and professional publications on education published in Spanish: EDUTEC (Revista electrónica Complutense de Investigación en Educación Musical), Eufonía, Música y Educación, Orpheotron, Revista Electrónica de LEEME, Revista Creatividad y Sociedad, Revista de Psicodidáctica, Revista Latinoamericana de Tecnología Educativa, Pixel Bit, Revista de Educación, Revista Española de Pedagogía, Estudios pedagógicos, Perfiles Educativos, Cuadernos de Pedagogía, Revista de Estudios y Experiencias educativas, Infancia y Aprendizaje, and In Candidus. In addition, we retrieved research from international scholarly work, such as Music Education Research International, Research and Issues in Music Education, US-China Education Review, School Psychology International, Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, Annual Meeting of Mid-South Educational Research Association, Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, British Journal of Music Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, and International Journal of Music Education. For the purposes of data collection, we accessed the databases ERIC, DIALOG, DIALNET, ISOC, TESEO, and EURYDICE. In addition, we reviewed the papers presented at ISME (International Society for Music Education) and MERYC (European Network for Music Educators and Researchers of Young Children). We also analyzed the IARTEM (International Association for Research on Textbooks and Educational Media) e-journal and the conference proceedings.

3 Results The analysis of research on music textbooks and additional educational media revealed six major areas of interest. The following subchapters will explore each of these areas in detail.

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Classroom Practices and Teacher Professionalism

Over the past decades, scholarly work repeatedly highlighted both the importance of published teaching materials on the development of teaching practices and their impact on professionalization (Gimeno 1988; Martínez 1991; Rodríguez 2000). A large number of studies explores both benefits and challenges of textbooks (Bauer 2010). However, despite a changing tendency, studies on music materials for preschool education are still the exception. For music education, creativity and the ability of music teachers to improvise in classroom situations are essential (Arús 2013). In consequence, several references focus on the interest in developing educational programs, teaching formats, and evaluation tools. In many cases, the purpose is to produce rigorously developed teaching material for the autonomous work of teachers and, thus, build the foundations of their practice. Research on printed educational media from the perspective of teacher is not a common endeavor (Martínez 2010). Currently, publishers are beginning to give importance to this evaluators work as part of the marketing and sale of materials. We are witnessing a widespread concern of the states. The development of collaborative work is another central aspect of the role and influence of teaching materials in music education. López (2007) points out the limited time resources of preschool music education and reflects on mechanisms to increase the time spent with music. Overall, teachers tend to prioritize different content depending on their initial training or specialty. Collaborative work, on the other hand, may support their independent (continuous) education. Ocaña (2006) focused on aspects of music teachers’ professional development and found that the construction of the specialist model is difficult due to the poor music education received during the school years. As no specific music model was acquired, the starting points to build professional practice are missing. However, lifelong learning can induce a process of specialization and professional development. The biggest challenge teachers face, however, is the lack of training in the knowledge of music materials (Vicente 2011). Johanson (2008) reveals that one of novice teachers’ fears is the acquisition, use, and maintenance of materials (scores, sheet music, method books, etc.). A number of studies discuss the design of workshops aimed at raising awareness of training processes to teach music in early childhood. As Camacho and Durán (2006) point out, the main emphasis of such studies is on the type of teaching materials to be designed for the development of both intellectual and artistic capabilities. Music intervention in preschool seems to enjoy a wide appeal. Thereby, a number of studies have an emphasis on learning materials. Malagarriga (2002) and Pérez and Malagarriga (2010) suggest some activities for early childhood music education based on five activity contexts, namely songs, words/literature, pieces of music, original tones, and everyday sounds. Oriol (2004) makes some suggestions concerning the improvement of the instruction process in higher education and points out a range of challenges future teachers face during their initial training in music. One essential aspect is the previous knowledge, reason why admission exams should be mandatory.

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According to Rusinek (2004), reducing the curriculum solely to declarative knowledge leaves current research unconsidered as dealing with music means more than being able to talk about music. It is more about singing, playing an instrument, or developing a sophisticated hearing to subsequently make music. Motivation, another important aspect of music education, should be enforced for the teachers to feel strengthened to deal with the multitude of music materials available at the educational institutions (cf. Gustems 2003; Romero 2003; Gillanders, 2011). In preschool education, studies focus on various topics, such as materials for making music (Pérez and Malagarriga 2010), the use of music in context of movement and improvisation (Arús 2010) or creativity development (Cruces 2009; Soto 2013). Little attention was dedicated to the use of published educational materials and their effects on teachers’ professional development. Vicente (2011) showed that the use of published educational materials (textbooks, teaching guides etc.) is indirectly proportional with the formal music training the teachers enjoyed. The study also revealed that limited training on an instrument or music along with class size also influence the use of published materials. In consequence, teachers lacking the necessary musical knowledge that would allow a proper assessment of the resource runs the risk of using them uncritically. 3.2

The Underlying Ideological Discourse

Classic studies on music and ideological discourse analysis envisaged aspects connected to society, education, meanings, performing, listening, gender etc. (cf. Green 1997; Small 1998). The role of women in music education belongs to the widely researched aspects of ideological discourse (Loizaga 2005). In this field, countervailing initiatives aimed at correcting the imbalance generated by traditional androcentric perspectives. Furthermore, they targeted the re-reading of music education historiography to remove the old discourse and propose new methodological procedures for alternative readings. In close relation to the Emancipatory Pedagogy, research on teaching and learning emerged based on the individual involvement of teachers. In addition, research also focused on role and identity construction (cf. Loizaga 2005). Different studies analyzed the presence of music and its use in texts (e.g., Paredes 1998), however, few of them explored music education in preschool. Most studies dedicated attention to selected content, such as folklore, creativity, movement etc., and showed possibilities of musical development from different perspectives (e.g., movement, creativity, materials) in the first years (Malagarriga 2002; Sharp 2003; Gauthier and Dunn 2004; López 2007; Pérez and Malagarriga 2010). Some studies established links between the study of music, civic education, and society. The focus of these studies encompassed the relationship between music and the media or the music children are exposed to/expose themselves to during the viewing of public and private television. Thereby, the specific focus of these studies is on children’s auditory development along the type of compositions heard during television watching. Their majority certifies the biased nature of this music and concludes that such programs are dominated by American music styles with music aesthetics propagated by the Lucas and Disney factories (Porta 1998, 2001).

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A number of studies dedicated attention to the way traditional and popular children’s music was featured in textbooks and found that some publishers showed great commitment while others only marginally touched this genre. In this sense, the overall reception of folklore as school sound material improved and most schools use it. The publications of a textbook with emphasis on folklore is considered to be beneficial and studies (Vicente 2011) showed that many teachers used some piece of this type throughout the school year. Méndez (2009) carried out a critical analysis of the identity models transmitted in textbooks. The analysis explored possibilities and limitations of the materials (pictures, scores, texts, etc.) featured in textbooks and reflected on the bias, stereotypes or discrimination for the development of music teaching. The study concluded that textbooks are ideologically determined products in terms of history, science, technology, society, etc. 3.3

Analysis of Formal Aspects

Music education uses a particular way to communicate, reason why it is crucial to know how to use teaching materials in preschool education. The formal aspects refer to aesthetics, format (structure and flexibility), instructions for use, adaptation of the language to the recipient, interaction of the languages used in the content, didactic quality of the illustrations, and strategies used to facilitate musical reading. Research on these topics show a great variety. On the one hand, studies focused on musical intervention programs aiming at developing one specific parameter, such as the pitch. On the other hand, studies evaluated published educational media in light of the curriculum. The paragraphs below contain a brief description of the most significant studies. Knowledge about printed educational media and their evaluation is important in some countries like the United States. May (1993) studied the evaluation process of music textbooks for grades 1–6 in elementary education. In a questionnaire-based survey, Bryson (1982) aimed at identifying the most frequent music activities and found that the most frequent activities targeted the development of sound parameters solely in theoretical terms. Harris (1987) carried out an extensive study and analyzed articles and books on five areas, namely educational philosophy, objectives, methods and materials for music teaching, selection and organization of experiences with students and evaluation of the music program in elementary schools. Curry (1982) analyzed the way selected music content (e.g., melody) was featured in educational media. Sharp (2003) took a sequential approach to teaching music in elementary school using daily oral music lessons. He suggested a format (daily oral music lessons) for the development of music and teaching materials useful for teachers with basic training in music. Gauthier and Dunn (2004) focused on developing rhythm in educational materials. Working with Chinese communities, Lee (2009) carried out an empirical study on young children learning English through music. Using mixed methods and taking into account the educational community (teachers and parents), the study explored the interconnectedness of different languages and cultures with music.

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Impact of Educational Reform Processes and Policies on the Characteristics of Educational Media

The Lisbon Strategy of 2000 shaped a common European educational policy and each member state of the European Union follows through the Bologna process, a common line in teacher education. Within the framework of European cooperation in education and training of the Europe 2020 strategy, the objective is to ensure the personal, social, and professional fulfillment of all citizens. With regard to educational materials, the 2013 Spanish report on the European educational strategy regarding preschool education suggests full enrollment at the age of four, because it provides an equitable education and enables better results at later stages of education. On the one hand, as many neighboring countries, Spain is currently dealing with the question of educational technology in the classroom. There are many initiatives aiming at their integration in formal education (both preschools and schools). On the other hand, research showed that educational policies pay little attention to the analysis of teaching materials (Monreal et al. 2015). In recent years, we have witnessed a change in format and an increased impact of the digital. This not only requires further research, but also needs to be sensitive to the needs of music education, as Ho (2009, p. 22) argues: “The revolution of multimedia technology and music technology in education is actually less about machines than it is about students. Used wisely, it can promote creativity, initiative and communication”. The reforms of tertiary education caused by the Bologna process, however, also impact music education and its educational media at preschool level. In the absence of a specialist teachers, music teaching relies heavily on generalist teachers and their individual concerns, limiting music education to audition and music literature. Miočić (2013, p. 78) offers an example from Croatia: “From the available documents, it is seen that there is a discrepancy between the programmes of teacher and preschool teacher training and therefore we can expect that students, as future teachers or preschool teachers coming from different teacher and preschool teacher studies in Croatia, will gain an unequal professional competence which also applies to the specific musical skills. To resolve these discrepancies of music education at the teacher and preschool teacher training/study level in Croatia, and especially for the unevenness of professional musical competence, an extensive discussion should be preceded with an agreement among all stakeholders in this area. The definition of professional music standards/competencies at the national level should be set for teachers who teach music in elementary school (from 1st to 3rd grade) and for the preschool teachers who musically educate children in the kindergartens.”

In a similar vein, Spain also experienced over the last 25 years a range of educational reforms that impacted teaching materials. Given the differences in each country, Rodríguez and Vicente (2015) described three types of teachers, with diverse musical backgrounds, that carry out their educational activity at preschool level: preschool educators, general educators with music knowledge, and music specialists. Regarding publishers, the first music textbook also featuring complementary printed material for preschool level already entered the market. However, ongoing reform and ignites competition between publishers and leads to a diversification of educational media in terms of their resources, curriculum compatibility, and pedagogy.

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These aspects sometimes remain under the standards of some quality criteria concerning pedagogical aspects, as release pressure and market laws dictate the rules of publisher action. Publishers contrast materials, check and test the resources before they launch them onto the market. While published material is usually in the spotlight, there is hardly any work on the quality of the materials individual teachers prepare–at times in complete solitude. Consequently, teachers need to have the training required for the selection and use of music materials for teaching. 3.5

Educational and Curriculum Discourse Analysis

Regarding the educational and curriculum discourse analysis, two main lines of work can be delimited. On the one hand, scholars view textbooks as elements that limit and oppress teaching. On the other hand, textbooks are seen as a guide that focuses both teaching and learning. The power relationship established between publishers, the curriculum, and teachers is evident. Nevertheless, preschool education tends to work with an open and flexible curriculum based on the significance of learning. Teachers then are required to organize learning through music and to implement tasks that contribute to skill development. At the same time, it remains the teacher’s responsibility to decide on the degree of influence educational media will have on teaching and learning. Against this background, some scholars (e.g., Martínez 2004; López 2007) argue that published material implies a subordination of teachers and the educational media guides the teaching project. More specifically, Borre (1996) indicates the effect of textbooks on teachers’ personal, institutional and traditional interests. Overall, curricula address music as a key aspect in each individual’s comprehensive development from birth. Various studies showed its benefits (Bernal 2000), however, educational media published for preschool stage secure merely an insufficient implementation (Vicente 2009). Capdevila’s (2008) observation-based study on children’s (aged 0–3) musical behavior highlighted the importance of educational media (music and sound auditions, musical instruments or sound objects, etc.) used in the intervention. In this sense, the choice of material follows the sought objective and the sound quality of the material itself. These materials must be different and varied, rich in shapes, touch, colors, and sounds. Furthermore, the place where the music observation experience of the children takes place is important. Teachers may enjoy freedom of choice in educational and music materials, however, their limited subject-matter knowledge in music and pedagogical skills in curriculum implementation strongly limit their options. In addition, lesson planning depends on publishers’ offer in the globalized printed materials for preschool education. On the other hand, specific music education materials for preschool children are limited to certain hearing aspects and easy execution exercises that may not require the use of musical instruments (Vicente 2011). In consequence, some studies stress the need to develop music materials specifically for preschool education, and, eventually lay the foundations of future teachers’ independent work on the grounds of their pedagogical practice (Arús and Pérez 2008; Matti 2012).

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Guidelines for Educational Media Analysis and Evaluation

Evaluation guidelines are a commonly used instrument in selected countries (e.g. USA, Canada). The analytical criteria vary depending on the type of resource to be analyzed. However, educational technology development led to concerns regarding our knowledge of educational media and the state of their analysis. Different U.S. states developed guidelines that serve as an example for the required material in a classroom. May’s (1993) evaluation of music textbooks for grades 1–6 of primary education is a valuable contribution. Doiron (2008), on the other hand, considered the importance of educational media for professional development and focused on textbooks written to assist Canadian teachers and promote coherence in the choice of resources.

4 Final Thoughts This chapter aimed at offering an overview of the most relevant studies on educational media for music education at preschool level along six major aspects. The results showed that content, use, and evaluation of teaching and music materials is directly related to teacher training. Overall, very few teachers hold a degree specialized on music education for young children. Nevertheless, teacher professionalism conditions the type of educational media chosen for music education. Therefore, further research on lifelong learning of those who teach music might be one of the priority areas. A number of studies explored challenges of music education in regular classrooms in light of the student ratio, the quantity and quality of materials, etc. Specifically, those studies that focused on movement and creativity in connection with musical development of young children, seem to become more and more popular and prominent. In this context, there is consensus regarding the importance of extensive and valuable sound resources. Regarding educational media usage, most articles proved infrequent use of didactic materials in early years. Nevertheless, publishing houses seem to have discovered a market niche at the preschool stage and started producing educational media. In consequence, publishing activities at preschool level in particular and the publishers’ influence on the selection and use of music and teaching materials in general require further research. Research indicates that, depending on the individual country, the commitment to the published material is different. A number of questions arise: What is the impact of music materials (printed and digital) on the organizational dynamics of schools and classrooms? What decisions are made in schools and in classrooms regarding materials? How does educational media usage impact the practice of music and preschool teachers? Does the use of digital materials entail improvements with respect to printed materials? Comparative studies on the characteristics of educational media could offer some answers to these questions. Stakeholders of central importance to be included are consultants, inspectors, and other professionals supporting teachers and working towards curriculum implementation.

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References M. Ballesteros, La didáctica de las canciones en Inglés desde una metodología musical y de la lengua inglesa. ENSAYOS, Revista de la Facultad de Educación de Albacete 24, 123–132 (2010) K. Bauer, Textbooks and teaching resources: a case study from the early childhood classroomAustralia. IARTEM E-J. 3(2), 81–96 (2010) J. Bernal, Implicaciones de la música en el curriculum de educación infantile, Revista electrónica de leeme, vol. 5, (2000) E. Borre, Libros de Texto En El Calidoscopio. Estudio Crítico de La Literatura y La Investigación Sobre Los Textos Escolares (Pomares, Barcelona, 1996) E.F. Bryson, A study of the use of music activities by classroom teachers. Diss. Abstr. Int. 43(7), 2269–2270 (1982) Y. Camacho, Z. Durán, Diseño de talleres para la enseñanza musical en el grado preescolar. El artista: revista de investigaciones en música y artes plásticas 3, 161–169 (2006) R. Capdevila, Conductes musicals dels infants 0–3, Anàlisi i validació d’una paula d’observació, Barcelona,Universitat de Barcelona, 2008 M.C. Cruces, Implicaciones de La Expresión Musical Para El Desarrollo de La Creatividad En Educación Infantil. Doctoral Thesis (Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, 2009) B. Curry, An Evaluation of African and Afro-American Music in Selected Elementary Music Textbook Series and Recomendations of Supplemental Song Materials (University of Houstonl, Houston, 1982) R. Doiron, Using E-Books and E-Readers to Promote Reading in School Libraries: Lessons from the Field, (2011). https://www.ifla.org/past-wlic/2011/143-doiron-en.pdf D. Gauthier, R. Dunn, Comparing two approaches for teaching rhythm reading skills for firstgrade children: a pilot study. Res. Issues Music Educ. 2(1), 1–13 (2004) C. Gillanders, Los Medios En La Práctica Docente Del Especialista En Educación Musical En Galicia (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, 2011) J. Gimeno, El Currículum: Una Reflexión Sobre La Práctica (Morata, Madrid, 1988) L. Green, Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy (Ashgate Publishing Group, Aldershot, 2008) L. Green, Music, Gender, Education (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997) J. Gustems, La Flauta Dulce En Los Estudios Universitarios de “Mestre En Educació Musical” En Catalunya: Revisión y Adecuación de Contenidos (Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2003) J. Harris, The instructional philosophies reflected in the elementary music series published by silver burdett company, 1885–1975. Bull. Counc. Res. Music Educ. 94, 48–52 (1987) W.C. Ho, The role of multimedia technology in hong kong higher education music programs. Visions Res. Music Educ. 13, 1–7 (2009) D. Johanson, Study of the comparative perceptions of non-tenured and tenured music teachers a music supervisors regarding the needs and concerns of the teacher in music pperformance education. Res. Issues .Music Educ. 6(1), 1–9 (2008) L.Y.L. Lee, An empirical study on teaching urban young children music and english by contrastive elements of music and songs. US-China Educ. Rev. 6(3), 28–39 (2009) M. Loizaga, Los estudios de género en la educación musical. Revisión crítica Musiker: Cuadernos de música 14, 159–172 (2005) M.A. López, La música en centros de educación infantil 3–6 años de Galicia e Inglaterra, un estudio de su presencia y de las prácticas educativas, (Santiago de Compostela,Santiago de Compostela, 2007)

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T. Malagarriga, Anàlisi i Validació d’una Proposta Didàctica d’educació Musical per a Nens de Cinc Anys (Universidad Autonómica de Catalunya, Barcelona, 2002) J. Martínez, El cambio profesional mediante los materiales. Cuadernos de Pedagogía 189, 61–64 (1991) J. Martínez, La crisis de identidad profesional. Cuadernos de Pedagogía 332, 80–84 (2004) J. Martínez, J. Rodríguez, El curriculum y el libro de texto. Una dialéctica siempre abierta. (Ed.). J. Gimeno, Saberes e incertidumbres sobre el currículum. (Madrid,Editorial Morata,2010) pp. 246–268 R. Matti, Music technology as a part of a nationwide music curriculum and teaching material resource, Presentation at ISME Conferences (2012) W. May, What in the World Is Music in World of Music? A Critique of a Commonly Used Textbook Series. Elementary Subjects Center Series 76, (East Lansing,Michigan State University, 1993) M. Miočić, Changes in the music education of future teachers and preschool teachers in Croatia, eds. by J. Pitt, J. Retra, Proceedings of the 6th Conference of the European Network of Music Educators and Researchers of young Children, (Tha Hague,Gehrels Muziekeducatie, 2013), pp. 228–242 I.M. Monreal, A. Giráldez, A. Gutiérrez, Use and curricular integration of the digital interactive whiteboard in the music classroom: a single case study in Segovia. Multi. J. Educ. Res. 5(1), 82–104 (2015) A. Ocaña, Desarrollo profesional de las maestras de educación musical desde una perspectiva biográfico-narrativa. Revista Electrónica Complutense de investigación en Educación Musical 3(3), 1–14 (2006) N. Oriol, Metodología cuantitativa y cualitativa en la investigación sobre la formación inicial del profesorado de educación musical para primaria. Aplicación a la formación instrumental. Revista electrónica Complutense de Investigación en Educación Musical, 1(3), 1–63 (2004) J. Paredes, Análisis Etnográfico de Los Usos de Recursos y Materiales Didácticos En Educación Primaria. Estudio de Los Casos de Dos Centros (Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, 1998) J. Pérez, T. Malagarriga, Materiales para hacer música en las primeras edades: Ejes del triángulo formación, innovación e investigación. Revista Complutense de Educación 21(2), 389–403 (2010) A. Porta, El mapa sonoro del entorno cotidiano, ed. by R. Pelinski, V. Torrent, Actas del III Congreso de la Sociedad ibérica de Etnomusicología: Benicàssim, Villa Elisa, 23–25 de Mayo de 1997, (C. Les Planes,Sociedad Ibérica de Etnomusicología, 1998), pp. 165–176 A. Porta, La mirada y la escucha en la música espectacular infantile, ed. by R. Huerta, Comunicaciones del Congreso Los valores del arte en la enseñanza, (D’aquesta edició, Valencia, 2001), pp. 188–192 J. Rodríguez, Os Materiais Curriculares Impresos e a Reforma Educativa En Galicia. Doctoral Thesis (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, 2000) J. Rodríguez, R. Vicente, The music materials in early childhood education: a descriptive study in galicia (Spain). Int. J. Music Educ. 35(2), 139–153 (2015) J.B. Romero, Los Medios y Recursos Para La Educación Musical En Primaria (Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, 2003) G. Rusinek, Aprendizaje musical significativo. Revista electrónica Complutense de Investigación en Educación Musical 1(5), 1–16 (2004) L. Sharp, Classrooms and curriculum come alive with music: a sequential approach of teaching music to elementary students using daily oral music lessons. ed. by R. Menlover, American Council on Rural Special Education Proceedings, (Salt Lake City, ACES, 2003), pp. 56–62 C. Small, Music, Society, Education (Wesleyan University Press, Hanover, 1977)

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C. Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Middletown. (Hanover, Wesleyan University Press,1998) V. Soto, Diseño y Aplicación de Un Programa de Creatividad Para El Desarrollo Del Pensamiento Divergente En El Segundo Ciclo de Educación Infantil (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, 2013) R. Vicente, Os Materiais Didácticos e Musicais En Educación Infantil. Un Estudo Descritivo e Interpretativo Da Percepción Docente En Galicia (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, 2011)

Images of Antiracism and the Crisis of White Patriarchy in Swedish Primary School Textbooks Angerd Eilard(&) Högskolan Kristianstad, Kristianstad, Sweden [email protected] Abstract. This chapter starts with a textbook evaluation that was originally carried out by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate in 2010, focusing on fundamental values in chemistry textbooks used in 14 primary schools (students aged 10– 11 years). The aim is to discuss the results of this analysis in relation to national values and a national (Swedish) self-image, with respect to certain patterns and perceptions that were discernible in the textbook material, showing some cultural identities and discourses. In addition, parts of the material that were not included in the official report are presented in this chapter. The method used is eclectically used discourse analysis carried out within the fields of critical race and whiteness studies, as well as in relation to worldwide social changes, sometimes referred to as the crisis of multiculturalism, or the end of patriarchy. The first image to be identified in the textbook material, that was the foundation of the evaluation, is a so called reverse gender hierarchy, where men tend to be subordinated, whereas the second image is an imbedded white structure in the textbooks. Keywords: Textbooks analysis


Primary school
Patriarchy
Whiteness
Discourse

1 Introduction This chapter explores parts of a comprehensive textbook analysis that was carried out by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate in 2010, within a quality audit of teaching materials for year 4–5 chemistry (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011).1 The purpose is to discuss the results of that analysis, with respect to certain patterns and perceptions that were discernible in it, and also adding parts of the material that were not included in the official report. The observed patterns will first be described in more detail, and afterwards they will be discussed against the background of (Swedish) debates from the past years, concerning children’s books, identity politics, and national values. The observations will also be linked to current Nordic textbook research (Eilard 2008, Knudsen 2009, 2016, Oxfeldt 2011, Mikander 2012, 2015), as well as pedagogical and sociological research, involving concepts, such as the crisis of multiculturalism, whiteness, and anti-racism (Ahmed 2004, Lentin and Titley 2011, Hübinette 2017). 1

The author took part in this inspection as part of the position she held at the time (2009–13) as investigator at the Inspectorate.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 101–118, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_9

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The textbooks are viewed as discursive documents of their times, with traces from the past, as well as traces oriented towards the future. However, the intention here is not to undertake a systematic analysis, nor to criticize the teaching materials as such, or the report evaluating them. This contribution should rather be taken as a critical historical contemplation of the present times, based in the patterns and perceptions that–more or less involuntarily–are expressed in these teaching materials and in the official report. The gaze adopted is informed by ways of thinking and positions that can be found in discourse analysis, although I also do not claim to be undertaking a complete discourse analysis. Indeed, I do not adhere to the ontological position where everything is viewed as discourse (understood as language), whereas I firmly believe that social reality is fundamentally created and influenced by the discourses that are allowed, propagated or restrained. The approach, therefore, mainly shares features with the discourse theory of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, which aims at “[…] understanding the social as a discursive construction” (Winther Jörgensen and Phillips 2000, p. 31), and in this endeavor rather can be said to view discourses as material.

2 Some Noteworthy Discursive Structures The quality audit investigated both the content and the use of teaching materials.2 The frame for the selection was based on the teaching materials that the schools themselves reported that they used in the subject chemistry at the time of the inspection. Of the twelve teaching resources that were subsequently analyzed, a few could rather be described as children’s books than as school textbooks, half were chemistry (or physics) textbooks, while the remaining resources were more general and comprehensive social/natural sciences textbooks. For the work with the current chapter, I have had access to nine of the evaluated textbooks. As mentioned above, this chapter only looks at aspects of content. It starts in the comprehensive analysis of the twelve most widely found print resources among the teaching materials used at the 14 schools evaluated. The content analysis was mainly performed by external evaluators, and comprised both the school subject content and the extent to which the books conformed to the fundamental values of the national curriculum.3 However, the perceptions discussed in the following are mainly issues that can be related to the latter.

3 Gender Order in the Analyzed Textbooks The evaluation report found that the total number of men represented in the pictures in the investigated textbooks is larger than the number of women. This is in line with both earlier studies on the topic and current evaluations and findings (cf. National Agency of 2

3

For a more detailed account of the selection process see Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011:1, Chapter 4, and a list of the textbooks that were evaluated in its Appendix 3. The books on the list from the quality audit report that I have not been able to access are the two social science books, and the older edition of the book PULS. Additionally, the teaching materials at each individual school were also specifically examined by the inspectors.

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Education 2006, SOU 2010, Hammar 2016). However, a qualitative analysis shows a shift over time in symbolic power from men towards women in the more recent books. This shift can be summed up quite well by considering a couple of illustrations taken from one of the most recently published books in the evaluated material (Persson 2004). The first of these illustrations shows a picture that spreads over two pages, and which can be assumed to represent the historical development of the natural sciences (since this is a topic which should be treated, according to the syllabus) (Persson 2004, pp. 4–5). In the picture, some people from different historical periods have gathered around an open fire. Furthest back in time is a Stone Age family, and after that three men and two women. At the top of the picture–that is, symbolically speaking, placed at the summit of the development of scientific history–is, according to the textbook text, a contemporary female nuclear physicist, who is also a mother, and after her, Marie Curie, who twice became a Nobel Prize winner. The men included on the picture have all been assigned historical positions as premodern scientists: a Greek philosopher, an Arab alchemist, and, immediately before Marie Curie, a philosopher of the Enlightenment.

Fig. 1. Stone age man and an androgynous teenager (source: Persson 2004, pp. 10–11; Illustrator: Jonas Burman; Publisher: Almqvist & Wiksell)

Another illustration (Fig. 1) shows, on the one side of the page spread, a primitive stone age man, who according to the evaluation report, has a “ruthless and bestial appearance”, and, on the other side, a person who looks like a modern teenager, with

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darker skin than the stone age man. In the evaluation report, this person is described as “a young sporty girl” (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011, p. 26). Regardless of how the second individual in the picture is interpreted, the point is that this person has been represented with both culturally and sexually hybrid features. In earlier studies, I distinguished between two ways of drawing and including diversity in textbooks (Eilard 2008). The first is by marking difference explicitly, which often results in stereotypes, while the second involves what I call discrete assimilation of certain multicultural/ethnic features (Eilard 2008). The latter strategy can be likened to the kind of open hybrid constructions which is exemplified by the girl/teenager with the bicycle above. These and other illustrations in the material thus express a reverse order, compared to traditional gender hierarchies, where “old and primitive men” are contrasted to “young and modern women” (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011, p. 26). According to the report, this presents men as “relegated to history” (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011, p. 26). The report also concludes that the combined visual materials in the analyzed books not only link men to a distant period in time, but sometimes also to a geographically or socially distanced space. This might be, for instance, apparently primitive cultures, or also professionally lower status positions, in blue collar jobs or as craftsmen. While men are represented in antiquated or alienated positions, girls are offered opportunities to identify as modern academic careers, or as sportswomen. In one of the books, for instance, a female expert regularly appears in small pictures connected to fact boxes, or in sections going deeper into the various topics (Persson 1999). Nevertheless, the picture which emerges is far from being unambiguous. For instance, photographs of men cooking present contemporary male ideals, competing with more traditional male activities, illustrated by men exhibiting strength and endurance in sports or adventurous challenges. In a similar manner, women are positioned with respect to more recent ideals, for instance showing photographs of women also engaged in sports, at the same time that they in other pictures are connected to traditionally feminine attributes, such as make-up or household chores. In a general sense, these findings concord with earlier results of mine (e.g., Eilard 2008). The main difference to those results is that men in the textbooks analyzed in my earlier work are not directly represented as primitive, as in the chemistry textbooks, but are rather portrayed as soft–and quite often as somewhat silly–compared to hegemonic masculinity.

4 Ethno-National Order in the Analyzed Textbooks The evaluation report found the textbooks to be ethno- or Eurocentric. This was shown by lack of “other ethnicity than Swedish” (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2011, p. 26, 39). In other words, the people represented in the illustrations generally have a Swedish/Western appearance. This impression is reinforced by subtle traces in a couple of books of what is often called banal nationalism, which is normally demonstrated in

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everyday images/expressions that adopt a certain (ethno-)national perspective, for instance maps, flags, and names of people or places (Billig 1995, p. 6, 94). Mentally, this positions the reader within a certain geographical (ethno-national) space, where the world is described from a particular viewpoint. In this case, this certain space is the Swedish/Scandinavian one, mediated through pictures representing characteristic Swedish/Scandinavian nature settings and a drawing of a globe that shows the itinerary of migratory birds departing from Sweden (Hjernquist et al. 1996, Hjernquist and Olsson 1995). In other books, the reader is propelled into a post-colonial hierarchy, where proximity is contrasted with distance, and which is linked to culture-specific values. For instance pictures of the industrialized North/West, facing poor or primitive cultures of the past, or in the present third world. The Scandinavian/Western space becomes here-and-now and distinct from other spaces, that are distanced geographically or in time, as there-and-then. Besides such distancing and positioning representations, a recurrent ethnic marker found on illustrations in several books is mostly white/colorless or light-skin-colored hands. These hands can be seen in drawings or sometimes photographs (Fig. 2), and which mostly illustrate questions relating to chemistry in daily life, or showing how different steps in laboratory exercises or chemical experiments should be carried out.

Fig. 2. Images of white hands in some chemistry books (source: [1, 2] Nettelblad and Ekdahl 2006, p. 201, 291 (Illustrations: Typoform, p. 291, K. Karlsson p. 201; Publisher: Liber); [3] Parker 1990, p. 19 (Illustrations: Kuo Kang Chen/Peter Bull; Publisher: Teknografiska institutet; The original illustration is in color print); [4] Hylén et al. 1996, p. 11 (Illustrations: Marie Söderman; Publisher: Gleerups); [5] Sjöberg and Öberg 2005, p. 81 (Illustrations: Kenneth Andersson; Publisher: Natur & Kultur))

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Fig. 2. (continued)

In the (nine) textbooks I had access to (Hjernquist and Olsson 1995, Hjernquist et al. 1996; Nettelblad and Ekdahl 2006; Sjöberg and Öberg 2005; Persson 2004, 1999; Hylén et al. 1996; Eckerman and Grähs 1991; Parker 1990; also see footnote 2), I found more than hundred hands, and depending on how you counted more than so. For instance, if also hands with similar function belonging to small periphery figures are counted or not. More sporadically, also other body parts with similar purpose have

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been found, such as ears, eyes, mouths, legs or feet. Consciously or unconsciously, these bodily attributes mark gender and origin/ethnicity. For instance, there are a few cases of red lips or long red nails, and a couple of legs wearing nylon stockings. In other words, elements that mark traditionally female attributes, in contrast to the corresponding attributes without make-up or instead showing naked skin, as the colorless or merely skin-colored hands. There are also a few instances of hands with a somewhat darker skin color, for example a few drawings of small hands in the book with the girl/teenager and the bicycle, which in a similar fashion confirm the hybrid elements appearing in the book. Another example is a photograph of a dark hand with rings and long finger nails, where femininity is intertwined with origin/ethnicity, a combination which thus gives signals of orientalism.

5 An Ongoing Identity-Political Debate Around the time when the Schools Inspectorate’s quality audit report was published, that is, early 2011, the anticipated re-edition of the Swedish children’s detective story Ture Sventon in Paris (Treijs 2011) was stopped due to the presence of the so-called nword in the book. In the years that followed, several debates involving children’s books or films flared up in Sweden and internationally, for similar reasons–that is the presence of racial stereotypes. Examples of such debates concern the Belgian artist Hergé’s Tintin in the Congo (e.g., Josefsson 2012), the well-known children’s classic Pippi Long-stocking, whose father is a negro king (e.g., Helmerson 2014), the black character Little Heart in children’s books illustrated by contemporary Swedish artist Stina Wirsén (e.g., Rubin Dranger 2012, Habel 2012), or the Disney Christmas film Santa’s Workshop (e.g., Edman 2012). The debates that followed have mostly involved certain parties to the discussion distancing themselves from stereotypes and choices of wording, which they perceived as insulting, while others took the stance that this is not something to make a fuss about, since such representations are not intentionally racist. The latter have sometimes also expressed that the books/films are a form of art, or part of the cultural heritage, where choice of wording etc. is explained by the historical context within which the book/film originally was produced. The identity political debate in Sweden culminated during the autumn of 2014, after Åsa Linderborg (2014), a historian as well as the editor responsible for the culture pages of the evening tabloid Aftonbladet, tried to define and delimit the discourse in her debate article Damn you, it has to be politically correct (cf. Stén 2015). The debate moved on to display a field of tension, spanning between everything from more dogmatic liberal identity politics, concerned with cultural representation, with concepts and symbols, to radical and more class-conscious cultural criticism, mainly directing its gaze towards the structures of domination inherent to capitalist society. Besides Linderborg herself, the latter are represented mainly by leftist intellectual (Swedish) feminists. The former, sometimes called politically correct, are often represented by

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younger feminists active in the public debates. These younger voices quite often had a background of migration, and during the spring of 2016, it appeared that they were also represented in the Green party. In several respects, it could be said that the debate revolved around the same issues that have been discussed in the arena where feminism meets anti-racist and post-colonial movements, and where the fight for material justice is confronted with the demands for recognition of group identities. The debate was reignited during the spring of 2016, after the previous year Sweden had first accepted more asylum seekers than ever before, and then tightly restricted reception of refugees by imposing border controls. During the preceding year, large European cities had also repeatedly been exposed to Islamic terror attacks. In the wake of all this, the wave of Swedish debate culminated in a discussion about Swedish values. One after the other, a string of politicians referred to this concept in their speeches during the week of political conventions traditionally held the last week of June, adopting more or less patriotic, and sometimes purely nationalistic perspectives (e.g., Silberstein 2016). Such rhetoric can, of course, above all be understood as an attempt to reclaim the interpretative prerogative from the Sweden Democrats (SD), a political party openly hostile to immigration. Swedish researchers of sociology of education and culture express concerns that the general tone in public debates has become more aggressive “[…] towards anything that appears different in terms of ‘ethnicity’ or religion, in relation to an imagined homogeneous Swedish culture”, in parallel to a normalization of the presence of the SD, in politics and in parliament (Hübinette et al. 2012, p. 44; see also Hübinette and Lundström 2014, 2011). When the party was first voted into parliament in 2010, all other parties initially, unanimously, and without hesitation distanced themselves from it. Since then, however, the other parties have converged towards the SD discourse, repeating a pattern that has been observed in other European countries, including Sweden’s neighbors. Daniel Poohl (2016a)4 at the Expo foundation believes that the rhetoric of the extreme right has progressively crept into and become part of mainstream public manifestations, or, in other words, it has been appropriated by other parties, and also become part of our everyday conversations, not least in social media. This tendency became even more noticeable during the following year, 2017, when terror attacks in Europe and the US continued, and the SD, according to certain polls, ranked as Sweden’s second largest party, with support among a fifth of the citizens (Svensson 2017). A new wave of debates on Swedish values flared up towards the end of the year, after the social democrat government stressed the need to reinforce information about these values for newcomer immigrants, in parallel with the world-wide #metoo-debate that characterized the autumn of 2017. A recurrent topic has also been the medical

4

The Swedish foundation Expo was established in 1995 with the aim to map, examine and inform about “organised intolerance”, see expo.se.

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assessments of unaccompanied minor refugees, which are being undertaken for the Migration Board by the National Board of Forensic Medicine, acting on instructions from the Swedish Government. Developments described above concern a widespread identity political debate. Although most examples are drawn from a Swedish context, corresponding trends and topics can be observed globally. These and other similar events could be interpreted as expressions of what in international research has been called “the crisis of multiculturalism” (Lentin and Titley 2011). This refers to criticism against globalization, and changes in attitudes resulting from the retreat of neoliberalism and the incipient collapse of the welfare states, with respect to their views on multicultural society. The fact that the political establishment in Sweden initially distanced itself without reservation from the SD party could, in this context, be understood as the expression of a vision of Sweden and (Swedish) representations of self, which since the mid-1900s has been based in a strong anti-racist identity (Hübinette et al. 2012, cf. Hübinette and Lundström 2014). At the same time, it becomes clear from the subsequent developments just how ambivalent and fickle this national identity actually is. Diversity, which until recently had been difficult to question in anti-racist Sweden, has increasingly been challenged by growing numbers, also outside those segments of society and groups who have traditionally been critical towards immigrants. When Donald Trump became US president, an aggressive (white) right-wing rhetoric was placed on the agenda, in forms that initially were attributed to white men with no education. Since then, this rhetoric has become progressively more dominating and extreme in its expressions, also in Sweden, counting a few prominent well-educated and female representatives (e.g., Sampson 2016, Heberlein 2016).

6 White Hegemony and Perceptions of Swedishness According to Hübinette (2017), the internationally widely spread current image of Sweden has been shaped by the anti-colonial foreign policy of the country, from the post-war and cold war periods onwards. Sweden played an important role in the UN at several points, and additionally was the proportionally largest donor of foreign aid, as well as receiving the largest number of immigrants, refugees, and adoptive children. The core of Swedish identity and the vision of Sweden that has been so characteristic of our times was forged on ideas of anti-racism, democracy, and gender equality (Hübinette 2017, Hübinette and Lundström 2011; see also Eilard 2008). At the same time, Swedish nationality is embedded within an overarching dominant European/Western racial order, where subjects are distinguished on the basis of their origins and degree of whiteness (Hübinette et al. 2012; see also Molina 2005, Mattsson 2005). Swedishness is thus entwined with both whiteness and anti-racism, so that either aspect can be difficult to separate from the other, both concerning individual

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perceptions of self, or in the vision of Sweden as a society (Hübinette 2017, Hübinette and Lundström 2011). Hübinette (2017) therefore concludes that Swedes in general see themselves as anti-racists. The concept of race, however, was abolished by decision of the Swedish parliament that all parties endorsed, in 1996, which according to Hübinette (2017) has separated Swedish anti-racism from the notion of race as such. Hübinette (2017) further argues that post-war Swedish foreign policy had the effect of separating anti-racism from postcolonial guilt. This is a statement that is possibly debatable, not least in view of the history of the national minorities. Thus, since skin color and origin are officially not believed to have any significance in Sweden, Swedish anti-racism could be considered to be color-blind. At the same time, in practice, this only applies to white (Swedes) (Arneback and Jämte 2017, cf. Ahmed 2004). This is also why the culture sociologist and feminist Sara Ahmed (2004) takes a critical stance towards the concept of anti-racism in general. She believes that the talk about anti-racism, just as debates on diversity, tends to conceal the actual conditions, giving the impression that racism does not occur, which makes people accept the status-quo and feel virtuous: “Diversity in this world becomes then a happy sign, a sign that racism has been overcome” (Ahmed 2007, p. 164). Like Hübinette, the textbook researcher Susanne V. Knudsen (2016, 2009) deconstructs the concept and phenomenon of whiteness in theory and practice, using examples drawn from Norwegian secondary school books to examine the latter. Knudsen draws on the concept of whiteness put forward by the US researcher of culture, Richard Dyer (1997), combining this concept with an intersectional analysis. If whiteness is related to comprise any of the categories nationality, ethnicity/culture, gender, sexuality, and/or class, variations and nuances in whiteness become visible, as well as showing how whiteness is given different meanings from one situation to the next (Knudsen 2016, 2009; see also Eilard 2008). The point made by Dyer is that whiteness is invisible, and presents itself as neutral, according to a white (Western) majority norm. This makes whiteness a privileged perspective.5 In this respect, whiteness can be considered hegemonic (Hübinette 2017), and it is possible to speak of differences in degree or dimensions of whiteness, where the whitest positions in any given context remain invisible, while subjects/bodies of a darker hue automatically are racified in an unreflected manner (Dyer 1997, Ahmed 2007). Historically, Sweden had a strong position in race-biological research, and the ideology of race hygiene which was founded through such research had long-lasting consequences, affecting among others both the Sami and the Roma (cf. Arneback and Jämte 2017). Although science after WWII has rejected, disproved, and taken a clear stance against the race-biological ideologies that culminated at that time, the racial/racist patterns of thought persist in the form of xenophobia and so-called cultural

5

White and Western can in this context be considered as synonymous terms, see eg. Eilard 2008.

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racism, and/or everyday racism (Arneback and Jämte 2017; see also Eilard 2008). Such attitudes are founded in differences in appearance, and/or differences in behavior, where various dimensions, including whiteness, ethnicity/culture, nationality, and religion interact and are expressed in racist forms. These expressions are reproduced in stereotypes and gratuitous assumptions that are embedded in everyday language use (e.g., Arneback and Jämte 2017). This is the case if we consider language used in unreflected perspectives of narration based on habit, as well as other everyday kinds of norms and categorization, as well as those expressing interests and majority perspectives, like the ones we find in children’s books or school textbooks. The Norwegian literary scholar Elisabeth Oxfeldt (2011) discusses the consequences of (post-)colonial patterns of thought in representations found in Nordic textbooks, as does the Finnish textbook researcher Pia Mikander (2015, 2012) in Finnish schoolbooks in history, both for instance drawing on Edward Saids work on orientalism. Oxelfedt’s (2011) approach attempts to understand findings against the background of the Norwegian identity political debate, which also sheds light on the interplay between the global and local in identity political debates more generally. Traces of global racial/racist discourses can activate patterns of thought in local contexts, as for instance in the case of the Utøya-massacre, or vice versa as with the local representation of the Muhammed caricatures. By combining the concepts elaborated by Knudsen (2016, 2009) and Oxfeldt (2011)/Mikander (2015, 2012) with those of Hübinette, it is possible to shed light on norms of whiteness, connecting these with perceptions of Swedishness and/or Westernness that are expressed in the textbooks examined here as well as in contemporary representations and discourses more generally.

7 A Hidden Racial Order in the Analyzed Textbooks The Swedish national curriculum (Lgr11 2011) stipulates that education should encourage pupils to develop understanding for the values that lie in cultural diversity. However, the audit report concluded that the examined textbooks did not contain many elements that related to other perspectives than that of the Swedish/Western majority society. Instead, as mentioned earlier, the textbooks encompass numerous instances of illustrations showing mainly white/colorless or (light) skin-colored hands, which reinforce the ethnocentric white perspective. The hands have varying appearances: some are photographs, while others are drawings, in different colors and shapes. Some are large, others small, male or female, and they may belong to children, old people, or adolescents. The precise hue of the skin of the hands also varies. Nevertheless, in spite of such variation, they all have in common (with very few exceptions), that they can be described as white. Thus, the hands–drawing on the concepts of Dyer (1997)–confirm the dominance of invisible and apparently neutral whiteness in the textbooks (cf. Knudsen 2016, 2009). They are numerous, and placed systematically throughout the texts, yet at first

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glance they can pass unnoticed. They are just there, embedded in the textbook illustrations, as an underlying or background structure, of the kind that Ahmed (2007) referrs to in her discussion of institutionalized whiteness. These representations can be seen as unintentional expressions of a deeply rooted–unconscious but at the same time taken-forgranted–white/Western structure that on a symbolic level cuts across the textbooks. However, as mentioned before, there are also a few instances of hands with a somewhat darker skin color, or as Dyer (1997) would put it, hands that are displaying various degrees of whiteness. These hands can be understood as the exceptions which confirm the rule that, in these textbooks, there is a general presence of an invisible white (ethnic/racial) structure (cf. Knudsen 2016, 2009). In this manner, the hands could be said to reflect, to some extent, the sporadic diversity that appears in the more recent books. As in the case with the female body parts, these pictures showing skin of a darker complexion could be seen as more intentional attempts to introduce and draw diversity in the textbooks that is a conscious strategy of adaptation, conforming to the requirements of the curriculum. What is described in the evaluation report as lack of perspectives other than Swedish, could thus also be described as a white (racial/ethnic) power order in the textbooks. This white structure contrasts with the sparse and superficially seen politically correct elements of diversity. I sometimes use the contested concept politically correct in the sense of politically articulated, to illustrate the ambiguity of what I call assimilated representations, before these have been internalized and moved from being politically controlled to something normal, and eventually natural and taken-forgranted. Diversity in its politically correct form is also problematized by Ahmed (2007, p 164), who emphasizes that”[i]t is the very use of black bodies as signs of diversity that confirms such whiteness”. To conclude, whiteness, as an invisible cultural and biological structure, just like gender/sex, is materialized in the white/colorless/skin-colored hands, above all in the chemistry textbooks. In the other textbooks with more general natural/social science content, whiteness is mainly expressed through the use of a so-called ethno-national perspective, through the nature and the landscapes/countries that are sometimes depicted. Besides such instances, whiteness is noticeable in the representation of white (male) scientists, thereby according to the report, associating scientific thought with a Western European cultural sphere. This, in turn, is associated with the modernity discourse of the Enlightenment, where the subject is represented by a rational man (Swedish School Inspectorate 2011, p. 28). A turning point can, however, be sensed in the most recently published textbooks, where the previous enlightened ideal shifts from a male to a female body, represented by the female scientist.

8 Discourses of “The Crisis of White Patriarchy” The national curriculum stipulates that schools have a responsibility “[…] to counteract traditional gender patterns” (Lgr11 2011, p. 8). The picture which emerges from the analyzed textbooks appears to respond to this injunction by instead expressing inversed

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gender roles. This simultaneously entails the risk of potential reverse oppression. However, gynocracy still is a fairly distant situation, which has mainly been described in fiction. As the Spanish sociologist Manuel Castells (2010) points out, the future is difficult to predict. On the one hand, Castells (2010) talks about the end of patriarchy, based in the changing appearance and role of the (patriarchal) nuclear family, after women’s entry into the job market and sexual liberation. On the other hand, he expresses reservations concerning possible backlash in an overly optimistic vision of the future: The continuing struggles in and around patriarchalism do not allow a clear forecasting of the historical horizon. Let me again repeat that there is no predetermined directionality in history. We are not marching through the triumphant avenues of our liberation, and, when we feel so, we had better watch out to see where these shining paths ultimately lead. Life muddles through life and, as we know, is full of surprises. A fundamentalist restoration, bringing patriarchalism back under the protection of divine law, may well reverse the process of the undermining of the patriarchal family, unwillingly induced by informational capitalism, and willingly pursued by cultural social movements (Castells 2010, p. 301).

The quote summarizes the chapter on the end of patriarchy, but also anticipates the crisis of multiculturalism, and the return of patriarchy in the Western world. In the moment of writing these words, such forebodings have materialized in Donald Trump and the rise of extreme right movements across Europe. To conclude, the emerging picture in the chemistry textbooks concords with the gradual progression of women and girls in different areas of contemporary society, notably the area of education but it also corresponds to the reverse situation experienced by boys today. Over the past decades, boys have fallen behind in school achievement, and seem to be exposed to a greater extent than girls to a negative socalled anti-school culture. Women have gradually taken more space and have advanced their positions within an increasing number of areas of public life, at least in Western cultures, while male roles have changed, so that also men are associated with chores and activities in the sphere of the home. Such developments have been accompanied by tendencies to permit derogatory and derisory discourses about men to a greater extent, as I also found in textbooks (e.g., Eilard 2008). Examples from public (Swedish) debates are, for instance, the way the so-called Dylan man was ridiculed during the autumn of 2016, or the young feminists who, in the prevailing cultural climate, publicly state that they hate men (cf. Schreiber 2017, Hultquist 2016). Such trends can also be said to have culminated during the #metoo-movement. In public debates, certain men have been accused in different ways of being the cause of the present condition of society that is the crisis of multiculturalism including the rise of the extreme right. Besides men originating from patriarchal cultures, the contempt has mainly been directed against uneducated white working-class men that is, primitive men, a trend that can be compared to the findings in the textbooks and the depiction of the Stone Age man.

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In her studies of extreme right rhetoric, the Finnish sociologist Suvi Keskinen (2013, p. 226–228) shows how what she terms the “white border guard masculinities” has been awakened by the fact that white men have felt threatened and provoked by for instance feminism and migration. Thus, some men, like Trump, have started using populistic language, to defend themselves, where misogyny, xenophobia and a contempt for knowledge all interplay, legitimizing patriarchal oppression. From this perspective, the extreme right can be understood as an expression of white identity politics, in the form of the ridiculed and primitive white men’s revenge (Poohl 2016b, Keskinen 2013).

9 Choosing Paths for the Future In this chapter, drawing both on the ongoing public debates and conclusions from research in education and the sociology of culture, I have attempted to show how certain patterns which were rendered visible in the analyzed textbooks, correspond to and interact with each other also in the discourses that are played out in real life. The (white) structure that was initially hidden, and which appeared in the textbooks that were submitted to the evaluation, was notably materialized in the frequent illustrations showing white/colorless/skin-colored hands. This dimension of the textbooks is only mentioned in general and cautious terms in the evaluation report, pointing to ethnocentrism and the absence of other ethnicities than Swedish (Swedish School Inspectorate 2011). An earlier official investigation report, however, that at about the same time draws attention to this same phenomenon is the Swedish report The Xenophobe Among Us from 2012 (Westerberg 2012). This report discusses the presence of such an underlying ethno-national/ethno-racial structure that is made visible and embodied by the white hands in the textbooks. Compared to the evaluation discussed in this chapter, this investigation underlines such a deeply rooted xenophobic structure to a greater or lesser extent is carried by all of us (Ahmed 2004). Arneback and Jämte (2017, p. 88, 72) argue that Swedish school and society have been “[…] dominated by an individual and idea-based understanding of racism”, where the phenomenon and concept of racisms has been “[…] understood as a notion, idea or ideology based on assumptions about the existence of biological races, and different worth”. In this manner, racism has also mainly been associated with other groups than ourselves, for instance other historical periods, other people, persons, forms of government or ideologies, extreme right groups, etc. Nevertheless, as both these authors and the official investigation show, racism can appear in different forms. One of them is the dormant xenophobia of everyday racism that must, of course be recognized and defeated, not denied and excused, and this is the challenge posed by the textbook analyzed here, and which it has been my ambition to raise in this chapter. Paradoxically, this is in fact the same structure that is described as anti-racist by some researchers, though at the same time as a myth, created by anti-racism being tied to whiteness as well as (Swedish) nationality/identity (Ahmed 2007, 2004; Hübinette 2017). That is, a politically correct anti-racism, but which is only anti-racist in a superficial sense.

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To conclude, the hidden white (racial) structure is not brought to the fore in the evaluation report of the Schools Inspectorate, possibly for understandable reasons, but this underlying structure has since 2011 increasingly manifested itself more openly, and has also been debated in society. At the time when the report was published, a resistance may have existed against rendering the underlying structure visible, due to blindness towards contemporary phenomena, and a strong Swedish self-image characterized by anti-racism. In retrospect, however, I believe it is easier to see this dimension of the textbook content. It could also be compared with the sexism and patriarchal structure which became visible through #metoo, but which in its own time was concealed by the myth of (Swedish) gender equality. Remark This text is an amended version (incl. some of the illustrations) of an original published in Swedish for a tribute (Eilard 2018).

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K. Mattsson, Diskrimineringens andra ansikte – svenskhet och “det vita västerländska”. [The other face of discrimination – Swedishness and the “white Western”], in Bortom Vi och Dom. Teoretiska reflektioner om makt, integration och strukturell diskriminering [Beyond We and Them: Theoretical Reflections on Power, Integration and Structural Discrimination] ed. by P. de los Reyes, M. Kamali (SOU, 2005), p. 41 P. Mikander, Othering and the construction of the west: the description of two historical events in Finnish school textbooks. Crit. Lit. Theor. Pract. 6(1), 31–45 (2012) P. Mikander, Colonialist “discoveries” in Finnish school textbooks. Nordidactica – J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Educ. 2015(4), 48–65 (2015) I. Molina, Rasifiering. Ett teoretiskt perspektiv i analysen av diskriminering i Sverige.” [Racifying: A Theoretical Perspective in the Analysis of Discrimination in Sweden], in Bortom Vi och Dom. Teoretiska reflektioner om makt, integration och strukturell diskriminering. [Beyond We and Them: Theoretical Reflections on Power, Integration and Structural Discrimination] ed. by P. de los Reyes, M. Kamali (SOU, 2005), p. 4 National Agency for Education [Skolverket], I enlighet med skolans värdegrund. En granskning av hur etnisk tillhörighet, funktionshinder, kön, religion och sexuell läggning framställs i ett urval av läroböcker [In Accordance with the Fundamental Values of the School. An Evaluation of How Ethnicity, Disability, Gender, Religion and Sexual Orientation are Represented in a Selection of Textbooks]. Rapport no. 285 (Skolverket, Stockholm, 2006) F.A. Nettelblad, C. Ekdahl, Spektrum Kemi [Spectrum Chemistry] (Liber AB, Stockholm, 2006) E. Oxfeldt, Aspects of orientalism in Nordic countries, in Representations of Otherness. ed. by N. Mazeikiene, M. Horsley, S.V. Knudsen (IARTEM, Kaunas, 2011), pp. 10–21 S. Parker, Teknos Kul Att Kunna. För Unga Kemister [Teknos Fun to Know: For Young Chemists] (Teknografiska Institutet, Solna Solna, 1990) H. Persson, Nyfiken på Naturvetenskap [Curious About Natural Science] (Almqvist & Wiksell/Liber AB, Stockholm, 1999) H. Persson, Boken om Fysik och Kemi [The Book About Physics and Chemistry] (Almqvist & Wiksell/Liber AB, Stockholm, 2004) D. Poohl, Extremhögerns retorik flyttar in i mainstream. [Extreme Right Rhetorics Move Into Mainstream]. Expo, June, 2016a, http://expo.se D. Poohl, Den vite mannens revansch [Revenge of the White Man]. Expo, November, 2016b, http://expo.se J. Rubin Dranger, Vem är rädd? (Who is Afraid?). Svenska Dagbladet, September, 2012, https:// www.svd.se S. Sampson, Angry White Males as Suffering Subjects, December, 2016, http://www.focaalblog. com E. Schreiber, Kvinnor som hatar män (Women Who Hate Men). Dagens Nyheter, July, 2017, https://www.dn.se/ M. Silberstein, En tävling i svenska värderingar [A Competition in Swedish Values]. SVT Nyheter, July, 2016, https://www.svt.se S. Sjöberg, B. Öberg, Puls. Grundbok Fysik och Kemi [Puls. Introduction to Physics and Chemistry] (Natur & Kultur, Stockholm, 2005) SOU, DEJA: Kvinnor, män och jämställdhet i läromedel i historia. En granskning på uppdrag av Delegationen för jämställdhet i skolan. [Women, Men and Gender Equality in History Teaching Materials. An Evaluation Commissioned by the Delegation for Gender Equality in School] (SOU, 2010), p. 10 P. Stén, “Det ska fan vara politiskt korrekt.” Retoriseringen av ordet “identitetspolitik” i svensk debatt 2014–2015 [It Must Be Politically Correct, Damn You! How the Word ‘Identity Politics’ Became Rhetorized in Swedish Debates] (University of Uppsala, Uppsala, 2015)

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Analysis of Visual Components in Czech History Textbooks for Lower Grades of Elementary Schools Ondřej Šimik(&) University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter analyzes visual components in Czech history textbooks for primary school in terms of their type and content according to the historical period. The research method used was content analysis. The number of images was determined by frequency analysis and statistical calculations. Also, univariate data analysis was applied (measures of central tendency and variability) and correlations were computed using the Pearson correlation test. A chi-square test served to compare the numbers. Altogether, 1,074 visual components were analyzed in 13 textbooks from seven publishing houses. The number of images is directly proportional with the space the textbook dedicated to the topic. Preliminary results showed that the number of visual components differs significantly according to individual publishers. In textbooks from one publisher there were 153 images on average. As for the type of visual components, artistic illustrations were dominant, followed by photographs. The results also showed that the specific content of the illustrations in textbooks from various publishers was very similar. The pictures sometimes were identical, with differences noted in the graphical rendition, particularly of common scenes. The finding highlight the fact that the historical curriculum presented in photographs, art illustrations, and maps is fairly consistent although some differences exist, relating in particular to the extent of some thematic units and therefore the number of visual components. Keywords: Visual components
Czech history textbooks Content analysis
Historical curriculum


Primary school


1 Introduction A cursory glance at the visual aspects of textbooks for primary school students shows them to be relatively rich, which is logical due to the psychological development of children and the importance of the visual dimension. Children learn to perceive the world through notions clearly presented to them-the principle of illustrativeness underlies the principles of pedagogy. It is apparent that visual components affect children’s motivation, arousing their interest and helping them to learn: the learning process is supported by sensory perception. Images also impact the learning process through the learner’s emotions, further helping retention of the content. According to Pýchová (1990 p. 673), non-continuous components are instrumental in explaining a © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 119–133, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_10

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curriculum: they encapsulate the curriculum and help learners to retain the knowledge and skills. The role of visual components is therefore irreplaceable. Against this background, the following questions seem essential: What materials do textbook authors select for visual presentation to students? What is the structure of such components? What is their content and their form? Scientific analyses of the content of textbooks are relatively numerous (e.g., Mikk 2000; Nonaka et al. 2012; Ahmad et al. 2016; Gilavand et al. 2016), but these usually deal with the verbal aspect of textbooks (e.g., conceptual analysis). Research into the non-continuous aspects of textbooks (at least in the Czech Republic) is less common (e.g., Pešková 2012; Janko and Knecht 2014) and where it is carried out, it usually covers textbooks for secondary schools (e.g., Hrabí 2006; Novotný 2007). However, as we indicated above, visual components are essential in textbooks for younger children. Although the analysis of all visual components is part of assessing the didactic features of textbooks (e.g., Průcha 1998), in this chapter we focus on those visual components that convey information related to the text and we disregard the overall graphic design (such as text color, background etc.).

2 Research Objectives This chapter focusses specifically on the contents of the visual components (picture components) included in science textbooks. Thereby, the segments dedicated particularly to history play a central role. The research presented in this chapter focused the following research objectives: O1: Compare the overall frequency of visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school according to publishing houses. O2: Find out and compare the ratio of text to visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school according to publishing houses. O3: Compare the character of visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school in relation to the number and area for textbooks from individual publishing houses. O4a: Compare the overall frequency of visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school with regard to the historical period presented. O4b: Compare the overall frequency of visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school in relation to the historical period presented and compare the products of different publishing houses. O5: Identify and categorize the content of visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school. O6: Compare the visual components in history textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary school according to their type.

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3 Methods and Sample The research method used was content analysis. Subsequently, frequency analysis, univariate data analysis (measures of central tendency and variability), and correlations (Pearson correlation test) served to further analyze the data. Comparison rested on the chi-square test. For the purposes of frequency analysis, the visual components were categorized according to predetermined criteria. The first criterion was the form of visual presentation: photograph, art illustration, scientific illustration (unlike art illustration that merely depicts the phenomenon, this conveys new information), and specific representation (map and chart). The second criterion was the historical period each visual component visualized. There were eleven such periods: time (in general); prehistory; Samo’s Empire and Great Moravia; the Přemyslids (princes); the Přemyslids (kings); the Luxembourgs and Hussites; the rule of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellonian dynasty; the Habsburgs before the Thirty Years’ War; the Thirty Years’ War; the Habsburgs-Baroque period and Enlightenment; the Habsburgs-from monarchy to republic; and the Czech lands during the twentieth century. The third criterion was the contents of individual visual components. It encompassed the following 13 categories: timelines; charts; maps; architecture; signs and symbols; exterior of historical monuments; interior of historical monuments; historical documents (written); people-general appearance; people’s lives-ways of life; particular personalities; movable historical artifacts (subjects); and specific historical events. All events that could clearly be dated were considered and assigned to a timeline (e.g., depicting the coronation of Charles IV). Also considered were pictures that did not contain specific dates, but their description could lead to the exact determination of the time. The sample consisted of 13 national history and geography textbooks from seven different publishers. For the purposes of the research presented in this chapter, only the chapters dedicated to history (subjects of the educational area People and Time) were considered. The main criterion of textbook selection was that they were designed for grades 4 and 5 (i.e., complete series) and had the recommendation of the Ministry of Education (valid clause). The sample contained textbooks published by Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, Didaktis, Fraus, SPL Práce, Alter, and Prodos. With the exception of Prodos, all publishers published one textbook per grade instead of a joint volume for grades 4 and 5.

4 Results The historical parts of national history and geography textbooks featured a total of 1,074 visual components (in average 153 components/textbook). Figure 1 shows differences between individual publishing houses.

O. Šimik

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Quanty of visual components according to publishing house (SD = 47,8) 250 200

n

150 100

208

199

183

165

123

115

50

81

0 Didaks

Státní Nová škola pedagogické nakladatelství (SPN)

Fraus

Alter

Prodos

SPL Práce

publishing house

Fig. 1. Visual components in textbooks according to publishing houses, n = 1,074 (source: author).

The chi-square test indicated that three textbook publishers, namely Didaktis (0.000; a = 0.001), Státní pedagogické nakladatelství (0.000; a = 0.001), and Nová škola (0.001; a = 0.01) contained significantly more visual components than the average, while the publishers Alter (0.001; a = 0.01), Prodos (0.000; a = 0.001), and SPL Práce (0.000; a = 0.001) [2] contained significantly less visual components. The number of visual components in the textbooks by Fraus did not differ significantly from the overall average. Visual components occupied different surface (in cm2) in the analyzed textbooks (cf. Fig. 2). Overall, visual components occupy approximately one-third of the total surface dedicated to history in the national history and geography textbooks. The chisquare test (p = 0.000) showed highly significant differences between the individual publishers. The overall graphical layout as well as the size and type of images revealed diverse approaches of the author teams. The comparison of the sequence in each publisher’s textbooks allows to infer the nature of images regarding their number and size (cf. Table 1).

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visual components and textual parts Prodos

20.68%

79.32%

Didaks

24.12%

75.88%

Nová škola

25.79%

74.21%

SPN

33.47%

66.53%

Fraus

36.33%

63.67%

Alter

36.94%

63.06%

SPL Práce

39.41% 0%

10%

20%

60.59% 30%

40%

50%

visual components (pictures)

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

textual parts (text)

Fig. 2. Comparison of visual components and textual parts (source: author). Table 1. Number of images and their surface (source: author). Number of images and their surface Publishing house Rank Quantity (n) Area (cm2) Didaktis 1 6 SPN 2 3 Nová škola 3 4 Fraus 4 7 Alter 5 2 Prodos 6 1 SPL Práce 7 5

Characteristic of the pictures Many and small Many and larger More and lesser Less and small Less and large Few and large Few and lesser

The Pearson correlation test revealed a direct relationship between the surface occupied by visual components and the extent of the space dedicated to history. The greater the extent of a certain historical period, the more visual components it featured. The Pearson correlation coefficient in all cases exceeded 0.8 (min. 0.874, max. 0.995). Table 2 and Fig. 3 contained the comparative results according to historical periods.

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Table 2. Number of visual components according to historical periods (n = 1,074) (source: author). Mean (per publishing Rank by topics - quantity of the pictures pictures (n) house) Czech country in 20th century Dynasty of Habsburg - from monarchy to republic House of Luxembourg and Hussites Prehistory Dynasty of Přemyslid - princes Dynasty of Habsburg and Thirty years´ War Dynasty of Habsburg - Baroque and The Enlightenment Samo´s Empire and Great Moravia Dynasty of Přemyslid - kings Georg of Poděbrady and Jagiellonian dynasty Timeline (time generally)

Median (per Rank per publishing median house) (quantity)

Rank per median (area)

Different rank due to area

284

40.57

45

1

1

0

171 140 76 77

24.43 20.00 10.86 11.00

24 17 12 10

2 3 4 5

2 3 5 6

0 0 +1 +1

71

10.14

8

6

4

-2

67 60 48

9.57 8.57 6.85

7 8 9

7 8 9

7 8 10

0 0 +1

42 38

6.00 5.43

5 2

10 11

9 11

-1 0

Comparison of the average number of visual components in each historical period and the coefficient of variaon

coefficient of variaon

1.2

40.57

1.26

40 35

1

30 24.43

0.83

0.8

25

20.00

0.6

0.6 0.4 0.2 0

20

0.55

10.14

9.57 5.43

0.54

0.53 10.86

0.53

0.47

0.45

8.57

6.00

0.44 6.85

11.00

15

0.36 10 5 0

0

Timeline (me generally)

Average of visual components (all publishing houses) in specific topic

45

1.4

Dynasty of Georg of Habsburg - Poděbrady and Baroque and Jagiellonian The dynasty Enlightenment

House of Luxembourg and Hussites

Dynasty of Habsburg and Thirty years´ War

Prehistory

Samo´s Empire Dynasty of Czech country in and Great Habsburg - from 20th century Moravia monarchy to republic

Dynasty of Přemyslid kings

Dynasty of Přemyslid princes

Fig. 3. Comparison of the average number of visual components in each historical period and the coefficient of variation (source: author).

The results show that the most frequently visualized events were tied to the twentieth century, followed by the eighteenth and nineteenth century, and by the periods of Luxembourgs and Hussites. These three historical periods contained more than half of all illustrations. At the opposite end of the spectrum were visual components related to the timelines and time in general, while few images depicted the rule of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellonian dynasty, or a more distant historical period of the Přemyslid kings or Samo’s Empire and Great Moravia. The lack of historic artifacts is clearly evident in this case. Relatively few visual components were found for the period between the sixteenth and seventeenth century (and through the reign of Maria Theresa and Joseph.

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Using the coefficient of variation, the differences were investigated between publishers within a particular historical–the lower the coefficient, the more similar the number of visual components in a given historical period in the published textbooks examined. A similar division of images was found in historical periods with a coefficient under 0.5. Conversely, extreme differences in the number of visual components among textbooks from various publishers were found in the thematic units dedicated to time, the Baroque period and Enlightenment, or the period of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellonian dynasty. Figure 4 displays the number of visual components per historical period according to publishers.

Distribuon of visual components according to publishing house and historical topic 100% 90% 80%

2 5 9 11 25

70% 18 17

40%

12

10 15

4 4

14

8

18

7

10

12

30

0 4 4 4 8 6

13

9 1

7 9

16

24

16

7

0 2 3

10 9 6 0 8 9

10

17

17

38 42 48

Timeline (me generally)

67

Georg of Poděbrady and Jagiellonian dynasty

6

67

6

71

13 10

9

17 19

17 5 9

6 6

60% 50%

0 12

77

Samo´s Empire and Great Moravia

76

Dynasty of Habsburg - Baroque and The Enlightenment

140

Dynasty of Habsburg and Thirty years´ War

7 39

26 12

7

Dynasty of Přemyslid - princes

47 171

16

12

Dynasty of Přemyslid - kings

30%

Prehistory 18

20%

28

House of Luxembourg and Hussites

45

69 32

50

10%

48

284 Dynasty of Habsburg - from monarchy to republic

14

26

Czech country in 20th century

0% Nová škola

Didaks Prodos

Alter

SPN

Fraus

SPL Práce

TOTAL

Fig. 4. Distribution of visual components according to publishing house and historical topic (source: author).

An important objective of the analysis was to determine the content of the visual components. Thirteen different kinds of content were identified (Fig. 5). The coefficient of variation–the largest disparity between displayed phenomena (different numbers with different visual components content)–was found in textbooks published by Alter (coefficient of variation 1.20), Fraus (0.99), and Didaktis (0.94); the most similar (balanced) distribution was found in textbooks published by Nová škola (0.58). These values are relatively high and show that authors do not use images on purpose. Textbook authors have intentionally not classified visual components so that their content was balanced. For example, referring to a specific period, some authors preferred to visualize more persons that historic buildings, while other authors set the emphasis the other way round.

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Content of visual components–general comparison 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

183 157

156

146 115 75

68

61

46

33

18

13

3

Fig. 5. Content of visual components–general comparison (n = 1,074) (source: author).

As for the forms of visualization, the most common were artistic illustrations (534; 49.7%) and photographs (455; 42.4%). The other three forms of image were represented to a much lesser extent: maps (61; 5.7%), scientific illustrations (20; 1.9%), and charts (3; 0.3%). Statistically significant (chi-square test) was also the difference in the quantity of each type of visualization per publisher, except for charts (p = 0.368). The value for scientific illustrations was p = 0.001 and for the other types (photographs, artistic illustrations, and maps) it was p = 0.000. In other words, the quantity of these visual components in the textbooks displayed a great variability (cf. Fig. 6).

scienfic illustraons, 20, 2%

maps, 61, 6%

Type of the visual components charts, 4, 0%

arsc illustraons, 534, 50%

photographs, 455, 42%

Fig. 6. Number of visual components according publishers (n = 1,074) (source: author).

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A closer look at the content of individual visual components offers an insight into what they display most frequently and how primary students perceive history through such images. In most cases (n = 183), visual components depicted personalities. All publishers included pictures of T. G. Masaryk, six added pictures of George of Poděbrady, the teacher and preacher John Amos Comenius, or the president Václav Havel. Five publishers presented Agnes of Bohemia and the sovereigns John of Luxembourg, Charles IV, Rudolf II, Maria Theresa, and Franz Joseph II. Four publishers featured pictures of Princess Libuše, Cyril and Methodius, the chronicler Kosmas, the scientist František Palacký, and emperor Joseph II. Two of the publishers depicted 15 personalities, three included eleven personalities, and only one publishing house presented illustrations of 48 different historic personalities. In total, the images presented 89 different historic figures, especially rulers (princes, kings, emperors, presidents) followed by prominent people (e.g., scientists and inventors of the Enlightenment period), military officials, individuals mainly from the period of World War II (Hitler, Stalin, Nicholas Winton), and fighters against communism (Milada Horáková, Jan Palach, Jan Opletal). More than one-quarter of all depictions of historical personalities were from the twentieth century (23.5%), followed by the eighteenth and nineteenth century (21.3%), the princes of the Přemyslid dynasty (12.5%), and personalities from the Habsburg period (less than 10%). The least depicted figures were from the most distant times (Samo’s Empire and Great Moravia with less than 5%). The second most frequently visualized content elements were movable historic artifacts (n = 157). The graphically most often represented objects originated from prehistorical times, such as statuettes of the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, vases, ceramic figurines from the Stone Age, various tools from both the Stone and Bronze Age, a cleaver, bronze jewellery, bowls, and coins. Approximately half as many pictures (12.7%) showed objects from the Luxembourg and Hussite periods: seals of Charles IV and John of Luxembourg, crown jewels of St. Wenceslas, Hussite weaponry, Hussite chalice, seal of the Charles University or statues of Charles IV and his wives. The share of technical objects mainly from the nineteenth century, such as historic cars such as President, Laurin & Klement, the Bozek steam-car, steamboats, horse-drawn railways, telephones, Jan Kašpar’s airplane, and textile machinery, was similar. A total of 16 (10.2%) pictures visualized the periods of Samo’s Empire and Great Moravia (golden earrings, decorative buttons, pliers, jewellery, manual corn grinder, statues of the gods Perun and Radegast, silver dishes). The least depicted historical period was the twentieth century (12; 7.64%) with mainly military machinery (airplanes, tanks), Masaryk’s medals, Spejbl and Hurvínek puppets, or the memorial plate of 1989. Objects from the Přemyslids period (kings and princes) were mostly statues of rulers. The fewest artifacts depicted the Habsburg period up to the Thirty Years’ War (6, 3.8%, e.g., talers from the period of Rudolf II, a cannon ball on a façade, or a water wheel) and their reign in the Baroque period and Enlightenment (only 5 images, 3.2%). The third most commonly depicted group were specific historic events (n = 156). The most frequently visualized event was the arrival of Soviet troops in Prague in August 1968, while six out of seven publishing houses included pictures of the construction of the Charles Bridge (second half of the fourteenth century), five focused on the assassination of Wenceslaus, Duke of Bohemia in 906, and four showed the liberation of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II by American and Soviet troops.

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O. Šimik

Three publishers depicted in their textbooks the following events: the preaching of Jan Hus, the Battle of White Mountain, the execution of Czech noblemen at the Old Town Square demonstrations of the Velvet Revolution in Letná, with two scenes of Cyril and Methodius’ arrival, the construction of the Prague New Town, the battles between Hussites and Crusaders, the battle of Lipany, the second Defenestration of Prague, the fire at the National Theater, and the political process of Milada Horaková (1950). The most frequently documented events were those from the twentieth century. These were primarily related to both world wars (e.g., various battle scenes, the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic, the occupation during World War II) and also scenes from the communist era (the Victorious February 1948, the Prague Spring of 1968, Jan Palach’s funeral), or the events leading to the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Some pictures also captured certain legendary Czech figures, such as Forefather Čech and the Říp Mountain and Horymír’s leap on Šemík’s horseback. Images from the Middle Ages represented, for example, the teaching of Cyril and Methodius, the Battle of Marchfeld, the founding of Charles University, and the Council of Jan Hus. Among the images on the eighteenth and nineteenth century were, for instance, Joseph II ploughing a furrow (1785), the storming of the Bastille (1879), the revolutionary year of 1848 in Prague, and the Slavic Congress (1848). Relatively frequent also were images of the exterior of historic buildings. This category was differentiated into several parts according to the type of building depicted (Fig. 7).

120

100

4 7 9 12

80

Place generally - period Technical monuments

12 60

The natural locaons

15

Other exterior elements General buildings Cies - overall view

15 Castles and chateaus

40 17

Religious monuments Secular buildings

20 21 0

Fig. 7. The exterior of historic buildings (n = 112) (source: author).

Secular buildings mentioned in textbooks included the Charles University, the Hus Museum, the Powder Gate, the Clementinium, the Charles Bridge, the National Theater, the National Museum, the Estates Theater, the Rudolfinum, the Pevnost Terezín, the fortress in Kralice, Baťa’s skyscraper, the Stone Bell House, Petrin, Brno City Hall, the Villa Tunenghat, and the Janacek Conservatory. A special category of secular buildings were castles and chateaus (e.g., Karlštejn Castle, Prague Castle, Villa Belvedere, Chateau Bučovice, the Baroque chateau Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou, Bezděz Castle, Zvíkov Castle, Pernštejn Castle, and Křivoklát Castle). Quite numerous were religious monuments, mainly churches and cathedrals: the Cathedral of St. Vitus, Týn Church, Vyšehrad Castle, Bethlehem Chapel, the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Prague,

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the Cathedral of Saint Barbara in Kutná Hora, the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew in Pilsen, Saint John Nepomuk Church in Žďár, the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, and the rotunda of St. George on Říp Mountain. Also depicted were technical monuments: Vítkovice factories, Baťa factories, Křižík power plant, the tobacco factory in Šternberk, Kladno plants, Liebeg textile factory, the mint in Kutná Hora, or the Škoda factory. Much less depicted were interiors of historical buildings (18 visuals), mostly Vladislav Hall (five visuals), the interior of the Czech expedition (three visuals), the curtain of the National Theater (three visuals), the entrance hall of the National Museum, the interior of the National Library in Prague, and the interior of St. Nicholas church in Prague (twice each). A total of 115 images focused on the representation of people’s lives in the past. The temporal emphasis was on the eighteenth and nineteenth century (21.2%), depicting work in the fields, in factories, at school, at leisure in a theater, or traveling by train. Pictures of everyday life (19.1%) offered an insight into the twentieth century (e.g., families watching TV, shopping). The textbooks also included, relatively often, pictures from the Hussite period (the Hussite wars, 15%) and images of life in prehistoric times (a hunt, life in a camp, the beginning of crafts; 12.1%). Only a small number of the images (around 5%) showed the lives of people in other times (especially the Middle Ages). This category also included the general appearance of people. Almost half of the pictures (49.2%) were related to the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries and depicted mainly clothing, types of military uniforms, and images of the working class, but also children in a concentration camp. Pictures showing the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mainly portrayed children in classrooms. Several pictures also depicted people from the Hussite period and visualizations of people in prehistoric times. In the category of written documents, a total of 68 images focused primarily on the twentieth century (47%) and showed mainly postage stamps, various posters and commercials from the communist era, food stamps used during the war, or newspapers describing events of the war. Only a few written sources displayed earlier periods (e.g., the Golden Bull of Sicily, excerpts from medieval books or Comenius’ Orbis Pictus). Another integral part of the chapters on history in the national history and geography textbooks are maps. The map styles varied from publisher to publisher. The most detailed were the maps of Czech lands in the twentieth and nineteenth centuries (51%). The authors focused mainly on the general map of Czech lands in 1918 (after World War I), World War II, and also the period after 1989. The period between the seventeenth and eighteenth century appeared in maps of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy, showing the Habsburg Monarchy. Pictures of Czech lands in the High and Early Middle Ages were, again, less frequent (less than ten). The few visuals showed Czech lands and their area in the period of the Luxembourgs, Jagiellonians, Přemyslids, while some older maps also depicted Great Moravia or Samo’s Empire. Slightly less frequent than maps were signs and symbols (n = 46), with their majority (over 60%) depicting events of the twentieth century (flags of the Czech Republic and Czechoslovakia, the president’s standard, the NATO emblem, and Škoda and Volkswagen car logos). Apart from that, almost every textbook showed the coat of arms of the Czech Republic, and also the Star of David. Symbols of various houses

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(Přemyslids, Luxembourgs, Jagiellonians, Habsburgs) and also the Hussites visualized the Middle Ages. The architecture category contained all those visual components (illustrations, photographs, etc.) whose purpose was to present an image of a specific architectural style. The sample contained 46 such images. Unlike most previous categories, this category was dominated by images from ancient times (prehistory and Samo’s Empire, as well as Great Moravia). The visuals presented Slavic settlements, the first Slavic dwellings, and stone churches (less than 40%). Images from the Middle Ages depicted mainly the medieval town and villages, a Gothic window, a Baroque portal, or Renaissance houses (gable walls). Several photographs of the communist times contributed to the visualization of the twentieth century. Charts were only rarely (three in total) included in the textbooks. While one chart showed the number of unemployed people (Didaktis publishing house), the other two represented the ethnic composition of Czechoslovakia (Nová škola).

5 Discussion and Conclusions The analysis of visual components in the content dedicated to history in the national history and geography textbooks for grades 4 and 5 of primary schools from seven publishers showed a great variety. The number of images in each textbook varied significantly (up to more than twice as many), reflecting the specific approaches teams of authors followed while writing the textbooks. The surface occupied by visual components also showed significant differences (20–40% of the textbook content area). One explanation of this result is the format of the textbook itself: the larger the textbook, the more space for visual documentation of phenomena, since it is necessary to maintain the font size in order for the text to be legible. Another explanation is tied to the function of the visual material itself, which Průcha (1998) divides into three categories: images that replace, develop, and supplement the content of the interpretive component, namely the text. In the study presented in this chapter, the ratio of the visual area increased, especially when pictures replaced interpretive text. Hrabí (2005) also points out the existence of differences in the amount of visual content and the overall structure of the textbook. In science textbooks for lower grades, graphic information prevails over text (Hrabí 2005). The matter of the ratio of continuous and discontinuous text elements must also be addressed in terms of psychodidactics, especially in relation to how students perceive, process, and use the information implied by both components of the textbook (Gavora 1992; Průcha 1998; Mareš 2001). Relatively large differences between the publishers were found in the number of visual components for different historical periods. The category of time particularly visualizes this finding, as in some cases, it is hardly represented in visual terms. One possible explanation of this finding is the late implementation of this period into the curriculum of the subject Man and His World in 2005. The authors of newly published textbooks tend to focus on graphic modernization rather than on explicitly complementing the educational content according to the Outline of the Educational Program for primary education’s prescriptions. This means that if the thematic unit of time was not included in previously published textbooks (for example, in the 1990s), it would

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not appear in the newest textbooks. Although the appearance of textbooks changes (cover design, layout, use of pictures, etc.), it seems that the interpreted text itself (the educational content) has not thoroughly been revised. These results lead to the matter of textbook quality and raise the question, whether curriculum changes really impact textbooks or do they merely lead to a change of cover. Further work on educational content comparison of textbooks might offer first answers. Furthermore, Klečka (2011) emphasizes the need to compare textbook content with curricular documents. Another historical period that shows significant differences in the number of illustrations is the period between the rule of Habsburgs after the Thirty Years’ War and the rule of George of Poděbrady or the rule of the Jagiellonian House. This is most likely a result of the range of these thematic units with some textbooks mentioning these units rather vaguely, while others place more emphasis on them (also giving space to visual presentation). Despite these differences, textbooks published by different publishing houses display a range of common features. First, the graphical representation of particular events of the past three centuries-with special emphasis on the twentieth century-shows some similarities. This is especially related to the fact that modern history falls back on more visual sources for authors to use. From earlier periods of time, the pictures showed most frequently the reign of the Luxembourgs and the Hussite wars. This is due to the importance of Charles IV, who was one of the most important monarchs in Czech history. The Hussite period is also a much-featured period in the history of the Czech nation. Most pictures depict historical figures-mainly politicians. Another dominant theme is portable objects (artifacts), which mainly document prehistory and the early Middle Ages rather than events of the twentieth century. Regarding historic monuments, mainly exteriors are depicted (mostly secular buildings and castles or chateaux), while historic interiors are represented approximately seven times less often. One possible explanation for this finding is that the interior of buildings was not preserved as much as the exterior. In addition, photographs of the exterior of important buildings are more more often available. Textbooks from most of the publishing houses also contain several symbols and signs (coats of arms, flags, etc.). The authors have very different approaches towards historical maps being more (e.g., Didaktis publishing) or less systematic (e.g., SPL Práce). Regarding the depiction of specific figures and historical monuments, the most familiar ones are also the most common representations in textbooks. However, there is a high variability of individual figures or buildings (about half of all those depicted are included only once, i.e., a textbook from a single publisher). Based on the results of this study, the author would recommend textbooks from Didaktis publishing or Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, which include highly colorful images that can help students better understand the history of their homeland. Knecht (2006), who interviewed students at the second level of primary school regarding this matter, claims that visual components are primarily dominant for younger pupils who respond to the overall visual elements of textbooks but reflect rather superficially what their function is. His results showed that most sixth-graders used the textbook as a visual resource instead of a source of information. The reason for this behavior is that the interpretive text remains distant for them in terms of content and quantity (Knecht 2006). For younger

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students (grades 4–5), visual components play a very important role, particularly in terms of motivation. The results of the research presented in this chapter showed that the examined textbooks are relatively rich in illustrations, with hundreds of pictures, which Staudková (2007), for example, considers to be a positive characteristic of a textbook. According to her, a high-quality textbook should have enough visual material. However, this visual material also has to be comprehensive, correct, and attractive for the students. Sikorová (2007), on the other hand, claims that a textbook has less value if the illustrations provoke and distract the students’ attention, while Zujev (1986) considers that a textbook without illustrations is incomprehensible for students (particularly regarding documentary illustrations). The role of illustrations is also to supplement, specify, reveal, and deepen the emotional relationship between the content and other non-textual components, which potentially leads to a more effective perception and learning with the material. The visual material also fulfills the important didactic principle of illustration, which Komenský (in Strnad et al. 1954) has already referred to, underlying that a picture helped the student to better understand the material. For younger students, “[…] the senses have to be practiced the most for perception of things. However, sight is the most prominent” (Komenský in Červenka et al. 1970, p. 293). Mikk (2007) (in Maňák and Knecht 2007) reports that the number of illustrations in textbooks has increased considerably in recent decades. The findings of this study also support this observation. Also, Valenta (1997) reminds us that illustrative material represents an important part of a textbook’s non-textual elements that promote learning. Mareš (1995) emphasizes (in the context of development psychology and psychodidactics) that a child’s understanding of visual materials depends on his/her cognitive development. At the same time, he notes that children barely learn how to learn using visual material at school. Learning from visual materials is based on processing visual information (cf. Goldsmith 1987). Within the context of didactics, the issue of visual material is often related only to the problem of illustration in teaching (Mareš 1995). Summing up, the authors of the examined textbooks included a relatively large number of illustrations with a predominantly illustrative and motivational function. However, it will be necessary, in further research, to investigate the role of illustrations in the context of cognitive psychology and students’ learning, including psychodidactics (Held and Pupala 1995), the psychology of illustration (Willows and Houghton 1987), or the theory of the visual language (Chang et al. 1987). Also, including whether the pictures are clear for students and truly aid their learning or whether the high frequency of illustrations may draw students’ attention away from the intended results of learning, are also open questions for future research.

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References A. Ahmad, M. Fariborz, M. Morteza, A. Jafar, B. Azam Arab, R. Hasan, Content analysis of the social sciences book in sixth grade primary school based on content selection indices. Bull. Environ. Pharmacol. Life Sci. 5(2), 20–27 (2016) J. Červenka, S. Králík, J. Nováková, Opera Didaktika Omnia, Svazek 17 (ČSAV, Prague, 1970) S.K. Chang, T. Ichikawa, P.A. Ligomenides, Visual languages–a tutorial and survey. Viz. Progr. 1, 29–39 (1987) P. Gavora, Žiak a Text (Slovenské pedagogické nakladateľstvo, Bratislava, 1992) A. Gilavand, A. Moosavi, M. Gilavand, Z. Moosavi, Content analysis of the science textbooks of Iranian junior high school course in terms of the components of health education. Int. J. Pediatr. 4(12), 4057–4069 (2016) E. Goldsmith, The analysis of illustration in theory and practice, in The psychology of illustration. ed. by D.M. Willows, H.A. Houghton (Springer, New York, 1987), pp. 53–85 L. Held, B. Pupala, Psychogcnéza Žiakovho Poznania vo Vyučovaní (PedF UK, Bratislava, 1995) L. Hrabí, Učebnice přírodopisu a jejich obtížnost. Pedagogická orientace 15(3), 118–122 (2005) L. Hrabí, Hodnocení grafické informace učebnic přírodopisu. e-PEDAGOGIUM 15(1), 26–32 (2006) T. Janko, P. Knecht, Visuals in geography textbooks: increasing the reliability of a research instrument, in Methodologie und Methoden der Schulbuch-und Lehrmittelforschung. ed. by P. Knecht, E. Matthes, S. Schütze, B. Aamotsbakken (Verlag Julius Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn, 2014), pp. 227–240 M. Klečka, Teorie a Praxe Tvorby Učebnic Chemie pro Střední Školy. Disertační Práce (Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Prague, 2011) P. Knecht, Hodnoceníučebnic zeměpisu z pohledu žáků 2. stupně základních škol, in Učebnice pod lupou, ed. by J. Maňák (Paido, Brno, 2006), pp. 85–96 J. Mareš, Učení z obrazového materiálu. Pedagogika 45(4), 318–327 (1995) Mareš J.: Učení z obrazového materiálu. In: J. Čáp & J. Mareš (eds.), Psychologie pro učitele (pp. 493–505. Portál, Prague (2001) J. Mikk, Textbook. Research and Writing (Peter Lang, Frankfurt, 2000) J. Mikk, Učebnice: budoucnost národa, in Hodnocení učebnic. ed. by J. Maňák, P. Knecht (Paido, Brno, 2007), pp. 11–23 D. Nonaka, et al, Content analysis of primary and secondary school textbooks regarding malaria control: a multi-country study. PLoS ONE 7(5), e36629 (2012) P. Novotný, Vizuální informace ve vybraných učebnicích dějepisu pro 9. ročník základní školy, Příspěvky k tvorbě a výzkumu kurikula, ed. by T. Janík, P. Knecht, V. Najvarová (Paido, Brno), pp. 121–126 K. Pešková, Vizuální prostředky pro výuku reálií: výsledky analýzy učebnic němčiny. Pedagogická orientace 22(2), 243–265 (2012) J. Průcha, Učebnice: Teorie a Analýzy Edukačního Média (Paido, Brno, 1998) I. Pýchová, K funkci vizuálií v rozvoji osobnosti žáka. Pedagogika 40(6), 669–684 (1990) Z. Sikorová, Návrh seznamu hodnotících kritérií pro učebnice základních a středních škol, in Hodnocení učebnic. ed. by J. Maňák, P. Knecht (Paido, Brno, 2007), pp. 31–40 J. Staudková, Jak by měla vypadat moderní učebnice z pohledu vydavatele?, in Hodnocení učebnic. ed. by J. Maňák, P. Knecht (Paido, Brno, 2007), pp. 48–54 E. Strnad, J. Uždil, O. Švec, Školní Obraz, Jeho Význam a Užití (SPN, Prague, 1954) M. Valenta, Koncepce a Tvorba Učebnic (Netopejr, Olomouc, 1997) D.M. Willows, H.A. Houghton, The Psychology of Illustration (Springer, New York, 1987) D.D. Zujev, Jak Tvořit Učebnice (Slovenské pedagogické nakladatelství, Bratislava, 1986)

Doing Research on Geography Textbooks. An Overview of Methods, Samples, and Topics in International and German Journals (1960–2020) Péter Bagoly-Simó(&) Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Textbooks continue to shape the teaching and learning of Geography as a school subject. Therefore, textbook and educational media research in Geography Education is expected to be a continuously developing field exploring a variety of topics and employing diverse research methods. However, as previous studies showed, Geography Education dedicates only marginal attention to textbooks. This chapter revisits the author’s 2014 study of scholarship on Geography textbooks. Using a sample of six journals and a mixedmethods approach, the chapter looks into quantity, methodology, and sampling in studies on Geography textbooks published in English and German. The results reinforce the previous finding. In addition, an overall decline of scholarship in German can be observed. Keywords: Geography
Textbooks
Research methods
Comparative study
Bibliographic study

1 Textbooks and Geography Education For decades, academic discourse established textbooks as “[…] the curriculum come alive” (Kuhn and Rathmayr 1977, p. 9). Geography, a particularly media-intensive subject according to Rinschede (2007), still relies heavily on textbooks as they “[…] warrant the implementation of curricular prescriptions (‘hidden curriculum’) and are generally regarded as the instrument of control of educational content in the teaching discourse” (Hamann 2013, p. 246). The Covid-19 global pandemic also showed that teachers returned to the textbook as a leading educational resource, particularly when working with economically challenged households (Bagoly-Simó et al. 2020). Rinschede (1997, p. 141; 2007, p. 370) defines the textbook as “[…] a product specially designed for teaching and learning based on the curriculum that combines texts, images, drawings, diagrams, tables, profiles, block images, and cartoons”. As a composite medium, the textbook is more than an additive collection of discontinuous and continuous text elements. It is the functional ties between both elements that turn the textbook into a unique learning resource (Volkmann 1986). There are different views on the role of textbooks in the teaching and learning process. For Lenz (2006), Geography textbooks organize the content into a clear structure and provide © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 134–146, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_11

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pedagogical tools. Based on the work of Brucker (1983), Hacker (1980), and Bulliger et al. (2005), Rinschede (2007) attributes to textbooks the roles to structure and represent content, motivate students, offer pedagogical impulses and support, transport innovation, offer learning tasks, and control the teaching-learning process. Given their importance for Geography, over time, different sets of criteria aimed at offering a tool to evaluate Geography textbooks (cf. Imhof 1993; Birkenhauer 1997). These sets of criteria proved to be valid for textbook selection, analysis, and evaluation (cf. Sperling and Engel 1986; Kross 2001; Stöber 2004; Böhn and Hamann 2011). Scholarly work in Geography Education primarily focused on the content of Geography textbooks. A few studies, however, also explored textbook usage. For example, Thöneböhn’s (1990, 1992) work presented empirical evidence that textbooks largely determined lesson planning and curriculum implementation in school Geography. Other studies compared educational media used in Geography and encountered a low student interest in textbooks (Schrettenbrunner 1969). Almost a decade later, Leusmann (1977) found–based on a survey with students in grades 7, 9, 11, and 13 (aged 12–19)–that the textbook ranked seventh on the top ten list of most favored educational media in Geography. In addition, the survey also showed decreasing popularity of the textbook, with each grade achieving the lowest values with the thirteenth-graders. Similarly, Hemmer and Hemmer’s (2010) study on Bavarian students’ interest in geographical topics, methods, and regions showed that as early as 1995, textbooks reached the lowest interest values. The results of the follow-up study carried out in 2005 showed similar values. In contrast, textbooks ranked third on the teachers' media preference list in 1995 and even first in 2005. The authors note that teachers ranked “[…] working with textbooks and their continuous text first and second in 2005, while student interest placed them to the bottom of the list. The relationship [between teachers’ and students’ preferences] is exactly diametrical–a finding that coincides with the 1995 results” (Hemmer and Hemmer 2010, p. 112). Both bibliometrics (Papadimitriou and Kidman 2012) and content-analytical work (Kidman and Papadimitriou 2012) showed that research on textbooks played only a marginal role in Geography Education. However, these studies relied on a sample of only one international journal, which they analyzed for a period of 18 years. In a first longitudinal study, Bagoly-Simó (2014) analyzed four journals, two of which of global impact and other two nested in German-speaking countries’ regional setting. This chapter […] is a follow-up of Bagoly-Simó (2014) study by expanding both its scope and sample.

2 Research Objectives Textbooks have shaped the process of teaching and learning Geography as a central educational resource for a long time and continue to do so (e.g., Bagoly-Simó et al. 2020). This chapter aims to offer an overview of research on textbooks in Geography Education, exploring the main methods, sample size, and thematic emphasis.

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3 Methods and Sample A mixed-methods approach served to map the methodological diversity of textbook research in Geography Education. This section first introduces the sample to turn to the methods subsequently. 3.1

Sample

Six international journals constituted the sample. The main selection criteria were, on the one hand, the impact of the journals on the international discourse and, on the other hand, their consideration of regionally relevant research culture. As previous results (Bagoly-Simó 2014) showed, the German-speaking countries contributed intensively to research on Geography textbooks, the reason why this chapter also explores German journals as a second subsample. The selection process led to four journals constituting the international and two journals belonging to the German subsample. The international subsample consisted of four journals published in English. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education (IRGEE) and The Journal of Geography are both leading international journals in Geography Education. IRGEE–the flagship journal of the International Geographical Union’s (IGU) Commission on Geographical Education–has published research on various matters of Geography Education over the last three decades, keeping a global scope. The Journal of Geography is the official journal of the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and has been addressing issues of Geography Education in the United States and around the world for 120 years. Along with the two leading journals, two other journals were included in the international subsample. Currently emerging journals, RIGEO (Review of International Geographical Education Online) and J-READING (Journal of Research and Didactics in Geography), publish international contributions from various areas of Geography Education. RIGEO is a Turkish journal celebrating its tenth year of publication. The Italian Association of Geography Teachers has published J-READING for the last nine years. The German subsample encompassed two journals. Zeitschrift für Geographiedidaktik|Journal of Geography Education (ZGD, formerly Geographie und ihre Didaktik) is published on behalf of the German Geography educators’ association HGD and looks back on 48 years of tradition. While ZGD traditionally published papers in German, the progressive opening towards articles written in English enriches the journal’s discourse with international perspectives by concurrently preserving the German-speaking terminology and scholarly tradition. The second journal–Internationale Schulbuchforschung/International Textbook Research–was published between 1978–2008 on behalf of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research and considered papers on textbook research in History and Geography both in German and English. The next step of the sampling process focused on the identification of journal articles presenting results of (empirical) textbook research and found 134 articles. Thus, the international subsample consisted of 60 papers published between 1960–2020, while its German counterpart contained 74 articles published between 1972–2020.

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Methods

A mixed-methods approach (Corbin and Strauss 2011) served to explore the two subsamples in two steps. The software-assisted (MAXQDA) first analytical step relied on content analysis and extracted, employing in-vivo coding information on research methods, sample size and constitution, as well as on the explored topics. Subsequent close reading consolidated, as a result of several iterative steps, the category system of research methods. The second analytical step subjected the segments that were retrieved during the first step to quantitative analysis.

4 Results This section first focuses on the four international journals followed by the two German journals. Section 5 entails the contrastive and comparative discussion of both subsamples. 4.1

International Journals

Over the analyzed eight decades, the four international journals published 60 papers dedicated to textbook research. The temporal distribution of these papers shows discontinuities resulting from episodic interest in textbook research. Throughout the decades, five to ten years passed without the publication of any work on textbooks. However, 2002 marked the onset of almost two decades of nearly uninterrupted (except for 2006) publication activity on textbooks (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Papers on textbook research published in international journals (1960–2020) (source: author).

As early as the 1960s, papers published in the four international journals relied on qualitative and quantitative methods (Fig. 2). However, between 1960–2020,

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qualitative methods dominated scholarship on textbooks. The 2000s brought about a renaissance of quantitative methods, which led to emerging mixed methods approaches. In terms of research methods, the 2010s exhibited the richest operationalization relying concurrently on qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Nevertheless, qualitative methods continue to dominate research on textbooks undoubtedly.

Fig. 2. (Dis-)Continuities of research methods in papers published in international journals (1960–2020) (source: author).

Papers varied significantly concerning both the way the authors argued their operationalization choices and the detailedness of information they offered on research methods and sample. While some papers refrained from presenting any information on the method used, others opted for different names for identical or very similar methods, leading to double or multiple denominations. Most papers, however, contained a methods and sample section naming and briefly describing the operationalization process. Frequently mentioned methods were category-based content analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, content analysis, and frequency analysis. The description of mixed methods approaches generally remained elusive and superficial, turning replication into a challenging endeavor. A set of other methods, such as longitudinal analyses, semi-quantitative historiographies, interviews, and experiments, only rarely served as textbook research methods. Overall, category-based content analysis, often relying on pre-defined categories, seemed to be the most commonly used method in textbook studies during the last decade. The 60 papers published in the four international journals used heterogeneous samples. Most studies analyzed textbooks from one country, turning research comparing different countries or education levels into an exception. Overall, the sample size

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(Fig. 3) of textbook research showed a decreasing tendency. Over the decades, samples rarely reached or exceeded the 40 textbooks mark. For example, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, researchers analyzed 30–44 textbooks. During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the sample size displayed the highest amplitude (1–200 textbooks). Textbook research during the last two decades explored samples rarely surpassing the 20 textbooks mark. Sample size fluctuation was characteristic of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches alike. However, during the 2010s, papers using all three methods displayed a similar sample size, with mixedmethods approaches falling back on the smallest samples.

Fig. 3. Sample size of papers published in international journals (1960–2020) (source: author).

Textbook research explored a variety of topics. Nevertheless, geographical structures, such as post-socialist societies, women in Syria, or gender dominated the research. One of the few processes achieving a higher impact was migration. Concerning scale, papers focused on structures at the continental (e.g., Africa and Australasia), sub-continental (transformation societies of East and Southeast Europe), national, and regional (Appalachian Mountains) scale. Papers progressively embraced matters connected to the teaching and learning of Geography as a school subject. Some of the recurring research questions were tied to textbook tasks and exercises, visuals, and map skills. Educational standards also played an essential role in contemporary textbook research. Regarding the educational level, the four international journals mainly published studies dedicated to lower secondary education. However, studies also explored textbooks for primary and higher education.

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North America and Europe were the main drivers of textbook research. While a few Asian and African case studies were published, Latin American and Australasian research on Geography textbooks is yet to be published in the four international journals. 4.2

German Journals

A total of 74 papers explored matters related to Geography textbooks in the two German journals. Following an initial disinterest in textbooks, the temporal distribution showed a continuous publication activity between 1979–2008 (Fig. 4). Textbook research peaked between 1983–1992, counting 3–8 papers each year. Once Internationale Schulbuchforschung was discontinued, ZGD only published three articles between 2009–20.

Fig. 4. Papers on textbook research published in German journals (1972–2020) (source: author).

Based on the research method, the 74 papers can be categorized into four groups (Fig. 5), namely qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and papers without any information on methods. Articles pertaining to all four groups were published since 1979. Nevertheless, qualitative methods dominated scholarship on textbooks published in German. While authors opted more frequently for a qualitative operationalization, the latest articles followed a quantitative approach. Mixed methods have shaped textbook research published in German since the 1970s. The methodological diversity of the papers on textbook research published in German journals is modest. Apart from those void of any information on methods and sample, several papers described the same methodological steps but denominated them differently. The emerging conceptual diversity constitutes excessive inflation without

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Fig. 5. (Dis-)Continuities of research methods in papers published in German journals (1972– 2020) (source: author).

the underlying methodological diversity. Nevertheless, content analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, category-based content analysis, and surveys belonged to the most frequently named methods. In addition, the quantitative methods of concept analysis and space analysis reached a medium frequency. Some of the more exotic research methods were close reading, image analysis, complexity identification, and interpretative reading. The sample size displayed a decreasing trend across all three methods. While individual papers analyzed up to 326 textbooks and a recent survey presented results based on 2,681 questionnaires, studies rarely exceeded the mark of 40 textbooks. As Fig. 6 shows, throughout the 1990s, sample sizes doubled and, in some cases, even tripled, reaching 94 textbooks. Starting with 1997, publications relying on qualitative methods rarely surpassed 40 textbooks. In contrast, operationalizations based on quantitative and mixed methods opted for progressively smaller samples. Studies published in the two German journals primarily focused on geographical content with an emphasis on structures. Some of the popular topics were foreigners in Germany, nations and Europe, borderlands, indigenous peoples, Islam, and the environment. The few processes encountered in the papers were tied to migration and the process of European integration. In terms of scale, most studies remained limited to the national scale (e.g., Poland, the Netherlands, South Korea, or the USSR). Continental perspectives were a rare exception and, apart from Europe, put Africa into the spotlight. Overall, textbook research only marginally addressed the issue of regionalization. Also, comparative perspectives remained a rare exception.

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Fig. 6. Sample size of papers published in German journals (1972–2020) (source: author).

The two German journals mainly published German authors. However, Internationale Schulbuchforschung included research from all continents but South America. Such studies were often written in English.

5 Discussion The results of this study reinforce those presented in Bagoly-Simó (2014). Overall, textbook research plays a marginal role in Geography Education. Nevertheless, international and regional discourses (in this case, published in German) exhibit a range of similarities and differences. In temporal terms, international scholarship on Geography textbooks looks back on a long tradition with papers published already during the 1960s. German journals entered the market in the 1970s; however, it was not before the late 70s that the first papers on Geography textbooks were published. Both subsamples exhibit an irregular, somewhat episodic interest in textbooks. Phases of continuity in the German subsample originate in the regular publication of a thematic special issue dedicated to Geography in Internationale Schulbuchforschung. As ZGD never established a tradition in textbook research, even after Internationale Schulbuchforschung was discontinued, the number of papers dedicated to textbooks fell to a minimum after 2009. In contrast, the international subsample shows an almost uninterrupted publication activity since 2002 with a growing trend. Both subsamples displayed an episodic interest in textbooks, which could be explained in different ways. As Bagoly-Simó (2014) already pointed out, textbook research is methodologically discontinuous and diverse. Also, it seems to

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follow the waves of pedagogical and curricular innovations measuring their implementation into the hidden curriculum, or it aims to evaluate societal challenges, such as gender equity, climate change, or migration. The 134 papers used qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. The number of papers with limited information on or missing references to methods and sample decreased over time. Results showed a richer operationalization tradition in the German journals, with all three types of methods being used as early as the 1970s. Papers published in international journals have only applied mixed methods since the 2000s. Overall, the international subsample seems to have taken over the rich conceptualization tradition that characterized the German subsample. Whether there is a causality between the more substantial presence of papers from the German-speaking countries in the international journals and a turn towards mixed methods requires further exploration. Nevertheless, the preferred methodological choice remained within qualitative choices with mixed methods gradually gaining importance. The overall methodological diversity appears modest. Despite the diversity of denominations used to label the chosen operationalization, the underlying methods are often very close or identical. Thus, a conceptual diversity seems to be emerging that only leads to conceptual inflation without being backed up by a true methodological diversity. Also, papers following a mixed-methods approach generally offered a more elusive and superficial description of their operationalization. Over time and across the sample, category-based content analysis relying on pre-defined sets of categories seems to be one of the preferred methodological choices. Future work could employ bibliographic methods to trace back citation networks supporting methodological choices in textbook research. The sample of the 134 papers is best characterized as heterogeneous, often limited to one country or region, and mainly focused on textbook content. Concerning sample size, both the international and the German subsample exhibits a progressive decrease over the decades. However, fluctuations in sample size and operationalization choices lead to unique patterns that can hardly be answered without looking into the particularities of how sample size, methods, and content interrelate–an open issue to be explored in future studies. Most papers explored the content of Geography textbooks. Thereby, geographical structures dominated the scholarship, with processes (e.g., migration or European integration) only playing a role in the German journals. Papers pertaining to the international sample not only explored various aspects of Geography Education but also considered higher education. Consequently, papers published in German journals tend to reduce textbooks to their content, ignoring their varied roles (cf. Brucker 1983; Hacker 1980; Bullinger et al. 2005; Rinschede 2007). Nevertheless, it is the German journals that introduced eye-tracking as a method to explore textbook usage. In contrast, international journals published work focused on textbook authors. Overall, the papers belonging to both subsamples tend to focus on the national scale, with (international) comparative studies remaining the exception (Bagoly-Simó 2014). Continental Europe and North America are the main drivers of textbook research. While Latin American voices are missing from the international discourse, further studies on textbook research in Spanish and Portuguese are required to understand

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better regional discourses and possible barriers preventing them from participating in the international discourse. The same applies to Russian, Central Asian, and Australasian discourses.

6 Concluding Thoughts Textbooks continue to shape the teaching and learning of Geography as a school subject. Several studies showed that teachers still turn to the textbook as the most important educational resource (Thöneböhn 1990, 1992; Hemmer and Hemmer 2010). The global Covid-19 pandemic seems to have only reinforced the textbook's role (Bagoly-Simó et al. 2020). For decades, textbook studies focused on two main tasks. On the one hand, developing and validating evaluation criteria for textbooks was a relevant task for communities of educators across the globe. On the other hand, exploring the content of textbooks, particularly at times when societal challenges, such as gender equity, climate change, or migration emerged, required educational reforms, was an equally relevant task. Nevertheless, studies focusing on textbook design, production, and usage in a comparative perspective across national borders and educational levels are underrepresented and urgently needed. Both the results of the previous study (Bagoly-Simó 2014) and those presented in this chapter showcase the necessity for more methodological consistency and innovativeness in textbook research. Educational matters will carry the imprint of regional and national legislative frameworks, teacher training requirements, and societal expectations. Therefore, an international agenda for textbook research needs to be sensitive to regional and national particularities, bold to look beyond linguistic or political frameworks, and open to a set of unexplored matters concerning textbooks, such as their usage, production, and digitization. The results presented in this chapter contribute to better understanding textbook scholarship in Geography Education. Still, a range of linguistic regions with their own publication cultures and traditions as well as monographs and edited volumes–traditional publication formats in textbook studies–should be considered before setting up an international research agenda for research on Geography textbooks.

References P. Bagoly-Simó, J. Hartmann, V. Reinke, School geography under COVID-19: geographical knowledge in the German formal education. Tijdschrift poor economische en Sociale geografie. J. Econ. Soc. Geogr. 111(3), 224–238 (2020) P. Bagoly-Simó, Traditionen geographiedidaktischer Schulbuchforschung—eine metaanalyse (Traditions of geographical textbook research. A meta-study), ed. by P. Knecht, E. Matthes, S. Schütze. Methodologie und Methoden der Schulbuch- und Lehrmittelforschung. Beiträge zur historischen und systematischen Schulbuchforschung, (Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn 2014), pp. 111–123 J. Birkenhauer, Schulbücher, ed. by J. Birkenhauer. Medien: Systematik und Praxis, (Oldenbourg, Munich 1997), pp. 221–227

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D. Böhn, B. Hamann, Approaches to sustainability. Examples from geography textbook analysis in Germany. Eur. J. Geogr. 2(19), 1–10 (2011) A. Brucker, Die didaktische Funktion des Schulbuches. Konzeptionsvorschlag für ein Arbeitsund Lernbuch. Geographische Rundschau 35(12), 645–646 (1983) R. Bullinger, U. Hieber, T. Lenz, Das Geographieschulbuch—ein (un)verzichtbares Medium(!)? Didaktische Funktionen und Grenzen eines traditionellen Mediums. geographie heute 231/232, 67–71 (2005) J. Corbin, A. Strauss, Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory (Sage, Los Angeles, 2011) O. Beisbart, Das Schulbuch. Funktionen und Verwendung im Unterricht. Klinkhardt, Bad Heilbrunn (1980) B. Hamann, Schulbuch, eds. by D. Böhn, G. Obermaier, Wörterbuch der Geographiedidaktik. Begriffe A-Z, (Westermann, Braunschweig 2013), pp. 245–247 I. Hemmer, M. Hemmer, Schülerinteresse an Themen, Regionen und Arbeitsweisen des Geographieunterrichts. Ergebnisse einer empirischen Forschung und deren Konsequenzen für die Unterrichtspraxis. Geographiedidaktische Forschungen 46. Hochschulverband für Geographie und ihre Didaktik, Weingarten (2010) U. Imhof, Auswahl und Einsatz von Schulbüchern in Arbeits- und Wirtschaftslehreunterricht. a +l/Wirtschaft, vol. 12, (1993), pp. 22–25 G. Kidman, F. Papadimitriou, Content analysis of international research in geographical and environmental education: 18 years of academic publishing. Int. Res. Geogr. Environ. Educ. 21(1), 3–10 (2012) E. Kross (ed.), Migration—Integration. Geographische Rundschau, 194 (2001) L. Kuhn, B. Rathmayr, Statt einer Einleitung: 15 Jahre Schulreform – Aber die Inhalte, ed. by L. Kuhn, Schulbuch, ein Massenmedium. Informationen – Gebrauchsanweisungen – Alternativen, (Jugend and Volk, Wien 1977), pp. 9–17 T. Lenz, Schulbuch, ed. by H. Haubrich, Geographie unterrichten lernen, (Oldenbourg, Munich 2006), pp. 184–187 C. Leusmann, Schülereinstellungen zum Fach Erdkunde, zu Unterrichtsthemen und zu fachspezifischen Erarbeitungsformen, ed. by H. Haubrich, Quantitative Didaktik der Geographie. Geographiedidaktische Forschungen, vol. 1, (Westermann, Braunschweig 1977), pp. 145–180 F. Papadimitriou, G. Kidman, Statistical and scientometric analysis of international research in geographical and environmental education. Int. Res. Geogr. Environ. Educ. 21(1), 11–20 (2012) G. Rinschede, Schulbuch, ed. by D. Böhn, Didaktik der Geographie. Begriffe, (Oldenbourg, Munich 1997), pp. 141–142 G. Rinschede, Geographiedidaktik. Schöningh, (Paderborn 2007) H. Schrettenbrunner, Schülerbefragung zum Erdkundeunterricht. Geogr. Rundsch. 21(10), 100– 106 (1969) W. Sperling, J. Engel, Deutschlandbild und Deutsche Frage in den geographischen Unterrichtswerken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, ed. by W. Jacobmeyer, Deutschlandbild und Deutsche Frage in den historischen, geographischen und sozialwissenschaftlichen Unterrichtswerken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik von 1949 bis in die 80er Jahre. Studien zur Internationalen Schulbuchforschung, vol. 43, (Georg-Eckert-Institut für Internationale Schulbuchforschung, Braunschweig 1986), pp. 371–430 G. Stöber, Sadd el-Ali—Paradigma des Scheiterns? Die Assuan Staudämme im Schulbuchdiskurs. Geogr. Rundsch. 56(12), 46–54 (2004)

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F. Thöneböhn, Geographiebuch. Bedeutung. Gestaltung und Verwendung. geographie heute 83, 4–10 (1990) F. Thöneböhn, Das Erdkundebuch: neuere Untersuchungen zur Bedeutung und Verwendung im Unterricht. Karlsruher Pädagogische Beiträge 26, 26–38 (1992) H. Volkmann, Das Schülerbuch. ed. by A. Brucker, Medien im Geographieunterricht, (Schwann, Düsseldorf 1986), pp. 372–385

Geography Textbooks as a Political Tool to Promote Energy Transitions? Matthias Kowasch1(&) and Sylvie Joublot Ferré2,3 1

3

University College of Teacher Education Styria, Graz, Austria [email protected] 2 Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, France Haute École Pédagogique du Canton Vaud, Lausanne, Switzerland

Abstract. Textbooks are an important instrument for the transmission of educational content, but also political goals. Globally, energy systems are ‘in transition’ and firmly on the agenda of governments and organizations, as well as being the focus of climate strikes by the youth-led Fridays for Future movement and other activist groups. The SDG goal no. 7 (affordable and clean energy) expresses international political will. This chapter asks if geography textbooks are effective at presenting the politics of energy transitions and sustainable futures, with cases from Austria and francophone Switzerland. Based on a mixed methodology including quantitative and qualitative content analysis, the results show that (energy) resources are mainly discussed related to their economic potential and the request to improve individual consumption. Textbooks mostly deal with the problems of fossil fuels, with broader presentation of energy remaining implicit. The daily life of students is rarely addressed, and the action-orientated tasks in textbooks are relatively simple in reference to Bloom’s taxonomy. Future-thinking is lacking, although the concept of sustainability includes intergenerational justice. We recommend that (geography) textbooks and schooling in general should give students the opportunity to develop and discuss alternative approaches, ideas and solutions to energy transitions and sustainability. They should also provide more emotional and sensorial learning experiences and include extracurricular learning places. Keywords: Geography textbooks education
Political tool


Energy transitions
Sustainability

1 Introduction Young people worldwide are striking to demand governments to take immediate action on climate change. Fridays for Future is an international movement of school students, which started on August 20, 2018, when the 15 year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg decided not to attend school until the Swedish general election on September 9, 2018, after heat waves and wildfires in Sweden. Two days before the elections, Thunberg announced that she would continue to strike every Friday until Sweden met the claims of the Paris Agreement. Strikes inspired by Thunberg then spread around the world starting in November 2018. The movement is rapidly growing and on March 15, 2019, an estimated number of 1.4 million of students demonstrated in favor of taking © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 147–170, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_12

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action now. In a speech at the European Parliament on April 16, 2019, Thunberg spoke of a “climate ecological breakdown”. She states that “our house is falling apart and our leaders need to act accordingly because they are not doing so currently. We need to change all our behaviours […] If your house was falling down you would not hold three emergency Brexit summits and argue about phasing out coal only in 15 years’ time” (The European Parliament Magazine 2019). Thunberg wants the political leaders to panic and “and act as if this house was on fire” (The European Parliament Magazine 2019). Thus, one principal claim of the students’ movement is to act now in the form of energy transition and consumption behavior changes. The transition to renewable energy supply is promoted in many countries, but decisions and measures take a long time or are not in place. It might be therefore too late to fight against the impacts of climate change. Fridays for Future is a recent movement, but climate change is not. For several decades, political leaders have talked about climate change, but only negligible measures have been implemented. Mass extinction, loss of biodiversity and natural hazards accelerated, and CO2 emissions still increase. The political will is also translated in school textbooks because they are social products controlled by states that transmit certain ideologies and values. In 2010, Lambert and Morgan (2010, p. 134) note that “the government of the day wants to harness the publicly funded education system to help service the political goal of providing information and hopefully influence public opinion”. Schools are expected to promote environmental sustainability and to generate good environmental citizens (McKenzie et al. 2015). Textbooks represent an important tool for the transmission of political goals because they are a sort of “secret curriculum” (Bagoly-Simó 2014, p. 111) and an instrument to control educational content, not only in geography. Therefore, this chapter questions if geography textbooks in Austria and the francophone Switzerland translate the political aim towards energy transitions and a more sustainable future. We ask how renewable energy resources are discussed in the textbooks examined, compared to non-renewable resources.

2 Education for Sustainable Development in Austria and Switzerland The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 goals set by the United Nations to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity (UN Development Program 2018). Austria and Switzerland–like all member states of the United Nations–have committed to achieve the SDGs by 2030. Goal no. 13 (climate action) seeks to integrate climate change measures into national policies and planning. It aims to “[…] improve education, awareness-raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning” (UN 2016). Mechanisms for effective climate changerelated planning and management should be established. On April 22, 2016, 175 member states signed the Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels requires drastic energy transition

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measures. Awareness raising and education (for sustainable development) play a critical role to promote such measures. Therefore, the implementation of sustainable development and energy transitions in national curricula is essentially a political act (Lambert and Morgan 2010). Geography textbooks in Austria can be expected to address the SDGs and climate action, because sustainable development and life quality has been identified as one of the key concepts in the geography curriculum (BMB 2016). On the other hand, Bagoly-Simó (2018) determines that the in-depth integration of sustainability education–despite the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014) and the following UN Global Action Program (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (2015–2019)–in formal schooling is still lacking. In an article about environmental education, Schinkel (2009, p. 509) asks “[…] if the state is to abstain from endorsing or favoring particular conceptions of the good life, can it legitimately make compulsory for all schools a type of education that explicitly tries to form rather than just inform students?”. Jickling and Wals (2008) answer this question with a definite no when it comes to what they call the expert-driven concept of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) as presented by the UNESCO (Sund and Öhman 2014). Jickling and Spork (1998) described ESD as indoctrination for a particular social vision and they argued that such an approach to education has universalizing tendencies that seek to marginalize other approaches. This cosmopolitan move in education (Sund and Öhman 2014) describes the idea that all human beings belong to a single community that promotes certain universal values. This claim has led to a debate between those who defend universal values and those who have a more critical position. Smith (2005, p. 51) notes that neoliberal agendas in schools, which promote the idea of nature as an object of instrumental value, oblige students to comply in a largely apolitical manner “with behavioural norms that facilitate the continuance of the current social/political system”. Therefore, sustainability education can obscure learners’ understanding and become a form of greenwashing (e.g., Lyon and Montgomery 2015). In the following, we will use the term sustainability education (SE) to include Education for Sustainable Development and Education as Sustainable Development. In this contribution, we investigate in which ways geography textbooks translate universal values in terms of energy transitions promoted by the United Nations SDGs. We analyze energy production and consumption in Austrian and Swiss geography textbooks. We ask how energy transition measures are addressed in textbooks in both countries and whether certain actions are prescribed. Referring to Jickling and Wals (2008), we investigate if ESD turns education into a political tool that encourages sustainable behavior and promotes a certain ideology. In French-speaking Switzerland, thanks to an inter-state harmonization (concordat HarmoS), the plan of studies for compulsory school education has been introduced since 2011. Compulsory education is organized in eleven years, in three cycles. The first cycle in primary school spans grades 1–4 (students aged 4/5 and 7/8 years respectively). The second cycle in primary school includes grades 5–8 (student aged 8– 12). The third cycle in lower secondary school goes from ninth to eleventh grade (students aged 12–15 years). Then, post-compulsory schools lead in three years to obtaining the high school degree called Maturité.

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ESD in Switzerland is envisioned as cross-cutting and included in the priority aims of the student’s general education. Students should be “[…] aware of the complexity and interdependencies and develop a responsible and active attitude towards sustainable development” (CIIP 2010, p. 13). ESD objectives involve disciplinary contributions, particularly in geography. For the third cycle, the geography curriculum combines different themes and the three pillars of sustainable development (environment, economy, society) (Hertig 2015a). For example, in grade ten, climate change represents an entry to the environmental pillar. At the same time, two learning objectives are formulated within the framework of the general training project for students: taking an active part in the preservation of a viable environment and analyzing some of the consequences, both in Switzerland and elsewhere, of a globalized economic system. It is therefore within the framework of the school’s civic and intellectual aims (Pache et al. 2016b) that sustainable development asserts itself as a universal value to be transmitted. The question is to identify specific tools and approaches that are developed in the textbooks of French-speaking Switzerland to meet the objectives of sustainability education. Current work is carried out by the International Research Laboratory on Education for Sustainable Development (LirEDD) at University of Teacher Education in Lausanne. Since 2012–2013, a collaborative research project involving teachers and their students entitled ESD-complexity has been exploring the appropriation by teachers and their students of the operational thinking tools for understanding complex geographical and social situations linked to ESD. The first results of this research have been analyzed in several contributions (e.g., Hertig 2016, Pache et al. 2016a, 2016b). The Austrian educational system includes primary schooling (students aged 6– 10 years in grades 1–4), lower secondary (students aged 10–15 years in grades 5–9), and upper secondary schooling (students aged 15–18 years in grades 10–12). The latter, leading to a high school degree, called Matura, is not part of compulsory school education. Austria has a unique approach of combining geography with economics. Thus, the curriculum for upper secondary schools (grades 9–12) focus on human geography and economics, physical geography is not discussed anymore. The Austrian curriculum for the new secondary school exam in geography and economics (BMB 2016) introduces 13 action-oriented key concepts. Geographical key concepts are mainly discussed in the anglophone literature (e.g., Taylor 2008, Lambert 2013). That is the reason why the Austrian key concepts show some similarities with those of other countries, e.g., diversity and disparity or construction and concepts of space. The key concepts refer to fundamental technical ideas and concepts of the reference sciences and contribute to the design of competence-oriented geography teaching (BMB 2016). The basic concepts can thus be seen as a connecting element between the relevant subject sciences and a teaching that gives meaning to reflected action (Kowasch et al. 2018). One of the 13 key concepts is life quality and sustainability, which represents a guiding principle for ecological changes in society (Hinsch et al. 2014). Sustainability and solidarity are necessary conditions for a life quality as high as possible. Geography and economics teaching should provide reflections on how the fragile human-environment-system and the three pillars of sustainable development can be balanced (Jekel and Pichler 2017). Therefore, the key concept aims a change of mentality (de Haan 2004, p. 40) and lifestyle (Lauströer 2008).

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The content-oriented curriculum in geography and economics also provides links to sustainability education. In the ninth grade, for example, students should explain regional conflicts over the availability of scarce resources (soil, water, mineral resources, etc.) and the political interests behind them. They should reflect on the sustainability of the One World in a future-oriented way (BMB 2016). In the eleventh grade, students should discuss life quality in Austria and develop their own strategies for ecologically sustainable action (BMB 2016). Behavior change and actionorientation for a sustainable future are key issues in the Austrian geography and economics curriculum. The curriculum for upper secondary schools notes that geography teaching should focus on the daily lives of young people and is characterized by references to real life and in its future orientation. Certain authors even think that geography is the best discipline for “improving pupils’ understanding and allowing them to project themselves into the future” (Julien et al. 2018, p. 28, see also Béneker and van der Schee 2015, Hicks 2007). Although geography promotes sustainability education and allows the construction of specific skills needed to grasp the future, it is not the only discipline for tackling questions about the future. In any way, future thinking represents an important aspect and is “crucially linked to the [interdisciplinary] concept of sustainable development” (Julien et al. 2018, p. 26).

3 Methods and Case Study This chapter is based on extensive literature review on energy transitions and sustainability education, and on analyses of geography textbooks from Austria and Switzerland. Textbooks are not neutral instruments but politically motivated (Kowasch 2017) and “social products that convey implicit ideologies and transmit values” (Niclot 2001, p. 104). Thus, norms and social values are passed on to generations of young people through textbooks (Brugeilles and Cromer 2005, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research 2007). Verdelhan-Bourgade (2002) describes textbooks as a discours de scolarisation (school enrollment speech). Within the framework of geography teaching, school textbooks are included in a self-referenced system, as one of the four “places” of production of school culture, which “regulate themselves in a homeostatic manner and are, for each other, references” (Clerc 2002, p. 166). These four places are programs, textbooks, practices, and exams (Clerc 2002, p. 167). Therefore, textbooks serve as a reference resource, particularly for teachers (Audigier 1997). At present, new categories of textbook analyses can be retained, borrowing from more specific fields of research that correspond to the new requirements imposed on school systems, steered by competencies, introduction of Socially Acute Questions (SAQ), and sustainability education. Concerning content knowledge in textbooks, reflections have been conducted in geography education, questioning for example the epistemological positioning of the content provided: what geography is conveyed in textbooks, among others by iconography? Other studies focus on types of space (country, region), imagery, or specific themes: risks (Frézal-Leininger 2014), or

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territories, natural environments, and environment (Thémines and Joublot Ferré 2016). In this context, we are interested in the visibility of energy production and transitions in geography textbooks. The pressure on fossil resources, the development of renewable energies, debates, and conflicts around energy choices are relevant indicators to analyze. The present empirical study is not representative because not all geography textbooks used in Austria and francophone Switzerland were analyzed. The case study with four Austrian and three Swiss textbooks represents a range of geography books that are currently in use in secondary schools. The study reveals interesting results concerning energy production, consumption and transitions, which can be reproduced for textbooks of other publishing houses and compared with the results in other countries or states. The case study includes three textbooks distributed in the state of Vaud: Géographie 9e (Fellahi et al. 2013a), 10e (Fellahi et al. 2013b), and 11e (Fellahi et al. 2014) corresponding to the Swiss grades 9–11, produced by the French publisher Nathan in collaboration with the state of Vaud (D.G.E.O) (Fig. 1). The three textbooks will be valid until 2020.

Fig. 1. The covers of the three Swiss textbooks examined (source: Fellahi 2013a; Fellahi 2013b; Fellahi 2014).

The four Austrian geography textbooks were issued by the publishing houses Veritas (Geospots 5/6) and Ed. Hötzel (Meridiane 4, Meridiane 5 and Meridiane 6) (Fig. 2). The textbook Meridiane 4 (Kucera and Radner 2018) is intended to be used in the Austrian eighth grade (lower secondary school). Meridiane 5 (ninth grade; Hitz et al. 2016a), Meridiane 6 (tenth grade, Hitz et al. 2016b) and Geospots 5/6 (grades 9– 10; Germ et al. 2015) are all used in upper secondary schools. All textbooks examined are not older than three years. They are published in 2018 (Meridiane 4), 2016 (Meridiane 5 and 6) and 2015 (Geospots 5/6).

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Fig. 2. The covers of the four Austrian textbooks examined (source: Kucera and Radner 2018, Hitz et al. 2016a, Hitz et al. 2016b, Germ et al. 2015).

We analyzed the textbooks in three steps. Based on a quantitative-qualitative content analysis (Mayring 2015) and referring to Kowasch (2017), we first examined, which energy resources are mentioned in textbooks and/or which are discussed. The structuring is an inductive establishment of categories that are the following in this study: wind, water, sun, biomass, biofuel, geothermal energy, firewood, oil, natural gas,

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coal (black and brown coal), uranium/nuclear energy. The resource groups fossil fuels, renewable energy resources, and resources in general complete the establishment of categories. This first approach allows quantitative tracking. Second, we conducted a didactic analysis with regard to all tasks included in the spreads with emphasis on energy production and consumption in order to meet the objectives of SE. For this purpose, key competences for ESD developed by Rieckmann and Schank (2016) served as grounds. Referring to Maak und Ulrich (2007), Rieckmann and Schank (2016) note that moral judgement and moral reflection competence represent key competences for SE. Furthermore, Rieckmann and Schank (2016) refer to the Gestaltungskompetenz, developed by de Haan (2006), which includes 12 partial components, inter alia competences for anticipation, cooperation, moral, and individual action. That is the reason why we asked to which extent student tasks in the textbooks examined are action-orientated. Action-orientation is closely related to the daily lives of students, which represents a second analysis category. Finally, we analyzed the iconographic system (Mendibil 2008) and in particular energy representations: textual formats and comments, selecting significant examples. As for the Swiss manuals, we have chosen the part devoted in ninth grade to the energy issue. For Austrian textbooks, we focused on the tenth grade, because at this level, the curriculum provides a chapter on the European energy policy. The format is a question of observing the modalities of representation: graphic, cartographic, photographic, but also the volume of occupation on the page. The textual comments provide additional information on descriptive or explanatory postures, which help to distinguish possible convergences or divergences in positioning and discourse between Austrian and Swiss textbooks.

4 Results 4.1

Swiss Geography Textbooks

For the analysis of the Swiss geography textbooks, we first counted the number of times energy was mentioned in the texts or iconographic representations. Figure 3 shows that non-renewable energy resources, such as oil and coal, are the most frequently mentioned. Renewable energy resources follow far behind. Only oil and uranium/nuclear are mentioned in all three textbooks examined. Different energy resources then appear in a secondary way in chapters devoted to urban development (grade 9, Fellahi et al. 2013a) or world trade (grade 10, Fellahi et al. 2013b), for example. Solar panels are represented in the examples of eco-neighborhoods (grade 9, Fellahi et al. 2013a), coal and oil are mentioned several times in the chapters devoted to international trade or to pioneer fronts. Four salient points emerge.

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First, energy is implicitly mentioned but is not a subject of in-depth discussion. We notice that, on the one hand, many human activities studied are described from the viewpoint of their production (spaces, actors, inequalities, exchanges). On the other hand, the energy consumption resulting from these activities has been rarely reported and never highlighted or evaluated. Second, energy-related imagery could strengthen the representation of the North-South divide and model with little hindsight. This is the case for coal extraction, for example: the textbook Géographie 10e shows the devastating human and ecological impacts of coal exploitation in China and the transport of coal ores by donkeys in Afghanistan (Fig. 4). An exercise compares production methods in China and the United States (Fellahi et al. 2013b). Third, the tasks proposed to the students through the documents are relatively simple (in reference to Bloom’s taxonomy; Bloom et al. 1956). This mainly involves identifying and selecting information, possibly comparing, as in the exercise above. However, the status of the information is never discussed. Therefore, the photographs, which nevertheless present specific framing (framing focused on human work for China, panoramic view for the United States), are placed on an equal footing.

Fig. 3. Naming frequency of different energy resources in Swiss geography textbooks (source: authors).

Third, representations of foreign places often reproduce stereotypes (Clerc 2002). According to Lussault (2007) and Hertig (2015b), images are per se neutral, but they are always contextualized: images show parts of complex realities and in (text)books, they refer to certain places. The information of images is limited and can lead to misinformation, because the authors rarely explain their intentions. Therefore, images in textbooks are never neutral.

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Fig. 4. Transport of coal ores by donkeys in Afghanistan in the Swiss textbook Géographie 10e (source: Fellahi et al. 2013b, p. 23).

Fig. 5. Double page entry of the chapter on energy issues in the Swiss textbook Géographie 11e (source: Fellahi et al. 2014, p. 102–103).

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Finally, students’ daily lives are rarely addressed. Most of the examples are located elsewhere. While eco-neighborhoods are being developed in Switzerland and, in particular, in the canton of Vaud (e.g., Eikenott in Gland), the examples used come from other countries: Freiburg in Germany, London in England or the city of Masdar in the United Arab Emirates. The exercises mostly refer to the three pillars of sustainable development. The iconographic system analysis of energy representations in the eleventh grade Swiss textbook shows that the part on energy issues (Fig. 5) is structured in two chapters: (a) Fossil fuels and (b) Towards Sustainable Energy Management. The second chapter is a case study on energy development in Switzerland, and represents moral education towards sustainability. The documents (texts, photos, data in diagrams) originate from public political and private rather from scientific sources. Sources are the Federal Statistical Office, the New Energy Magazine for Switzerland, the Energy & Transparency Association, the Agency for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Berne and the Website of Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). The chapter deals with public actors that are involved in sustainable management and forecasting, such as the Swiss Confederation, the cantons or the municipalities (see Table 1).

Table 1. Commitment of public actors to sustainable management (source: Fellahi et al. 2014) National scale “A long-term strategy”: Energy strategy 2050 entrusted to Parliament (p. 134)

State scale “Solar power to replace nuclear power in Geneva”: On the initiative of the State of Geneva 15,000 solar panels installed on the roofs of Palexpo in Geneva (p. 134)

Municipal scale “Cities of energy”: Commitment of cities and municipalities to a sustainable policy of energy, traffic and the environment (p. 135)

Private actors are mainly individuals who are invited to participate in the general effort towards sustainable development by controlling and improving their consumption habits (Table 2). Economic actors, such as companies, are not presented in the chapter.

Table 2. Individual behavior in the Swiss textbook Géographie 11e (source: Fellahi et al. 2014). Diagrams on “Swiss energy consumption in 2012”: Energy consumption by consumer groups (p. 132) Map on “Switzerland’s energy resources”: Map linking population densities and main electricity production sites (nuclear and hydroelectric) (p. 132) Text on “Ten conversion steps for sustainable energy”, including class A for all household appliances, a solar roof, replacing oil boilers, etc. (p. 135) Text on “Evolution of energy consumption”: Multiplication of consumption by 5, related to demographic growth and people’s needs (housing and transport) (p. 133)

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Fig. 6. Renewable energy production in Switzerland (source: Fellahi et al. 2014, p. 134).

Fig. 7. Localized energy production (source: Fellahi et al. 2014, p. 133–134).

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Resources are mainly discussed related to their economic potential and the need to improve individual consumption. Two scales are preferred: the national scale (e.g., map of nuclear and hydroelectric resources) and the local scale (e.g., Palexpo solar roof in Geneva or Gries dam; Fig. 6 and 7; Fellahi et al. 2014). It may be relevant to produce documents on resources also at the state scale. The spatialization of resources is insufficient. Their physical and territorial visibility, their diffusion and distribution are absent. The textbook for grade 11 favors rather a behavioral change than a spatial approach, without any real debate. Content knowledge remains fragmented. It does not provide argumentative activities and exercises for students. There is no critical approach of public policies, which are declarative and normative. In sum, sustainability and energy transitions are more imposed than discussed. 4.2

Austrian Geography Textbooks

The geography textbooks examined deal mostly with fossil fuels: oil, natural gas, and coal. Renewable energy resources, such as water, sun, wind or biomass are rarely discussed (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Number of double-pages energy resources are mentioned or discussed in Austrian geography textbooks (source: authors).

Water is often mentioned with hydroelectric power being the centerpiece of the Austrian energy production. In 2018, run-of-river power stations and storage power

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stations had a share of 60.5 percent of gross electricity production in Austria, and produced nearly 41,200 GWh of electricity (Österreichs E-Wirtschaft 2020). Oil is the only energy resource which is more discussed than mentioned (Fig. 8). And it’s more discussed than any other resource (renewable or non-renewable). Humanity lives in an oil era. Oil is used as a fuel and needed for nearly every consumption product: cosmetics, clothes, shoes, computers, mobile phones, cars, etc. In the geography textbooks analyzed, several countries whose economy depends on oil revenues are presented, e.g., Angola in Meridiane 4 and Sudan in Geospots 5/6. The didactic analysis of tasks related to energy production and consumption shows that the exercises rarely concern the daily lives of students (5 out of 46 exercises; Fig. 9). Action orientation is also infrequent (13 out of 46 exercises; Fig. 9). Teaching methods with action orientation are (web) search (eight times), group or partner work (two times), oral presentation (two times), and a web application. The latter is an ecological footprint calculator on the website www.mein-fussabdruck.at (in the textbook Meridiane 4; Kucera and Radner 2018, p. 43).

Fig. 9. Action orientation and connection to the daily lives of students in Austrian geography textbook exercises (source: authors).

The calculation of the own ecological footprint involves the everyday life of students. In another exercise in Meridiane 4, students should give examples how they can contribute to the SDGs 7 (affordable and clean energy), 11 (sustainable cities and communities), 12 (responsible consumption and production), 13 (climate action), and 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) (Kucera and Radner 2018, p. 95). In the geography textbook Meridiane 5, students should discuss measures how they can reduce their ecological footprint (Hitz et al. 2016a, p. 90). In Meridiane 6, an exercise deals with the ban of light bulbs since 2012 (Hitz et al. 2016b, p. 115). Students should

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carry out a (web) search on the pros and cons of the ban and the regulation of energysaving lamps. Despite these examples, links to the students’ daily lives are very seldom in the Austrian textbooks analyzed. The iconographic system analysis refers to the chapter on energy policy of the European Union, in the textbooks of the Austrian tenth grade Meridiane 6 and Geospots 5/6. The latter provides a five-pages subchapter (including exercises) on the dependency of fossil fuels and a transition towards renewable energy resources. Information is based on sources of public institutions, such as Eurostat (e.g., to illustrate the dependency of EU countries on energy import), the International Energy Agency (e.g., to show the primary energy consumption of selected countries) or the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (to illustrate an energy scenario until 2050). Research articles or reports and interviews are not cited. The European Union indeed depends on energy import. Only Denmark has a positive energy balance. The dependence of fossil energy sources is illustrated through different diagrams and tables. A map illustrates important natural gas pipelines from Russia to the EU (Germ et al. 2015). Keil (2019) notes that since the 1990s, there is a special geographical future-oriented approach. The 1992 International Charter on Geographical Education (Haubrich et al. 1992, p. 5, 14) highlights that geography is concerned with “the future management of people-environment interrelationships […] Project work and field studies are needed to help students to respond to present and future challenges”. The Austrian textbook Geospots 5/6 provides a paragraph on Europe’s 2050 energy scenario. The authors claim that “the energy production should be radically changed in the upcoming decades” (Germ et al. 2015, p. 184). They argue that (a) fossil energy sources gradually decrease, (b) climate change obliges a rapid move to renewable energy sources, and, (c) since the Fukushima accident nuclear energy is more uncertain since ever (Germ et al. 2015, pp. 184–185). The call for energy transitions already meets the claims of students engaged in the Fridays for Future movement some years later. The authors continue that savings can be done thanks to a greater energy efficiency in the frame of production, transport, and consumption. Unfortunately, the authors do not refer to current energy policies and regulations in Austria or to coal industry subventions in Germany. The latter is described as an “obsolete technology” on which Poland and the Czech Republic still draw (Germ et al. 2015, p. 184). The textbook Meridiane 6 discusses energy and climate policies of the European Union in a two-pages subchapter (including exercises) (Fig. 10). The authors refer to sources of public institutions, such as Eurostat (e.g., to illustrate the share of renewable energies of the total energy consumption in 13 different European countries) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (to show the number of nuclear power plants in European countries). No scientific papers or reports are cited. Similar to Geospots, the authors of Meridiane 6 problematize the European dependency on energy importation, especially on Russian natural gas. They note that the Russian gas

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Fig. 10. Double-page on energy and climate policies of the EU in Meridiane 6 (source: Hitz et al. 2016b, pp. 114–115).

company Gazprom already once stopped the delivery because of a conflict between Russia and Ukraine on the condition of Russian gas pipelines passing Ukraine. The authors of the textbook highlight that the EU should look for alternatives, such as the “expansion of nuclear, more ‘green energy’ (wind, water and solar energy) and energy savings” (Hitz et al. 2016b, p. 114). They explain that the EU has ambitious climate targets, and accuse the automobile industry lobby to have enforced higher permissible limits for CO2 emissions of cars. In sum, both Austrian textbooks argue for an energy transitions and seek to reach the objectives with statutory thresholds. They do not discuss soft instruments (such as education, environmental certification, etc.) or new economic instruments (such as a CO2 tax). Only Meridiane explains the emissions trading system. While Geospots appeal individuals for behavior change, Meridiane denounce the automobile lobby.

5 Discussion 5.1

Transition and Future Thinking

According to Julien et al. (2018, p. 26), the challenge in an age of rapid change is to “acquire the anticipation and projection skills needed to deal more effectively with the

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uncertainty of tomorrow’s world”. Therefore, a similar commitment to the future is fundamental in SE. Regarding the two approaches to ESD learning identified by Vare and Scott (2007, p. 194), we link the energy transition issue in geography textbooks to the ESD 2 approach, which “involves the development of learners’ abilities to make sound choices”. Students should question current regulations in the energy sector and scrutinize the discourse of politicians and other experts. The textbooks examined are mainly based on the transmission of knowledge about the past and the present, which is often given the status of truth. For example, Meridiane 6 provides statistics on the development of greenhouse emissions between 2008–2012 without discussing future scenarios. The two Austrian textbooks call for energy transitions, but do not help students to develop solutions for future energy production and consumption–except to claim the reduction of consumption. Future thinking cannot be based on validated knowledgeonly on hypotheses and scenarios (Julien et al. 2018). “Competence in foresighted thinking”–to refer to the term developed by de Haan (2006)–involves the ability to engage with “multiple futures” (de Haan 2006, p. 22) and requires the understanding of complex and various interests. The textbooks examined do not provide the discussion of different futures and multiple interests. The exercises related to the topic of energy production and consumption are mostly not action-orientated, and if, they provide (web) searches. Students need a more innovative framework for thinking about (energy) future. Therefore, we propose, referring to Julien et al. (2018), a set of methods and approaches, which can promote future thinking in terms of energy transitions and sustainability. First, drawings based on researchers and/or stakeholders’ arguments can be used to elicit students’ feelings and opinions. They can help to trigger discussions on different opinions and to question the own perspective. Second, role playing is an active learning method associated with environmental and sustainability education (Tilbury 1995). It allows students to explore different roles and develop their own point of view. Different perspectives and future scenarios can be confronted and discussed. Third, the jigsaw method is a classroom activity that makes students depend on each other to succeed. They become experts for a special thematic field by reading scientific reports and newspapers, before sharing their knowledge with the others. Thus, students learn to transmit knowledge and learn from others. Together, they can develop (future) ideas for energy transitions. Fourth, field trips to wind farms or solar panel parks can provide new expert knowledge and future possibilities. This knowledge should not be taken for given, but discussed and questioned in follow-up work in the classroom. The aim is to create a “reproductive imagination” (Julien et al. 2018, p. 32), where features of the present energy production and consumption are amplified or lost in importance, or where near features appear. In doing so, emotion and feeling as a key dimension of imagination can be introduced in SE (Bruckner and Kowasch 2018).

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Politics, Action and the Power of Responsibility

SE and energy transitions require from students to actively participate in political processes and society. Levy and Zint (2013, p. 568) suggest that SE can learn from established research in political science and education in “prepar[ing] students to participate in political processes to address major environmental problems”, a notion, which supports civic equity and that Arendt (1998) emphasizes as precondition for political action. Before students start to participate and act politically, they should be seen as active (learning) partners (Petrova et al. 2017) with their own political opinions. Constructivist approaches to education (e.g., Bahou 2012, Rolfes and Uhlenwinkel 2014) emphasize that enhancing participation in learning can induce wider social change. Participative learning occurs in teaching methods, such as role playing, learning circles or constructivist field trips, which are characterized by self-determined learning processes. Thereby, students have an active role to become empowered learners. Curricula in Austria and Switzerland both promote action-oriented learning to educate students as responsible citizens enabled to active social participation (cf. BMB 2016). However, student tasks in the textbooks examined are hardly action-oriented, and if, they mostly propose (web) searches. Research-based learning exercises or projects do not occur. Focusing less on participation and more on awareness, Räthzel and Uzzell (2009) argue for educating young people about the power structures underlying global (energy) production and consumption. Production and consumption in the energy sector are subject to ongoing concurrence and various interests leading to conflict. Zhouri (2015, p. 454) notes that conflict is understood “as a dispute between (individual) parties each with their own specific interests”. Conflicts are characterized by constantly changing (initial) positions and interests; they are complex. To understand complexity, power relations have to be analyzed. The results of the textbook study show though that there is only one textbook, which questions power relations in the energy sector: Meridiane 6 discusses the influence of the automobile lobby on CO2 emission regulations in Germany and Europe. The other textbooks analyzed ignore power relations and support the existing neoliberal economic system. One of the action-orientated exercises in the Austrian textbooks examined deals with the ecological footprint, which is focused on awareness of the negative impacts human actions have on the environment. This can lead to a fatalistic view of the future (Sutoris 2019). In a recent paper, Sutoris (2019) presents the handprint model that–in contrast to the footprint model–focuses on action and wants to empower young people to transform the future. Nevertheless, the handprint model can also result in a problematic “individualization of responsibility” (Kowasch and Lippe 2019, p. 1070). Shove (2010, p. 1274) notes that the “responsibility for responding to climate change is a thought to lie with individuals whose behavioral choices will make the difference”. The capacities of students and individuals in general to affect global changes are overestimated (Kowasch and Lippe 2019, Massey 2004). Young people engaged in the Fridays for

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Future movement request politicians and representatives of economic companies to take measures against climate change. Exercises, such as the calculation of the ecological footprint grow consumers’ responsibility, which is certainly necessary, but can also lead to a feeling of powerlessness and misfortune. Moreover, sensitization to the debt of future generations is associated with negative SE, for example programs and textbooks focusing on increasing awareness of environmental issues (Sutoris 2019). Sutoris (2019, p. 7) therefore argues that the “idea of instilling a belief in solvency is linked to ‘positive’ environmental and sustainability education”, for example the concentration on empowerment for action “rather than on the negative consequences of inaction” (Sutoris 2019, p. 7). The geography textbooks examined, however, focus on negative impacts of resource extraction consumption, and of climate change: economic dependency on the oils sector, environmental damage in the Amazon and elsewhere, CO2 emissions, etc. There is certainly an indirect (or direct) call for energy transitions and global change, but no empowerment of students and a belief in resolving the climate crisis. Power relations and which role companies and politicians can (or should) take in solving the crisis and implementing an economic transition, should be discussed in textbooks.

6 Conclusions In her speech at the European Parliament, Greta Thunberg urged the members of the European Parliament (MEP) to act: “I expect MEPs to take action now because there is not much time left. We still have an open window, but it won’t be open for long. We must act and MEPs should be doing something” (The European Parliament Magazine 2019). In doing so, Thunberg asked politicians to assume responsibility. Responsibility should not be ceded to individuals, as textbooks often do. We plead for a “shared and distributed responsibility” (Evans et al. 2017, p. 1396), in which individuals, private companies, and politicians take a part of responsibility in (energy) transition. The moral forefinger does not contribute to convincing students to participate in sustainability transformation, to develop creative ideas, and to question promoted solutions. The present study shows that the Austrian and francophone Swiss geography textbooks examined provide few action-oriented and creative exercises. Future thinking is mainly lacking, even if the concept of sustainability includes intergenerational justice. Alternative and participatory approaches, such as student drawings, croquis, role playing or field trips can support the development of creative solutions towards sustainability and energy transitions. It can also help to promote critical thinking and the questioning of the normative discourse of experts, which refers to the ESD 2 approach defined by Vare and Scott (2007). ESD and energy transitions, which is highlighted by the SDG goal no. 7 (ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all) are promoted by government institutions. Textbooks as a sort of “secret curriculum” (Bagoly-Simó

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2014) are social products controlled by states and transmit values related to sustainability and energy transitions. The geography textbooks examined clearly promote an energy system transformation from fossil fuels to renewable energy resources. Nevertheless, fossil fuels still fill a larger space in the textbooks than renewable resources. Energy transitions are requested, but textbooks do not discuss ways of how the changes can be implemented. Exercises do not instruct students to develop ideas for a sustainable future. Responsibility is transmitted to individuals, political and economic actors are barely discussed. The Fridays for Future movement shows that young people are able to engage politically. Unfortunately, the textbooks examined do not provide creative tasks neither future thinking. Therefore, we claim that firstly, schooling and textbooks should give students the opportunity to participate in a social-ecological transformation by developing and discussing alternative ideas and solutions (e.g., through empirical studies, inherent research, etc.). Secondly, they should provide emotional and sensorial learning experiences (e.g., through interviews with experts, field trips to wind farms, etc.). In order to fulfill the complexity of sustainability patterns, textbooks should thirdly provide exercises that include extracurricular learning places, such as field trips to local councils or hydropower plants.

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Geographical Reading of the “Global Warming Ready” Advertisement Markus Hilander(&) University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland [email protected]

Abstract. Geo-media tools and resources were introduced as a new set of skills in the reformed Finnish national core curricula for basic and upper secondary school education in 2016. In this article, geo-media skills are understood as geographical media literacy skills. To illuminate these skills, an advertisement by Diesel (2007) entitled “Global Warming Ready” was shown to Finnish and international experts on geography education (n = 6), Finnish geography teachers (n = 19), and Finnish high school students (n = 7), and asked what sorts of geographical phenomena they recognized in the advertisement. The results showed that the experts were not enthusiastic about using the advertisement in school geography teaching, the teachers saw it as a mean of motivating the students to discuss global warming, and the students interpreted the geographical content of the advertisement in a holistic and profound manner. Keywords: Advertisements
Geography education Interpretation of photographs


Global warming


1 Introduction In this article, an advertisement by Diesel (2007) entitled “Global Warming Ready” and its geographical content is being interpreted by three groups: Finnish and international experts on geography education, Finnish geography teachers, and Finnish high school students. In the reformed Finnish national core curricula for basic and upper secondary school education, geo-media tools and resources are being introduced as a new set of skills. In my previous study (Hilander 2016a), I have introduced three visions of how geo-media skills can be understood as geographical media literacy skills. One of these visions regards the geographical reading of the Diesel advertisement introduced in this article. Additionally, in the Finnish comprehensive school curriculum (Opetushallitus 2014, p. 100), it is stated that students should enjoy different types of texts both written and visual. Therefore, I am curious to know to what extent it is possible to use the visual catalogues of advertising in teaching and learning geography with the help of geographical media literacy skills. The aim of the study is to find out how the ways in which the experts on geography education, geography teachers, and high school students interpret the advertisement by Diesel differ from each other. In addition, the research question central to this article is what sort of geographical content these three groups see in the advertisement. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 171–179, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_13

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2 Theoretical Background According to Thornes (2004, p. 793), “the creation and interpretation of visual images has always been important to geography and is what makes geography unique”. Especially in geography textbooks, photos are quite often treated as “court evidence” and “tool for documentation” (Yasar and Seremet 2007, p. 165). Regarding photos in textbooks, it is said that they should be very clear, each photograph should reflect a separate and independent idea, and they should not have unnecessary details. In geography education, photographs can be used in order to authenticate content information. In contrast, unreal and artificial photographs in books are not concerned as convincing (Yasar and Seremet 2007, p. 165). Unfortunately, the primary purpose of the photographs and line drawings in geography textbooks has, to some extent, been to explain and complement texts (Yasar and Seremet 2007, p. 183). For instance, Yvonne Behnke (2016, p. 56) argues that geography students do not pay much attention towards photos in textbooks. She monitored students’ eye movements with an eye tracking method while observing German geography textbook spreads and found that students look at graphics rather superficially; that is, they pay little attention to the depicted photos and more attention to the text elements. In addition to the images in textbooks, geography teachers use many pictures in their teaching; these pictures are published in different sorts of visual catalogues both printed and online. For instance, Hutchinson et al. (2008) write that to enhance the learning experience for teachers and students, it is recommendable to use photos taken by the teachers and students themselves in geography education. According to Behnke (2016, p. 57), “[…] competencies in decoding visuals (i.e., visual literacy) should be mediated more intensely and practised regularly.” In the Finnish national core curriculum for upper secondary school education (Opetushallitus 2015, p. 162), it is stated that geography education should foster young people’s geographical and critical thinking skills. In addition, young people should be able to analyze and understand geographical and environmental changes that are taking place on a global level. However, the everyday life of young people is also of importance. As the volume of visual information increases, young people face images in, among other things, television programs, movies, social media, newspapers, magazines and advertisements (Tani 2014). Therefore, more advantage should be taken of texts that have been published outside the school also in geography education (Opetushallitus 2014, p. 23).

3 Method and Sample 3.1

Advertisement

Diesel, the Italian-based clothing manufacturer, launched an advertising campaign in 2007 showing models posing in Diesel clothing in a world affected by raised water levels and temperatures (Macleod 2007). In the Diesel advertisement studied in this article, a couple sprawls on a rooftop in Manhattan while New York City is almost

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completely engulfed in water (Andersen and Miller 2010, p. 157). Although Diesel considers its advertising to be brave and confident, the company did not give permission to publish the advertisement in question in an academic article. This might refer to the delicate nature of the advertisement and to the feedback that the advertising campaign received. However, the advertisement can easily be found on Google image search using the keywords “Diesel Global Warming Ready.” The particular advertisement by Diesel was chosen for the case study because of its controversial nature. 3.2

Questionnaire

To study the Diesel advertisement, a short online questionnaire was developed. The questions addressed to the experts, teachers and students are shown in Table 1. The original questionnaires for the experts and teachers were slightly different (cf. Hilander 2016a). However, the question regarding the Diesel advertisement was the same for both groups, as can be seen in Table 1. Instead, the online questionnaire for the high school students of Viikki teacher training school in Helsinki differed from the ones sent to the experts and teachers and contained three questions. Table 1. Questions for experts, teachers and students (source: author). Question for experts and teachers 1 How could the Diesel advertisement be connected to the concept of geo-media and used in a classroom situation when teaching Geography? Questions for high school students 2 Imagine you are walking down a street when you see this advertisement. What do you see in it? 3 What sort of geographical content do you see in the image? 4 What could a Geography teacher expect you to see in the image?

3.3

Sample

The Diesel advertisement with a short online questionnaire was sent individually via email to six Finnish and international experts on geography education during autumn 2015. The names and affiliations of the experts are shown in Table 2.

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Table 2. Names and affiliations of the geography education experts (source: author). Name David Lambert Karl Donert Michael N. Solem Jukka Tulivuori Sanna Mäki Markus Jylhä

Affiliation Institute of Education, University College London President of the European Association of Geographers Educational Affairs Director, Association of American Geographers Counselor of Education, Finnish National Board of Education Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku; Member of the Finnish Matriculation Examination Board Coordinator of the Finnish Resource Center of Geographical Education, University of Helsinki

In addition, the link for the online questionnaire was advertised in a private Facebook group for Finnish geography, biology, and health education teachers (BiGeTt-materiaalit, 17 August 2015), in which teachers actively share teaching materials. The same link was additionally sent via email to teachers who are members of the Association of Finnish Biology and Geography Teachers (Biologian ja maantieteen opettajien liitto, 8 September 2015). A total of 19 teachers answered the question regarding the Diesel advertisement. The students of Viikki teacher training school in Helsinki answering the questionnaire studied geography during the previous school period, but not at the time when the questionnaire was sent to them; that is, the seven students answering the questionnaire did it voluntarily and in their spare time. 3.4

Content Analysis

The next section introduces the results of the content analysis. The guideline of the thematic content analysis was to follow the horizontal-hierarchical approach; that is, the horizontal dimension refers to the multiple aspects and insights of one and the same issue, and the hierarchical dimension means that some aspects and insights are more common than others (Cantell 2001, p. 93).

4 Results 4.1

Finnish and International Experts on Geography Education

According to the experts (n = 6), the Diesel advertisement can trigger geographical questions such as “Where has the photo been taken?”, “What has happened to the buildings?”, “Why is the sea level so high?”, and “What changes may the city really be facing in the future?” One of the experts described the ethical aspect, or the “geographical banality,” of the advertisement by writing that “the ad makes surviving easier

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with cool Diesel clothes worn by beautiful survivors who seem rich.” Another expert thought “there are more important and significant things to do than bother with this when teaching geography” (cf. Hilander 2016a, p. 82). 4.2

Finnish Geography Teachers

The teachers (n = 19) came up with similar geographical questions as the experts, such as wondering where the photo was taken and whether the city could be recognized from the advertisement. In addition, the teachers wondered what the image told about the landscape it depicted; for instance, how the landscape has changed and what caused these changes. The teachers connected the advertisement to the phenomenon of global warming and its effects on the globe; for example, they were interested in what sorts of impact global warming would have on the environment in the near future. They also read the image critically and questioned whether the image was authentic or not. At the same time, they were curious to know whether the image could be used to change people’s behavior (cf. Hilander 2016a, p. 82). Individual topics that the teachers mentioned were: the water cycle, shortage of drinking water, urbanization, traffic, the dichotomy of developing and industrial countries, inequality, sexual equality, popular culture, beauty ideals and consumerism (Hilander 2016a, p. 82). Concerning the concept of geo-media in the Finnish national core curricula for basic and upper secondary school education (Opetushallitus 2014, 2015), one teacher questioned whether this sort of interpretation of photos was about geo-media education at all. 4.3

Finnish High-School Students

Finnish high school students (n = 7) were asked to imagine that they are walking down a street when they see the Diesel advertisement and were asked, “What do you see in it?” The following is a summary made of the students’ answers. First, they perceive the woman in the advertisement and her rather deep neckline. Then they notice what the woman is doing; that is, she is pouring some liquid, possibly water, into the man’s mouth. The couple seems relaxed and charming. Then, the students’ gaze shifts to the background and its fine scenery. The couple is located on a rooftop of a high building, and in the background one can see the peaks of the highest skyscrapers, which are surrounded by the ocean. The lowest houses are perhaps already under water, and only the highest buildings are visible. Some of the students mention that they do not quite understand the role of the people in the image. However, it seems that they have escaped the raised water level on the rooftop. When the students are asked what sort of geographical content they see in the Diesel advertisement, they share the same interest with the experts and the teachers; that is, they analyze the landscape and the buildings depicted in the advertisement and consider that the image could be placed in one of the Western cities, such as New York City. Surprisingly, it was the students and not the experts and teachers who named the place as New York City. Because the image shows a lot of water, the students connect the advertisement to the phenomena of global warming, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and water pollution. These are also the themes that a geography teacher could

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guide them to notice in the advertisement. In addition, the students think that a geography teacher could point out the Diesel logo, the “Global Warming Ready” text, and the small icebergs floating in the ocean. The words of a student serve as a summary of this section. The quotation shows how the advertisement is controversial in nature and also reveals its metaphorical aspect. It also demonstrates what other geographical themes the Diesel advertisement contains in addition to global warming: Why is the woman acting the way she is; that is, why is she serving the man some water to drink? Does it symbolize the ways in which human beings are using the earth’s dwindling water supplies and changing the environment without worrying, even though human beings should protect and nurse the environment instead? Maybe human beings do not want to face reality, and that is why they are led to believe that there is enough water to be shared with everybody, just like the woman is sharing it with the man.

5 Discussion 5.1

[What Is] Global Warming According to Diesel

Although Diesel has a tradition of generating attention and provoking discussion of serious societal issues with its advertising, the advertisement depicting Manhattan in a surreal, post-global-warming world falls into “geographical banality.” That is, the advertisement speaks of inevitability and reinforces defeatist and apathetic attitudes to global warming (Andersen and Miller 2010, p. 158). Indeed, the advertisement suggests that people do not have to worry as long as they are wearing Diesel clothing. Consequently, the advertisement sees consumption not as the cause for the situation but as a way to survive. Diesel’s advertisement claims that the company and its brand of clothing are “Global Warming Ready,” but no mention is made of the environmental impact of producing the clothes (Andersen and Miller 2010, p. 158). Therefore, one might ask how Diesel itself understands the phenomenon of global warming. Some sort of answer to the question can be found from the online materials that supported the print advertisements when the advertising campaign was published in 2007. At that time, Diesel’s website visitors were given, for instance, the following tips: save the planet by having sex to cut down on heating, walk to the shops, turn off the lights, insulate homes with recycled denim, never take a shower, hang up towels, plant trees, and eat steak in a restaurant to make it possible to get rid of the fridge at home (Macleod 2007). These views are far from those of Professor Sixten Korkman (2015), according to whom the biggest problem that, for instance, Finland is facing at the moment is not financial but concerns global warming (Hilander 2016a, p. 82). 5.2

Geographical Media Literacy Skills

In this article, the concept of geo-media and geo-media skills, which are introduced as a new set of skills in the reformed Finnish national core curricula for basic and upper secondary school education, are understood as geographical media literacy skills, or

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rather, competences. In geography education, there are lots of batteries of questions (Hilander 2016b) to help the teachers’ work; the teacher can, for instance, choose suitable questions for interpreting textbook images with children and young people. In the dataset used in this article, there is one question that all the participants–the experts on geography education, geography teachers, and high school students–share; that is, all of them agree that the question where is important. Indeed, it is crucial to ask these questions when interpreting photos from a geographical point of view (Hilander 2016b). Even if the skyscrapers are not depicted in their right locations in the Diesel advertisement, the Empire State Building on the right side of the image works as a geographical hint (Hilander 2016a), a landmark, regarding the location where the photo was taken, that is, Manhattan, New York City. However, the students were the only ones who gave concrete suggestions about where the landscape depicted in the Diesel advertisement was, namely Manhattan, New York City. The question of where is a good example of understanding geo-media skills as geographical media literacy skills; that is, when teaching geographical media literacy skills to children and young people, it is expected that all of them will learn the same skills, such as interpreting what city the Diesel advertisement depicts. However, there is other types of geographical content in the Diesel’s “Global Warming Ready” advertisement in addition to the question of where. For instance, the high school students connected the advertisement to the shortage of drinking water; that is, they did not only think of the problem of global warming. Although one of the experts on geography education thought that students should not spend their time on reading the Diesel advertisement geographically, these sorts of advertisements are part of the media landscape these days, which means that young people encounter them in their everyday life. In the reformed Finnish curricula (Opetushallitus 2014, 2015), it is stated that learning should be in closer touch with the student’s everyday life. And, as the results of this case study show, the students read the Diesel advertisement in a more profound and holistic way than the experts and teachers. The question, then, is: why should teachers not use advertisements in geography education if the students are interested in learning to read geographically texts that were published outside the school? It is also stated in the reformed Finnish curriculum that students should have the opportunity to experience different kinds of texts (Opetushallitus 2014, p. 23). Moreover, the use of media images in geography education is not about providing one correct answer to the teacher; on the contrary, it puts the emphasis on arguing one’s own interpretation. That is why geo-media skills can be understood as geographical media literacy competences; that is, when teaching geographical media literacy competences to children and young people, they will learn to interpret photos from a geographical perspective but they still have the freedom to interpret the photos from their own point of view. All in all, the Diesel advertisement is an effective example of not seeing advertisements as banal representations, but a means to question the geographical stereotypes they depict. In this article, geographical stereotypes have been understood as “geographical banality”, that is, in the Diesel advertisement the naive way of representing the future landscape of Manhattan and characterizing climate change as an inevitable

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phenomenon implies that the geographical stereotypes it depicts are correct, which makes the advertisement banal in a geographical manner.

6 Conclusions The research question central to this article was how the visual catalogues of advertising can be read geographically. In order to define the geographical content of Diesel’s “Global Warming Ready” advertisement, three groups were asked to interpret it: Finnish and international experts on geography education, Finnish geography teachers, and Finnish high school students. The experts and teachers gave rather brief examples of questions that can be asked regarding the advertisement. The students, instead, came up with a narrative for the advertisement in addition to interpreting it carefully and thoroughly. The students are also the only ones giving concrete suggestions about where the landscape depicted in the Diesel advertisement is located, namely Manhattan, New York City. Although there are many images in geography textbooks, students seem to pay surprisingly little attention towards them (Behnke 2016). This might be because there usually are only few creative photographs, which enable students to express their own feelings and thoughts, and improve their problem solving and criticizing skills (Yasar and Seremet 2007, p. 183). Therefore, the geographical media literary skills are being emphasized in this paper; these skills include the interpretation of geographical content of all sorts of visual representations. When texts that have been published outside the school, such as advertisements, are critically being interpreted and used as means of studying geography, it might actually activate students to pay more attention to images in geography textbooks, as well.

References R. Andersen, P. Miller, Media literacy, citizenship, and sustainability, in State of the World 2010. Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability. ed. by L. Starke, L. Mastny (W. W. Norton & Company, New York, 2010), pp. 157–163 Y. Behnke, How textbook design may influence learning with geography textbooks. Nordidactica-J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Educ. 2016(1), 38–62 (2016) H. Cantell, Oppimis- Ja Opettamiskäsitykset Maantieteen Opetuksen Ja Aineenopettajankoulutuksen Kehittämisen Lähtökohtana (Helsingin yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitoksen tutkimuksia, Helsinki, 2001) M. Hilander, Reading the geographical content of media images as part of young people’s geomedia skills. Nordidactica-J. Humanit. Soc. Sci. Educ. 2016(2), 69–92 (2016) M. Hilander, Taking a step outside the photo and frame: how should drawings be analysed in the context of geography education?, in New Semiotics. Between Tradition and Innovation. Proceedings of the 12th World Congress of Semiotics, ed. by K. Bankov (IASS Publications & NBU Publishing House, Sofia, 2016b), pp. 396–403 P. Hutchinson, C. Warren, D.E. Salsbury, Reading our world. Geogra. Teach. 5(2), 16–22 (2008) S. Korkman, Mikä on suurin ongelmamme? Helsingin Sanomat, September 2015. https://www. hs.fi/talous/art-2000002853252.html

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D. Macleod, Diesel global warming ready, March 2007, http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/ 2007/diesel-global-warming-ready/ Opetushallitus, Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014 (2014), https://www.oph.fi/ sites/default/files/documents/perusopetuksen_opetussuunnitelman_perusteet_2014.pdf Opetushallitus, Lukion opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2015 (2015), https://www.oph.fi/sites/ default/files/documents/172124_lukion_opetussuunnitelman_perusteet_2015.pdf S. Tani, The right to be seen, the right to be shown. Ethical issues regarding the geographies of hanging out. Young 22(4), 361–379 (2014) J. Thornes, The visual turn and geography (response to rose 2003 intervention). Antipode 36(5), 787–794 (2004) O. Yasar, M. Seremet, A comparative analysis regarding pictures included in secondary school geography textbooks taught in Turkey. Int. Res. Geogr. Environ. Educ. 16(2), 157–188 (2007)

Well Designed Digital Textbooks–Users’ Requirements Yvonne Behnke(&) Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Using the example of recent German digital geography textbooks, this chapter aims to analyze which attributes well designed digital textbooks should include to meet today’s users’ attitudes, skills, and learning requirements. In this context, the term user describes, firstly, students and secondly, teachers. The focus is on conceptual and media didactic thoughts, motivational aspects and visual design factors, whereas subject education considerations and subject content are not elaborated on in detail. In doing so, this chapter analyzes theoretical approaches concerning the conception and design of learning effective and motivating digital textbooks. In addition, this contribution discusses theoretical approaches relative to empirical findings according to today’s students’ digital literacy skills, learning motivation, and user behavior in the specific context of digital textbooks. The analysis revealed that although today’s students extensively utilize digital devices and value digital technologies, their digital and visual literacy skills are still limited, which demonstrates the need for more instruction in how to utilize digital tools more effectively for learning and problem-solving. Moreover, the conception and the design of today’s digital educational media should not merely focus on technical features, but on carefully elaborated didactic concepts. These are concepts that integrate subject content with the capabilities of digital technologies fostering besides subject-specific knowledge, twenty-first century skills, such as digital literacy, information literacy, critical thinking, problem-solving, powerful concepts of analyzing, explaining, and understanding complex issues and relationships, and effective strategies to acquire new knowledge. This excludes unmodified or solely digitally enriched adaptions of existing printed textbooks, but it requires the development of new concepts, meaningful synthesizing of pedagogy, structure, design, content, and technology tailored to learning-fostering and motivating digital educational media. Keywords: Digital textbooks literacy
Motivation


User requirements
Textbook design
Visual

1 Introduction Textbooks–printed and digital–reflect the knowledge of a society (Bölsterli Bardy 2014) and are designed to enable students to learn effectively, whether it will be knowledge, attitudes, competencies or capabilities (Reints and Wilkens 2014). To enable today’s students to acquire knowledge efficient and effective by means of digital © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 180–192, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_14

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textbooks, textbook producers are challenged by a number of new factors. These factors are multifaceted, interrelated and imply new requirements regarding the conception, design, and production of modern digital educational media. Using the example of recent German digital geography textbooks, this chapter elaborates on three exemplary challenges concerning the conception and design of contemporary digital textbooks. Firstly, the pictorial turn–postulated by Mitchell as early as 1992–is associated with a growing relevance of images for communication, meaning-making, and knowledge acquisition in our society (Mitchell 1992; Felten 2008). The pictorial turn affects the conceptual and visual design of current geography educational media in manifold manner. Particularly with the widespread use of digital imaging and new digital visualization techniques in recent years, a significant increase in number and types of visuals utilized in geography textbooks is apparent (Janko and Knecht 2014). Modern geography textbooks–digital even more so than printed textbooks–exceedingly utilize different types of visuals and visualizations to communicate subject content. However, numerous studies in image-text research revealed students’ difficulties with interlinking complex image-text relations and with decoding information from visuals (Hochpöchler et al. 2012; Mason et al. 2015; Schnotz et al. 2014). Secondly, the digital shift in today’s society affects the geography textbook market with an increasing demand for digital educational media fulfilling requirements for teaching and learning geography in the twenty-first century. Digital learning environments are, by their nature, highly visual and provide information in different logic and visual structures to printed textbooks (hypertext versus linear, multimedia-based and interactive versus static). Therefore, users need visual, digital, and information literacy skills combined with and applied to subject-specific knowledge. In contrast, a recent study from the US indicates that competencies in utilizing digital technologies in an effective and critical manner are still insufficient amongst today’s students (Alexander et al. 2016). Thirdly, technological innovations, such as digital textbooks, cannot be successfully implemented without considering the users’ attitudes, needs, and preferences because the motivational potential of digital technology itself is limited and the acceptance of digital educational media is determined by users’ subjective norms and perceived usefulness (Joo et al. 2014). Though recent digital geography textbooks from major German educational media publishers are largely digitally enriched versions or digital modifications of existing printed textbooks, elaborated didactic concepts exploiting the potential of digital technologies for learning and teaching geography in the twenty-first century still remain a desideratum (cf. Behnke and Bagoly-Simó 2016). This is in line with Rodríguez Rodríguez et al. (2015, p. 102) who claimed that “[…] very few instructional and learning models exist for using digital textbooks”. As a result, this chapter aims to analyze users’ attitudes and potential requirements regarding today’s digital textbooks. Users of digital textbooks are, firstly, students and, secondly teachers. In conducting this analysis, this paper will examine the following questions:

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(1) How Digitally Competent and Visually Literate Are today’s Students, Who Are Known as the Net-Generation? (2) Which Factors Affect today’s Students’ Acceptance of Digital Textbooks? (3) What Requirements Have today’s Digital Textbooks to Meet to Be Effectively Utilized in Learning Contexts? This chapter will focus on conceptual and media didactic thoughts, motivational aspects, and visual design factors, whereas considerations concerning subject education and subject content are not elaborated on in detail.

2 How Digitally Competent and Visually Literate Are Today’s Students Known as the Net-Generation? Today’s students have grown up with gadgets constantly connected to the Internet (Boeckle and Ebner 2015). Therefore, Marc Prensky (2001, p. 1) coined the generation of today’s students as “digital natives” and postulated they are “[…] native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet”. According to Barnes et al. (2007) and Prensky (2001), their net savviness resulted in different ways of learning and communicating than their predecessors’ strategies. The Net Generation is described as highly information-competent, creative problemsolvers, experienced communicators, self-directed learners and critical thinkers who are able to effectively multitask with various digital tools (Veen 2006; Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013). In this context, Daeid (2008) particularly emphasized the Net Generation’s visual literacy, visual spatial literacy, and media literacy skills. However, several studies questioned the claims made for the digital natives in terms of their ability to use technology for learning by arguing that the assumptions have been subjected to little critical scrutiny and lack of a sound empirical basis (Bennett et al. 2008; Comba 2011; Kennedy and Cook 2013). Furthermore, empirical evidence revealed that although today’s students extensively utilize digital devices and valuate digital technologies, their digital and visual literacy skills are still limited (Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013). A recent study from the US indicated that the digital divide is no longer about access to technology, but rather literacy in utilizing digital technology competently, effectively, and critically and, in particular, in utilizing digital technology to support students’ own learning process (Alexander et al. 2016). This view is supported by studies revealing Wikipedia and Google as primary information research sources by today’s students (Comba 2011) and thereby demonstrating that today’s students’ information literacy skills are still limited. For learning contexts, it was determined that today's students utilize a limited range of technologies that focus on media consumption and communication (Schulmeister 2013). They are unaware of the enhanced functionalities of digital technologies useful for their own learning process, and they lack skills for improved information retrieval, critical information seeking and evaluation skills (Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013). This is in line with Schulmeister (2013), who revealed that today’s students utilize digital media mainly for entertainment and communication, whereas transfer from leisure media use to learning takes place only to a limited extent. Consequently,

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Schulmeister (2013) questioned the existence of the digital native by arguing that students’ digital and visual literacy skills have not developed in the way that schools and universities necessarily expect it. In addition, studies revealed students’ difficulties in decoding images and interlinking complex image-text relations in educational media (Schnotz et al. 2011; Hochpöchler et al. 2012; Schnotz et al. 2014). They also determined knowledge acquisition from graphic visualizations as a highly complex process that represents a cognitive challenge to many students (de Vries and Lowe 2010; Bétrancourt et al. 2012; Boucheix et al. 2013). Therefore, it can be assumed that, notwithstanding the omnipresence of visuals in everyday life and educational media, today’s students face challenges when learning with visuals and image-text combinations. This might be essential for geography education, as geography is defined as a visual discipline as “[…] geography is unique in how it relies on certain kinds of visualities and visual images to construct its knowledge” (Rose 2003, p. 212). Likewise, studies revealed that solving information problems by means of digital media represents a cognitive challenge to many students (Miller and Bartlett 2012; Kennedy and Cook 2013; Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013). In summary, numerous studies demonstrated that today’s students are merely better equipped technologically than the previous generation, but remain mainly digital media consumers with a minority of them being visually literate, creative, and critical multimedia or web content producers (Ebner et al. 2008; Bennet et al. 2008; Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013; Schulmeister 2013). Consequently, it can be concluded that the challenge for today’s digital textbook users is not availability or access to digital educational media. The challenge are users’ limited capabilities to critically select and evaluate digital data and information and the lack of a deeper conceptual understanding of information practices (Roberts 2017). Today’s digital textbook users need an understanding of how these concepts may be applied across contexts and subjects (Roberts 2017). Therefore, students need to develop competencies to select, analyze, decode, and evaluate different information sources and information types (visual, verbal) related to and by means of subject content to utilize digital textbooks effectively and efficiently to support learning. For this purpose, today’s students need to develop critical skills that include cognitive, informational, creative, cultural and ethical, and social aspects (Scarcelli and Riva 2016). Therefore, students need more target-oriented instruction on how to utilize digital tools effectively for learning and problem-solving (Kirschner and van Merriënboer 2013).

3 Which Factors Affect Today’s Students’ Acceptance of Digital Textbooks? Users’ attitudes towards a digital learning medium are of vital importance, because well-designed textbooks have the potential to make learning more fun, lasting, and meaningful (Morgan 2014). They may actively engage learners’ cognition in many ways, for example through visual processing, analytical thinking, posing questions, problem-solving, testing hypotheses and verbal reasoning (Morgan 2014), but only if they are accepted by their users and utilized effectively and efficiently. Which attributes

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that well designed digital textbooks may ideally characterize will be summarized in the conclusion. User acceptance of a textbook is linked to motivational aspects, which, amongst other factors, interrelate with design components. Motivational concepts and design are relevant factors in the conception of digital learning environments because the motivational potential of digital technology itself is limited. The acceptance and utilization of digital educational media is determined by users’ subjective norms and perceived usefulness (Joo et al. 2014), whereby motivation is one key factor. Therefore, at first, a selection of theoretical approaches from literature on motivational factors relevant to the development of digital learning environments will be briefly introduced, followed by studies from pedagogical psychology concerning the design of learning-effective and motivating multimedia learning environments and approaches from visual communication and information design. Ryan and Deci‘s (2000) self-determination theory reveals three intrinsic motivational factors effective for learning, which are useful to consider in the development of digital learning environments: competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Competence relates to the construct of self-efficacy. Autonomy (in learning contexts) is described as the ability to strive towards one’s own goals, interests, and aptitudes. Relatedness is described as the experience of interacting with and being connected to others (Hense and Mandl 2012; Fotaris et al. 2016). Malone and Lepper’s (1987) Taxonomy of Intrinsic Motivations for Learning includes aspects from self-determination theory and aims to provide a model on how to design intrinsically motivating learning environments. The model is derived from successful principles of game play and is divided into internal motivational factors, such as challenge (goals, outcome, feedback), curiosity (foster learner’s inquisitiveness) and control (in terms of self-efficacy and autonomy), as well as intrinsic motivational factors, such as co-operation (working together to achieve a goal), competition (competing to achieve a goal), and recognition (making achievements visible for others) (Kapp 2012). John Keller (1987, 2010, 2012) developed the ARCS motivational design model for learning. It includes a synthesis of several motivational concepts and theories, amongst others, the expectancy-value theory (Wigfield and Eccles 2000)–which presumes that students’ learning motivation is determined by their beliefs about how well they will do on the learning activity and the extent to which there is personal value in the knowledge presented–and intrinsic motivational theories, such as Ryan and Deci’s (2000) self-determination theory. Keller provides a theoretical model based on empirical evidence aimed at creating motivating learning environments. The ARCS model is clustered into four categories: attention (A), relevance (R), confidence (C), and satisfaction (S). Each category is divided in subcategories. Each subcategory is elaborated on by practical examples (see Keller 1987, 2010, 2012). Attention (A) refers to the interest displayed by learners in taking on the concepts/ideas being taught. Relevance (R) aims to establish the relevance of the instruction to learner goals. Confidence (C) relates to building confidence with regard to realistic expectations and personal responsibility for outcomes. Lastly, satisfaction (S) refers to making the instruction satisfying by managing learners’ intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes (Keller 1987, 2010, 2012).

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Recent studies from pedagogical psychology investigated cognitive and affective aspects of multimedia learning with the aim of integrating emotion, motivation and attitude into cognitive processing models (Park et al. 2014). The theoretical background builds on Moreno’s (2006) cognitive affective theory of learning with media (CATLM), which is an extension of Mayer’s (2005) cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML). CTML supplements by twelve principles of instructional design (e.g., multimedia principle, redundancy principle, signaling principle etc.) how people learn effective from static or dynamic images and written or spoken text in combination. Moreno (2006) extended Mayer’s (2005) CTML by adding motivational and affective aspects, self-regulatory skills and learner characteristics (Park et al. 2015). In this context, the emotional design hypothesis assumes that visually appealing learning materials support learners’ cognitive processing (Mayer and Estrella 2014). Studies examining learning-fostering design principles revealed that well-designed learning materials may promote positive emotions and comprehension (Plass et al. 2013; Park et al. 2015) and reduce the perceived difficulty of learning tasks (Um et al. 2012), which consequently may foster the acceptance of a digital textbook. Theoretical approaches for learning effective textbook design principles can be also found in visual communications and information design. Wertheimer’s (1923) Gestalt theory summarized visual perception principles, such as figure-ground, proximity, similarity, and closure, which are today well-established media design principles. Furthermore, several of Wertheimer’s (1923) visual perception principles, such as signaling and proximity are included in Mayer’s (2005) CTML. Information designers, such as Edward Tufte (1990), Robert Horn (1999), and Rune Pettersson (2016) developed concepts to visualize and communicate complex information (data or ideas) in a clear, memorable, and understandable manner that attracts curiosity and attention (Knemeyer 2006; Smiciklas 2012; Uyan Dur 2014). According to Pettersson (2016), information design comprises analysis, planning, presentation, and understanding of information–its content, language, and form. Therefore, well-designed information material will satisfy aesthetic, economic, ergonomic, as well as subject matter requirements (Pettersson 2016). In sum, theoretical approaches from motivational theory and motivational design can be utilized for the conception of digital textbooks, such as how to provide subject content in a motivating, learning-fostering manner or in the conception of interesting, engaging tasks. Learning fostering approaches from visual communication, information design, and pedagogical psychology could be applied in the visual design of digital textbooks. These principles can be utilized to foster users’ acceptance of a digital textbook because, according to Joo et al. (2014), they affect factors closely linked to design, usability, and motivation, such as subjective norms, perceived self-efficacy, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. These, again, affect users’ attitudes to digital textbooks. However, the acceptance and efficacy of a digital textbook may be also influenced by resource style, learner interests, learning objectives, and learner characteristics (Ainsworth 2006; Schnotz et al. 2011).

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4 What Requirements Have Digital Textbooks to Meet to be Effectively Utilized in Learning Contexts? A recent analysis revealed that digital geography textbooks from German major educational media publishers are largely digitally enriched versions or digital modifications of existing printed textbooks (Behnke and Bagoly-Simó 2016). An analysis of digital textbooks for Spanish language from Spain reached a similar conclusion by stating that “[a]lthough an attempt was observed to incorporate e-textbook elements, the structure and teaching models implicit in the material were those of a paper textbook” (Regueria Rodríguez and Rodríguez Rodríguez 2013, p. 192). Bruillard (2015, p. 523) came to similar conclusions in France:”[…] the digital textbooks offered in France are mainly improvements of paper textbooks, including new features, with an economic model still in line with paper products”. However, unmodified adaption of printed textbooks into digital versions may result in a paradigm called chocolate-covered broccoli (Bruckman 1999; Deterding 2015). For unmodified adaptions of printed textbooks into digital versions this means to sugar cover well-known subject content, organizing structures and teaching models from paper textbooks with digital technology without developing new didactic concepts, structural features and subject content utilizing the specific benefits of digital textbooks, such as connectivity, adaptability or immediate elaborated feedback. This might be one reason for the low acceptance of digital textbooks among learners (Behnke 2018). Hence, digital textbooks will not be accepted by users and are neither learning-effective or motivating solely through their digital technology or features, such as extraordinary 3D graphics or complex multimedia animations because the motivational potential of digital technology itself is limited. To be accepted and utilized, digital textbooks need to augur clear added value beyond printed textbooks. However, digital textbooks have the potential to become effective tools in learning and teaching because of their motivational, communicative, and technological potential if the digital technology is meaningfully integrated in learning environments (e.g., by embedding a problem-based learning approach, motivational design, emotional design, and playful elements by coupling them with effective pedagogy) (Kapp 2012; Boeckle and Ebner 2015; Fotaris et al. 2016). Motivational factors and motivational design strategies should not only be meaningfully embedded in subject content and elaborated didactic concepts, they should also consider usability and specific requirements of the visual design of digital learning environments. Reints and Wilkens (2014) identified three characteristic key factors for digital textbooks: adaptability, multimodality, and interactivity. These factors can be largely aligned to motivational design theories, such as Ryan and Deci‘s (2000) selfdetermination theory. Adaptability, described as the ability to adapt the format, content, and learning tasks of a textbook to the level of the learner and, thus, enabling flexible learning pathways, can relate to factors of autonomy and competence from selfdetermination theory and thus, self-efficacy. Reints and Wilkens (2014) define interactivity as a key factor that includes the possibility of communication and connection to other learners, and it is, thus, included in Ryan and Deci‘s (2000) motivational factor of relatedness.

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Moreover, future concepts for digital textbooks should consider usability, meaningful ways to involve learners in the creation and customization of learning content (Prensky 2005; Kapp et al. 2014), concepts to document and control students’ own learning process but also learning fostering visual design, as form and content are related (Uhrmacher 2009). Therefore, among others, the concept of gamification provides suggestions on how to implement playful elements in digital textbooks to foster motivation and learning. Gamification is the application of game-based dynamics and activities to an educational effort (Kapp 2012). Examples for game-based dynamics are creating desirable goals at different levels and providing specific immediate feedback. Examples for game-based activities are decision-making, problem-solving, exploring unknown places and objects, role-play or decoding, analyzing and sorting information. One key factor in gamification are tasks and activities designed to foster repeated attempts, and continuous improvement to attain a learning objective (Kapp et al. 2014) simultaneously fostering students’ perseverance, motivation, and perceived self-efficacy–vital factors for successful learning according to intrinsic motivational theories. In particular for geography as highly visual and spatial discipline, digital textbooks provide features and gamification activities to design engaging and multifarious learning tasks and subject content addressing different knowledge types, such as declarative, conceptual, procedural, and affective knowledge (Kapp et al. 2014) or factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge according to the revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Krathwohl 2002). Learning-fostering visual textbook design is characterized by clarity, coherence, consistency, and aesthetics. This is in accord with LaSpina (1998), who argued that good textbook design provides visual guidance through its content by means of a wellarticulated layout in which clarity and complexity are not mutually exclusive. Consequently, how clearly, aesthetically, and coherently information in digital textbooks is provided, has become a crucial factor for successful knowledge acquisition from textbooks. Design, then, can be crucial for learning with textbooks; a design that harmonizes with the textbook’s content and has learners and their needs in mind may facilitate their understanding of the meaning of information provided (Holmqvist Olander et al. 2014). The presented theoretical approaches should be analyzed, tailored to respective learning contexts, subject content, and the target user group, then selected and meaningfully embedded in subject content and didactic concepts mediating twentyfirst century skills, such as digital literacy, information literacy, critical thinking, problem-solving, powerful concepts of analyzing, explaining, and understanding complex issues and relationships, and effective strategies to acquire new knowledge (Maude 2015). In sum, digital textbooks need to differ from printed textbooks in terms of design, usability, content, didactic concepts, and features that support learning. Only digital learning applications auguring clear added value beyond printed textbooks, fulfilling the needs and learning objectives of today’s users, and designed with regard to users’ capabilities and motivational factors, will be widely utilized (Schulmeister 2013). This view is supported by the expectancy-value theory (Wigfield and Eccles 2000).

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5 Conclusions Requirements for digital textbooks are in many aspects different and even more complex than printed textbooks because of their technological features and possibilities. Therefore, unmodified or solely digitally enriched adaptions of printed textbooks to digital textbooks fail to meet the user requirements of today’s digital educational media. Today’s digital textbooks require the development of new concepts synthesizing pedagogy, structure, design, and content tailored to learning fostering and motivating digital educational media. Thus, the conceptualization of today’s digital educational media should not merely focus on technical features or on providing subject content, but on carefully elaborated didactical concepts that integrate subject content with–for the respective learning context useful–digital features, such as interactivity, connectivity, customization, differentiation or immediate feedback. Additionally, digital media should utilize playful elements and multimedia features in a meaningful manner, considering motivational theories and, therefore, users’ needs and attitudes. In addition, to meet more users’ requirements, the development of digital textbooks should include prototyping, usability tests, and user surveys–all proven instruments to design digital applications fulfilling users’ needs and attitudes. Consequently, in this specific context, the term well-designed digital textbook describes an elaborated structural and didactic concept that meaningfully integrates subject content and learning tasks that address various knowledge types with technical features, playful elements, and motivational design. The visual design is focused on learning-fostering principles from educational psychology, information design, and visual communication including comprehensibility, clarity, usability, and aesthetics. Therefore, the design, content, structure, and didactic concepts of digital geography textbooks need to be further developed to meet the learning requirements of today’s curricula and allow today’s students to gain twenty-first century skills and knowledge necessary to develop their capabilities “[…] to become self-fulfilled and competent individuals, informed and aware citizens and critical and creative ‘knowledge workers’” (Uhlenwinkel et al. 2016, p. 2).

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Didactics as a School Discipline: A Study of General Didactics Textbooks Léia de Cássia Fernandes Hegeto(&) Universidade Federal do Paraná, Rua XV de Novembro, 1299, Centro, Curitiba 80060-000, Brazil

Abstract. This study investigates elements of didactics as a higher education discipline, using as empirical reference didactics textbooks for teachers published in Brazil since 1980, these textbooks are understood as visible disciplinary elements Cuesta Fernández 1998 Qualitative research was developed in two stages: in the first stage, 18 textbooks of general didactics from the 1980, 1990 and 2000 decades were identified; in the second stage, 9 out of these 18 textbooks were selected, three from each decade. To carry out this analysis, the following topics were defined: categories related to the definition of didactics presented by the authors, classic and new topics that are the main part of the discipline, and didactic activities proposed to teach this discipline. As a result of this study, assuming textbooks are visible elements of the disciplinary elements, it is possible to say that didactics has been transformed in the last decades. The defended thesis presented here is that the disciplinary elements expressed in these textbooks show a reconnection between classroom contents and teaching methods, enhancing strategies and techniques without ignoring the other dimensions of teaching. Keywords: General didactics
General didactics textbooks
Teacher training

1 Introduction Teachers’ didactics textbooks are exceptional materials that enable a deep research of school disciplines. General didactics textbooks also show different approaches and various conceptions of the elements that constitute didactics as a discipline dedicated to teacher training. The analysis of general didactics textbooks allows, on the one hand, an understanding of how these materials have legitimized knowledge and teaching content and, on the other hand, how the textbooks marked practices and behavior of both teachers and students over the years. This chapter builds on conceptualizations from history (Cuesta Fernández 1998, Urban 2009, Schmidt 2011 that perceive textbooks as visible disciplinary elements. The analysis of general didactics textbooks produced in 1980 opened a discussion on the configuration of didactics as a school discipline. General didactics textbook appear continuously and are suggested readings for both public service recruiting tests for teachers and in teacher training programs.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 193–201, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_15

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Studies by Chervel (1990) document discussions on school disciplines and their objectives in relation to the social context and indicate the need to better understand the trajectory and mechanisms that made these disciplines become what they are now. Work on general didactics textbooks greatly contributed to comprehend not only the transformations general didactics experienced since the 1980s, but also the role of normative documents, such as the Brazilian National Curriculum Guidelines, for teacher training programs. Thereby, explored aspects were the elements involved in the description of general didactics along with its forms of organization and objectives in the curricula of tertiary level teacher training programs. Overall, general didactics textbooks, specifically aimed at teacher training courses, are believed to discuss constitutive elements of teaching and learning and, therefore, specific elements of didactics. The textbooks are adapted based on their possible contribution to present content related to the Curriculum Guidelines, legislation, and research on didactic processes, such as methodology, content, teacher and student relationship, and evaluation. The textbook content uncovered for each period different interests motivating the dissemination of specific pieces of knowledge to the detriment of others. As updated content and topics makes their way into textbooks, old content and topics may remain or be discarded. The conception of the discipline of general didactics allows us to understand that the presence of certain topics in the didactics textbooks and within the scope of the discipline is not random but stands under the influence of both academic discourse and curricular frameworks created to respond to school demands and to achieve the expected education of students. Franco (2005) and Bardin (2009) indicated three important points for textbook research, namely the floating reading, the choice of documents, and the formulation of hypotheses. The present chapter uses the floating reading, as it provided preliminary information on the contents of general didactics textbooks. Subsequent development of analysis categories led to the following research questions: a) What definition of didactics appears in the general didactics textbooks? b) Which topics do the textbooks address? c) Considering that the structure of textbooks should be related to a specific teaching methodology of the discipline, do the general didactics textbooks feature suggested activities? If so, what is the nature of the activities proposed for teaching general didactics? The historical analysis of general didactics textbooks aims to highlight how these educational media document the trajectory of general didactics as a school subjects in light of the disciplinary frameworks set by academic general didactics discourse. Of particular importance for the exploratory study presented in this chapter was to uncover the relationship between textbook production and the curricular organization that has defined the constitutive aspects of education in Brazil since the 1980s. From the methodological point of view, the work presented in this chapter uses qualitative approaches that seek to understand the school culture by means of general didactics textbooks as its artifacts. Thereby, structurism (Lloyd 1995), which considers social life as a product of the tensions between the subjects’ structures and actions, constitutes the main theoretical framework. As a result, the analysis not only considers

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textbooks in their materiality as objects, but also in the meanings that result from their insertion in social processes, especially in schooling.

2 Textbooks as Visible Elements Textbooks are considered visible disciplinary elements, and can be understood as expressions of the disciplinary elements or disciplinary code of general didactics as they suggest and legitimize content, rules, norms, ideals, and discourses related to teaching. Cuesta Fernández (1997) states that textbooks are considered visible elements of the disciplinary code as content deemed necessary in each period contributing to the organization of disciplines. The books legitimize the educational function each school subject must fulfill through the regulation of the teaching practice. Therefore, according to Cuesta Fernández (1997), it is important to study textbooks both from their concept of disciplinary elements and as an essential part of school culture: We define disciplinary elements as a set of ideas, values, assumptions, regulations, practices and routines (through both explicit and tacit means), which often translate into discourses of legitimacy and public languages about the educational value of history; these discourses guide the professional teaching practice. In short, it is a list of dominant ideas, discourses and practices in history teaching within the school environment.

The concept of disciplinary code bears the idea that the textbook content carries a specific intentionality that legitimizes interests and guides teaching practices. In essence, Cuesta Fernández (1997) points out that once a specific element is established, its influence continues until new educational tendencies or approaches emerge. According to Cuesta Fernández (1997), textbook analysis shows the complex relationship and coexistence of elements, that is, of tendencies and approaches inherent to each time period. Consequently, he rejects the existence of a linear and evolutionary succession from one tendency to another, that is, from a new disciplinary element to another. However, he accepts the idea of attempts aimed at renewing ideas, methodologies, and power relations in textbooks. In this reading, the study of school disciplines can be based on visible disciplinary elements of the discipline of didactics. The construction of the trajectory of didactics as a school discipline shows that general didactics textbooks assumed a central role as they contributed to organizing the discipline and the discipline contributed to organize the textbooks. The research presented in this chapter prioritized textbooks produced for teacher training because they are specifically tailored to teach how to teach and were disseminated in Brazil throughout the twentieth century. The aim of these textbooks was to disseminate different ways of teaching, that is, they gave guidance to teachers on how to act in the classroom, which approach they should use, and on best practices and methodologies. In effect, the textbooks produced what Silva (2006) called the grammar of teaching. Silva (2008) also pointed out the necessity to carry out further studies on textbooks for teachers, a rather marginal area until present. Bufrem et al. (2006) point out that most textbooks contain different pieces of knowledge that can belong to the specific knowledge and practices used in the

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discipline of general didactics. The contents of these textbooks is a set of knowledge that fulfills the “[…] function of mediation between specific scientific knowledge and manners of classroom teaching” Bufrem et al. (2006). Bufrem et al. (2006) as well as Garcia and Nascimento (2009) analyzed textbooks for teachers regarding the definition of disciplinary elements and found that, particularly in history education and general didactics, further research is required on the relations between textbooks and teacher training, using textbooks as sources to understand the configuration of didactics as a school discipline. Research on general didactics textbooks (Hegeto 2014) uncovered two types of textbooks: general didactics and specific or subject didactics textbooks. The analysis of the analyzed Brazilian universities’ pedagogy major’s curriculum by Gatti and Nunes (2008) as well as by Gatti and Nunes (2009) showed that textbooks both remained part of teacher training courses and continued to be part of teacher training students’ reading. General didactics textbooks can still be found in bookstores, libraries, physical and virtual collections. Some of the textbooks continue to appear in new editions, as exemplified by Piletti’s (1982) Textbook 1–currently in its 34th edition. Several authors discussed various aspects of the didactic knowledge production and the importance of general didactics both for research and for teacher training programs. Textbook analysis contributed to better understand what was the content of teacher training and which were the expectations of teachers at different times throughout the twenty-first century. Textbooks uncovered important issues related not only to the history of general didactics but also concerning the way it was presented to teachers (Hegeto 2014). Further research in this context is required concerning the purposes attributed to knowledge, the topics presented to teachers as essential to teaching, and the changes and continuities the textbooks present.

3 Methods and Sample Textbook analysis aimed at understanding the characteristics of the discipline of general didactics. Content analysis rested on the following categories of analysis: definition and concept of didactics found in textbooks; issues addressed in textbooks that compose a relevant body of knowledge to be taught in the specific discipline of general didactics. The historical analysis aimed at revealing the topics that have been present in general didactics textbooks over the last three decades. Thereby, two categories played a central role: classical topics that originated in previous periods but continued to be part of the textbooks, and, new topics that entered textbooks as a result of a variety of influences derived from curriculum guidelines, legislation, and the academic field of didactics. The analytical categories targeted to identify the elements of general didactics between 1980 and 2013 and rest on the following topics of learning and curriculum theories addressed in Brazil Cruz et al. (2011):

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[...] theoretical aspects that support practices; the relationship between education and society; the school and the teacher’s work; teaching approaches/theories (traditional, new-school, technicist and progressive, the latter with emphasis on the libertarian, liberating, and critical social pedagogies of the contents); curriculum theories; questions about identity, professionalism and teaching knowledge; and the components of pedagogical practice with special attention to pedagogical planning as well as the evaluation of teaching and learning.

The original question of the research presented in this chapter, namely how can Brazilian textbooks as visible disciplinary elements contribute to understanding the constitution of general didactics in recent decades. The sampling considered textbooks produced since the 1980s for two main reasons. On the one hand, teacher training courses continue to use many of these textbooks. Also, general didactics textbooks are the suggested reading for civil service recruitment tests for teachers. On the other hand, studies on general didactics textbooks for teacher training, especially in normal school, are outdated and can be considered of historical importance, which requires more recent studies on the topic. This chapter focusses on the period between 1980–2013. The main reason for this temporal demarcation are the discussions in academic didactics during the first half of the 1980s, which promoted changes in the understanding of the meaning of didactics for teacher training, opposing the instrumental and technical perspective that characterized the discipline. Therefore, the sampling examines textbooks produced in the 1980s to understand whether they showed and continue on showing transformations and if they contributed to change the configuration of didactics as a school subject. The sample contained textbooks published both by commercial and university publishing houses. Recently published textbooks and the substantial number of reeditions of books from the 1980s and 1990s indicates the demand for general didactics textbooks. The database of general didactics books combined different approaches, entailing database search (e.g., Scholar Google, Capes, Scielo, Eric), events in the field of general didactics, scientific journals, and library databases of Brazilian state and federal universities. The search was also extended to online) second-hand bookstores, such as Estante Virtual and Traça e Livronauta. The result was a sample of 150 books and articles. In addition to the generic search, the author also searched both the virtual and physical collection of the library of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, and of the Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas (NPPD/UFPR). The latter unit has continuously acquired and expanded its collection of teacher’s textbooks since 2002. The collection of roughly 50 titles consists of general didactics or teaching orientation textbooks, titles on subject didactics, history of education, and pedagogical compendia. The sample consolidation led to two types of sources. On the one hand, the sample contained books on general didactics as a discipline or field of knowledge along with studies pursuing the primary purpose of disseminating academic literature on the subject. On the other hand, the sample also contained general didactics textbooks for teachers, whose main purpose is to guide the process of teaching, i.e., teaching how to teach. The sample consolidation led to 48 materials, 18 of which were books teaching teachers how to teach. These 18 general didactics textbooks presented teaching orientations following different approaches. The remains 30 titles are studies dedicated to general didactics textbooks and discuss fundamentals of didactics, problematize the

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relations between research and didactics, epistemology and didactics, or curriculum and didactics. The next step consisted of a floating reading, or pre-analysis, of the 18 didactics textbooks. The author aimed to analyze nine textbooks (three per decade, cf. Table 1 spanning the period between 1980–2013. In addition, for each decade, one of the three textbooks had to be published at the beginning, the second towards the middle, and the third around the end of each decade. This distribution targeted the observation of transformations the textbooks underwent over the last three decades that documented the articulation of both debates in the academic discipline and questions derived from debates regarding the school discipline in a certain period. Table 1. The sample of general didactics textbooks (source: author). Textbook

Title

Author

Textbook 1 Textbook 2

Didática Geral Didática Geral: fundamentos planejamento, metodologia e avaliação Didática teórica, didática prática Didática Curso de didática geral

Claudino Piletti José do Prado Martins

Textbook 3 Textbook 4 Textbook 5 Textbook 6 Textbook 7

Didática geral: um olhar para o future Ensinar a ensinar: didática para a escola fundamental e media

Textbook 8

Lições de didática

Textbook 9

Didática e docência: aprendendo a profissão

Pura Lucia O. Martins Jose Libâneo Regina Célia C. Haydt Maria Raineldes Tosi Amélia D. de Castro and Ana Maria P. Carvalho (Eds.) Ilma Passos A. Veiga (Ed.) Isabel Maria S. de Farias (Ed.)

Year of Publication 1982 1985

Publisher

1989

Loyola

1992 1994

Cortez Ático

1996

Alínea

2001

Thompson Pioneira

2006

Papirus

2009

Liber Livros

Ática Atlas

4 Selected Results and Discussion The analysis enabled the identification of disciplinary elements. Given the spatial constraints of this chapter, this section introduces two of these elements.

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199

Definition of Didactics

The results revealed–based on the definitions–an attempt to (re-)set the function and role of the discipline of general didactics. The analysis also enabled the verification of some transformations that occurred in the educational and didactic contexts. These transformations reach beyond the diversity of ways in which the authors of the nine textbooks introduced the concept of didactics by replacing questions exploring new relationships between the discipline of didactics and other fields of knowledge. The nine textbooks distinguished between general didactics as an academic field, on the one hand, and a school discipline following its own objectives, on the other hand. The results showed that general didactics must comprise the teaching process in its multiple determinations to intervene and transform it through concrete action, in view of a clear and defined political position. These findings reflect Martins’ (1989) perspective, according to which general didactics is no longer a merely instrumental discipline. Since 1980, general didactics textbooks addressed debates on teaching and explored the question how to teach in different ways. The attempt to overcome a technical perspective of teaching was crucial. The analyzed textbooks stand for a perspective according to which the teachers are required to view teaching as a multidimensional process. 4.2

Topics

The analysis revealed both traditional and new topics in the general didactics textbooks. As visible disciplinary elements, textbooks showed the influence of research in the field of didactics field. Also, there was a process of exclusion and inclusion of selected topics during each decade. The nine analyzed textbooks showed the continuity, with minor variations, of traditional topics related to elements, such as planning, objectives, methodology, teacher-student relationship, and evaluation. The results show that these topics appeared as an embodiment of the disciplinary elements of didactics of the analyzed time period. New topics found in textbooks published since 1980 stand under the influence of social, educational, and curricular debates. Newly implemented topic highlight the challenges tied to expanding a given content element, diversification, and multiple topics. Overall, content analysis identified the following topics in the nine textbooks: reflective teaching; teacher identification; cross-cutting issues; collective systematization of knowledge; technology; IT skills; digital society; ethics; didactic transposition; failure in school; discipline; inclusive education; sexuality; gender and race issues; textbooks. The analysis also showed the presence of topics related to new teaching conceptions. Generally, the results uncovered changes in both academic and social debates along with particularities of the disciplinary elements of general didactics during the analyzed period of time.

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5 Final Considerations This chapter aimed to explore the characteristics and components of the discipline of general didactics in the timeframe 1980–2013. The results showed that the transformations of general didactics as an academic field also induced transformations in textbooks, resulting in a clearer focus on the object of the discipline in the school. Concerning the elements of action and teaching practice, the transformations gave a new meaning to the objective of the discipline along three axes: teacher training courses must adopt a multidimensional perspective; the importance of reflection and research; and an improved understanding of the constituent elements of teaching, which include traditional topics, multidimensionality in teaching, and the implementation of new topics demanded by society. Research on general didactics textbooks helped to stimulate a debate on the role of the discipline in understanding teaching processes, mainly regarding traditional topics that critically address the organization and development of teaching, but also regarding new topics presenting social and educational issues that are relevant at this historic moment in Brazil. As a result, the disciplinary elements of general didactics show new ties between the didactic content and the classroom and teaching procedures since 1980. Further work in the field will contribute to a better understanding of how both he academic discipline and the school subject of general didactics developed.

References L. Bardin, Análise de Conteúdo. Lisboa: Edições. 6(1), 70 (2009) L. Bufrem, A.M.P. Carvalho, (Eds.). Ensinar A Ensinar: Didática Para A Escola Fundamental E Média. (São Paulo,Pioneira Thomson Learning,2001) M.A. Schmidt, T.M.F.B. Garcia, Os manuais destinados a professores como fontes para a história das formas de ensinar. HISTEDBR 22, 120–130 (2006) A.D. Castro, A.M.P. Carvalho, (Eds.). Ensinar A Ensinar: Didática Para A Escola Fundamental E Média. (São Paulo,Thompson Pioneira,2001) A. Chervel, História das disciplinas escolares: reflexões sobre um campo de pesquisa. Teoria e Educação, Porto Alegre 2, 177–229 (1990) G.B. Cruz da, D.S.M. Silva da, G.L. D’Ávila, Professores formadores e o ensino de didática. (Curitiba,Anais do Educere,2011) R. Cuesta Fernández, Sociogénesis de Una Disciplina Escolar: La Historia (Pomares-Corredor, Barcelona, 1997) R. Cuesta Fernández, Clío En Las Aulas: La Enseñanza de La Historia En España Entre Reformas, Ilusiones y Rutinas (Akal, Madrid, 1998) I.M.S. Farias, J.O.C.B. Sales, M.S.L.M. França, Didática e docência: aprendendo a profissão. (Brasília,Liber,Livro,2009) M.L.P.B. Franco, Análise de Conteúdo. (Brasília,Líber,Livros,Editora,2005) T.M.F.B. Garcia, F.E. Nascimento, A Didática e os Manuais para Ensinar a Ensinar Física. (Study presented at Encontro Nacional de Educação–EDUCERE in Curitiba,2009)

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B.A. Gatti, M.M.R. Nunes, Formação de professores para o ensino fundamental: instituições formadoras e seus currículos; relatório de pesquisa. (São Paulo,Fundação Carlos Chagas/Fundação Vitor Civita,2008) B.A. Gatti, M.M.R. Nunes, (Eds.). Formação de professores para o ensino fundamental: estudo de currículos das licenciaturas em Pedagogia, Língua Português, Matemática e Ciências Biológicas. (São Paulo,Textos FCC,2009) R.C.C. Haydt, Curso de Didática Geral. (São Paulo,Ática,1994) L.C.F. Hegeto, A Didática Como Disciplina Escolar: Estudo a Partir Dos Manuais de Didática Geral (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, 2014) J.C. Libâneo, Didática. (São Paul,Cortez,1992) C. Lloyd, As Estruturas Da História (Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 1995) J.P. Martins, Didática Geral: fundamentos, planejamentos, metodologia, avaliação. (São Paulo, Atlas,1985) P.L.O. Martins, Didática Teórica. Didática Prática: Para Além Do Confronto (Loyola, São Paulo, 1989) C. Piletti, Didática Geral (Zahar, Rio de Janeiro, 1982) M.A.M.S. Schmidt Dos, Manuais de Didática da história destinados à formação de professores e a constituição do código disciplinar da história no Brasil: 1935–1952. História Franca 30(2), 126–143 (2011) V.B. Silva, Saberes em viagem nos manuais pedagógicos: construções da escola em Portugal e no Brasil (1870–1970). (Study presented at Reunião Anual da ANPED in Caxambu, Minas Gerais,2006) V.B. Silva, Os livros das normalistas: os manuais pedagógicos na história da formação dos professores no Brasil (1930–1971). Quaestio 10(1/2), 115–132 (2008) M.R. Tosi,.Didática Geral: um olhar para o futuro. (Campinas,SP: Alínea,1996) A.C. Urban, Didática Da História: Percursos de Um Código Disciplinar No Brasil e Na Espanha (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, 2009) I.P.A. Veiga, (Ed.). Lições de didática. (Campinas,São Paulo,Papirus,2006)

Manuals Aimed at Guiding Teachers in Teaching Physics for the Initial Grades of Elementary School Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia1(&) and Fernanda Esthenes Nascimento2 1

Programa de Pós Graduação em Educação/Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas/CNPq, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected] 2 Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This empirical study is part of a project developed by the Research Group on Didactic Publications of the Universidade Federal do Paraná, aimed at listing and analyzing didactics manuals produced in Brazil. The objective of the analyzed manuals is to guide teachers in teaching the specific contents of different school disciplines. They aimed to support teachers’ basic and continued education in learning how to teach. They can be understood as visible elements of the disciplinary code for the disciplines related to didactics and teaching methodologies, and could contribute to understanding how different ways of teaching and learning have spread throughout Brazilian school culture over time. From the beginning of the twentieth century, this type of pedagogical literature has informed school culture and it continues to be published until today, being sold in bookshops or as part of governmental programs for public school teachers. In this chapter, we present the results of a content analysis of two manuals for physics teaching in the initial grades of elementary school. The study showed that elements of the active school continue, particularly the view concerning the central tole of students during teaching and learning, as well as the concern for contextualizing content in relation to the students’ interests and lives. Keywords: Didactic manuals
Textbooks for teachers Physics
Early elementary education


Teachers’ guide


1 Introduction There are several lines of research on textbooks a significant number of researches is developing in Brazil. From the 1990s onward, the amount of research has increased, mostly due to the existence of the National Textbook Program (PNLD–Programa Nacional do Livro Didático), which was created by the Federal Government in 1985. Through this program, textbooks are assessed by experts and, when approved, are made available to teachers for selection and distributed for free to about 50 million primary and secondary school students. From a theoretical perspective, textbooks can be understood as a relevant artifact of school culture and a market product that moves millions of dollars per year, establishing © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 202–210, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_16

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rules for production, circulation, and consumption of books in the country. The publishers are provided with the criteria and specific requirements for presenting their books to the program experts for evaluation. All approved books are included in the official guideline made available for teachers and schools to select the textbooks from. Besides the PNLD, the Federal Government has also developed a special program with the aim of developing teachers’ libraries in schools. As a result of this initiative, over the last years, many books about teaching, didactics, and pedagogy have arrived in the public schools. Regarding research on textbooks, authors set different subject foci with an emphasis on literacy books, history, and natural sciences. Some researchers dedicate attention to textbooks for students, while others carry out research on teachers’ guides. The latter, called manuals aimed at teachers, are still poorly studied in Latin American countries (Guereña et al. 2005), including Brazil (Bufrem et al. 2006). One of the projects developed by the Research Group in Didactic Publications (NPPD/UFPR–Núcleo de Pesquisas em Publicações Didáticas/Universidade Federal do Paraná) is called Didactic manuals and the construction of didactics as a school discipline and is funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq–Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico). The project explores the interface of general didactics and subject education, i.e., history, science etc. The project involves researchers from different institutions and different school subjects, including masters and doctoral students. This chapter presents selected results based on an empirical study of teacher manuals for the subject physics. The systematic study of manuals used in teacher training is a valuable method for understanding the constitution of pedagogy as a scientific field, as well as for gauging the presence of educational sciences in the schools and universities where teachers are formed. Here, we are referring to publications which are serve the transmission of disciplines, such as history of education, psychology and sociology of education, and pedagogy, which usually constitute part of Brazilian teacher training curricula. According to Guereña et al. (2005), this type of material serves as centuries-spanning sample for research on the history of education in general, and on teacher professionalization in particular. Silva (2008) clarifies that these manuals are written for both teacher training students and in-service teachers. In her studies about pedagogical manuals, Silva (2008) affirms that the textbooks build a type of grammar of teaching, as they articulate the essential elements for understanding what it is to be a teacher and how to act in the classroom. These manuals are, therefore, elements of school and pedagogical culture that can be used as sources for understanding how certain teaching models were constructed. They also inform teachers about the discussions carried out by the great thinkers in the educational field and other related areas, playing a relevant role in the diffusion of new ideas about teaching and learning. The pedagogical manuals were responsible for the dissemination of discourses and authors from different countries and from the last century. As a result, the manuals contributed to the implementation of educational reforms and the promotion of change in the understanding of education and schooling. The manuals also established international references for Brazilian education, citing thinkers from countries such as France, the United States of America, and Germany, whose ideas became influential and were incorporated into different Brazilian educational theories.

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An essential aspect is that, among these pedagogical manuals, a specific set features orientations aimed at guiding teachers in their teaching activities. The authors of this chapter define them as didactics manuals, sensu strictu. Regarding their nature, they are methodological manuals, which, since the expansion of the public educational system, have been produced with a specific goal in mind: train teachers to teach. In Brazil, there are two types of didactics manuals. On the one hand, general didactics or general methodology books offer general orientations while, on the other hand, manuals developed for the specific school disciplines offer specific orientations to teach (called specific didactics). They are both organized in a didactical structure, containing practical references for lesson planning and development including elements as aims, criteria for selecting content, methodological strategies for teaching, as well as concepts and tools for organizing the assessment process. Textbooks aiming at teacher guidance have been produced in Brazil from since the early 1900s and are an element of school culture until today, comprising a significant portion of pedagogical literature. The editorial production increased intensely over the past decades, stimulated by the Teacher's Library Program of the Federal Government. The program acquires books for public schools, highlighting the nature of the book as a market product (Apple 1995). The study of both types of pedagogical manuals facilitates a better understanding of all school subjects covered in teacher training. There are currently few analytical studies focusing on the didactics manuals, and they constitute this chapter’s main theoretical background. Garcia (2007) studied general didactics manuals published in the 1970s, in the historical context of the military dictatorship (1964–84), a period in which the educational system follows a technicist pedagogy. These studies showed how the manuals suggested ways to teach, organize the classes based on instructional objectives, and control the learning process step by step. This approach can also be found in manuals produced during the following decade despite criticism from academia. Hegeto and Garcia (2012) and Hegeto (2014) highlight both continuity and change of the topics presented in general didactic manuals after 1980, with a focus on the new approaches suggested by the academic field following the end of the dictatorial period in 1984. More progressive voices strongly criticized the technicist approach and proposed a didactic concept, the critical historical pedagogy. The results also show that traditional didactical topics, such as planning and evaluation, carry on along with new elements, such as the political dimension of the pedagogical process, social exclusion, and citizen rights. More recently, manuals implemented the topics of multiculturalism and gender issues. In the field of history education, Schmidt (2004), Urban (2009), and Rodrigues Júnior (2010) explored the relationship between the manuals and the disciplinary code of history and history education. The conceptual tool of Cuesta Fernández (1998) served to understand the constituents of school disciplines in specific social contexts. The authors also analyzed the influence of psychology on the concepts of teaching and learning, as well as the necessity to include the history’s epistemological elements into the school subject.

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Rodrigues Júnior and Garcia (2015) mapped the history education manuals produced in Brazil after the educational reform of the 1990s. The results led to four sets of manuals based on their structure. However, the authors only defined one of these four sets of manuals as didactics manuals sensu strictu, as only these books discussed the planning and development of teaching in an articulated way. With these framework of earlier work carried out by NPPD/UFPR, this chapter focuses on the development of guidance manuals for physics teachers working with the initial grades of elementary school over time.

2 Methods and Sample Data collection and analysis followed four steps: (1) Preliminary identification of books (preliminary sampling); (2) Conclusion of the sampling process (final list of books listed in the sample); (3) Itemization of structural analytical categories; (4) Categorybased content analysis. The physical collection currently available at NPPD/UFPR contains didactic manuals published since 1850. The research group is currently developing a virtual database to provide further information related to books on general and specific didactics. Along with scanned (parts of) books belonging to the physical collection, the virtual database also features resources provided by other researchers. The first step focused on the identification of manuals giving orientations on how to teach physics. This process led to an extension of the physical collection as new books were purchased in bookstores. In order to define the documental corpus to be analyzed, we searched in each book for orientations for teachers concerning how to teach natural sciences and physics in the initial grades of elementary school. At this stage, both general didactics and natural science didactics manuals were considered. Initially, manuals regarding teaching methods and teaching practices were also considered, as long as they featured specific orientations for teachers. The second step consolidated the sample. The third phase enclosed the itemization of structural analytical categories based on the previous reading of the manuals and following the principles of Bardin (2011). Against the background of the theoretical references and the mission of the didactic manuals to guide teaching processes, we looked for didactic and methodological elements presented in the manuals. Finally, the fourth step consisted of the category-based content analysis. Essentially, we aimed to identify didactic elements expressed in three categories: (1) teaching objectives in physics for the initial grades of elementary school; (2) content or topics suggested or selected by the authors; (3) methodological strategies suggested for teaching. The sample used for this chapter consists of two manuals from different historical periods. Manual A, published by João Toledo (1930), carries the title “Didactics (In Elementary Schools)”. It is the first Brazilian manual that carries the concept didactics in its title and consists of two parts. While the first parts introduces topics of general didactics, the second part is a methodological guide that contains orientations for teaching different subjects. The author taught the initial grades of elementary school

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and his manual includes some recommendations concerning the way physics should be taught to children. The second sample item, Manual B, is titled “Science in Elementary Schools–Physics Knowledge”, was authored by Carvalho et al. (1998), and entered the market during the last major Brazilian educational reform. The group of authors linked to the University of São Paulo developed the manual on the grounds of extensive research on how to teach natural sciences to young learners (aged 7–10).

3 Results The presentation of results follows the three categories defined within the third step. Regarding the objectives of teaching physics–the first category–Table 1 synthesizes the authors’ opinion on the knowledge prescribed in the primary school curriculum. Table 1. Objectives of teaching physics in the reading of the manual authors (source: authors). Manual A Teach “things through which children can find themselves” Not only teach to observe, but also to compare

Manual B “Teach things which the children can associate with their lives” Stimulate students to act upon the physical objects, experimenting, and assessing the results

Despite the considerable difference in time, both manuals point out the necessity to link learning processes and children's daily life. Another objective emphasizes an active approach in the learning process that was strongly represented in Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s, and which gained new strength through the discussions of Piaget’s work. The arguments the authors display in relation to the content and topics to be taught in school physics, are featured in Table 2. Table 2. Suggested content for physics in the early years of primary education (source: authors). Manual A There is no reference to mandatory national programs Must have references to students’ lives and interests Suggests a few topics in a general way The contents are focused on natural phenomena

Manual B Uses the 1996 national curricular guidelines as reference Must be present in the children’s everyday lives Suggests a large number of contents in a more clear and precise manner The contents include topics related to mechanics, hydrostatics and wave motion

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The comparison showed that time has transformed the content (second criterion) in two major ways. First, Manual A was published at a time where Brazil had no national curriculum. In contrast, the production of Manual B happened in a reformed educational context, namely the development of the National Curricular Parameters during the 1990s by the Federal Government elaborated(in the 1990’s). This official curricular document aimed to guide the pedagogical projects of public schools. The second major way the content experienced alteration over the decades refers to its clarity. Compared to Manual A, the content of Manual B is much more clear and specific. The few topics covered in Manual A are very generic. They appear in a category identified as “Common Notions” and were all related to certain “[…] natural phenomena and social facts that occur in the environment” (Toledo 1930, p. 61). In contrast, Manual B makes suggestions on how to teach mechanics and hydrostatics, for example, making evident that physics is an independent school subject in the curriculum. The third criterion focused on methodological strategies suggested for physics in the early years of primary education. Table 3 summarizes the main finding. Table 3. Suggested methodologies and strategies for physics (source: authors). Manual A The inductive-deductive method The need to be thoughtful regarding the choice of topics according to students’ interest The principles of the active school, based on psychology

Manual B The need to elaborate and expose problems The need to use methods that make teaching more joyful and useful The principles of constructivism, based on psychology

As already pointed out, the principles of the active school emphasized the centrality of children’s interests and curiosity for the process of teaching and learning. Until the 1940s, the work of Dewey, Fröbel, Decroly, and Claparède had a strong influence on the pedagogical literature published in Brazil (Nagle 2009). The results of this study help reveal how the didactics manuals appropriated their ideas. While contributions made by psychologists altered the principles, students remain at the heart of the teaching and learning process. Our results prove their continuance in the didactic manuals published in Brazil throughout the twentieth century. Despite the considerable time difference in their publication, the two analyzed manuals display a certain continuity. First, both manuals warn teachers that, during the early years, students require a stronger emphasis on the construction of conceptual connections in the knowledge of science instead of subject-specific content. Second, both manuals advise caution regarding content selection against the background of students’ interests. While Manual A introduces the intuitive method, social constructivism takes its place in Manual B. Nonetheless, both approaches are of psychological nature. Thord, both manuals recommend strategies and procedures that include elements of the scientific method (e.g., observation). Regarding teaching strategies, Manual A links back to Pestalozzi and prioritizes observation as the preferred way to

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learn linked to the intuitive method. Manual B complements observation with problemsolving and experiments. This change is a result of the pedagogical discussions carried out in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly based on the constructivist approaches, including contributions from Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s work.

4 Discussion The empirical study contributed to a better understanding of certain issues related to the didactic manuals produced for guidance in teaching. First, the results showed how a specific methodology for teaching physics emerged in the twentieth century under the influence of psychology. Published at the beginning of the twentieth century, Manual A contains elements explicitly presented by the author to guide teaching that are based on psychological concepts. Along with the sample of this study, several other manuals also display a strong reliance on psychological concepts. In Brazil, this finding revives the discussion of the relationship between specific didactics and educational science. According to Nagle (2009, p. 291), during the early twentieth century, “[…] the authors were valorized because they had intellectual instruments for transforming the school learning process into a ‘scientific matter’”. They introduced the scientific mentality into the Brazilian pedagogical literature and followed, in the reading of Nagle (2009), the fashion of tightly linking education with psychology. Our results show the consistency of this link even six decades later, as exhibited by Manual B. Psychology represents the grounds for aims, content, and methodological strategies. However, the authors refer explicitly to constructivism as the main reference for understanding how the students think and for guiding the teaching and learning process. The second contribution of the empirical study, which is related to the first, opens the discussion towards the origin of certain orientations and suggestions presented in the manuals in the scientific disciplines corresponding to the school subjects. Is there an epistemology giving support to the suggested methodological procedures or are the orientations based on general didactic recommendations and psychological knowledge? In the case of history and history education, Schmidt (2004), Urban (2008), and Rodrigues Júnior (2010) stimulated debates concerning the role that specific epistemologies play in the definitions of content and methodologies for teaching and learning in each school discipline. While epistemologies may play a different role in each individual subject, the results of this study show that manuals contained explicit recommendations concerning the use of elements of the scientific method to teach physics (cf. Table 1). The analysis also brought evidence that, over the last century in general and during the last three decades in particular, a disciplinary code of physics didactics is being built in Brazil through an emancipatory movement in which the knowledge of physics leaves the natural science didactics and gradually becomes independent. Aims, content and methodologies are proposed for guiding the teacher in their teaching, and these elements constitute a specific disciplinary code (Cuesta Fernández 1998). The manuals analyzed in this study capture particular moments of this process.

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5 Concluding Thoughts This chapter focused on the development of guidance manuals for physics teachers working with the initial grades of elementary school over time. Along with selected results, it also pointed out the necessity to develop collections of sources of research in the history of education. The research performed allowed us to draw two general conclusions. On the one hand, it seems important to work on the conceptual revision of textbooks, seeking also to define the characteristics of manuals to help teachers as a specific type of didactical material (Garcia 2014). On the other hand, the value of manuals in understanding the construction of the disciplinary code of general and specific didactics must be acknowledged. While our results offered an insight into the subject area of physics, future work should consider other manuals written for other subject. The NPPD/UNFP is already working to identify other constitutive elements of this process.

References M.W. Apple, Trabalho docente e textos: economia política das relações de classe e de gênero em educação (Artes Médicas, Porto Alegre, 1995) L. Bardin, Análise de conteúdo (Edições 70, São Paulo, 2011) L.S. Bufrem, M.A. Schmidt, T.M.F. Garcia, Os manuais destinados a professores como fontes para a história das formas de ensinar. HISTEDBR On-line 22, 120–130 (2006) A. Carvalho, A. Vannucchi, M. Barros, M. Gonçalves, R. Rey, Ciências no Ensino Fundamental – O Conhecimento Físico (Editora Scipione, São Paulo, 1998) R. Cuesta Fernández, Clio En Las Áulas: La Enseñanza de La Historia En España Entre Reformas, Ilusiones y Rutinas (Akal, Madrid, 1998) T.M.F. Garcia, Esquemas de trabalho para o domínio dos conhecimentos: módulos instrucionais de Didática Geral para formar professores na década de 1980, in Contactos, cruces y luchas en la historia de la educación latinoamericana, ed. by A. Ascolari (Sociedad Argentina de Historia de la Educación, Buenos Aires, 2007), pp. 1–23 T.M.F.B. Garcia, F.E. Nascimento, A Didática e os manuais para ensinar a ensinar Física, in: X Conferencia Interamericana de Educación en Fisica, ed. by S. Concari (Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, 2009), pp. 1–10 T.M.F. Garcia, Manuais didáticos e escolarização. Disciplina ministrada no Programa de Pósgraduação em Educação (PPGE/UFPR, Curitiba, 2014) J.L. Guereña, G. Ossenbach, M.M. Pozo (eds.), Manuales Escolares En España, Portugal y América Latina (Siglos XIX y XX) (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, 2005) L. Hegeto, A didática como disciplina escolar: estudo a partir dos manuais de Didática Geral (PPGE/UFPR, Curitiba, 2014) L.C. Hegeto, T.M.F. Garcia, Relações entre currículos de formação de professores e a disciplina de Didática Geral: perspectivas de análise a partir de manuais didáticos, in:Desafios contemporâneos no campo do currículo, ed. by L. Santos, R. Vilela, M. Paraíso, S. Sales, A. Favacho, J. Morgado (UFMG, Belo Horizonte, 2012), pp. 1–14 J. Nagle, Educação e Sociedade na Primeira República (EDUSP, São Paulo, 2009) O. Rodrigues Júnior, Os Manuais de Didática Da História e a Constituição de Uma Epistemologia Da Didática Da História (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, 2010)

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O. Rodrigues Júnior, T.M.F. Garcia, Manuais de Didática de História: diálogos entre a formação pretendida pelos autores e as concepções no campo do ensino da História (2015), http://www. snh2015.anpuh.org/resources/anais/39/1434421192_ARQUIVO_Textocompleto.pdf M.A. Schmidt, História com pedagogia: a contribuição da obra de Jonathas Serrano na construção do código disciplinar da História no Brasil. Revista Brasileira de História São Paulo 48, 189–219 (2004) V.B. Silva, Os livros das normalistas: os manuais pedagógicos na história da formação dos professores no Brasil (1930–1971). Quaestio Sorocaba SP 10(1–2), 115–132 (2008) J. Toledo, Didáctica (nas escolas primárias) (Livraria Liberdade, São Paulo, 1930) A.C. Urban, Didática Da História: Percursos de Um Código Disciplinar No Brasil e Na Espanha (Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, 2009)

The Teaching of Botany in Portugal: An Analysis of Primary School Textbooks (1900–2000) Fernando Guimarães(&) University of Minho, Braga, Portugal [email protected]

Abstract. The research presented in this chapter aimed at understanding the place of botany within primary school science textbooks used in Portugal over the last century. The study follows a qualitative methodological approach, supported by content analysis and the establishment of a posteriori categories, as well as cluster analysis through the construction of dendograms. The comparison of textbooks took into account pedagogical and didactical orientations, educational and curricular policy recommendations, and the educational and scientific values suggested. Textbooks are of great importance to schools and teaching, with important pedagogical functions, especially in relation to their structural arrangement of the forms and content of pedagogical knowledge, including aspects related to the sequencing and rhythm of knowledge transmission through, for instance, activities that promote and evaluate the forms of knowledge acquired. Textbooks, therefore, can allow access to knowledge about the pedagogical ideology on which they are based, how teaching and learning in the classroom is understood, and how students’ and teachers’ roles are developed. Data analysis showed that changes have occurred in the naming of the teaching of the science and in the organization of the contents. Therefore, one may find various botanical content distributed throughout different botanical dimensions. Keywords: Textbooks Science education


Teaching botany
Primary education
Portugal


1 Introduction Botanical school knowledge at the primary level in Portugal in the twentieth century witnessed a process of reorganization within the natural sciences. With the development of various perspectives on the scientific knowledge of biological classifications (namely, botany and systematics, including nomenclature and classification, the history of several classification systems, and taxonomic schools, as well as kingdoms of living beings, according to many authors, such as Stafleu and Cowan 1979; Cronquist 1981; Radford 1986; Joly 1987; Panchen 1992; APG 2003; Santos 2006; Guimarães and Santos 2011), many gaps arose in the Portuguese teaching system. Various governments attempted to address these weaknesses by means of legislation, with new content in the basic education natural sciences curriculum. The teaching of botany gradually © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 211–226, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_17

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became more complex, with curricular and didactic changes that accentuated dimensional metamorphoses from the so-called natural sciences to geographical-natural sciences, the physical and social environment, and environmental studies. We analyzed this complex process of reorganization of knowledge through historical and educational developments that reflected significant environmental and political changes, new practices, and a curricular debate that has been felt in different national and international forums. This scientific approach to the natural sciences, which values the problematization and conceptual role of botany teaching, has also to consider the approaches that prevail in studies of children and the theoretical confrontations that mark them (Santos 2009). Therefore, it is necessary to place this chapter in the framework of major approaches in educational sciences, while attempting to avoid pro-militant proclamations (Almeida 1991). Thus, this work adopts an interpretative and critical perspective of educational processes by focusing on representations within school textbooks. School textbooks are important to schools in shaping the form and content of pedagogical knowledge, integrating aspects related to the sequence and rhythm of their transmission through, for example, the activities they propose and the ways of evaluating learning outcomes; that is to say, they play important pedagogical and didactic functions (Molina 1987; Fracalanza and Megid-Neto 2003). With this perspective, textbooks may allow access to the underlying pedagogical and curricular ideology, an understanding of how teaching and learning takes place in the classroom, and the roles of students and teachers. Our research intends to update a way of understanding the disciplinary domain in which it is inscribed–that is, botany–and which is one of the main domains of environmental studies. In fact, the study of curricular texts and textbooks–in short, the analysis of both the theory and practice of natural science teaching–places botany as a fundamental structural component, in its intention and extension, and as one of the subjects that most consistently and systematically define such curricular content, i.e. botany.

2 School Knowledge, Curricula and Textbooks Investigating school knowledge along with textbook analysis indicates that the exploration of botany content in science education over the last century in Portugal requires the consideration of the nature of educational and curricular policies as well as methods and processes of teaching and learning. School knowledge emerges within a framework of interests, emphases, transmission ways, complexity of analyses, and articulation of contents and practice of school textbook usage (Santos 2000). Such knowledge results from an interplay of ways of learning prescribed in normative proposals and the process of learning more tacit sets of rules, values, and practices immersed within school cultures (Lacasa 1994). When thinking about botany teaching, earlier results in science education revealed that disciplinary subdivisions end up establishing fewer differences than general guidelines (Kinoshita et al. 2006). Nature science comprises an area of education that requires the participation of several disciplines, among them botany. According to

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Chervel (1988), the concept of school discipline began by associating itself with establishment policies, more specifically the repression of behaviors that are harmful to good order, being enunciated of objects, branches, parts or even teaching materials for different orders of teaching. Later, the word discipline emerged as synonymous with intellectual exercising, development of reason, and expression. It is, then, in the perspective of “[…] disciplining the spirit, giving it rules and methods to approach the different domains of thought, knowledge and art, that the term discipline takes a definitive position” (Carvalho and Freitas 2010, p. 9). Currently, discipline is understood as a specific domain or area that is an object delimited in the process of teaching and learning. However, the nature of school subjects, such as school botany, is still to be defined and is, according to Develay (1999), essentially due to the exponential evolution of scientific knowledge that makes some previous knowledge obsolete. According to Tardif (2004), the knowledge required for teaching comes from a variety of sources, such as curricular and didactic materials, also including, among other things, disciplinary knowledge (such as botany) and curricular knowledge (e.g., knowledge about textbooks, teaching documents, and official documents that guide school curricula). The consistency of a disciplinary area can be measured, amongst other aspects, by considering the degree of delimitation of its object(s) and tasks, the constitution of significant nuclei of research about specific topics, the level of relationship definitions with other disciplines, and the existence of a scientific community that recognizes its identity. In our reading, such conditions remain, due to their relevance, valid for environmental studies in general and botany in particular. Several decisions of the Portuguese Ministry of Science and Higher Education, such as the funding of the Primary Teacher Education Program in experimental teaching of nature science at universities, the increase of research and teaching projects, scientific meetings, publications etc., prove the existence of such a process of constitution. The inventory of signs that indicate a disciplinary room experiencing tension and pressure begins by recognizing fluctuations in the very designations adopted by environmental studies as a disciplinary space within nature science. It is (or perhaps not) a manifestation of agreements that are not completely coincident with their scope and objectives. Divergent options about the organizational insertion should be placed: the integration of environmental studies in different systems (there have been changes in the education system in the last century in Portugal), and the process of creation and development of conceiving curricular contents with the presupposition of different relationships with other domains of knowledge (Guimarães 2014). School textbooks are an important pedagogical, cultural, and ideological tools that contribute to the transmission and consolidation of skills, thus, assuming a crucial role in the learning of content and working methods (Cavadas and Guimarães 2012). As a result, a complex analysis of textbooks could contribute considerably to understanding school knowledge on botany and all educational processes tied to its teaching and learning. Morgado (2004, p. 25) underlines the decisive role textbooks play in the transmission of scientific knowledge:

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Textbooks have been playing an important role in organizing and delivering teaching-learning processes, being able to survive different educational and curricular policies, in very different cultural contexts.

Different approaches dominate the process of teaching and learning at different times. Textbook analysis can contribute to highlight the correspondence between their features and the approaches shaping teaching and learning at a given time. It also serves to diagnose the impact of a dominant approach at a given moment on more or less specialized means of dissemination and, with them, the image of the scientific area presented to society. Magalhães (1999, p. 285) also argues that the study of school textbooks is a way of collecting information about a certain period of time and characterize policies and educational models, as textbooks [are] objects of culture, [they] represent and contain cultural options more or less explicit, more or less assumed and as such, value and prescribe as truth and as knowledge certain kinds of knowledge, but silence, neglect, and marginalize many other kinds of knowledge.

According to this perspective, textbooks hold a criterion of truth, even though they conceal other kinds of knowledge considered uncomfortable or less relevant for the development of science in a particular socio-educational context. An extraordinarily fruitful field of inquiry is, in our view, the way we look at textbooks on cultural representations–scientific, material, axiological, and know-how–as well as on the visions of the world and educational goals that structure them. By doing so, textbooks can be analyzed not only from a cultural, but also from a pedagogical and didactic perspective (Guimarães 2015). Magalhães (1999) delimits three major directions of the history of school textbooks, to which distinct disciplinary perspectives correspond. One of the more recent lines of research involves the internal history of education. This field of analysis that studies the inner part of educational institutions seeking to find the meaning of activities that occur in them, essentially privileges the curriculum history. An approach to the curriculum history infers the study of tools with which a national curriculum is settled at a certain historical moment. These tools include study plans, programs, tests, and textbooks. Their study is extremely relevant for the reconstitution of the curriculum history, because the whole textbook is historically and geographically delimited, being the product of a social group and a specific period of time (Sacristán 2000). This chapter follows the definition of textbooks proposed by Magalhães (2006, p. 6): textbooks are differentiated didactic and pedagogical sources to structure school cultures, “[…] whose production corresponds to a complex configuration involving text, shape and speech, [being] a combination of knowledge/skills/(in)formation”. A differentiated view of curricula (prescribed, taught, and learned) enables to fully understand their relationship with textbooks. The prescribed curriculum is defined by the program, the taught curriculum is “[…] the one that is used in practice by teachers, while curricular materials are reflected in school textbooks and other sources” (Del Cármen and Jiménez Aleixandre 1997, p. 9). In textbooks, the taught curriculum sometimes gets away from the prescribed curriculum, as it lacks content aiming at developing attitudes and values. Lastly, the so-called learned curriculum is the one absorbed by students throughout their learning time; thus, it is different from student to student. Therefore, if

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the distance between the taught and the learned curriculum can be considerable, the learned and prescribed curricula can be even further apart (Wortmann 2003). In light the typology presented above, there is a difference between the defined curriculum in a program and the one in a school textbook: while the former is a prescribed curriculum, the latter is merely a suggested curriculum, i.e. one possible version of the first. This comes from the subjective interpretation of textbook author(s), normally, a teacher or a small group of teachers who rebuild the meaning of prescribed curricula. Consequently, as argued by Cavadas (2008), teachers and students are limited to and dependent on the perspective of textbook authors, because most of the curricular decisions have already been made in the selection and sequence of contents and activities, as well as how they will be worked in the classroom (Vilani 1991). This leads to a significant reduction in the autonomy of the educational agent who teaches, who often uses the textbook exclusively to prepare and deliver her/his classes, despite constraints on the students’ perspective, whose learning is strongly delimited by the contents filtered by the subjective vision of the textbook authors. Thus, according to Cabral (2005), school textbooks are key instruments for questioning pedagogical and didactic strategies, inherent to the presentation of curricular contents. Therefore, the retrospective study of textbooks is a great way to illuminate the evolution of educational contexts, as they reflected the interpretations of curricula and past pedagogical practices. This chapter rests on the concept of curriculum as “[…] a particular selection of culture, which is organized in or to schools” (Santos and Sicca 2007, p. 86). By following different theoretical and methodological orientations, quite often school textbooks are considered fundamental parts of the teaching and learning process, which plays a decisive role in the transmission of recent scientific knowledge. It is equally important that school textbooks turn scientific discourse into an understandable, didactic speech for students, as schools should do as well. It is also important that school textbooks comply with certain recommendations, such as featuring a didactic discourse stimulating students’ curiosity, their spirit of discovery, and the analysis of life situations, rather than teach them to passively receive knowledge. Therefore, in the conception of a school textbook, we understand that attention should be paid not only to the scientific-didactic language, but also to the pedagogical model it implements (Santos 2000).

3 Research Objectives This chapter describes the results of a textbooks analysis in the field of nature science. It follows a diachronic approach (Alfonso-Goldfarb 1994), uses botany as case study, and starts from a set of hypotheses. Firstly, throughout the twentieth century, the teaching of nature science underwent an evolution in structure, contents, and teaching methods. However, traditional teaching remains under the influence of concepts, such as the Lessons of Things (Melcón Beltrán 2000; Gómez Rodríguez et al. 2003). The overall change in the teaching of nature science carries–to a different degree–the marks of the overall progress in science and new approaches in educational sciences. Secondly, textbooks are important tools in the development of teachers’ professional practice (Tormenta 1996). They offer insight into the ways nature science was

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approached over the course of the twentieth century in primary education. Thus, they constitute a relevant documentary corpus for the analysis of content and pedagogical methods implemented by teachers. In addition, they also serve to understand what is reflected in educational policies, reforms, and changes in implemented curricular amendments (Allchin 2013; Allchin 2014; Lederman 2007). The analysis of school textbooks, in essence, allows deconstructing the teaching of nature science and reconstructing what was considered to be the king of teaching nature science since the beginning of the twentieth century: botany. In addition, it also facilities the understanding of how several botanical concepts evolved in time. Third, a number of studies document the significant role that textbooks play in the life of teachers and students (Proença 2000; Colon Cañellas 2003). Furthermore, one of the main factors that condition the use of textbooks is content (Lajolo 1996; Schlichting et al. 2007). In consequence, this chapter follows three objectives. Firstly, it pursues to contribute to a better understanding of botanical concepts found in primary level Portuguese textbooks published over the course of the twentieth century. Secondly, it aims at interpreting the evolution of botanical concepts, contents, and methodological approaches found in these textbooks. Thirdly, it analyzes the way the factors described above influenced and still influence the teaching of nature science (Guimarães 2010).

4 Methods and Sample 4.1

Sample

Based on their denomination, the 194 nature science textbooks published between 1900 and 2000 that constituted the initial sample, were divided into five main groups: nature science, geographical-natural sciences, physical and social sciences, and environmental studies. Most of these textbooks contained information on authors’ names, edition numbers, publishers, official approval, curricular suitability, level of education, and grade. Information on publication date, however, remained lacunar. The final sample comprised textbooks for nature science at primary level. From the original sample, 25 books (published between 1903 and 1998, namely in 1903, 1907, 1910, 1914, 1916, 1920, 1922, 1925, 1928, 1930, 1933, 1942, 1950, 1960, 1968, 1974, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998) remained in the final sample. These textbooks featured content on botany. The remaining textbooks remained unconsidered, as information on their publication date and/or status of official approval was missing. Two important criteria followed during sampling targeted historical aspects. On the one hand, the sampling process considered different typologies (i.e., nature science, geographical-natural sciences, etc.) for nature science textbooks throughout the twentieth century in Portugal. This led to the selection of textbook from the areas of Sciências/Ciências Naturais (nature science), Ciências GeográficoNaturais (geographical-natural sciences), Meio Físico e Social (physical and social sciences), and Estudo do Meio (environmental studies). On the other hand, qualitative and quantitative criteria ensured the selection of textbooks that represented a significant contribution to the historical period of reference. Thereby, publication date and the degree to which textbooks relied on programmatic texts played a central role.

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Methods

The analytical approach underlying this study dissociates itself from Kuhn’s (1970, p. viii) view on “[…] universally accepted scientific acquisitions that provide problem solving models” constituting a unitary and coherent system of theory production, methods, and means of data definition in a certain domain. Instead, it follows the approach established by Guba and Lincoln (1994, p. 107), which “[…] defines the nature of the ‘world’ for the individual, the place that he occupies in it, and the range of possible relations that he establishes with this world”. It also expresses a form of research related to a “framework of meaning” (Giddens 1996, p. 162). A historical approach to botany (Sano 2004) and the teaching of nature science that did not conform to excessive disciplinary reductionism, remained open to interdisciplinary settings, and considered historical, sociological, physiological, psychological, social, and contextual variables of the educational process in the broadest possible reading. The study described in this chapter comprises a complex analytical work that results from a “[…] theoretically oriented empirical research” (Costa 1999, p. 7; Lüdke and André 1986; Sacristán 2000). The analysis of botany’s place in Portuguese primary school textbooks during the twentieth century rests on a document analysis (Lüdke and André 1986). During the analytical phase, interdependent relationships between theoretical aspects and empirical evidence were established causing both a constant counterpoint-created situation and mutual reinforcement. The method of document analysis is adequate to collect printed data that is no longer subjected to human memory. Nevertheless, printed data may reveal selective information, thus tendentious in nature, as documents often contain merely information chose to be registered as opposed to inconvenient aspects left out (Bell et al. 1984). Essentially, the research presented in this chapter follows interpretative approaches on study object analyses–it does not follow the sequence that goes from theory to hypotheses, followed by data collection, evaluation and conclusions drawn based on hypothesis testing that originated from the general theory. Interpretative research bears a constant two-way flow between theory and data collection, there is no rigid set of predetermined steps, as “[…] such process is an idealized model; i.e., it is too perfect to be true” (Giordan 1999, p. 49). Thus, the research focuses on educational processes, working systematically with complex data, and emphasizing precisely this complexity of the educational reality. Data analysis became an essential issue for the work presented here, as it was important to find evidence that would make it description and interpretation possible. The analysis framework, assumptions, objectives, and the object of study of our research required to gather information from the textbooks to elaborate suitable instruments for development, analysis, and treatment. Consequently, content analysis along with cluster analysis served as methodological tools. Content analysis (Bardin 1988) served to perform a critical analysis of the primary sources. According to Vala (1999, p. 104), content analysis enables the researcher to trace.

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Inferences about the source, the situation in which it produced the material to be analyzed, or even, sometimes, the recipient or recipients of the messages. The purpose of the content analysis will, therefore, infer, based on an explicit logic, the messages whose characteristics have been inventoried and systematized.

Thus, content analysis is a suitable method to analyze documents, programmatic texts, and textbooks. Lessard-Hébert et al. (1994) argue that content analysis allows the collection of information about facts, attributes, behaviors or trends using both private and official sources. The study presented in this chapter considered textbooks to be official sources. Content analysis involves relatively complex procedures consisting of several phases (Almeida and Pinto 1986, pp. 104–105), which enables to map different characteristics of botany in primary textbooks published in Portugal over the course of the twentieth century. Procedures used may privilege a particular aspect of the analysis, such as the meaning of communication (enunciation), the meaning of concepts in a given context (connotation analysis), the decomposition of a text into lexical units (lexicological analysis), and the classification of a text into categories (categorical analysis) in order to produce inferences from the textbooks seen as a symbolic phenomenon (Krippendorff 1980; Bardin 1988). The most important part, however, is the content of the categories presented in textbooks. According to Lajolo (1996, p. 43), textbooks determine contents and strategies, and, thus, favor “[…] a decisive way of what is taught, and how it is taught”. For Vieira et al. (2005), formal classes are generally based on curricular contents offered in school textbooks. As a result, the analysis of the 25 Portuguese primary textbooks rested on the following eleven principles: shape, kingdoms, classification, organs, stem, root, leaf, flower, fruit, and dimensions. Four levels (L1–L4) coded the diversity of information within the sample. Furthermore, three types of categories supported the analysis: (1) macro-categories entailed the nominal identification of the category; (2) meso-categories contained the distribution of aspects within the nominal identification; and, (3) micro-categories described the specifying aspects of mesocategories. The relationship between the principles and levels of analysis, as introduced in Table 1, reflects the diversity of collected information. The number of levels offers little information on the quality of principles, but instead showcase the specification and specificity of information. Therefore, the analytical categories rest on the principles of evaluation, as a concept that allows naming a reality present in the textbooks. The analytical phase, as suggested by Maroy (1997), focused on the content. Cluster analysis served to explore the correlation of data, the similarity patterns, thus allowing us to infer useful information. The sample contained all analytical categories, thus, only the a posteriori categories were considered. The analysis of the principle shape rested on twelve L1 categories. The number of categories reflects the importance attributed to the sample, and the selection translates reasons, objectives, presumptions, and interests of the research presented in this chapter. Textbook analysis regarding shape rested on the following categories: title, educational level, grade, publication date, correspondence between the textbook and the curriculum, edition, presentation of the textbook, program, planning, summary, images, and activities.

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Table 1. Relationship between the principles of assessment and the levels of analysis (source: author). Principle Shape Kingdom Classification Organs Root Stem Leaf Flower Fruit Reproduction Dimensions

Levels L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2 L1 L2

L3 L3 L3 L4 L3 L3 L3 L4 L3 L3 L4 L3

Botany dimensions exhibited a correspondence relationship with two importance levels in analysis categories. One has to read such classification as follows: four dimensions were distributed by analysis categories at L1 (notion, morphological, functional, and ecological dimension). Regarding the notion dimension, we analyzed aspects related to distinction (L2), number (L2), constitution (L2), and definition (L2). Concerning the morphological dimension, the analysis specified anatomy (L2), description (L2), and function (L2). Utilization, application, and contribution were L2 analysis categories inserted into the functional dimension. At last, three L2 categories– protection, conservation, and pollution–were analyzed within the ecological dimension.

5 Results The following sub-sections explain the analysis in relation to the categories of shape and dimensions. 5.1

Similarity of Textbooks Regarding Shape

Cluster analysis evidenced four shape features in textbooks published between 1900 and 2000 (Fig. 1). Thereby, particular cases were found in the textbooks published in 1925 (first cluster), 1989, and 1990 (with position change in clusters four and five). Textbooks published in Portugal during the first two decades of the twentieth century are similar in shape and carry the same name (Sciências Naturais, i.e., nature science). Students using these primary level textbooks studied in mixed classrooms spanning several or all grades of primary education. Regarding visualization, images were missing from the early textbooks with the exception of the book published in 1910

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featuring images at the bottom of the text. All textbooks provided readers with didactic activities that promoted memorization, featured questions, and required text summarization activities. Textbooks published during the 1930s exhibit similar features regarding shape. Most textbook carried the title Sciências Naturais, although a textbook published in 1933 was titled Ciências Naturais (nature science). Primary education during the 1930s shifted towards separate classrooms according to the grade. Images occupied far smaller space as compared to continuous text. None of the textbooks contained proposed didactic activities.

Fig. 1. Dendrogram exhibiting the principle shape (source: author).

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Portuguese primary textbooks published between the 1940s and 1970s display several similarities concerning their shape. Most differences arose as a result of the naming process resulting in titles, such as Ciências Naturais (nature science) and Ciências Geográfico-Naturais (natural-geographical sciences). Teaching primary school students in classrooms divided according to grade continued to be the standard. Textbooks contained colored images that occupied at least as much space as continuous text elements. Didactic activities included in the textbooks aimed at memorization and experimentation. The shape of textbooks published during the 1980s is similar and they carried the title Meio Físico e Social (social and physical environment). There was no change regarding the organization of education according to grades in separate classrooms. Colored images generally required as much space as continuous text, with the exception of a textbook published in 1989 exhibiting a higher proportion of images. Didactic activities aimed at memorization, experimentation, research, banner production, and herbarium development. Portuguese primary textbooks published during the 1990s showed a similar shape and were named Estudo do Meio (environmental studies). Primary education belonged to basic education, classroom activities were organized in grades. The amount of images exceeded that of continuous text elements. Memorization, experimentation, research, banner production, herbarium development, as well as group and field work constituted the didactic activities featured in the textbooks. 5.2

Similarity of Textbooks Regarding Dimensions

Five clusters contained the dimensions feature (Fig. 2). Thereby, the first cluster contained a textbook from 1925 and another one from 1990. Thus, both textbooks exhibited different features as their respective counterparts published during the 1920s and 1990s respectively. Textbooks from the first two decades of the twentieth century, along with those from 1925 to 1990, were similar as they presented a botany teaching approach focused on the notion dimension. Portuguese textbooks from the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1900s and 1980s were similar presenting an approach of botany teaching focused on the notion of functional (1968 and 1995) and ecological dimension (1995). Other textbooks published towards the end of the 1980s and in 1998 presented an approach of botany teaching focused on the morphological (1989), functional and ecological dimension (1998). Textbooks from the 1920s (with the exception of the 1925 textbook), 1940s, 1950s, early 1960s, as well as from 1974, 1984, and 1997 contained an approach of botany teaching focused–other than the 1974 textbook–on the morphological, functional, and ecological dimension (1984). Notion and morphological dimensions represented the approach to teach botany in Portuguese nature science textbooks published in the 1930s and in 1996.

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Fig. 2. Dendrogram exhibiting the principle dimensions (source: author).

6 Discussion The teaching of botany in Portugal over the last century exhibits a number of tensions. First, there is a certain fluctuation concerning the denomination of the school subject that carried botany as content. These encompass environmental studies and nature science– latter with different denominations, such as nature science (1921), natural-geographical sciences (1929), social and physical environment (1960) to environmental studies (1986). Changes in the denomination display a progressive transition from a disciplinary approach (nature science, 1921) towards strategies of disciplinary annexing (e.g., nature science and geography in 1929) and a culmination in an environment approach in subjects, such as physical environment (1960) and environmental studies (1986). During this process, a transition from a disciplinary approach to a contextualized

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approach, with different conceptions of the environment, from a pre-analytical syncretism to a post-analytical, systemic view (Drouin and Astolfi 1986) takes places. Along these lines, the specific context is the environment–initially the social and physical environment and, later, the environmental studies. The results concerning the relationships of similarity between textbooks, the principles of appreciation shape and dimensions, and the analyzed time period highlight both how approaches of teaching botany changed and how new ones emerged (referred to as dimensions in this chapter). In addition, they uncover which dimensions of botany teaching authors implemented when writing school textbooks. Regarding new dimensions of botany teaching, the results proved its existence throughout the twentieth century (except for the textbooks published in 1974, 1986, 1989, and 1998). The morphological dimension emerged in textbooks as early as 1920 and reappeared in editions from 1925, 1968, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1995, and 1998. In similar manner, the functional dimension arose in textbooks during the 1920s and lived on throughout the twentieth century–with the exception of 1925, the 1930s, and 1980s (except for 1984), 1990, and 1996. The ecological dimension appeared in textbooks during the 1980s (in 1982) and persisted, with the exception of the editions 1990, 1996, and 1997, until today. Concerning the inclusion of different dimensions of botany teaching in textbooks, the results showed that books published between 1900 and 1920 and in 1990 (seven decades later) only considered the notion dimension. Three textbooks published in 1930, 1933, and 1996 added to the notion dimension the morphological, while the book printed in 1968 the functional dimension of botany teaching. The ecological dimension only appeared in the textbook published in 1982. Finally, the 1998 textbook presented the functional and ecological dimensions of botany teaching. Over the course of the twentieth century, Portuguese nature science for the primary level underwent significant curricular change consisting of a broadening of content and an opening towards active student learning. Textbooks aimed to promote teaching methods based on the reproduction of knowledge and competencies. Given the importance of textbooks for the promotion of a written culture in the twentieth century, textbooks served as grounds of an important pedagogical work by contributing to a cultural and social adaptation–despite limited contributions to intervention and reflection capabilities. The results showed a restrictive interpretation of nature science teaching in particular and of the teaching and learning process in general. Moreover, they highlighted an instrumental uplift of the scientific culture in which school textbooks have become the core pedagogical medium within the schooling process. An addition aspect the results emphasized was the diminishing gap between curricular requirements and textbooks content concerning botany. Fragments of nature science were not organized in a course, they merely constituted a series of pieces of general knowledge to be taught to children. Thereby, instruction relied on intuitive processes and used physical visualization material instead of figures. In addition, the results emphasized the importance attributed to reading, writing, and counting during primary education. Methods based on observation and experience played an essential role in establishing a school botany in term of lesson of things.

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7 Final Considerations The study of content related to botany in Portuguese primary education textbooks leads to a number of conclusions. First, awareness of the surrounding environment increases when students are exposed to local plants. In addition, such activities satisfies children’s curiosity and enables them to acquire practical knowledge for daily. Second, activities targeting the development of herbariums, plant collections, small museums, orchards, and school gardens carried out by students themselves facilitate the learning of botany (Santos 2006). Third, it is mandatory for students to learn how to observe the environment and reflect on it with the finality to comprehend how people live and get organized in diversified ways in their interdependence with the environment. Fourth, students activities leading to the recognition of how labor changes nature, along with experience-based activities may trigger interest both for more distant places and national richness. Lastly, a preventive school botany is intertwined with botany contents aiming at Education for Sustainable Development. Acknowledgement. This work was financially supported by the Portuguese National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) within the framework of the CIEC (Research Center for Child Studies of the University of Minho) project under the reference UIDB/00317/2020.

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Images as Resources in Biological Science Teaching Camille Roux-Goupille(&) UPEC, STEF, Créteil, France [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter introduces preliminary results of a study dedicated to French secondary biology teachers’ educational resource usage with special emphasis on images. Images play an important role in biology teaching, as they are omnipresent in textbooks as well as in lecture slides and assist various teaching activities, such as document analysis. How do biology teachers identify and select images? Which types of images (scientific, everyday life) are selected? For which purposes are they used? In what kind of teaching strategies are images called? This chapter offers an overview of the kind of analysis that can be done on SVT teachers’ slideshows and what insights can be gained in this manner not only into teachers’ ways of teaching (including pedagogical components) but also into their interests and inner motives. As an exemplary case study, analysis of a slideshow designed to support a biodiversity lecture by a French SVT teacher combined with semi-structured interviews are exposed in detail to show which types of useful insights into the strategies of image selection can be gained. The chapter concludes by reflecting on chances and challenges connected to the method and indicating further research directions. Keywords: Educational media


Images
Biology
France

1 Introduction This chapter focusses on teaching resources and is part of the French ReVEA project (Living Resources for Teaching and Learning). The overall aim of the project is, on the one hand, to understand how teachers identify, select, transform, transmit, and share resources, and, on the other hand, to explore the inner motivation underlying their actions. In consequence, the description of resources and their typology, although necessary as a preliminary step, is not at the heart of the project. It is describing and understanding teachers’ activities on and with resources along with their resource use and exploitation during teaching that constitutes the main goal. The specific focus of this chapter is on the school subject called SVT (Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre), a combined subject that connects the subject fields of biology and geology. SVT is taught in France in lower and upper secondary education with grade 10 prescribing the concluding course. In this final year, SVT enjoys time resources of 1.5 h/week and discusses three main topics, namely Earth as a host planet for life and biodiversity’s evolution, contemporary global challenges (energy and food supply), and the human body and health. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 227–233, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_18

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The French curriculum prescribes the scientific content. Nevertheless, teachers enjoy pedagogic freedom when selecting the teaching resources for lesson planning and classroom activities. Regarding SVT, curricular instructions concerning classroom activities are limited to document analysis and experimental work, while formal lectures, reduced to a minimum, become mostly summaries and outlines. Teachers, therefore, spend a lot of their lesson preparation time to research resources of all kinds from textbooks, their old university courses and lecture notes, scientific literature, and general media. In addition, colleagues tend to be involved in vivid exchange activities of teaching materials as well. Despite their variety, teachers use images most predominantly given their diverse nature, versatility, and suitability for a range of purposes spanning from scientific to pedagogical ones (Droiun 1987; Roth and Pozzer-Ardenghi 2013). How do SVT teachers search for, find, and select images? Which are their main sources? Which types of images do they select and based on what criteria? In what kind of teaching strategies are images used? To answer these research questions, access to the variety of images used by teachers during their classes is required. One way to gain access is to retrieve and analyze SVT teachers’ slideshows used in classrooms. In consequence, this paper offers an overview of the kind of analysis that can be done on SVT teachers’ slideshows and what insights can be gained in this manner not only into teachers’ ways of teaching (including pedagogical components) but also on their interests and inner motives. The case study of a biology teacher serves here as an example. Thereby, empirical data is twofold. On the one hand, an exemplary slideshow offers insight into the strategies of image selection. On the other hand, selected results of semi-structured interviews with the teacher enable a better understanding of her actions. The chapter concludes by reflecting on chances and challenges connected to the method and indicating further research directions.

2 Biodiversity Slideshow Case Study Since the middle of the nineteenth century, slideshows served in natural history and biology to communicate and share research results and represent, along with observation and experimentation, an important part of biological scientific activities (Daston and Galison 2010). Since the popularization of the magic lantern by Ferdinand Buisson, natural history projections became a must (Granger 2012). In projecting evening sessions, specific images, such as microscopic images or photographs of zoological and botanical specimens served as visualization for presentations given to large audiences. In the twenty-first century, video projections have become quite common in upper secondary education. Using the high standards of digital equipment in every French school, SVT teachers are among its most frequent users preparing, for example, slideshows with numerous images that serve as visual support during classroom activities. The case study presented here is a slideshow prepared by an experienced SVT female teacher with high level of certification for grade 10 SVT. She looks back on SVT teaching experience of 6 years, three of which also encompassing grade 10. Compiling slideshows is part of her routine class preparation, as she prepares one for every topic and uses them to support each step and event happening in her classroom. Thus, the video projector is always on and there is always something displayed on

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screen. The slideshow analyzed in this chapter deals with the topic of nature and biodiversity. Figure 1 shows a selection of the 132 slides prepared for this topic. The slideshow analysis presented in this chapter is, however, only one part of a more comprehensive approach of studying the resources used by teachers encompassing, among others, several semi-structured and clarifying interviews, analysis of specific teaching sequences, lesson plans, hand-outs, and, whenever necessary, classroom observations.

Fig. 1. Slides sampled from the SVT teacher’s slideshow to illustrate slide diversity (number of slide at bottom left) (source: author).

The teacher uses slides in a very versatile way, as depicted in Fig. 1: to display the summary of the course content and notes that students have to copy to their copybooks (slides 2, 4 & 12), to project documents used in case studies and analysis (slides 5 or 6), or to display analysis or experimental results in tables (slide 7). She also uses the slideshow to offer detailed instructions and illustrations during experimental work. In our case study, given that the activity is a dissection, her slideshow contains 26 slides with photographs that document in a detailed manner every step of the dissection progress (slides 15 & 16). The same kind of slides assist student during software-based work or activities (slides 18 & 19). Of the 132 slides of this slideshow on nature and biodiversity, the vast majority (99 slides) contain images only or images with short captions. Furthermore, a third of the slides contains only one large image, a third features two images, and the last third presents multiple images, which are usually paired rather than autonomous. This articulation supports a sort of narrative, a story linking the images together. The analyzed slideshow supports a total of six activities, three of which are practical (one dissection and two software-based), while the remaining contain document analysis. Inquiring into images types, we can appreciate, using the Moles scale (Moles 1968), the iconicity and the level of abstraction of the inscriptions used by this teacher. The Moles scale displays a continuum of abstraction ranging from the least abstract and most detailed representations to the ones that display the highest level of abstraction and the least amount of details. The vast majority of pictures featured in the analyzed

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slideshow are photographs exhibiting a low level of abstraction and showing many details. Moving along the Moles scale, the slideshow contains–in decreasing order of frequency–the following images: drawings, maps, diagrams, tables, and a few graphs. Equations, very rarely used in SVT at secondary level, were also missing from the analyzed slideshow. As evidenced by the slideshow, the teacher seems to be switching between different levels of abstraction during her course. When introducing the practical activity of frog and mouse dissection, the projection starts with photographs of plain mouse and frog skeletons. The next slide switches to a more abstract level with drawings of these animals and geometrical axes traced to support explanations about body organization principles. In a next step, she switches back to photographs of animals, which helps her to introduce the materiality and reality of the dissection process that students are about to conduct. The subsequent step informs about what is really going to happen on the dissection table by using a series of close-up photographs of animal bodies in their tank and instruments, such as scalpels, scissors, clamps, and pliers (slides 15 & 16). After this series of very detailed pictures intended to accompany every step of the dissection process, the teacher uses another set of pictures to slowly return to a more abstract and conceptual level of thinking. These slides feature photographs of dissected bodies along with careful annotations (e.g., numerous arrows indicating body parts and organs). Finally, the last slide–of a very high level of abstraction–shows diagrams and introduces a generalization of vertebrate body organization (slide 17). In essence, the slide series contains an alternation of images with varying abstraction levels offering the teacher to possibility both to approach reality and materiality and to establish links between the real bodies and more conceptualized views and abstraction levels of thinking. An additional aspect of importance concerns the relationships between photographs and drawings, two important ways to visualize in SVT. Drawing is an essential skill in biology, as drawings serve the double purpose of describing precisely structures of specimens and to record the specific features of each species (Chansigaud 2009). Traditionally, students produced observational drawings during observation and description activities of both microscopic (e.g., cells) and macroscopic specimens (i.e., whole organisms) (Clément 2007). Drawing proved to be a useful way of describing an object, as it requires attention to the physical details and helps to capture specific features of the specimen. However, in semi-structured interviews, the teacher discussed how drawing activities are quite rapidly decreasing in classrooms. In official practical exams, taking and printing digital pictures replaces drawings. Another advantage of drawing is the shift from individual features to a complete summary of all the specific points that define a species. As even series of photographs fail to achieve such a complete visualization, many botanical and ornithological field guides still contains drawings alongside photographs (Chansigaud 2009). Barthes (1964) views images as a deforming mirror of reality and as vector of ideology, shaping specific views of the world. Several authors developed analysis grids to explore which views of nature and of the environment images carry (Carvalho et al. 2011; Lemoni et al. 2011). For example, Lemoni et al. (2011) defined indicators measuring aspects, such as local vs. exotic environments, types of values (Arcadian or more resource-oriented), and emotions towards nature (biophilic, biophobic or neutral).

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However, these studies focused exclusively on textbooks images. Nevertheless, these grids can be also applied to slideshow images to gain some ideas about teachers’ vision of nature and environment and their relationship with humans. Strikingly, in this case study, every picture of the slideshow featuring humans depicts them in the process of studying and describing nature (e.g., slide 20). Instead of being engaged in leisure activities or in exploiting nature, they are respectfully observing and studying the natural world, as scientists should do. The slideshow supports the teacher’s discourse on which human-nature relationship she envisages to present to her students. It is also in line with her secondary employment as a paleontologist, working on excavation sites during summer.

3 Sources of the Images The images featured in the analyzed slideshow originate from a great variety of sources. A total of 14 images were directly extracted from fellow teachers’ slideshows and introduced without any modification. The teacher used additional 14 slides from the textbook the tenth-graders studied from and target mainly document analysis activities. Another ten slides feature information from alternative textbooks for grade 10. Six slides were taken from a professional training slideshow session the teacher attended. In consequence, the teacher designed a total of 88 slides by herself, 56 of which contained only pictures. The teacher took the pictures shown on seven of these 56 slides. The remaining slides (49) contain pictures identified by means of Google image search. Concerning the pictures originating from textbooks, the teacher mainly reproduced the classroom textbook or alternative textbooks for the same grade from her personal library. Digital textbooks serve as direct source, whereas scans of relevant excerpts from printed versions are transferred into the slideshow. Interestingly, the teacher never alters any parts of the textbooks. She never replaces, modifies or adds pictures in textbook excerpts nor does she amend text or rephrase questions. However, she frequently adds complementary slides containing images that visualize textbook discourses, such as pictures of flowers or maps. The complementary slides add details to, specify elements of, and substantiate those textbook excerpts that–in her opinion–may be difficult to understand or new to her students. The teacher retrieves the great majority of her pictures from the Internet. Google, and more specifically, Google’s image search engine seems to be the mainstream way for SVT teachers to identify and select pictures. They generally use simple keywords, often in combination with scientific terms and educational level, according to the description of their searches in semi-structured interviews. Even though the interviewed teacher declared to pay no attention to sources when selecting images, the analysis of her pictures downloaded from the Internet showed that many originate from school-related websites. Still, what are the reasons for choosing a particular image over a whole range of alternatives? Even though the teacher declared to have paid no direct attention to the sources, she seems to favor a specific kind of images of school-like format or style (Whitney 2011).

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One of the main sources of SVT images are state-run education websites that provide teachers with specific resources, such as scientific, pedagogic information and ready-to-use activity sheets (e.g., http://eduscol.education.fr/svt/). In addition, many teachers share their slideshows, files, detailed activities they prepared with their students and fellow teachers over their personal blogs. Such blogs are becoming increasingly popular, as well known and frequented homepages (http://44.svt.free.fr/) testify it. Other sources of images are publications of academic research institutions, such as CNRS or INSERM, which produce a large number of scientific pictures and publish some of them to communicate their research results. Such pictures are made available online via image databases offering easy search options based on specific scientific topics (http://www.serimedis.inserm.fr/en). Teachers consult these online resources, even bookmark some of them, however, without applying systematic search strategies. Most images are found by means of Google image searches and the subsequent consultation of result pages. Why do teachers prefer to use search engines instead of working with specific websites? The reasons seem to be complex and tend to mix personal motives and habits, computer skills (and limitations thereof), knowledge of Internet websites, and user-friendliness. More detailed descriptions and understanding of the way teachers do research on the Internet may be gained by applying the methods used by Dimopoulos and Asimakopoulos (2010) to study and retrace secondary school students’ individual navigation patterns. Another point concerns the diversity and redundancy of images available online for a specific topic. Even though the number of websites and images seems infinite, teacher choices indicate that only a small number of images per topic will actually be used in school context. Possible explanations might be the small number of suitable pictures, teachers’ specific selection criteria, or Google search algorithms. What is the variance of pictures shown on webpages? A simple exercise to estimate the level of diversity on specific topics, such as biodiversity offers some answers. As a quick example, the picture on the upper left quarter of slide 14 (Fig. 1) originates from a Google image search and serves the aim to illustrate intraspecific genetic diversity. This picture is a montage of many photographs of human faces and is actually part of a Benetton advertisement, a fashion label for its provocative advertising campaigns. The picture was originally produced for the centennial of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Quite popular among French teachers, it is associated with human genetic diversity but also with general ideas of human diversity and immigration in Geography and French literature. While large numbers of websites and slideshows contain the picture, it is not featured in textbooks.

4 Conclusions This chapter presented the results of an analysis of slideshows by a French SVT teacher combined with semi-structured interviews as an exemplary case study. The applied research methods open up a promising way to access the image environment specific to each teacher and to appreciate the ideological role of images in building specific views

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of the world. They also help to connect and confront teachers’ own conceptions, in this case, on nature biodiversity and environment. Extending the sample and developing comparative studies could lead to the identification of a common set of images among members of the French SVT community of educators. It could also be a step forward to delineate and uncover what is this schoolishness and inquire toward which fields or areas of reference and trust teachers are drawn to as well as identifying the main sources of images.

References R. Barthes, Rhétorique de l’image. Communications 4(1), 40–51 (1964). https://doi.org/10.3406/ comm.1964.1027 G.S. Carvalho, R.B. Tracana, G. Skujiene, J. Turcinaviciene, Trends in environmental education images of textbooks from Western and Eastern European countries and non-European countries. Int. J. Sci. Educ. 33(18), 2587–2610 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693. 2011.556831 V. Chansigaud, Histoire de l’illustration Naturaliste (Delachaux et Niestlé, Paris, 2009) P. Clément, Introducing the cell concept with both animal and plant cells: a historical and didactic approach. Sci. Educ. 16(3–5), 423–440 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-0069029-7 L. Daston, P. Galison, Objectivity (MIT Press, New York & Cambridge, Mass, 2010) K. Dimopoulos, A. Asimakopoulos, Science on the web: secondary school students’ navigation patterns and preferred pages’ characteristics. J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 19(3), 246–265 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-009-9197-8 A.-M. Drouin, Des images et des sciences. ASTER 4, 1–31 (1987). https://doi.org/10.4267/2042/ 9175 C. Granger, La «petite lanterne du progrès». Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire 116(4), 69–80 (2012). https://doi.org/10.3917/vin.116.0069 R. Lemoni, A.G. Stamou, G.P. Stamou, ‘Romantic’, ‘classic’ and ‘baroque’ views of nature: an analysis of pictures about the environment in greek primary school textbooks—diachronic considerations. Res. Sci. Educ. 41(5), 811–832 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-0109191-4 A.A. Moles, Théorie informationnelle du schéma. Schéma et Schématisation 1, 627–642 (1968) W.-M. Roth, L. Pozzer-Ardenghi, in Pictures in Biology Education, ed. by D.F. Treagust, C.-Y. Tsui, Multiple Representations in Biological Education (Springer: Dordrecht, 2010), pp. 39– 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4192-8_3 A.E. Whitney, In search of the authentic english classroom: facing the schoolishness of school. Engl. Educ. 44(1), 54–62 (2011)

Pedagogic Practice and Science Textbooks: Experiences of the PDE/PR Edna Luiza de Souza1(&) and Nilson Marcos Dias Garcia2 1

Núcleo Regional de Educação de Irati (NRE), Secretaria Estadual de Educação do Paraná (SEED), Curitiba, Brazil [email protected] 2 PPGTE/GEPEF and PPGE/NPPD, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR) and Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This study aimed at understanding the role teachers as critical practitioners attribute to science textbooks for the Brazilian elementary school. The sample consisted of papers presented by teachers participating in the Education Development Program in Paraná (PDE/PR). The theoretical background considers the relations between textbooks and school culture and views teachers as knowledge bearers who are capable of sharing their practice and professional experience. Regarding teachers’ actions in the classroom, the results showed that the textbook was an omnipresent resource in the everyday school learning and that teachers may view them as facilitators of the learning process. The results also showed the need to discuss different shortcomings regarding the use of textbooks and to create situations of professional practice enrichment through continuous training programs. Keywords: Teaching science
Curriculum Development Program in Paraná (PDE/PR)


Textbook
Education

1 Introduction The teaching and learning process in the science area in primary school requires some reflection on the importance of planned classroom actions, which implies recognizing teachers’ mediation between the different kinds of knowledge to be taught and their teaching. From such perspective, the myriad factors that permeate this action are important elements required to understand the school environment. Textbooks represent one of these elements which directly take part in the mediation between the knowledge to be taught and the teaching practice, especially taking into account that textbooks are present, in theory, in all Brazilian public schools through the National Textbook Program (PNLD, Programa Nacional do Livro Didático). In this context, considering the Education Development Program (PDE, Plano de Desenvolvimento da Educação)–a continuing education program developed by the Education Secretary of Paraná for teachers–, the aim of this study is to identify and analyze the way teachers view their science textbooks.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 234–241, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_19

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2 Textbooks and Teachers’ Teaching Action Teachers accumulate knowledge as social and historical beings, which makes them agents of both their development and as professionals in the classroom, integrating their academic, social, and professional experiences. Ghedin (2002, p. 135) emphasized that “[…] the knowledge that the teachers transmit to their learners is not only that produced by specialists in this or that specific knowledge area, but they become also specialists of their action”. For Tardif (2012), the teaching practice provides input that influences the teachinglearning process and, consequently, the teacher-student relationship, as well as the teaching resources used in the interaction between teachers, students, and knowledge. According to Tardif (2012, p. 116) these elements “[…] determine and permeate the professionals’ everyday practice”. Nevertheless, various other elements also have an impact on what to teach, how to teach, and to whom to teach. These elements alter the enacted curriculum reflected by the textbooks. Choppin (2000) stressed that textbooks represent “[…] important sources in the register of these curricular modifications”, because they reflect on their pages a series of societal processes that stand under the influence of varying economical, political, and technological perspectives. Given their influence on the curricular organization, content presentation, and methodological orientation around their use, academic interest in textbooks explored various aspects tied to their elaboration and production (cf. Barra and Lorenz 1986; Megid Neto and Fracalanza 2006), their use for knowledge acquisition (Barcelos and Martins 2011; Baganha and Garcia 2017), and their language and illustration (Gouvea and Martins 2001; Cassab and Martins 2008). In addition, teaching books or schoolbooks as well as textbooks or school texts (Bufrem et al. 2006) reveal the historical trajectory of a subject and present the complexity of social and cultural values which allow to understand how teaching changed in relation to both the teachers’ and students’ roles. In other words, as Choppin (2000, p. 210) argues, “[…] the textbook presents itself as a support, knowledge, and technique storage device which, at a certain time, the society believes is important for the students to acquire in order to preserve its values”. Overall, both presence and use of textbooks become more and more imperative in the classroom, along with the role of teachers as mediators of the learning and teaching process, based on diverse materials available to them. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important for teachers to research their own practice to discuss and reflect upon necessary changes in their everyday teaching to “[…] reformulate their own discourse, perspectives and interests” (Tardif 2012, p. 239). Against the background of those described above, teachers’ continuous education seems to be an adequate way of providing the teachers with new ways of seeing and searching novel theories and practices, and the opportunity to contextualize them within their experience.

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3 The Education Development Program in Paraná The Education Development Program (PDE/PR) is one of the State of Paraná’s educational policies developed in partnership with the Science and Technology State Secretariat and the Higher Education Institutions in Paraná (Instituições de Ensino Superior do Paraná–IES). PDE/PR integrates the activities of continuous development in education in all subjects, school management, and special education. The Program grants teachers a paid leave for one year that allows them to participate in courses, workshops, and debates in Paraná’s various IES affiliated with PDE/PR. Professors of the IES institution also supervise each teacher participant and guide them through the development of a Pedagogical Intervention Project (PIP) to be implemented in their school teaching. Within the Program, teachers work on topics and strategies based on challenges their work communities, involving students, teachers, workers, parents and even the local community, face. Throughout the one year study leave, the teachers also present a Teaching Product, which serves as a guideline for the action to be carried out once they return to the teaching activities in their schools. Teachers also discuss their proposed activities with colleagues in their subject areas through a Network Working Group (Grupo de Trabalho em Rede–GTR) which enables online interaction to exchange ideas and share projects, whose contributions, posted in the virtual environment, can be used as reference and feedback to the PDE/PR participants to elaborate their final works. During the second year of PDE/PR, the participants in the Program carry out a teaching intervention using the material developed in the first year. The second phase grants teachers a 25% reduction of their workload so that they can continue their studies and keep in touch with their IES advisors. In addition to this intervention in schools, which occurs during the first semester of the school year, during the second semester, the PDE/PR teacher participants are required to write a paper, describing their actions and results obtained through the use of their own intervention project. During the Program’s implementation period, all teachers attend courses on educational and methodological issues related to their subject areas in IES, which allows them to reflect on their practice as research teachers. In sum, PDE/PR rests on an interaction between universities and schools leading to scientific output that combines everyday school and related academic research.

4 Methods and Sample This study follows Choppin’s (2004) conceptualization, according to which textbooks are teaching tools that facilitate learning, provide support for the classroom activities, and assist teachers in organizing the content. In addition, the authors also considered Garcia’s (2011) thoughts on the role of textbooks in teachers’ practice in the Brazilian

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schools, namely that “[…] there is a relative consensus around the idea that, in some situations, many students have the textbook as the unique source of content, besides of the explanations delivered by teachers”. The sample consisted of the final papers science teachers of the PDE 2012 cohort produced. We selected science teachers as they constituted the most numerous subject group among the participants. The sample consisted of a total of 155 papers. Following a first reading of all papers, we reduced the sample to the 64 papers dedicated to science textbooks. Around one quarter (28%) of these papers merely referenced the textbooks within their theoretical framework and did not contain any approaches concerning their use in the classroom. The remaining 46 papers which contained some information on textbook use were classified into two groups. On the one hand, papers explored the use of textbooks as facilitators during the acquisition of content prescribed by the science curriculum. On the other hand, papers addressed content-related shortcomings of selected textbooks.

5 Results and Discussion The 64 papers constituting the final sample focused on the final stage of primary school, with 14 papers exploring questions connected to the sixth (students aged 11– 12), 15 to the seventh, 19 to the eighth, and 16 to the ninth year. Three studies dealt with students experiencing special needs, while other three studies took a closer look at science teachers. The distribution shows that most participants of the PDE/PR Program dedicated their research to explore questions that are relevant to their students. Given the aim of the program, setting the emphasis on students in classrooms seems beneficial to seek novel theoretical and methodological approaches to alter their own teaching and their students’ learning experience. The studies on teachers’ practice addressed two aspects. On the one hand, they induced dialogue and discussions concerning the investigative practice in science classrooms. On the other hand, teachers focused on the use of technologies in science classrooms. Both thematic strands emphasized the role of discussions between peers in school meetings. In addition, the analyzed papers also showed the preference of teachers to carry out research on the scientific concepts tied to the basic content prescribed by the Paraná Basic Education Curricular Guidelines. Figure 1 shows the most popular content elements teachers selected for their work to develop new methods and approaches for their teaching in classrooms.

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Fig. 1. Subject content (source: authors).

5.1

Textbook Usage

A total of 25 papers explored the use of textbooks in teaching. The papers presented textbooks as tools used in the school routine for scientific knowledge acquisition. Nine (36%) of these 25 papers discussed the use of textbooks for purposes of research and reading related to specific content elements, while other seven (28%) papers pointed out the importance of textbook to introduce content and raise students’ interest in a certain topic. Textbook pictures were at the core of four (16%) paper, while five papers (20%) focused on textbook tasks to be used with students. The results show that teachers perceived textbook content as an important guide to understand scientific knowledge and to increase student motivation for classroom activities–despite the presence of additional resources in the learning process. One of the teachers (P7) who worked on the use of computers in science classrooms argues as follows: We cannot see a future of schools without books or notebooks to take notes and solve the tasks to learn the content, since the book is a reference to search information and knowledge […] even if computing has advanced a lot in the area where the book has always been the main source of reading, ideas, and interference in studies.

Other participating teachers highlighted different aspects of textbook use: In a second moment of the instrumentalization phase, texts were read to support the topic digestion system, found in the students’ book, which led to long and important discussions related to the topic. (P12) The methodology employed was: reading from the textbook about the studied topic, presentation of slides, lecture and guided research on the internet. (P18)

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Aiming at making easier the comprehension of required knowledge to solve the tasks related to the project, a theoretical background was provided through the use of the textbook. (P3) The students were guided to read the text presented in the textbook (Using soils and exploiting them) to have a better basis and reorganize the scientific knowledge in context. (P11) In order to make learning easier and aiming at broadening students’ understanding of a concept, combined with strategies which help the students to build the meaning of scientific concepts, the textbook proposed by the Textbook National Program was used. (P19) In the aftermath of the discussion, we presented the main concepts and characteristics of free fall, completing them with the activities featured in the textbook. (P4)

As shown above, the teachers considered the use of textbooks both to plan and to deliver their lessons as relevant. Thus, the results confirm what Megid Neto and Fracalanza (2006, p. 166) considered situations “[…] in which teachers stops using the book as a manual and starts to use it as reference material supporting their work or as a resource to support students’ activities”. In essence, the textbook not only seems to be present in the classroom, but teachers also interact in different ways with the textbook content. 5.2

Content-Related Shortcoming

A total of 21 papers dedicated attention to content-related shortcomings of textbook. Six papers (29%) stressed that the textbooks offered limited support for the study of topics discussed in the classroom. Five papers (24%) indicated that other educational media should be used to complement the textbook content. Drawing and pictures were the main focus of four papers (19%) that recommended more regular updates and stressed the need for more attractive presentation. Finally, three papers (14%) uncovered scientifically inaccurate content in textbooks. Some papers also raised the issue of overly technical concepts (two papers, 9%) and highlighted the absence of up-to-date topics (one paper, 5%). The results concerning content-related shortcomings highlight that despite its presence in the school routine and broad student access to it, the textbook requires constant updates and different use patterns to meet the learning objectives. Moreover, the 21 papers also considered local particularities of students’ everyday realties. In the reading of some teachers, the relation between the textbook use and local particularities might even interfere with some concepts featured in the books: There was also a discussion about the impact to the soil in our region due to the installation of hydroelectric power plants which was not approached in most of the textbooks as one of the factors impacting the soil and representing hazard to the local diversity. (P16) Also, in some situations, we find faulty approaches in the textbooks. (P5) According to the State of Paraná curriculum, the astronomy content should be studied in all years of the elementary school, however, it is commonly seen that the textbooks chosen by schools contain very little information on this topic. (P19) In school, sex is primarily approached in the science and/or biology textbook, but in a technicalscientific way, without raising issues which are stuck in the students’ minds. (P6) There is very little discussion and motivation to these contents in textbooks, which creates a gap in the students’ education regarding fruit and vegetable inclusion in their food choices, there is very little relation with health, illness prevention and awareness-raising about the importance of nutritional education and quality of life. (P10)

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We still experience situations in which the students are introduced to the traditional model of cell structure, illustrated in textbooks, for example, and cannot contextualize the topic so that they can understand that the cell structure is part of each living being’s body. (P2) This photographic language and science teaching workshop was an attempt to obtain material to visualize the lessons, since most textbooks lack images that represent students’ reality. (P21)

The results of this study show that science textbooks show a range of shortcomings, such as conceptual errors, unattractive and outdated images, or lack of up-to-date topics. These shortcomings reinforce the quest for new teaching resources that can, according to Megid Neto and Fracalanza (2006, p. 168), “[…] attend the curricular guidelines, and at the same time, take into consideration the results and contributions of educational research, historical context and the students’ cultural diversity.” Moreover, as articulated in their papers, teachers continue to see a lack of meaningful approaches to science content that could effectively support classroom learning activities.

6 Final Remarks The PDE/PR Program, in partnership with the Science and Technology State Secretariat and the IES in Paraná, promoted the dialogue between basic and tertiary education. It also equipped teachers with research experience by bringing them to universities. Teachers indeed started to look at their daily teaching from a different perspective as they discussed projects, searched for articles, and participated in events and conferences. Overall, teachers started to analyze their practice based on theoretical frameworks and by means of research methods. The shifting perspectives become visible while reading the various end-of-course papers that participating teachers produced. Nevertheless, teachers address issues tied to their daily challenges, such as the need to consider the students’ local reality, the appropriateness of certain teaching approaches for specific science content, and the presence and use of textbooks in classrooms. The sampling of this study enabled to reach to the conclusion that teachers consider the textbooks in their everyday classroom reality to be, despite of its flaws and shortcomings, a tool that provides pedagogical support that is need of constant amendment to improve student’s science learning experience. As textbooks represent an important source of information for both students and teachers, it is understandable that teachers ask for more up-to-date topics, an improved adaptability to the students’ local reality, and congruence with the curricular approaches prescribed for specific content elements in the final years of primary science education.

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References D.E. Baganha, N.M.D. Garcia, O papel e o uso do livro didático de Ciências nos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental, in O Livro Didático de Física e de Ciências em Foco: Dez anos de Pesquisa, ed. by N.M.D. Garcia (Editora Livraria da Física, São Paulo, 2017), pp. 309–326 M.O. Barcelos, M.I. Martins, Livros de ciências recomendados pelo PNLD: a visão de professores de ciências de escolas públicas de BH, in Atas do VIII Enpec, ed. by I. Martins, M. Giordan (ABRAPEC, Campinas, 2011). http://abrapecnet.org.br/atas_enpec/viiienpec/ resumos/R0181-1.pdf V.M. Barra, K.M. Lorenz, Produção de materiais didáticos de Ciências no Brasil: período: 1950– 1980. Ciên. Cult. 38(12), 1970–1983 (1986) L. Bufrem, M. Schmidt, T. Garcia, Os manuais destinados a professores como fontes para a história das formas de ensinar. HISTEDBR On-line 22, 120–130 (2006) M. Cassab, I. Martins, Significação de professores de Ciências a respeito do livro didático. Ensaio Pesq. Educ. Ciên. 10(1), 97–116 (2008) A. Choppin, Pasado y presente de los manuales escolares, in La Cultura Escolar de Europa: Tendencias Históricas Emergentes, ed. by J. Ruíz Berrio (Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2000), pp. 107–165 A. Choppin, História dos livros e das edições didáticas: sobre o estado da arte. Educ. Pesqui. 30 (3), 549–566 (2004) T.M.F.B. Garcia, Materiais Didáticos São Mediadores Entre Professor, Aluno e o Conhecimento (2011). http://portaldoprofessor.mec.gov.br/conteudoJornal.html?idConteudo=1727 E. Ghedin, Professor reflexivo: da alienação da técnica à autonomia da crítica, in Professor Reflexivo no Brasil: Gênese e Crítica de um Conceito, ed. by S.G. Pimenta, E. Ghedin (Cortez, São Paulo, 2002), pp. 129–149. J. Megid Neto, H. Fracalanza, O livro didático de Ciências: problemas e soluções, in O Livro Didático de Ciências no Brasil, ed. by H. Fracalanza, J. Megid Neto (Komedi, Campinas, 2006), pp. 147–157 M. Tardif, Saberes Docentes e Formação Profissional (Vozes, Petrópolis, 2012) G. Gouvea, I. Martins, Imagens e educação em ciências, in Imagens e espaços na escola, ed. by N. Alves, P. Sgarbi (DP&A, Rio de Janeiro, 2001), pp. 41–58.

Selection and Transformation of Resources by Physics Teachers: How to Explain the Diversity of Choices Processes? Pascale Kummer Hannoun1,2(&) 1

EDA Laboratory, University of Paris, Paris, France [email protected] 2 Sorbonne University, Paris, France [email protected]

Abstract. The French national curriculum globally frames the content of each subject. Teachers, however, have a pedagogical freedom during the implementation of the prescribed programs. They make their own choices during the selection, transformation, and re-arrangement of teaching resources. Part of the ReVEA project, the research presented in this chapter aims at documenting and understanding activities of high-school Physics and Chemistry teachers during their lesson elaboration. We analyzed differences and similarities in resources selected and transformed by teachers. The results are based on interviews conducted with three high-school Physics and Chemistry teachers and explore the tenth grade (students aged 15–16 year) as well as on classroom observations conducted during mechanics lessons dedicated to the principle of inertia. The various pedagogical resources, such as worksheets, real or virtual objects, and films, provided to students are described in terms of distance and compliance to French textbooks and curricular instructions. The exemplary portrayal of three teachers visualizes their resource choices, some of which involved participation processes. Keywords: Potential curriculum


Physics
Resources
Selection process

1 Introduction In the French educational system, school contents are framed by the national curriculum, which specifies notions to be learned and skills to be attained. Teachers have pedagogical freedom during curricular implementation, notably in defining tasks for students, even if the national curriculum recommends some tasks. Understanding teacher choices and activities is one of the main goals of the ReVEA research project (http://anr-revea.fr) aiming at analyzing how teachers identify, select, transform, store, and share resources. There is little work on teachers’ activities designed the way the ReVEA project approached the matter, and even less work on Physics teachers. Closest to the research presented in this chapter is Sanchez and Valcarcel’s work (1999) that focusses on Science teachers’ activities based on lesson planning.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 242–255, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_20

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This chapter takes an exploratory stance within a more specific context, namely exploring the resource diversity in classroom-ready materials produced by three French high-school Physics and Chemistry teachers. The comparison of their activities and elaborations rests on one specific content at the same level, namely Newton’s first law (also called the principle of inertia)–located at the core of classical mechanics in the tenth grade (last grade where Physics is a compulsory subject for all students). This law has been a content of tenth-grade Physics for the last 15 years without interruptions, and, thus, can be considered a stabile content. Curriculum didactics (Martinand 2003) in general and potential curriculum in particular serve as the main theoretical framework underpinning this work. The analysis of teacher activities links back to Léontiev’s (1975) theory of activity. The main emphasis of the work presented in this chapter is on teachers’ elaboration of tasks students will be asked to work with during class. The perspective, thereby, remains comparative. The comparison of the tasks designed by teachers serves as grounds for a grid that is re-used to examine their distance to and compliance with student tasks proposed in textbooks. Subsequently, the chapter focuses on the role of the curriculum in constraining teachers or giving them room for different choices. Finally, three teacher portrayals help to explain the differences between their choices and to exemplify the processes already observed in the ReVEA project: inheritance, participation, network trust, and collection.

2 Theoretical Framework: Curriculum Didactic and Activity Theory 2.1

Potential Curriculum

The research presented in this chapter is anchored in the curriculum didactic theory (Martinand 2014, p. 74), in which curriculum is understood in a wide sense as “construction principles for activities and contents, modalities, material, human, symbolic resources, the principle of progressiveness, evaluation instruments and situations”. A distinction is generally made between formal curricula and produced curricula. A formal curriculum is a result of negotiations and constructions by many actors and is prescribed by the Ministry of National Education both by means of written guidelines and through inspectors’ discourses. In contrast, a produced curriculum is the result of the co-activity and interactions between teachers and students during school time and corresponds to what happens in the classroom. It is less common to consider the so-called potential curriculum, a form of curriculum that teachers develop with the aim to implement it in their classrooms according to examples, possibilities, and constraints they are aware of. Strongly connected to the prescribed curriculum, it encompasses everything that could be done. According to Martinand (2003, p. 113), the potential curriculum “depends on guidelines, work conditions, teachers’ professional and personal experiences, advices and injunctions they received, exchanges with colleagues or other partners”. Products of teachers’ lesson planning are, thus, part of the potential curriculum. The study presented in this chapter focusses on the potential curriculum.

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Activity Theory and ReVEA Research Results

Within the framework of the activity theory (Léontiev 1975), we studied three levels of activities: (1) overall activity oriented by motivations; (2) actions associated to goals; and (3) operations dependent on conditions. The research presented in this chapter defines the teacher’s overall activity as the planning work to prepare a lesson that will be delivered at a later time in the classroom with students. Thereby, teachers’ actions refer to searching, selecting, transforming, or creating but also saving, sharing resources that they must carry out to obtain, from the available resources, resources to be used with students. At the core of the research presented here are the phases of creation, selection, and transformation. These actions may imply technical (i.e., digital, material) operations conditioned by the general context (available tools and skills for example) in which the activity takes place. First preliminary results of the ReVEA research project brought out four important processes in teachers’ elaboration activity: inheritance, participation, trust network, and collection. In the ReVeA project, inheritance refers to an asymmetrical transmission where the receiver is passive and less experienced than the transmitter. Likewise, participation occurs between colleagues during workshops, training, or peer-to-peer collaboration. Trust networks combines persons or sources (e.g., authors, websites) of trust. Finally, collection means the process of accumulating resources.

3 Method and Collected Data Documenting teachers’ activities is a difficult task because they are often implicit and related to personal lives, disciplinary cultures, and specific professional contexts. Therefore, the methodology applied uses mixed type of data, namely teachers’ interviews, classroom observations, students’ worksheets, official program guidelines, and textbooks. The planning activity generally takes place at home and is tightly connected to each individual’s personal life. Thus, to be as little intrusive as possible, the elaboration activity itself was not observed. Instead, semi-directive interviews were conducted where teachers described their activities. Each interview was divided in two parts. At the beginning, teachers talked about resources they used in general, their relationship with textbooks, their specific school context, their various experiences, difficulties, as well as their personal interests. Subsequently, the interviews focused on the resources used specifically to elaborate the student tasks around the principle of inertia. In addition, all the resources, named hereafter lesson resources, that had been selected, transformed or created by the teacher to be used during lessons on the principle of inertia were also collected. Data encompassed worksheets for pupils, teacher’s files, material or virtual objects, and other digital or printed documents. Data collection happened either during interviews or during lessons. Physics and Chemistry teachers usually conduct two types of lessons: half-group sessions in which students perform experimental tasks, and full-class sessions in which teachers synthesize key points or students solve exercises. Generally, in order to introduce new concepts, a half-group session precedes a full-class session. The half-group

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sessions are characteristic for the school subject science. Therefore, the research presented here focusses on resources to be used during half-group student lesson–called student task resources hereafter. As Physics and Chemistry textbooks are very present in French high schools, they seem to be a good way to document an important part of the potential curriculum, especially in the case of classical mechanics. In consequence, the five Physics and Chemistry textbooks for grade 10 published in the aftermath of the last curricular reform and used across the country were collected. The textbooks serve as reference to study documents teachers construct and to define categories of our analysis grid. Student task resources are tangible products of teachers’ actions that originate in their (assumed, constrained, free) choices. Therefore, for the purposes of this study, the author decided to analyze the student task resources. The pedagogical and didactic features of the student tasks offer descriptors that can also be re-used to refine interviews and ask teachers to explain their choices along specific characteristics.

4 Characterization Grid of Student Tasks This section begins by introducing the grid construction. In a second step, selected findings highlight similitudes and differences in teachers’ choices. Student task resources created or selected by teachers consist of images, materials, instructions, explanations, and questions. The analysis presented in Table 1 explored three dimensions. The first dimension targets the pedagogical approaches involved: (a) document analysis, in which a support is given to the student (e.g., text, image or a video); (b) experimental task, where students manipulate material objects. In both cases, whenever a video is presented to students, Table 1 entails its nature and function. The second dimension is the scientific approach involved and refers to the link that students are expected to make between an observed phenomenon and the mechanical law to be understood. Following an inductive approach, students infer the law from the analysis of an observed phenomenon. In contrast, in a deductive approach, students interpret a phenomenon based on a specific law they received in beforehand. Finally, the illustrative approach offers the observed phenomenon as an example of a general law. The approach teachers followed was inferred from the questions listed on student worksheets or communicated during oral guidelines in the classroom. The third dimension concerns, on the one hand, the format of written documents (digital, printed, manual)–both student worksheets and teachers’ files. On the other hand, it explores the use (individual, collective) of student worksheet. Table 1 shows the results concerning student task resources collected from three teachers (Alex, Laurence, and Christine). The three student tasks have some similarities: students are asked to perform one or several guided tasks, using virtual or material objects, combining individual or pair moments with group moments. Students are also asked to study object motions and the causes of these motions. Either the students or the teachers in required to establish a link between the observed motion and Newton’s first law. Every teacher produced written documents with strongly guided tasks. In addition, all teachers planned to use a video. Laurence and Christine chose experimental

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P. K. Hannoun Table 1. Analysis grid of student task resources (source: author).

Dimension/teacher

Alex (5 years of experience)

Laurence (25 years of experience)

Christine (25 years of experience)

Student tasks Pedagogical approach General topic Images Scheme Altered objects

Documentary

Experimental

Experimental

Sports Ice skater Curling puck None

Videos Nature

Yes Curling competition

Universe None None Balls, magnet, gutter Yes Car crash test

Virtual object in motion Student task

Curling puck

Dummy

Sports Curling competition None Webcam, air cushion mobile Yes Student experimentation video recording Air cushion mobile

Observe and comment

Exploit Data processing

Digital devices

No

Scientific approach Written documents Student worksheet Collective Individual/in pairs Teachers’ files

Inductive

Image pointing software Illustrative

Digital Printed Student worksheet with comments and results

No No Draft notes

Make and exploit Data acquisition Data processing Image pointing software Illustrative and deductive

Digital No Student worksheet with transformations

approaches with simple motions of little objects and a video data processing that used image pointing software. Alex and Christine placed their session within the topic of sport and both showed a curling puck (Alex in a video, Christine with an image). The comparison of the three student tasks also shows some differences. Alex introduced the session with a short video excerpt from a movie of a curling competition. The documentary task was based on a schema representing a curling puck. Students were asked to analyze the motion as well as to determine and draw the forces (before and after the throw). There were no real objects involved. Laurence proposed two main manipulations. On the one hand, a crash test video and an image pointing software displayed the position of a dummy at regular time intervals. On the other hand, manipulations also implied motion studies of small objects, such as magnets and different balls rolling in gutter and on boards.

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Christine focused the entire lab session on an air cushion mobile motion video. Students had to record its motion with a webcam before processing data (they had to graph mobile positions versus time and calculate the mobile velocity). Differences concerning the written documents originate from personal ways of class management (i.e., organization, interactions with students).

5 Distance Between Textbooks and Student Tasks Proposed by Textbooks and by Teachers Textbooks content and students task resources produced by teachers are both traces of the potential curriculum. A global comparison of student tasks resources produced by the three teachers with the content of five Physics and Chemistry textbooks on the ‘principle of inertia allowed to determine the distance (similarity/differences) between these two kinds of tracks. 5.1

The General Structure of Textbooks

Physics and Chemistry textbooks display the same general structure: the three common main topics (Universe, Sports, and Health) feature a mixture of Physics or Chemistry chapters. The order of the topics varies in each textbook. Depending on the textbook, mechanical concepts are part of the topics Sports or Universe. Each chapter starts with student task pages immediately followed by lesson pages on theoretical concepts or laws. Finally, summary and exercises pages close each chapter (Kummer-Hannoun and Roux-Goupille 2015). 5.2

Textbook Analysis

Textbook analysis was limited to student tasks. It proved challenging to determine which student worksheets were explicitly dedicated to the principle of inertia, as other concepts (e.g., mass or forces) were introduced simultaneously. The final sample contained all tasks that explicitly named Newton’s first law. Student task pages rarely featured a formulation of the law. In consequence, the analysis of the various formulations of the law is based on both the lessons and student tasks. Concerning the criteria associated with Newton’s first law, the theoretical background defines inertia as a concept that describes the phenomenon by which objects resist to motion. According to the principle of inertia, in a Galilean referential, the center of mass of an object is moving at its current velocity until a force causes its speed or direction to change (Roux 2006). An example of a textbooks definition is: “An object that moves in a straight line at constant velocity (or stays at rest) is subject to balanced forces (or to no force), (one way) and reciprocally” (R). Some textbooks add what is called the contraposition: “if an object is subject to a force, its velocity changes (in direction or in speed) and reciprocally” (C).

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Theses definitions–to facilitate better understanding–cut the problem into two parts (motion with or without forces) and two approaches (analyzing first the motion or the force). Roux’s (2006) definition entails the one way, the reciprocity, and the contraposition. In an act of simplification, the criteria were limited to four values depending on the presence of the different formulations. In Roux’s (2006) above-described formulation, two validity conditions are specified, namely the law is only verified in a special point of the object, and in a special referential. The results showed that all different formulations of the law can be found in one of the textbooks. In general, they are part of the lesson parts and rarely appear in the student task parts (except for two worksheets). One textbook mentions the center of mass (G), however, merely in a short paragraph of a lesson. None of the textbooks mentions the Galilean referential. The topic Sports contained the majority of student tasks concerning the principle of inertia. Within the topic dedicated to the Universe, the motion of the planets (not rectilinear) requires the contraposition formulation. Table 2. Student task analysis based on worksheet pages and textbooks (numbers before brackets refer to frequency, numbers in brackets indicate the number of tasks, while capitals stand for teachers’ initials; source: author). Student tasks Sports Pedagogical approach Documentary (investigation, historical) 3 (1,1) A Experimental (investigation, historical) 5 (1,0) C Scientific approach Inductive A Illustrative 2 Deductive 3C Without links to the law 1 Students record a video 2L Objects (handled) Planets Balls 5 (3) Curling puck 2 (0) A Ice cube 2 (2) C Air cushion mobile 1 (1) (C) Other objects 5 (0) Formulations of the law Lesson (task) One way 1 (A, C) One way & reciprocal 2 One way & reciprocal & contraposition (task) 2 (1) No formulation of the law G, center of mass 1

Universe 2 (1,0) 1L

L 3 2

2 (0) 1 (1) (L)

1 (1) Lesson (task)

2 (1) (L) 2

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Global Distance Between the Teacher Student Task Resources and the Textbooks

The distance is measured by comparing the analyzed textbooks with those of the teachers’ resources along their similarity and differences. Table 2 contains the analysis of teachers’ resources that are marked by the letters A, C, and L). Regarding similarity, the analyzed textbooks contained eleven student tasks on the principle of inertia, following the same type of pedagogical approaches as those proposed by teachers. In addition, a few tasks require research (investigation process) and the exploration of historical aspects. Teachers generally formulated the law in terms very close to those used in the textbooks and, as in textbooks, formulations are missing from teachers’ student task resources but are present in teachers’ files. Thereby, the center of mass is missing from all materials produced by the teachers. Laurence is the only one who contextualizes her lesson within the topic of the Universe and uses the contrapositive formulation. The three teachers used several objects, the majority of which were small ones. The crash test is missing from the student tasks proposed in textbooks (reason why it is also missing from Table 2) and only appears, as a small picture, on a textbook spread. The larger global distance to textbooks originates from the teachers’ diversity. Videos and scientific approaches exhibited the most explicit diversity. For example, contrary to teachers’ resources, the inductive approach is missing from the textbooks. The two tasks in the textbook that are connected to videos require students to record and process video data. In contrast, teachers’ tasks involving videos show a greater variety. The three videos teachers used differ in format (excerpt, reduced images number realized by students), target audience (general, vocational, scholar), and required function (observe a phenomenon, analyze a video to visualize trajectory, produce and analyze a video to calculate speed). In addition, simulations also play various roles. For example, Alex refrained from using any simulations. However, he did not propose any virtual or real experiments. The teachers also used various types of graphic representations, with Alex not requiring data processing, Laurence using both qualitative and spatial graphic representations, and Christine focusing on quantitative and temporal ones. Regarding teachers’ individual distance to the textbooks, Christine exhibits the smallest distance. She chose to use the student worksheet of her textbook but she made some amendments, the most important being the change of the object in motion. However, she replaces the ice cube by an air cushion mobile–another object featured in the textbooks. In contrast, Alex exhibits the greatest distance as he selected a worksheet published on a colleague’s website that differs in format from the textbook worksheet. The worksheet offers strict guidance by requiring students to fill in blank spaces. Moreover, Alex follows an inductive approach and uses a video type–both missing from the textbooks. Finally, Laurence represents the mid-distance, as she introduced the principle of inertia within the topic Universe and chose various tasks that implied movements and objects without any connections to this topic. Laurence carried out various alterations

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of different elements of experimental tasks found in her textbook without following the associated written guidelines of the textbook. Also, her videos were not found in any of the textbooks.

6 The Role of the Curriculum Curriculum analysis enabled to determine the degree of freedom teachers enjoyed within the Special Official Bulletin (BOS 2010). Therefore, the thematic focus was on Newton’s first law with special emphasis on the formulation of the law, the pedagogical and scientific approaches, the motion examples and objects involved in student tasks. The French national curriculum is primarily published in official guidelines that change in the aftermath of each reform. Regarding the structure of the guidelines, in 2010, the high school reform restructured the subjects of Physics and Chemistry for grade ten into three topics: Sports, Universe, and Health. In consequence, the content element Newton’s first law can be taught in at least one of the two topics Sports or Universe. The law also appears among other items relative to mechanics concepts under the compulsory heading Notions and Content. Competencies are only expected at the end of the school year. For the principle of inertia, these are: “use the principle of inertia to analyze simple motions in terms of forces”, and the two experimental tasks are: “produce and analyze video recordings to analyze motions” in the Sports topic and “implement an experimental approach using recording techniques to understand the nature motions observed in the solar system” in the Universe topic. The results show that both formulations of the law and material systems were missing. As the curriculum remains open concerning the formulation of the law as well as the objects or examples to be used when teaching it, the teachers enjoy maximal freedom. It is these freedoms the curriculum grants that triggered homogeneous teachers’ choices and textbook content. The questions remains whether teachers imitated textbooks or the other way around. An alternative explanation might be that both teachers and textbook authors interpreted the absence of the center of mass from Notions and Content as a prescription to avoid its teaching. The latter explanation falls in line with the interpretation of simple motions that lead both teachers and textbook authors to choose objects so small that they may be assimilated to their center of mass. In consequence, even if the curriculum remains open on this topic, everybody understand the same thing. The recommended teaching methods listed in the curriculum are based on the implementation of scientific processes in which experimental approaches are a major component. It is widely accepted in Physics Education (e.g., Zacharia and Olympiou 2011) that manipulations and experiments, real or virtual, are important for the learning process of Physics. In the 2010 curriculum, the guidelines cited two experimental tasks in the section dedicated to mechanical concepts, such as forces, motions, masses, and inertia. Both tasks may be performed with these or any other concepts. The requirements were no constraint for teachers. The variety of pedagogical approaches encountered in student tasks formulated both by teachers and textbooks was not particularly dependent on the specific law of the principle of inertia.

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Concerning the tasks requiring video recording or recording techniques and the expected competencies (produce, exploit, and use) tied to them, teachers acted more freely in than textbook authors did. The textbooks either required recording a video or decided against the use of a video. Scientific approaches merely appeared within one expected competency, namely “[…] use the principle of inertia to analyze motion in terms of forces” (BOS 2010, p. 7, 10). The wording indicates a preference of a deductive approach, where students are required to interpret and observe motion phenomena based on the already presented law. However, there is no other explicit prescription in favor of the deductive approach. Nevertheless, textbook authors follow the curricular indications more closely than the teachers. This finding is particularly interesting as what we call scientific approaches involve different teaching methods. In the end, the most striking difference between worksheets featured in the textbooks and teachers’ student tasks is that textbooks may remain generic. Student tasks, however, have to be implemented in the classroom tailored to the students. Using or applying a law in the session it is first introduced, may be challenging for students.

7 Teachers’ Choices Based on Interpretative Portraits This section present three teacher portraits with the aim to better understand the choices they made during lesson preparation, what their motivation were, and under what circumstances they made their decisions. Thereby, process analysis rested on the framework elaborated within the ReVEA project (Bruillard 2016). The analysis rests on the declared activity teachers mentioned during the interviews. The main questions we seek answers for are to explain Alex’s choice of videos and the type of his worksheet, the origins of the videos Laurence chose, and why is Christine the only teacher who uses her textbook with students. 7.1

Alex

Alex is a young teacher who lacks confidence in class management, particularly in his high school where most of the students are oriented towards technical or vocational education. Alex considers that his “[…] students have a very low level in science”. His general motivation seems to be to control and to motive the students because “except for two of them, they are not very interested in Physics and not all in the topic of the Universe”. As a result, Alex decided to reduce the topic of the Universe to the minimum curricular requirement. We argue that his lack of experience together with him working at a technical and vocational high school are the main explanations to the two choices he made. Concerning his choice of videos, Alex chose a video that has two remarkable features. First, the video showed a sport competition and positioned the principle of inertia related to the topic Sports. Alex is the only teacher who selected an example of motion to show within the topic of Sports. He decided to cut parts of the video to make it short, as he believes that the video needs to be short to keep students’ attention on the

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topic. Therefore, he hopes that students will become curious to understand the phenomenon within the framework of Sports. Alex possesses digital habits and skills that both increase his motivation and are required to develop his educational media. For example, Alex downloads YouTube videos, cuts them and produces excerpts of different duration. Moreover, he views all online content as free and unrestricted and is free from ethical constraints. Alex was probably in the initial stage of building up a videos collection. Beyond the own use, Alex also mentioned to share his materials with digitally less skilled colleagues. There is little evidence on Alex’s worksheet selection process. What he describes as a worksheet found on a colleague’s website, is similar to several worksheets found online based on a simple search with principle of inertia and curling as keywords. His regular practice is to use strongly guiding worksheets in a double format: one to control the collective interaction (by means of additional notes and results), and one to control students’ individual work (with short texts to read and blank boxes to fill in). Alex saves every worksheet in three versions: one for the student, one for himself to use during the lesson, and another one where he adds notes to improve the lesson. This procedure leads to a multiplication of versions with additional notes and comments in various colors. Looking back on his teaching history, Alex states to have started, a few year ago, with worksheets he now describes as too long and less structured. Currently, Alex only uses worksheets that are limited to one page and containing blank spaces. The current format of his worksheets is a results of his previous teaching experience in another high school, where he designed worksheets with colleagues who were textbook authors. This far also explains his preference for the textbooks used at his old high school and his rejection of the textbook used at the new school. In processual terms, the design of digital worksheets falls under participation in a context that equips Alex with new skills, legitimates his practices and habits, and leads to a quick stabilization of his way of doing things, for example, his presentation formats. The use of videos in the classroom requires operations that depend on several conditions (e.g., availability of the video or digital skills of the teacher). This use, encouraged by the program and textbooks, could also be linked to a fashion. 7.2

Laurence

Laurence is an experienced teacher as comfortable in the class management as in the scientific content mastery. In consequence, it is challenging to identify what processes lead to most of her decisions. Laurence has the ability to use many different formats to structure a lesson with or without the help of worksheets. In this case, she chose her preferred organization without worksheet. Regarding the choice of student tasks, Laurence uses experimental tasks and collective oral interactions to introduce the law as a theoretical generalization. Her preference for an illustrative approach probably originates from this pedagogical practice. It remains unclear what the origins of her personal draft notes are and how long she has been using them. Laurence’s notes looked like a structured lesson with a general resolution method for mechanical problems without student instructions. Usually,

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during her preparation for a new lesson, she first consults the BOS, and takes notes before reading all the textbooks she has at home–including old ones and those written for other grades or dedicated to other sections (this corresponds to another type of collection). According to Laurence, students have different needs and she wants to provide them with other methods in addition to those featured in the textbook the class uses. Also, Laurence dislikes her students’ textbook as she finds the tasks to be too difficult. However, the student’s textbook contains experimental tasks that are similar to hers and it is the only one that contains the principle of inertia within the topic Universe before proceeding to simpler sport motions. The analysis of Laurence’s resources reveals the benefits of the comparison with textbooks resources as suggested by the use of potential curriculum concept. However, it remains unclear whether she places the principle of inertia within the topic dedicated to the Universe by choice or as a result of the textbook’s influence. Concerning the selection of her videos, Laurence declares to have limited digital skills and no video skills. “The crash test video comes from two young teacher training students, who, a few years ago, desired to implement this task”. Nobody in her school had the skills to extract videos and compress them. As at the given time there was no topic prescription in place, for the team of colleagues, it was a dilemma to decide whether to use the video that was detached from all topics featured in the current curriculum. The team of colleagues decided to continue using the videos as they found it very impressive. This decision prevents her from producing a new video. In this case, the choice of an educational medium happens due to the constraint caused by the failure of the digital operation. This finding also explains the usage of a crash test video without any connection to the topic of the Universe. Because of skill dissymmetry, the choice process may be interpreted as an inheritance process, but as Laurence learned to use the video in a team, the choice process can also be considered to be participatory. Laurence’s preparation work is complex and creative, based on an interplay between very different devices and objects adapted from various sources. In her own view, at the heart of her work was to establish a consistency between the elements (the motions of a ball become a model to simulate the crash test mannequin). 7.3

Christine

In the case of Christine, it is simple to offer the full account of her student tasks from the source to the classroom. Christine’s work rests on the global textbook choice. In her high school, the colleagues have been working together for a long time and also chose the student textbook (Ruffenach et al. 2010) as a team. The high school is located in a region where parents pay for the textbooks. The publisher of the selected textbook delivers a digital copy to every teacher. Consequently, Christine can easily project the worksheets included in the textbook. She is satisfied with the textbook because of the quality of the student tasks. The global choice of a textbook resulting from a collective negotiation and resting on both economical and didactic motivations, may be considered a participation process. Along with the economic and didactic motivations, for Christine, an ethical motivation leads to the global textbook use: she always used the textbook with her

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students, because, as she said: “parents pay for it, so you have to use it”. The use, however, also implies choices on the level of student tasks. However, the selection of students tasks requires no further search and selection as her textbook provides only one student task on the principle of inertia. For the principle of inertia, however, Christine wanted her students to have first experiences with video recording–a skill required for the baccalaureate. Personally, she has digital habits and likes making films. In Christine’s case, there is a strong overlap between the student task featured in her student textbook, her teaching aims, and her habits. Thus, requirements around both aims and delivery are met. Concerning student task modifications, the alteration of the object to be recorded is linked with the need to obtain a motion easier to analyze that is more in concordance with the law (technical and didactic aim). Transformation is the last action.

8 Discussion The exploratory research presented in this chapter focussed on teachers’ activities centered on the design of student tasks. The findings showed three very different choices that, however, remained in compliance with textbooks. Teachers’ choices originate in different main motivations: class management for Alex, delivery of systematic method for Laurence, and acquisition of expected skills for Christine. Sometimes, a choice is made by default, for example, when a video processing operation requires digital skills that the teacher lacks. The analyzed choices focused on the last worksheet versions the teachers designed or selected. Missing from the findings are the time spent hesitating or the number of consulted resources before their rejection. The results describe the selection of an effectively used resource. Nevertheless, the lesson content is very traditional–reason why the participation process becomes clearly visible for all three teachers. Future research needs to explore whether a less traditional Physics content might uncover other processes. This also applies to widening the sample to other Physics teachers or other school subjects. The chosen student task descriptions take into account criteria at very different scales ranging from the topic of the textbook to the formulation of a law. Teachers’ choices may be taken at various criteria levels: worksheet format, video, student tasks, objects, textbooks, etc. Choices, however, are not made at all these scales, they are partially intertwined. It remains unclear which choices impact negatively or constraint another choice at a more general level. Such reciprocals impacts may also apply to the formulation of a law and the scientific approach inherent to worksheets or textbook lessons. The three teachers offered little information on these aspects. Understanding teachers’ lesson preparation process over a longer period of time represents a challenge. Teachers have much more explanation to do when difficulties or obstacles caused by a lack of skills or limited experience arise. It is often these situations that trigger participation. As a result, future work will explore a focus group methodology with a group of Physics teachers with different teaching experience with the aim to analyze whether teachers recognized themselves in such participatory

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processes. Extending the study to other subjects might lead, based on comparative approaches, to similarities or uncover different processes.

References BOS (Bulletin Officiel spécial), Programme de Physique-Chimie en classe de seconde générale et technologique, Bulletin Officiel Spécial 4 (MEN, Paris, April 2010) É. Bruillard, ReVEA project: living resources for teaching and learning. An overview. Presentation at the SITE conference, Savannah, 21–25 March, 2016 P. Kummer-Hannoun, C. Roux-Goupille, 20-years evolution in French secondary school science textbooks. IARTEM e-Journal 7(3), 45–73 (2015) A. Léontiev, Activité, Conscience, Personnalité (Éditions du Progrès, Moscow, 1975) J.-L. Martinand, L’éducation technologique à l’école moyenne en France: Problèmes de didactique curriculaire. Can. J. Sci. Math. Technol. Educ. 3(1), 101–116 (2003) J.-L. Martinand, Point de vue V - Didactique des sciences et techniques, didactique du curriculum. Education & didactique 8(1), 65–76 (2014) G. Sánchez, M.V. Valcárcel, Science teachers’ views and practices in planning for teaching. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 36(4), 493–513 (1999) Z.C. Zacharia, G. Olympiou, Physical versus virtual manipulative experimentation in physics learning. Learn. Instr. 21(3), 317–331 (2011)

Textbooks M. Giacino et al., Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (Hachette, Paris, 2010) M. Barde et al., Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (Hachette, Paris, 2014) G. Garcia et al., Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (Hatier, Paris, 2010) J.-M. Parisi, X. Bataille, S. Berthelot, Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (Belin, Paris, 2010) V. Prévost, B. Richoux, Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (Nathan, Paris, 2010) M. Ruffenach, S. Serrano, G. Toussaint, Physique Chimie, Manuel de l’élève, 2nd edn. (ESPACE, Paris, 2010)

Multimedia Materials in Brazilian Physics Textbooks: An Analysis Following the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning Daniel Sucha Heidemann1(&) and Nilson Marcos Dias Garcia1,2 1

2

PPGE/NPPD, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Brazil [email protected] PPGTE/GEPEF, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter analyzes online multimedia materials included in firstgrade physics textbooks for Brazilian public high schools. The bid invitation of the 2015 National Textbook Program (PNLD) aiming at textbook acquisition for Brazilian public high schools entailed a series of criteria for editors who intended to have their products included in the program. The criteria, however, left certain features inherent to digital materials unconsidered, creating gaps in the evaluation process and allowing the inclusion of low quality digital learning materials. This chapter takes a closer look at multimedia materials in light of Mayer’s (2009) multimedia learning principles and analyzes websites that were indicated as study material in each textbook approved by the PNLD evaluation process. The sample consisted of all links to websites featured in the fourteen physics textbooks approved for the first grade of high school. The study led to three important findings. First, a significant portion of the linked multimedia materials remains behind their educational potential. Second, most links were broken already during the first year of the textbooks’ lifespan. Finally, almost a third of the analyzed multimedia materials contained purely decorative media without pedagogical function. Keywords: Multimedia learning


PNLD
Physics textbooks

1 Introduction The acquisition and distribution of textbooks to students in the public education system in Brazil has been a matter of concern for a long time. There are public policies which regulate textbooks since the late 1920s. However, the first concrete action of the government was put forward in 1938 with the creation of the Textbook National Committee and official requirements for the production, import, and use of teaching materials in the country were formulated. In present, the Textbook National Program (PNLD, Programa Nacional do Livro Didático) is in charge of these duties. PNLD publishes guidelines and calls every three years seeking to instruct the production of teaching materials for public schools, establishing general and specific criteria to be fulfilled by the books submitted to evaluation to PNLD. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 256–268, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_21

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Understanding the scope of PNLD calls requires an exploration of its criteria. The 2015 call for high school textbooks, published in 2015, serves as an example to visualize PNLD’s requirements and criteria. Some of the general criteria formulated the need to adapt the editorial structure and the layouting to the teaching objectives of each textbook (FNDE 2013, p. 39) and prohibited to use the teaching materials for publicity or brand, product, or commercial service advertisement (FNDE 2013, p. 40). Regarding the specific requirements for the school subject physics, which constitutes the case study underlying this chapter, some of the specific criteria are connected to experiments and images. Experimental arrangements or teaching experiments which can be developed in typical school environments, for example, have to be previously tested and display controlled hazardousness (FNDE 2013, p. 66). The use of pictures needs to happen in a sustainable manner regarding the necessity of their inclusion and the presence of explicit and complementary references linking them to the continuous text (FNDE 2013, p. 67). In addition to the above-mentioned aspects, the 2015 PNLD call also prescribed, as a novelty, the presence of open access digital materials. Digital materials, such as applications, simulations, videos, and texts available online became part of textbooks either as additional activities (the most common situation) or as part of specific activities based on them. Since the 2015 PNLD call required for the first time the inclusion of additional resources into textbooks, we argue that it is necessary to analyze and discuss their quality against the background of their features and usage potential in schools. Along these lines, the present chapter constitutes a first attempt to discuss challenges tied to the access and hosting of additional online materials. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the improvement of teaching material evaluation, both by the government and teachers.

2 Evaluation of Digital Didactic Materials Concern around the quality of digital materials used in teaching led to the development of a new field of research, namely educational computing. Aiming to facilitate the analysis of digital materials, research groups started to develop evaluation instruments based on check-lists incorporating items measuring the accomplishment of pre-determined technical and/or pedagogical characteristics. However, these instruments bear a number of challenges. According to Reints (2015), some of the fundamental challenges are learning supports and that complex nature of the learning process that depends on many nonpredictable factors. In consequence, it seems impossible to develop a set of quality criteria applicable in all situations to evaluate educational materials. Reints (2015), however, also points out that there are more general theories of evaluation that can help during the analysis of the construction and formatting of digital materials. One of these theories is the cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Richard Mayer, which serves as the general theoretical framework of the work presented in this chapter. The authors opted for Mayer’s work as it refers directly to the production and/or analysis of multimedia educational materials.

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3 The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning According to Sorden (2013), the cognitive theory of multimedia learning, developed mainly by Richard Mayer, rests on three general assumptions from cognitive psychology, namely (a) the dual-channel assumption, (b) the limited capacity assumption, and (c) the active processing assumption. The dual-channel assumption (a) is based on Baddeley’s (1986) studies regarding the theory of working memory and on the studies of Paivio (1986) on the dual coding theory. The theory of working memory emerged in the 1970’s as an explanatory model to the cognitive processing necessary for learning. According to Baddeley (1986), the working memory is a system with two main sub-components, a visual and an auditory one, that process the received sensorial information to integrate it later along with previous knowledge in the long-term memory. Paivio (1986) argues that, despite existing interaction between these systems, the processes of information acquisition and processing happen independently, indicating that the combined presentation of verbal and non-verbal (visual, in this case) codes in didactic materials can support significantly the knowledge construction process. The limited capacity assumption (b), strongly based on Sweller’s (1994) cognitive load theory, states that the working memory has a limited capacity of processing, which can easily be overloaded due to more complex tasks and learning goals. According to DeLeeuw and Mayer (2008), during the learning process, the working memory involves basically three types of cognitive processing: the essential/intrinsic processing (related to the learning difficulty of the content that depends, among other factors, on the complexity of the presented material); the extraneous processing (referring to the processing of information non-related to the learning goals, and, because of that, dependent of the layout of the presented material); and the generative/germane processing (related to the deeper understanding of the material through the organization and active integration of the presented information in a broader structure, being strongly related to the student’s motivation on learning). According to the active processing assumption (c), significant learning only happens when the student can, in an active way, focus on the most relevant parts of the presented material, selecting relevant words and figures to be processed in the working memory, organize these elements inside a coherent mental structure, build verbal and pictorial models regarding the developed content, and, finally, to integrate such models with previous knowledge. Based on these ideas, Mayer (2014) developed a cognitive processing model for learning from multimedia materials (cf. Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Cognitive theory of multimedia learning (source: Mayer and Clark 2011, p. 36, amended).

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Mayer (2014) argues that, when receiving information from a multimedia presentation, both the visual and the auditory sensorial channel selects that piece of information that is considered to be most relevant and sends it to the working memory. The working memory is in charge of organizing this information, generating visual and auditory models that are finally both reciprocally integrated and with previous knowledge in the long-term memory. According to Mayer (2014), the essence of meaningful learning is for students to transform information into knowledge during this process. Based on these ideas, aiming for ways to optimize the cognitive processing in learning, Mayer (2014) proposes three main goals to guide the elaboration of multimedia educational materials: (1) the reduction of the extraneous processing; (2) the management of the essential processing; and (3) the fostering of the generative processing. Using as reference these general ideas, Mayer and his contributors carried out studies aiming at developing more specific guiding principles for the elaboration of multimedia materials. Mayer particularly searched for more concrete ways of analyzing the impact of multimedia materials with specific features on student learning. Thereby, the exploration of which features resulted in an improvement of learning, played a crucial role. According to Mayer (2014), there are two consolidated ways of evaluating learning. On the one hand, conducting retention tests requires students to remember information transmitted in the material. On the other hand, transfer tests ask students to apply knowledge gained on problem-solving to new situations. Mayer (2014) stresses that transfer tests are more reliable because the simple analysis of students’ information retention does not mean that the learning was significant (the retention can be temporary). The author also states that meaningful learning happens when the student is capable of accomplishing not only retention tests, but also transfer tests because, as the prerequisite of the transference of a certain type of knowledge is that the student retains this knowledge. As stated by Sorden (2013), the number of principles developed by Mayer varies. This not only indicates that Mayer’s theory is dynamic, but also points out that his principles should be viewed as discussion points or indicatives of possibilities. In fact, Mayer’s most recent studies indicate the existence of boundary conditions to the application of these principles, strengthening the idea of their dependence on the learning context. This chapter uses Mayer’s principles and multimedia presentation as its theoretical framework. In consequence, the authors define multimedia presentation as formats that use words (both spoken and written) and pictures (any visual element, such as photos, videos, graphs, and animations) and follow Mayer’s (2009) initial twelve principles. In brief, Mayer’s (2009) the principles revolve around four elements, namely: the decrease of the extraneous processing (coherence, signaling, redundancy, spatial contiguity, and temporal contiguity principle); the management of the essential processing (segmenting, pre-training, and modality principle); the fostering of the generative processing (multimedia, personalization, voice, and image principle). Each one of these principles was developed based on diverse experimental settings and has its existence substantiated in specific cognitive principles, also having specific boundary conditions, as described in Mayer (2009) and Mayer and Clark (2011).

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4 Method and Sample This chapter constitutes a first attempt to discuss challenges tied to the access and hosting of additional online materials with the finality of improving the evaluation of teaching materials. The empirical study analyzed the open access digital materials featured in the physics textbooks approved by the PNLD 2015 for the first year of high school. The sampling rests on the fact that this grade of high school, in general, corresponds to the first deeper encounter with physics as a subject. In a first step, close reading identified all specific online materials, such as applications, texts, videos, and simulations. This search excluded more general material, such as general learning media repositories and governmental agency sites. The sampling rests on the understanding that the indication of specific digital materials in a context of learning, that is, inserted in the sequence of ideas which form the textbook, is intentional and follows a certain objective, even if it is implicit, and, therefore, should be considered as an integral part of the textbook’s more general structure. Overall, the first step identified 105 links in fourteen first-grade high school physics textbooks. Most of the links appeared in peripheral boxes distributed throughout the textbooks as complementary material. Sixteen of the 105 links were not functional. However, additional online search based on their description identified these materials, raising the final number of active links to 97 (cf. Table 1). Table 1. Total number of links found in first-grade high school physics textbooks approved by the 2015 PNLD (source: authors). Textbook Física: Mecânica Ser protagonista Física 1 Física aula por aula: Mecânica Física, context e aplicações – volume 1 Física – volume 1 Física para o ensino médio 1 Estudos dos movimentos, Leis de Newton Física 1 Mecânica Física, interação e tecnologia Física Física – conceitos e contextos Compreendendo a Física – Mecânica Quanta Física 1

Links 0 1 5 0 4 13 11 6 25 10 0 1 23 6

Broken links 0 0 0 0 2 4 3 2 2 1 0 1 1 0

Against the background of the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer 2014), a preliminary analysis of the links indicated in Table 1 was carried out. Excluded from the analysis were links to online data bases (without another kind of information or activity), specific news (without scientific depth), and articles originally

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published for other school levels (different from high school). In addition, all links that referred to materials destined to higher education or whose main function was not to build knowledge, were also excluded. As a result, the final sample consisted of 81 online teaching items, which were object of thorough classification and analysis based on the Mayer’s (2009) principles. Given the characteristics of the analyzed materials, most of the principles described in Sect. 3 are no applicable to the sample analyzed in this chapter. For instance, only six materials feature pictures and narration simultaneously, making them suitable for analysis based on principles that consider the joint use of these elements (i.e., redundancy, segmenting, and temporal contiguity). Furthermore, given the limitations in space, this chapter only explores four of the twelve principles, namely coherence, modality, personalization, and multimedia.

5 Analysis of the Digital Materials Based on the Theory of Cognitive Multimedia Learning This section introduces the results along the four principles coherence, modality, personalization, and multimedia. 5.1

Coherence

The coherence principle recommends the exclusion of all objects in the material that are unrelated to the learning, such as decorative images and sounds with no pedagogical function (Mayer and Clark 2011, p. 153). As Mayer and Clark (2011) argue, the use of purely decorative elements, such as generic images, striking backgrounds or background music, is a widely used strategy under the pretext of motivating students, but it can strongly compromise the learning process. Mayer (2014) presented the results of 23 studies pointing out that the medium effect size corresponding to the retention and transfer tests results of the groups that used multimedia materials with and without extraneous elements, meaning, irrelevant elements to the intended learning goals integrated with essential content, was 0.86. The significant difference between the two groups shows that learners who used materials without extraneous elements achieved better results. The psychological explanation for this phenomenon, according to Mayer and Clark (2011), is that the presence of elements that are not related to the intending goals generates an extra load of extraneous processing, which ends up competing with the others forms of processing related to the signification of the essential material presented, contributing to working memory overload. Mayer and Clark (2011), however, also point out that many studies found learning to turn more significant as materials become more attractive. Thus, the challenge of multimedia material elaboration is to insert digital elements that, besides promoting the interest of students, act as support for the intended learning goals.

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The analysis of the sample resting on physics textbooks identified five kinds of extraneous material without any reference to the learning objectives and with potential to generate some kind of unnecessary cognitive processing: advertisements, external links, extraneous pictures, extraneous words, and extraneous audio. Advertisements were found in 26 of the 81 analyzed materials. In some cases (Fig. 2), advertisements occupy a larger screen surface as the essential materials for learning.

Fig. 2. Multimedia material with large advertisements (source: http://super.abril.com.br/ comportamento/a-alavanca-de-arquimedes/ theory of multimedia learning).

Following external links, in 76 of the 81 materials, full screen options were unavailable, which led to irrelevant information to learning being visible throughout the whole process. Figure 3 shows a material in which numerous links referring to other areas of the website occupy a considerable portion of the screen. Such arrangements can hinder students’ concentration on the essential material (e.g., text in the central part), generating extraneous processing. Almost one third (24 of 81) of the analyzed links contained extraneous pictures in form of figures that were not related to the main learning goals and served purely illustrative purposes. For example, the material shown in Fig. 4 contained an image of a table with elements symbolizing food ingredients that has no contribution to complementing or classifying information. Such pictures may, according to the coherence principle, be discarded with no learning loss.

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Fig. 3. Digital material with many external links on the screen (source: http://www.inmetro.gov. br/consumidor/unidLegaisMed.asp).

Fig. 4. Example of material containing extraneous pictures in the form of irrelevant pictures to the discussed content (source: https://particleadventure.org/standard_model.html).

Merely two of the 81 links contained extraneous words. Defining extraneous words might be a difficult task, considering that the learning objectives of the online materials are not always explicitly visible. In one of the cases, for example (https:// particleadventure.org/unseen.html), the author of the text made a joke following a more complex explanation about the interatomic forces, which might result in loss in the students’ reasoning. However, as stated previously, the analysis may also find that even a joke could stand for a rupture in the text so that the student can reflect on the received content. While the importance of the theory underlying this study remains untouched, such alternatives underline the necessity to know both the general and specific objectives of each learning material.

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Nine of the 81 analyzed links contained extraneous audio. In most cases, extraneous audio takes the shape of background music or animation sounds in applications lacking any clear pedagogical function. Such sounds may occupy parts of the processing capacity of the students’ memory and hinder the learning process. An example of extraneous audio is background music throughout the explanation of an experiment (https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=PWO-X6CZQXA&ab_channel=ManualdoMundo). 5.2

Modality

Modality refers to the use of words in a narrated form instead of an on-screen text in all materials that contain both words and pictures (Mayer and Clark 2011, p. 117). According to Mayer (2014), empirical evidence showed that the use of narration together with pictures in multimedia presentations instead of on-screen text and pictures can result in a more significant learning. Based on the results of 61 studies, Mayer (2014) states that the medium effect size in retention and transfer test results of the groups that used multimedia materials was 0.76. The value indicates a significant difference in favor of students who used materials elaborated following the modality principle. The psychological explanation for the modality principle, according to Mayer (2014), is that individuals have distinct channels to capture and process auditory and visual information and that the processing capacities are limited. Every time a multimedia material presents written and pictorial information simultaneously, the visual channel tends to split its processing capacity between both elements, which facilitates its overload. In contrast, when receiving complementary information through both channels, the visual and auditory systems work together, which, according to this theory, facilitates the learning process and hinders cognitive system overload.

Fig. 5. Multimedia material that uses the auditory and visual channel simultaneously (source: http://200.130.146.27/downloads/material/SATELITES.iso)

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Only six out of the 81 analyzed multimedia materials featured pictures and audio components simultaneously. While five materials consisted of online videos, merely one material featured broader multimedia material (Fig. 5) containing animations, simulations, texts, and videos on the operation of artificial satellites. This is strong evidence that the teaching possibilities of multimedia means were, in general, underused. 5.3

Personalization

The personalization principle states that the use of words in conversational, rather than a formal style can result in a more significant learning. In this context, Mayer and Clark (2011) emphasizes the use of verbs in the first and second person in both written and narrated continuous texts, avoiding the use of passive voice. In addition, a more userfriendly tone is important as it indicates that dialogue based on the connections between the content and students’ daily experiences could be of interest for multimedia material development. According to Mayer (2014), the results of 17 studies based on retention and transfer tests resulted in a medium effect size of 0.79, showing a significant improvement of the results in favor of the students that used multimedia materials in pace with the personalization principle. The use of the conversational style, as Mayer and Clark (2011, p. 184) explain, activates a sense of social presence in the student, causing “[…] the learner to engage in deeper cognitive processing during learning (by working harder to understand what the author is saying)”. The psychological grounds of the personalization principle are closer related to social psychology than to cognitive psychology (e.g., Beck et al. 1996). Nevertheless, the excessive use of the conversational style should be avoided, because it can result in distraction and loss in focus. Overall, the personalization principle does not apply to all 81 analyzed materials. Thirteen of these materials reference experiment simulations and animations that contain only visual elements with no (or few) verbal elements in their structure. In consequence, these materials cannot be analyzed with regard to their textual characteristics. Concerning the remaining 68 digital materials to which the personalization principle applies, it was noticed that 46 of them use conversational style in the texts and narrations (e.g., https://cienciahoje.org.br/voando-na-chuva/) and 22 digital materials only contain text in formal language. 5.4

Multimedia

According to the multimedia principle, the joint use of words and non-written visual objects in multimedia materials is preferable to the use of only words. Mayer and Clark (2011) cite the results of eleven comparative studies based on transfer and retention tests. While the two groups of students were distinct in each one of the studies, one group always used materials that were elaborated according to the multimedia principle, and the other used materials consisting of verbal elements solely. The median effect size of 1.50 indicates the validity of the multimedia principle.

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Beyond the already discussed importance of the use of visual and verbal elements in multimedia materials aiming at the joint use of the processing capacities in both channels of learning, Mayer and Clark (2011) state that there is a motivational factor related to the multimedia principle. Motivation may originate from the presence of relevant words and pictures in multimedia materials that can make them more attractive for students and foster the generative processing. The application of the multimedia principle, however, must be performed in a cautious way, because, according to Mayer and Clark (2011), the inclusion of visual elements in multimedia materials with no well-defined pedagogical function can compromise the learning process. He points out that the use of purely decorative pictures or pictures that only represent common elements discussed in the text must be avoided given their lack of contribution to the learning process. The use of words and pictures in a joint form was found in 62 of the 81 analyzed materials. Five of the 19 digital materials that did not use the multimedia principle in their structure contained only written text (http://educacao.uol.com.br/disciplinas/ ciencias/ciencia-o-que-e-isso.htm), while the other 14 only contained simulations and animations, without the presence of verbal information related to the discussed content (http://www.educadores.diaadia.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/2010/objetos_de_ aprendizagem/FISICA/alavanca.swf). Most of the analyzed 81 materials that follow the multimedia principle contain pictures that are relevant to the learning process, as they visualize more complex ideas and/or summarize the contents presented in the text (Fig. 6). Nevertheless, as already mentioned in the case of extraneous pictures, 26 of the analyzed materials featured visual elements that served purely decorative purposes.

Fig. 6. Digital with a meaningful image in term of the multimedia principle. (Source: http:// www2.aneel.gov.br/arquivos/PDF/atlas_par2_cap3.pdf)

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6 Conclusions The results on multimedia elements in physics textbooks for the first year of high schools lead to a number of conclusions. First, there seems to be a need to maintain and store online materials in a more sustainable manner. Considering that the use of the analyzed books started in 2015, the number of broken links was significant (over 15%). A possible solution to similar problems could be hosting online materials on publisher homepages, inserting them into broader activities and changing them whenever necessary. This would possibly encourage the publishers to use such resources in an integrated manner with the printed material instead of reducing them to merely complementary material. Second, the potential of multimedia materials seems to be underused. More than half (47) of the 81 analyzed materials contained merely static text and pictures (e.g., digitized images of printed books). The simultaneous use of audio and video was found in six materials. The results indicate that there is unexplored potential in the use of multimedia materials in the learning process by means of information input through different sensors at the same time and the inclusion of more complex media (e.g., realistic simulations). Unused potential may originate in practical challenges connected to the development of more complex multimedia materials. On the one hand, considering that multimedia material production involves the collaboration of professionals from different areas, production costs increase. On the other hand, Brazilian textbook publishers may intentionally opt for a limited exploitation of potentials tied to multimedia materials, as they are familiar with limitations at the level of schools, such as the precariousness of computer labs, the unavailability of a stable internet connection (required for many of the heavier digital materials), and untrained teachers in ICT. In fact, Heidemann (2016) found that almost all more complex multimedia materials pertaining to the sample analyzed in this chapter (e.g., simulations and animations), require the installation of plug-ins and specific software, hindering and even making the use of multimedia materials impossible for users with limited IT skills. Given the role textbook play in the process of teaching and learning, it is mandatory for any multimedia material included in its structure to undergo previous evaluation based on well-defined criteria. Research on textbook usage by students based on data collected by means of observation, interviews, and eye-tracking is essential for the development of such criteria. Multimedia materials can be technologically attractive due to their easy usage and graphic structure, but offer limited educational potential. The conclusions of the research presented in this chapter underline the importance of using new analytical formats for the evaluation of multimedia materials which are distinct from those used for the printed materials. Further work based on the cognitive theory of multimedia learning promises further insights into new possibilities for multimedia material usage.

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References A.D. Baddeley, Working Memory (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986) I. Beck, M.G. Mckeown, C. Sandora, I. Kucan, J. Worthy, Questioning the author: a yearlong classroom implementation to engage students in text. Elem. Sch. J. 96, 385–414 (1996) K.E. DeLeeuw, R.E. Mayer, A comparison of three measures of cognitive load: evidence for separable measures of intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load. J. Educ. Psychol. 100, 223– 234 (2008) FNDE (Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação), Edital de Convocação Para o Processo de Inscrição e Avaliação de Obras Didáticas Para o Programa Nacional Do Livro Didático PNLD 2015 (Ministério da Educação, Brasilia, 2013) D.S. Heidemann, Entre o impresso e o digital: o papel de materiais digitais mediados pelos livros didáticos de Física, Master’s thesis (2016). http://www.ppge.ufpr.br/dissertacoes%20m2016/ M2016_Daniel%20Sucha%20Heidemann.pdf R.E. Mayer, Multimedia Learning (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2009) R.E. Mayer, Research-based principles for multimedia learning [online video] (2014). https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ3wSf-ccXo&ab_channel=HarvardUniversity R.E. Mayer, R.C. Clark, E-Learning and the Science of Instruction (Pfeiffer, San Francisco, 2011) A. Paivio, Mental Representations: A Dual Coding Approach (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986) A.J.C. Reints, How to learn from digital textbooks: evaluating the quality, in Digital Textbooks: What’s new? ed. by J.R. Rodríguez, E. Bruillard, M. Horsley (IARTEM, Santiago de Compostela, 2015), pp. 204–224 S.D. Sorden, Cognitive theory of multimedia learning, in Handbook of Educational Theories. ed. by B.J. Irby, G.R. Brown, L. Lara-Alecio, S. Jackson (Information Age Publishing Inc., Charlotte, 2013), pp. 169–184 J. Sweller, Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learn. Instr. 4, 295–312 (1994)

Cypriot Physics Teachers’ Use of Physics Textbooks in Their Teaching Demetrios Philippou and Kostas Dimopoulos(&) University of Peloponnese, Korinthos, Greece [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter aims at exploring the extent and the ways Cypriot secondary physics teachers use textbooks while teaching their classes. It further investigates potential correlations of textbook use with factors related to teachers’ pedagogical views concerning teaching and learning as well as with critical personal and professional characteristics. Quantitative methods served to answer the research question. A questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 120 Cypriot physics teachers. The results showed that, in general, Cypriot physics teachers are independent from the textbook in their everyday teaching. Regarding the ways the textbook is used, it was found that Cypriot teachers use it as a source of test items for student assessment, as a reference material for studying at home or as a source of examples and visual material for demonstration in the classroom. Moreover, it was found that teachers who adopt more traditional pedagogical views, have less teaching experience, and have attended no postgraduate courses tend to be more dependent on the physics textbooks for planning and conducting their everyday teaching. Keywords: Textbook use
Pedagogical concepts
Degree of dependence on the textbook
Personal and professional characteristics of the teacher
Physics

1 Introduction Textbooks are the dominant source of school knowledge. Despite the increasing use of new digital technologies (ICTs) in teaching and learning, the textbook retains its central role, since it is connected (directly or indirectly) with most of the teaching and learning activities that take place both inside classrooms and at home. Since the 1990s, there has been a rapid increase in the number of studies investigating the use of textbooks by teachers during the teaching process (e.g., Haggarty and Pepin 2002; Fan et al. 2004; Chavez 2006; Chen 2006; Contreras 2007). According to Bernstein (1990), school scientific knowledge is subject to a selective transformation, a process described by the notion of recontextualization. This transformation is influenced by perceptions about the nature of knowledge, by the dominant pedagogical theories as well as by broader social and cultural assumptions (Koulaidis and Tsatsaroni 1996). A textbook, besides its content, includes an evaluative position on the relationship between the various knowledge forms (e.g., school and everyday knowledge), as well as on the nature of the pedagogic relationships between teachers and students (Koulaidis and Dimopoulos 2010). Consequently, it determines in a © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 269–278, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_22

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decisive way the nature of the educational process, and reversely, it often reflects the dominant perceptions in relation to it. Additionally, a number of studies have shown that educational decisions about the use of textbooks as basic curricular materials affect and determine the nature of school knowledge (e.g., Freeman and Porter 1989; Koulaidis and Tsatsaroni 1996; Grouws and Smith 2000; Weiss et al. 2001; Fan et al. 2004; Chavez 2006; Chen 2006; Tarr et al. 2006; Bowzer 2008). Research on the relationship between teaching and school textbooks shows that the way in which teachers read and use textbooks varies significantly (Sosniak and Stodolsky 1993; Remillard 2005) and is primarily influenced by the pedagogical beliefs of the teachers (Brown 2004). However, conversely, we would say that the embodied teaching approaches in textbooks significantly affect the pedagogical strategies employed by teachers (Reys et al. 2003). In other words, teachers are active translators of the curriculum materials according to their personal theories and professional situation. School textbooks have embedded principles for recontextualizing school knowledge which are dynamically negotiated by teachers during their teaching. By focusing on the way physics teachers use textbooks under real classroom conditions could lead to several suggestions for the improvement of the textbooks themselves as well as their efficiency when used as teaching tools. Moreover, it could highlight a number of factors that seem to be important and have consequences on the use of textbooks by teachers. Specifically, this paper aims at exploring the extent and the ways in which physics textbooks are used by Cypriot secondary teachers while teaching in their classes and investigating potential correlations of textbook use with factors related to teachers’ pedagogical views concerning teaching and learning (constructivist or traditionalist) as well as to other critical personal (gender and age) and professional traits (teaching experience, level of education, and type of school). The research questions are as follows: 1. What are the ways in which physics teachers use textbooks? 2. What is the level of the teachers’ dependence upon the textbook during their teaching? 3. What emphasis do teachers attach to the textbook in relation to other curricular materials? 4. What are the main features that teachers believe a well-designed physics textbook should have? For purposes of contextualization, it should be mentioned that the education system in Cyprus is highly centralized where centrally issued directives are to be uniformly followed by all teachers. There is only one officially approved and mandatory textbook for all school types and each subject. In addition, younger teachers tend to work mainly in lower secondary schools (Gymnasium) while more experienced teachers usually teach in upper secondary schools (Lyceum).

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2 Method and Sample A questionnaire designed for the purposes of this study served to collect data. The first part of the questionnaire included eight questions concerning general demographic information, such teachers’ gender, age, total teaching experience (even outside the public formal education), years of service in secondary education, higher academic qualifications (e.g. master’s or PhD degree). The second part of the questionnaire contained five questions investigating the pedagogical views of secondary physics teachers. According to their views, physics teachers were classified as either progressive or traditional. A teacher was considered as progressive if his/her responses indicated views that corresponded to a combination of constructivism (as a teaching model) with weak framing. Following the theoretical language of Bernstein (1990), weak framing refereed to the degree of control teachers and students possessed over the selection, sequencing, pacing, and evaluation of the knowledge transmitted and received in the pedagogical relationship. In contrast, a teacher was regarded to be traditional whenever he/she combined the traditional teaching model (unidirectional lecture type teaching) with strong framing. All other teachers not falling into the aforementioned two categories were considered to be selective. They combined either constructivist views with strong framing or traditional views with weak framing. Finally, the third part of the questionnaire included six questions concerning how teachers used textbooks in the classroom. This section set a special emphasis on the ways Cypriot secondary teachers used physics textbooks during teaching and on the preferred design features of an ideal textbook. Eight complex variables contain all information extracted from the data: (1) gender, (2) teaching experience, (3) age, (4) school type, (5) extra academic qualification (master’s or PhD degree), (6) pedagogical views on teaching and learning, (7) teachers’ view on framing (control of the teaching process), (8) degree of teacher dependence on the textbook for lesson planning. The sample consisted of 120 teachers from 30 secondary schools that corresponded to approximately 30% of the total population of Cypriot physics teachers.

3 Results Most teachers (54.2%) declared that the textbook had little impact on their lesson planning and teaching (Table 1). Only a small percentage (15.8%) indicated high dependence on the textbook. The remaining one third of the teachers mainly used textbooks in a selective manner according to the contingencies of everyday teaching.

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The finding that Cypriot physics teachers are relatively independent from the officially approved textbook is further evidenced by the self-reported amount of teaching time they used it in either explicit or implicit manner in class (Table 2). Overall, the vast majority reported to use the textbook during less than half of their regular teaching time.

Table 2. Teachers’ self-reported usage time of textbooks in class (source: authors). Share in time Frequency Share in % Less than half of the time 103 85.8 Most of the time 17 14.2 Total 120 100.00

Regarding the motivation of textbook usage (Table 3), teachers named tasks and exercises, homework, and visual support during teaching as their three foremost reasons. In contrast, parent information, familiarization with the history of science, and curriculum implementation were the three least often mentioned reasons. Table 3. Motivation of textbook usage (source: authors). Ranking 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Motivation to use the textbook It serves as a source of exercises and tasks It indicates students what to study while doing their homework It serves as a source of examples, images and diagrams for display during lessons It helps to plan the daily instruction It serves as a source for experiments It specifies the sequence of topics raised during teaching It reflects the implementation of the curriculum It helps to familiarize students with the history of science It helps parents to understand what their children have to study at home

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Cypriot physics teachers belonged to one of four main groups when it comes to the role of the textbook in teaching and learning (Table 4). In the view of the largest group, textbooks should be the main but not the only teaching material used in class. In contrast, teachers belonging to the second largest group envisaged the textbook as merely one of many other teaching materials used during teaching and learning in physics class. Thereby, both groups rejected the idea of the textbook having a unique and exclusive role in teaching. Table 4. Teachers’ view on the role of textbooks in class (source: authors). Statement The textbook should be the only curriculum material for teaching The textbook should be the main but not the only curriculum material for teaching The textbook should be one among many other curriculum materials for teaching There should be no textbook. It could be replaced by alternative ways of accessing school knowledge, such as teachers’ notes, the internet, school library, etc. Total

Frequency 2 73

Share in % 1.7 60.8

43

35.8

2

1.7

120

100.00

Finally, regarding the preferred design/format of an ideal textbook, teachers named several features: a. Content is linked to everyday life or to other subjects; b. Linguistic code of moderate specialization balancing highly specialized technical scientific code and vernacular language; c. Nonlinear pages are part of the textbook; d. Important content is highlighted; e. Large variety of images and diagrams, many experiments and other empirical activities as well as various assessment methods and historical references. Regarding the compatibility of an ideal textbook with the curriculum, teachers either highlighted the requirement of complete consistency with (55%) or advocated for a relative independence from the curriculum (45%). The x2 method was employed to identify possible correlations between the extent and the way teachers used the textbook in their teaching with their personal traits (demographics and pedagogic views). A total of five traits displayed statistically significant relationships (p > 0.05). Gender proved to be the first personal trait with impact on textbook usage. The only significant correlation was that female expressed more often the view that a textbook should have a limited number of experiments and other empirical activities as their male colleagues did (x2 = 4.2; p < 0.05; df = 1).

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The second trait was age. Younger physics teachers (25–30 years old) seemed to believe stronger in the use of traditional teaching methods and techniques as compared to their more senior colleagues (x2 = 7; p < 0.05; df = 2). This shows the effect of inservice training on the transmission of a progressive pedagogic discourse. Furthermore, younger teachers used the textbook most of the teaching time in class and were, thus, more dependent on the textbook (x2 = 7.2; p < 0.05; df = 2). Regarding teaching experience, the third personal trait exhibiting a statistically significant relationship, less experienced teachers exhibited more traditional attitudes towards teaching and learning in general than their more experienced colleagues (x2 = 7.7; p < 0.05; df = 2). In addition, experienced upper secondary physics teachers (11–30 years of teaching experience) saw the textbook as less important for lesson planning than their colleagues with a more limited (0–5 years) teaching experience (x2 = 3.8; p < 0.05; df = 1). The latter group also tends to be driven more often or nearly always by the textbook when structuring and sequencing teaching (x2 = 9.6; p < 0.05; df = 4). Overall, lower secondary teachers indicated that they used the textbook most of their teaching time, thus, more frequently as their colleagues working at upper secondary level (x2 = 4.0; p < 0.05; df = 1). Bearing in mind that it is usually the younger and less experienced teachers who tend to work in lower secondary schools, this finding is a clear indication of the negative relationship between teaching experience and the level of teachers’ dependence on the textbook. In a similar vein, less experienced lower and upper secondary teachers (1–5 years) reported to set homework more often or continuously from the textbook (x2 = 10.5; p < 0.05; df = 4). Based on the above correlations, less experienced teachers seem to exhibit a higher level of dependence on the textbook during both teaching and planning. In full compliance with this conclusion, it was also found that teachers with less experience in upper secondary schools (1–10 years) gave higher priority to the use of the textbook as a source of images, diagrams, and visual materials in general than their more experienced colleagues (x2 = 7.8; p < 0.05; df = 1). However, more experienced teachers who teach physics in upper secondary schools attributed higher priority to the use of the textbook as a tool for determining the sequence of topics to be taught (x2 = 5.7; p < 0.05; df = 1). They also tended to consider the use of the textbook as a means of reflecting on the implementation of the curriculum (x2 = 8.2; p < 0.005; df = 1). The fourth trait is higher academic qualifications. The vast majority of physics teachers with no postgraduate studies tended to use the textbook in their classes for most of the teaching time, while only very few teachers with a master’s or PhD degree did so (x2 = 10.9; p < 0.001; df = 1). Moreover, teachers holding a master’s or PhD degree showed a greater tendency to enrich the textbook with additional activities and material from other external resources (x2 = 6.0; p < 0.05; df = 4). In other words, holding a post-graduate diploma makes physics teachers more confident in becoming more independent from the science textbook while teaching. Lastly, teachers’ pedagogical views constitute the fifth personal trait of statistical relevance. Teachers with more traditional pedagogical views set homework based on the textbook much more often than their colleagues following a constructivist approach (x2 = 10.7; p < 0.05; df = 4), attributed higher priority to the textbook both in class and for planning (x2 = 6.9; p < 0.05; df = 1), and used the textbook in class most of the teaching time (x2 = 6.7; p < 0.01; df = 1). On the other hand, teachers following

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mainly a constructivist approach tended not to particularly encourage their students to use the textbook in class (x2 = 19.6; p < 0.001; df = 4) and viewed more often the textbook as a means reflecting the implementation of the curriculum (x2 = 3.9; p < 0.05; df = 1). Therefore, it could be argued that teachers having more traditional pedagogical views tend to rely more on the textbook as a resource for preparing their daily lessons while teachers with constructivist views use it more as a resource reflecting the general directions of the curriculum.

4 Discussion and Conclusions In general, Cypriot physics teachers plan and conduct their everyday teaching quite independently from the one and only state approved school textbook. Thereby, more than eight out of ten teachers use the textbook either directly or indirectly less than half of teaching time in class. However, the vast majority believes that the textbook should be the main but not the only accessible teaching material. Studies from Australia (Horsley 2010), Japan (Roth et al. 2006), Chile (Contreras 2007), and Pakistan (Mohammad and Kumari 2007) diagnosed similar relative independence of science teachers from the textbook. Therefore, despite the fact that in the highly centralized Cypriot education system the textbook is meant to be one of the most influential tools in standardizing the teaching process (Apple 1982), in practice, teachers cancel this effect by not particularly relying on this source in their everyday teaching. It is characteristic that only a small minority of teachers regards the textbook as a tool for implementing the curriculum. However, this seems to be a more general perception since almost half of the teachers believe that an ideal textbook should have relative independence from the officially approved curriculum. This perception allows teachers to implement in their classes personalized enacted versions of the official curriculum. The vast majority of the physics teachers tend to use the textbook very selectively and only as a source of test items for student assessment, as a reference material for study at home or as a source of examples and visual material for demonstrations during their lessons. These findings are validated by similar results presented in international studies (cf. Cook and Tulip 1992; Laws and Horsley 1992; DiGisi and Willet 1995; Lubben et al. 2003). This selective use of the textbook could be regarded as a strategy of the teachers for buffering their teaching from the external pressure of national examinations and from parent demand to comply with the curricular standards, thus, maintaining their professional autonomy. In other words, the textbook is mainly used only for those aspects (e.g., assessment and homework) that schools are accountable to external actors (i.e., the state and the parents). Moreover, in full accordance with the aforementioned conclusions, the majority of Cypriot physics teachers were found to support the idea that the textbook should be the main but not the only teaching material in class, while a significant part of them (almost three in ten) believe that the textbook should be the only teaching material. However, not all teachers are this independent from the textbook. The most significant factors that tend to differentiate teachers as far as their level of dependence from the textbook is concerned, are their pedagogical views (traditionalists vs.

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constructivists), their teaching experience, and whether they have completed postgraduate studies or not. Specifically, it was found that teachers holding more traditional pedagogical views, who also happen to be the ones with less teaching experience and having no extra academic qualifications other than their undergraduate degree, tend to be more dependent upon the textbook for planning and conducting their everyday teaching. On the other hand, more experienced teachers, the majority of who adopt more constructivist views, as well as teachers with additional academic qualifications use the textbook in a more broad and strategic way, considering it more as a resource indicating the general curricular directions. These findings indicate that independence from the textbook goes hand in hand with the increase of teachers’ confidence in their teaching capabilities and growing professionalism due to either longer experience or further studies. Other studies also confirmed the decrease of the dependence on the textbook as a result of the accumulated teaching experience (Ball and Feiman-Nemser 1988; Kauffman 2005; Silver et al. 2009). Similarly, studies examining the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and their reliance on textbooks for teaching have shown that teachers characterized by higher levels of self-efficacy are more likely to adapt or even ignore the textbook approach, while exactly the opposite is the case when teachers suffer from low selfefficacy (Stipek et al. 2001; Jamieson-Proctor and Byrne 2008). Moreover, the more obedient use of the textbook seems to coincide with more traditional pedagogic views. This can be explained taking into account two factors. On the one hand, textbooks as elements of the learning environment by their very nature lead to lecture-based teaching and to tight student control (all students follow simultaneously the learning path implied by the text). On the other hand, the physics textbooks employed nowadays in Cyprus display a very traditional pedagogic approach with an emphasis on delivering the scientific content without few opportunities for inquiry-based leaning activities. Finally, Cypriot physics teachers seem to prefer the textbook to be of moderate specialization in terms of content (linking specialized scientific knowledge with everyday life) or expressive codes, facilitating student learning by highlighting the important parts of the syllabus and providing them with the widest possible variety of alternatives, such as experiments, empirical activities, assessment methods, and historical references. Only female teachers preferred textbooks featuring a limited number of experiments and other empirical activities. Perhaps this differentiation reflects a technophobic approach by the female physics teachers as far as the experimental teaching of physics is concerned (Mallow et al. 2010). The conclusions drawn from this study show that textbooks, even in a highly centralized, small, and homogeneous system, such as that of Cyprus, while still remaining a focal point of science classrooms, are by no means the decisive factor shaping the way scientific knowledge is recontextualized in schools. The most crucial factor for this is the way physics teachers selectively use and renegotiate approaches embodied in science textbooks. Based on their own experience and pedagogical views, teachers produce their own personalized local curricula in every classroom. Bearing this in mind, one could see that the future belongs to pluralistic textbooks that could be used along with other teaching materials, such as web-based digital material, teachers’

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personal notes, etc., and incorporating many options and pedagogic approaches. The one size fits everything approach is highly likely to be sooner or later abandoned.

References M. Apple, Education and Power (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Boston, 1982) D. Ball, S. Feiman-Nemser, Using textbooks and teachers’ guides: a dilemma for beginning teachers and teacher educators. Curric. Inq. 18(4), 401–423 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1080/ 03626784.1988.11076050 B. Bernstein, The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse: Class, Codes & Control (Routledge, London, 1990) A. Bowzer, Identity and Curricular Construction: A Study of Teacher Interaction with Mathematics Curricula of Two Types (University of Missouri, Columbia, 2008) M.W. Brown, Toward a theory of curriculum and design use. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Diego (2004) O. Chavez, From the Textbook to the Enacted Curriculum: Textbook Use in the Middle School Mathematics Classroom (University of Missouri, Columbia, 2006) J. Chen, How are Textbooks Used in the Middle Schools? Republic of China 22nd Session of Science Education Academic Seminar (2006), pp. 692–698. S. Contreras, From the Thinking to the Action: A Critical Analysis of the Use of Science Textbooks in Chilean Secondary Education. Critical Analysis of School Science Textbooks Hammamet (Tunisia), 7–10 Feb 2007 (2007), pp. 1144–1151. A. Cook, D. Tulip, The importance of selected textbook features to science teachers. Res. Sci. Educ. 22(1), 91–100 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02356883 L. DiGisi, J. Willet, What high school biology teachers say about their textbook use: a descriptive study. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 32(2), 123–142 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660320204 L. Fan, J. Chen, Y. Zhu, X. Qiu, J. Hu, Textbook use within and beyond mathematics classrooms: a study of 12 Secondary Schools in Kunming and Fuzhou of China, in How Chinese Learn Mathematics. Perspectives from Insiders. ed. by L. Fan, N. Wong, J. Cai, S. Li (World Scientific, Singapore, 2004), pp. 228–261 D. Freeman, A. Porter, Do textbooks dictate the content of mathematics instruction in elementary schools? Am. Educ. Res. J. 26(3), 403–421 (1989). https://doi.org/10.3102/ 00028312026003403 A. Grouws, S. Smith, NAEP findings on the preparation and practices of mathematics teachers, in Results from the Seventh Mathematics Assessment of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. ed. by E.A. Silver, P.A. Kennedy (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Reston, 2000), pp. 107–139 L. Haggarty, B. Pepin, An investigation of mathematics textbooks and their use in English, French and German classrooms: who gets an opportunity to learn what? Br. Edu. Res. J. 28 (4), 567–590 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192022000005832 M. Horsley, Investing in Classroom Teaching and Learning Resources. Access and Equity in Providing Classroom Teaching and Learning Materials in Australian Schools (Australian Publishers Association, Sydney, 2010) R. Jamieson-Proctor, C. Byrne, Primary teachers’ beliefs about the use of mathematics textbooks, in Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia. ed. by M. Goos, R. Brown, K. Makar (MERGA, Adelaide, 2008), pp. 295– 302

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D. Kauffman, Curriculum Support and Curriculum Neglect: Second-Year Teachers’ Experiences. NGT Working Paper (Project on the Next Generation of Teachers, Cambridge, 2005) V. Koulaidis, K. Dimopoulos, Pedagogic practices in the Greek school: readings of school textbooks, in Pedagogic Practices: Education, Research and Policy. ed. by V. Koulaidis, A. Tsatsaroni (Metaixmio, Athens, 2010), pp. 51–122. ( (in Greek)) V. Koulaidis, A. Tsatsaroni, A pedagogical analysis of science textbooks: how can we proceed? Res. Sci. Educ. 26(1), 55–71 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02356963 K. Laws, M. Horsley, Educational equity? Textbooks in New South Wales Government and Non-Government secondary schools. Curric. Perspect. 12(3), 7–15 (1992) F. Lubben, B. Campbell, C. Kasanda, H. Kapenda, N. Gaoseb, K. Utji, Teachers’ use of textbooks: practice in Namibian science classrooms. Educ. Stud. 29(2/3), 109–125 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1080/03055690303276 J. Mallow, H. Kastrup, F.B. Bryant, N. Hislop, R. Shefner, M. Udo, Science anxiety, science attitudes, and gender: interviews from a binational study. J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 19(4), 356– 369 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-010-9205-z R. Mohammad, R. Kumari, Effective use of textbooks: a neglected aspect of education in Pakistan. J. Educ. Int. Dev. 3(1), 1–12 (2007) T. Remillard, Examining key concepts in research on teachers’ use of mathematics curricula. Rev. Educ. Res. 75(2), 211–246 (2005). https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543075002211 R.E. Reys, B.J. Reys, R. Lapan, G. Holliday, D. Wasman, Assessing the impact of standardsbased middle grades mathematics curriculum materials on student achievement. J. Res. Math. Educ. 34(1), 74–95 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-010-9205-z J. Roth et al., Teaching Science in Five Countries: Results From the TIMSS 1999 Video Study (NCES 2006–2011) (U.S. Government Printing Office: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, 2006) A. Silver, H. Ghousseini, Y. Charalambous, V. Mills, Exploring the curriculum implementation plateau: an instructional perspective, in Mathematics Teachers at Work: Connecting Curriculum Materials and Classroom Instruction. ed. by J.T. Remillard, B.A. HerbelEisenmann, G.M. Lloyd (Routledge, New York, 2009), pp. 245–265 A. Sosniak, S. Stodolsky, Teachers and textbooks: materials use in four fourth-grade classrooms. Elem. Sch. J. 93(3), 249–275 (1993) D.J. Stipek, K.B. Givvin, J.M. Salmon, V.L. MacGyvers, Teachers’ beliefs and practices related to mathematics instruction. Teach. Teach. Educ. 17(2), 213–226 (2001) E. Tarr, O Chávez, E. Reys, J. Reys, From the written to the enacted curricula: the intermediary role of middle school mathematics teachers in shaping students’ opportunity to learn. Sch. Sci. Math. 106(4), 191–201 (2006) I.R. Weiss, E. Banilower, K. McMahon, P.S. Smith, Report of the 2000 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education (Horizon Research, Chapel Hill, 2001)

Teachers Designing Their Lessons: The Complex Stage of Educational Resource Selection Anita Messaoui(&) S2HEP, ENS Lyon/ACTé, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, France [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter provides an analysis of the documentation work enacted by an English teacher designing a new lesson for sixth grade students in France. The overall goal of the study was to understand which knowledge is involved in the process of resource selection and how it participates in teacher professional development. The application of the documentational approach to didactics along with the conceptualization in action theory served as grounds to the study. Thereby, the documentation expertise refers to the teacher’s interaction with resources, including their selection. Data collection consisted of recorded lesson preparation, interviews, recording of resources used and produced. The main results show five types of knowledge involved: knowledge of subject content, didactic knowledge, curriculum knowledge, knowledge of students, and knowledge of the informational environment. While it offers valuable insights, the research on educational resource selection remains a case study and requires further and broader work. Keywords: Documentation expertise
Information literacy
Lesson designing
Teacher professional development
L2 English teaching

1 Introduction In France, a major curriculum reform for middle school was implemented in September 2016. The two main changes were a new curriculum structure based on a three-year cycle instead of a one-year cycle and the introduction of new content to be taught, such as algorithms in mathematics (Gueudet et al. 2017). Some of the expected outcomes are more collective work to implement the curriculum and the design of new educational resources. In addition, over the last decades, French teachers established a new trend by using computers as a personal tool for preparing their lessons and by looking for resources on the Internet more frequently (MEN 2017). They use institutional or personal websites, but also digital textbooks (Messaoui 2016). Moreover, a lot of teachers, such as foreign language teachers, use YouTube on a daily basis. The French national research program ReVEA (Ressources vivantes pour l’enseignement et l’apprentissage, Living Resources for Teaching and Learning, 2014–18) analyzed this process of change and its possible impact. Thereby, the program followed three main objectives: description of the changes in resources mobilized by teachers; modeling the © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 279–293, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_23

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life cycle of a learning resource; and, observation of how teachers’ work changes. The program focused on the subjects English, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and industrial and technology science at secondary level (students aged 11–18 years). The participants were in-service teachers. Within the reformed context and under the circumstances of increasing digital practices, interaction with resources requires teachers to develop various skills. The overall goal of the author’s research is to examine how teachers develop their information literacy skills when they interact with resources to define what might be considered expertise in this field. This chapter focuses solely on the process of resource selection during lesson planning. In order to define the required skills and their development, the chapter explores two research questions. On the one hand, it aims to explore which knowledge guides teachers’ activities during the selection of resources. On the other hand, it aims to understand how the selection process interacts with lesson designing. Three main fields of theoretical framework serve to address these two research questions, namely activity analysis (Vergnaud 2009), didactics (Gueudet et al. 2012), and information seeking (Rouet and Tricot 1996). Following the theoretical framework, the chapter offers a brief overview of the research methods, introduces the findings and their discussion, and closes with some conclusions.

2 Theoretical Framework Three aspects constitute the theoretical framework underlying this chapter. First, we present the concept of scheme as a conceptual tool to analyze teachers’ activities and highlight knowledge involved in these activities. Subsequently, we proceed to viewing our questions within the framework of the documentation approach to didactics and pedagogical design capacity. Finally, we reposition the process of resource selection within the set of skills of information literacy. 2.1

Conceptualization in Action

Documentation is an important part of every teacher’s work. Therefore, further analysis of the information literacy skill development, with special emphasis on the professional knowledge involved, is necessary. Most models of teachers’ professional knowledge (Shulman 1987; Park and Oliver 2008) are static and do not consider knowledge in a developmental way. Pastré et al. (2006) proposed a model that provides a framework to analyze teachers’ professional knowledge development. Vergnaud (2009) distinguished two sorts of knowledge: operational (the ability to do something) and predicative knowledge (the ability to explain what one does). Operational knowledge, also called knowledge-in-action, is richer and more complex than predicative knowledge. The author argues that operational knowledge is both built in action and leads action. The concept of scheme is at the core of this approach and enables the understanding of how knowledge is developed. Scheme as a concept originates from Piaget’s work. However, Vergnaud (2009, p. 88) refines the definition of scheme by pairing it with a given class of situations:

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“[…] a scheme is the invariant organization of activity for a certain class of situations”. Scheme drives the activity to achieve a type of task. Vergnaud (2009) identified four components of a scheme. The intentional aspect is the first component of a scheme and it posits it following a main goal and intentions. The second component–the generative aspect–involves rules of action, control, and information, which are the most observable part of a scheme. Action is guided by the operational invariants, which constitute the third component. The two types of operational invariants are concepts-in-action (assertions considered as relevant for a class of situations) and theorems-in-action (assertions considered as true for a class of situations). Lastly, the possibilities of inferences are the ability to adapt the action to the right situation; this represents the computational aspect–the fourth component of a scheme. The combination of these four elements provides an analytical framework to explore the documentation work and understand the development of teachers’ professional knowledge. 2.2

Documentational Approach to Didactics and Pedagogical Design Capacity

The scheme concept is also part of the documentational approach to didactics (Gueudet and Trouche 2012), introduced to study the interactions between teacher and resources in a didactical perspective. It combines the instrumental approach (Rabardel 2002) and a new way of defining the concept of document in the digital century (Pedauque 2006). Interactions between teachers and resources carry the name documentation work, which is composed of actions, such as searching for and finding resources, adding resources to one’s resource systems, adapting and altering resources, and, of course, selecting a resource (Gueudet and Trouche 2012). According to Rabardel (2002), the transformation of an artifact into an instrument implies appropriation processes. Gueudet and Trouche (2012) adapted this model to the appropriation of resources by teachers. All the resources produced, collected, and recombined by teachers make up their resource system. Teacher’s interaction with resources combines two processes, namely the instrumentation (influence of resources on teachers’ activity) and the instrumentalization. The latter refers to the creative adaptation of resources by a teacher. Instrumentation and instrumentalization lies at the core of the documentational genesis: The teacher, in her documentation work, for a given class of situations, draws on a set of resources of various natures. Introducing a new vocabulary, we consider that this set of resources bears, for this class of situations, a document, within a documentational genesis. The documentational genesis jointly develops a new resource (made up of a set of resources selected, modified and recombined) and a scheme of utilization of this resource (Gueudet and Trouche 2012, p. 27).

Recent developments of the documentational approach to didactics focus on knowledge implied in the teaching design process (Pepin et al. 2017). Pedagogical design capacity (PDC), a concept coined by Brown (2009), refers to the teacher’s ability to employ personal resources as well as resources embedded in the materials themselves to make productive changes to curriculum materials. For Pepin et al.

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(2017), these changes might be produced by the documentational genesis. They refine Brown’s (2009) point of view and propose both a new definition and components for PDC: “Teacher design capacity can be described as the creation of something new (e.g., combining existing and novel elements) as a deliberate/conscious act in order to reach a certain (didactical) aim” (Pepin et al. 2017, p. 801). There are three components inherent to teacher design capacity: (1) orientation, goal or point(s) of reference for the design; (2) a set of design principles which might be firm or flexible; and, (3) a reflection in action. Our hypothesis is that the expertise in the process of selecting a resource is a part of teacher design capacity, as teachers must first have selected the resources before combining novel elements. The next section described the process of resource selection in light of the models of information seeking. 2.3

Information Literacy and Information Seeking

The third and final part of the theoretical framework concerns information seeking. The standards and framework for information literacy in higher education published by the Association for College and Research Libraries (ACRL 2000, 2015) defines information literacy as “[…] a set of abilities requiring individuals to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (ACRL 2000, p. 2). While this definition offers landmarks, it is insufficient to really understand the process of selecting a resource. In a literature review, Dinet et al. (2012) compared different models of information retrieval. While most models failed to articulate an information retrieval process, the Evaluation Selection Processing (ESP) model by Rouet and Tricot (1996) viewed information retrieval as a planned, metacognitive, controlled, and regulated activity. The ESP model rests on a simplified version of Guthrie’s (1988) cycle vision and prescribes three steps. The first step is the evaluation of the required information during which the representation of individual goals occurs. The second step consists of information selection, while the third and last step covers the processing of information (i.e., the content is assimilated). Following the third step, a new cycle begins with the comparison of the information processed with the representation of the goal. Three possible scenarios emerge: (1) the selected information matches the aims and the process stops; (2) the selected information matches the goal only partially, and leads to an alteration of the original goal prior to the continuation of the research; or (3) the information selected does not match the goal and the research strategy has to be changed. According to the ESP model, the selection process is strongly tied to the identification of required information, the representation of the goals, and to the evaluation of processed information (what is understood from the selected information). Following this method, the relevance criterion seems to be crucial when deciding on selecting a particular resource. Based on an exhaustive literature review, Mizzaro (1997) defined relevance as the compatibility of the information a resource carries with the user. This depends on the three categories content, use, and context. Diekema and Olsen (2012) also underline the importance of relevance in teachers’ information management practices. But what can help teachers to decide what is relevant? Knowledge about the content, the use and the context might help the teacher to define the relevance of a resource.

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In sum, the theoretical framework of this chapter contains the combination of three different approaches to analyze knowledge mobilized during the stage of resource selection. Using the scheme concept is crucial to characterize knowledge involved in the stage of resource selection. Selecting the relevant information is part of information literacy and, according to the ESP model, the stage of resource selection depends on the individual’s capacity to evaluate the required information and process the selected information. Our hypothesis is that the knowledge guiding teachers’ actions during resource selection assists them in determining each resource’s relevance. In consequence, the operationalization rests on the observation of a lesson preparation situation. This enables the examination of what part the stage of resource selection plays in the pedagogical design capacity. The next section contains detailed information on the methods.

3 Methods Resource selection is a common task teachers carry out during lesson designing. Exploring the way teachers select resources implies a dual perspective that considers both what stakeholders related about actions and what these action are made of. Qualitative methods served to answer the research questions. 3.1

Reflective Investigation

The methods applied in this study rest on Gueudet and Trouche’s (2012) four principles of reflective investigation. The first principle is a reflective follow-up of the documentation work. The teacher is involved in the data collection, and the follow-up tools put the teacher in a reflective stance. The main part of the documentation work is routine and teachers are not really aware of what happens. Therefore, tools developed in the reflective investigation (e.g., instructions to a twin) guide teachers to be aware of how they interact with resources. The second principle is a long-term follow-up that is necessary to distinguish the stable and contextual elements. This principle is essential for the identification of the operational invariants. Measuring the development of knowledge requires time, that is why the data collection happened over the course of two years. The third principle is an in- and out-of-class follow-up. As documentation work may take place anywhere, teachers are observed or accompanied at school, at home, and even in the cyber space whenever they are online. The fourth principle aims to record a broad collection of the material resources, including videos of the teacher’s activity, interviews, as well as resources produced and used by the teacher. It is crucial to stress that the methods chosen enable the goal to collect data about teachers’ everyday activities. Enacting the four above-described principles implies indepth follow-ups with a small number of teachers. The main objective is to achieve case studies with a focus on various details of teacher activity.

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3.2

Data Collection

Following an exploratory study (Messaoui 2016) in a French middle school based on a questionnaire and a small number of interviews, three teachers–two teaching English as a second language, one mathematics teacher–were selected for in-depth follow-up. The sampling was based on the subjects studied in the ReVEA project. Teachers’ expertise concerning the interactions with resources might vary depending on the subject taught. Another criterion was the educational level the teachers worked in. From the perspective of teachers as subjects, periods of change are most favorable to observe the development of professional knowledge. Therefore, it was necessary that teachers had, during the empirical data collection, new lessons to plan in order to observe how selecting a resource was involved in pedagogical design capacity. Finally, the last two criteria were age and teaching experience. Throughout the study, the taught subject was the observed variable, so we chose teachers of similar age and with similar experience. The same data collection protocol was proposed in each case. The researcher signed a methodological agreement (Sabra 2016) with every teacher to guarantee their involvement. During the first year, an interview along with a guided resources tour was conducted at the teacher’s home. This was a semi-directed interview with instructions to a twin, during which the teacher presented her resources, explained how her resource system was organized, and described her habits connected to resources during lesson designing. In the aftermath of the interview, an initial profile was drawn up. As a next step, the teacher recorded herself–alone and at home–designing a lesson for a new topic. She was required to record all her actions on the computer (Fig. 1), and, at the same time, to explain her actions. The software Camtasia served to record the screen-capture video. Along with the video, the teacher handed over to the researcher all digital and printed resources produced for the lesson. One year later, the teacher recorded the revision of the preparation of the same lesson. Then the implementation of the lesson in class was filmed by the researcher to observe how the teacher used the resources produced with students. The self screen-capture video provided a lot of data collected in the teacher’s natural environment. It was not an exercise in lesson preparation imposed by the researcher, but a real lesson she had to prepare for her students. Even if it was artificial to describe her actions while planning the lesson, such data collection is close to the teacher’s daily activities, and the method can be qualified as ecologic. Furthermore, the video enables the analysis of her actions and to notice and take note whenever the teacher does something she does not explain. Despite the advantages, the method also bears some challenges. First, the quality of the data is variable. While some teachers described in detail what they were thinking, others offered few explanations. Whenever teachers offered scarce information, inferences were made from the observation of actions. Second, the self screen-capture video is perfectly adapted to work on digital resources, but it is difficult to capture work done with paper resources, especially if the teacher is not talkative. The follow-up is merely concluded with Audrey, one of the participating teachers. In consequence, this chapter focuses solely on Audrey’s case study.

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Fig. 1. Self screen-capture video (source: author).

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Analysis

Data collected along the principles of reflective investigation is heterogeneous, as audio files, videos, transcriptions, digital files, websites, paper-based work, and extracts of textbooks constitute the corpus. Therefore, dealing with the corpus requires the ability to store and analyze diverse types and large amounts of data. Initially, the software Sonal was chosen to transcribe, code, and store the audio tracks of interviews. However, challenges arose from the variety of data formats, reason why data analysis carried on with the qualitative analysis software Atlas.ti. This software enabled the direct coding of the individual videos without previous transcription. In a first step, the video files were cut into sections. In a subsequent step, keywords helped to describe each section. Lastly, the coding process took place. Scanned papers or digital files were also added and coded. Coding was based on information literacy skills, the type of resources mobilized by teachers, and the components of the scheme. Codes were grouped into three categories and were developed during the exploratory stage of the study only to be enriched following the analysis of the first data. The first group described the components of information literacy referring to resource selection. The second group contained the different kinds of resources mobilized (e.g., textbooks, websites, teacher’s resources). The last category clustered the components of a scheme (e.g., Vergnaud 2009), excepting operational invariants. Each teacher has their own operational invariants. In the analysis, they were identified in relation to the content (narratives and actions) associated with information literacy skills. Despite the powerful features of Atlas.ti, data continued to be scattered due to its nature. In consequence, the IFÉ team component of ReVEA led a project to create the digital platform AnA.doc (Alturkmani et al. 2019). AnA.doc is a way to compare video and other materials collected by the research team for the different case studies. Its goal was to store and share raw data collected for the ReVEA project, context of data collection and interpretations made by the researchers. AnA.doc is structured in three levels, namely situation, webdocument, and glossary. In line with Vergnaud’s (2009) theory, data of the first level is clustered by situation. Each data collection situation is described (methodology, goals, theoretical framework, research questions, context), stored, and made available at the same place with all the data linked to it. The webdocument level is attached to one situation and provides analysis for a specific research question, the answer to which is supported by short extracts from data associated with the situation. Thus, AnA.doc is a support to store, organize, and analyze the data. 3.4

Audrey

Audrey is a 34-year-old English teacher. After graduating in English literature and civilization at university, she moved to England for three years where she taught French. Once returned to France, in 2007 she passed her CAPES (Certificat d’Aptitude au Professorat de l’Enseignement du Second degré, Certificate of Secondary Education Professional Qualification) for English, and, after an internship at a high school, she prepared for and obtained the agrégation, a competition for accessing higher positions in France’s education system.

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Audrey began her career as a substitute teacher at different schools and then she settled in a suburban secondary school specialized on students with special needs for five years. In fact, when Audrey was transferred to the C secondary school in September 2015, she already was an experienced teacher. Nevertheless, she taught sixth-graders for the first time, reason why the topic present continuous was chosen for follow-up. The curriculum prescribes this topic to be taught at the end of the school year. The first self screen-capture video (40 min.) was made at the end of May 2016, just before the reform. In September, the guided resources tour was organized and the second self-capture video screen was recorded in May 2017 (duration 55 min.). Regarding the resources she uses, Audrey does not approve of her new school’s textbook (Round the Corner), but she works with it occasionally because students receive it and the associated audio material is easy to obtain and to use. She prefers another textbook collection (Enjoy English) for which audio material is unfortunately not available. Audrey also uses a lot of digital resources, such as YouTube videos, Audiolingua files for audio material, and ISL collective for other teaching resources. Moreover, she has a large collection of self-designed educational games.

4 Results This section presents Audrey’s scheme selecting a resource as well as the relations between the selection process and the pedagogical design capacity. 4.1

The Scheme ‘Selecting a Resource’

When Audrey prepared the lesson on present continuous for the first time (video 1), she began by explaining the educational goals of the sequence, then she looked for resources in textbooks, and, finally, she searched for videos on YouTube. One year later, when she prepared the lesson for the second time (video 2), she dedicated a third of her time to reorganizing and adapting existing resources, a third to re-trace a video on YouTube, and the remaining one third to seek out complementary resources. In both videos, the action of selecting a resource occurred numerous times, and components of the scheme selecting a resource could be described. In this case, the scheme selecting a resource is associated with the class of situations prepare a lesson. Regarding the intentional aspect, the main goal of this scheme is to choose resources that can respond to Audrey’s information needs. These information needs, however, were not formulated directly. At the beginning of video 1 and video 2, Audrey explained the lesson’s learning objectives (e.g., understand the difference between simple present and present continuous) and the type of resources she needed (i.e., authentic resources, an exercise sheet she had produced the previous year, or textbooks). Overall, she had an idea which kinds of resources she needed from these elements. Regarding the generative aspect, rules of action, control, and information were deduced from the repetition of resource selection in the two videos. Corresponding to the ESP model, three steps were identified (see Fig. 2). The first step concerned the content of the resource. Audrey identified the content by reading the textbooks,

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Fig. 2. Rules of action, control, and information (source: author).

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listening to the audio tracks or watching the videos. This represented three inferences for the same scheme. While discovering the content, Audrey commented on what she was reading, listening to or watching. These comments are one possible way to evaluate the content in light of both the educational objectives and the teacher’s information needs. Content evaluation was considered concluded in the moment when Audrey decided to keep or discard the resource. Resource selection depended on the value that Audrey attributed to each resource. Audrey’s arguments to justify her choice of educational media offer insight into operational invariants leading her actions. For example, Audrey looks for fun resources because she believes that fun improves student learning. Audrey considers this assertion valid and one that influences her choices. In addition, she also wants students to use the vocabulary acquired during previous lessons. Audrey considers this assertion to be a relevant influence of her choices as well. Both arguments are examples of operational invariants. Behind each argument found in Audrey’s narrative, operational knowledge was identified and classified into five types: subject knowledge, didactic knowledge, knowledge of the curriculum, knowledge of students, and knowledge of the informational environment: Subject knowledge covers all the knowledge regarding teaching content. For Audrey, this covers the English language (grammar, conjugation, pronunciation, vocabulary, etc.), and the Anglo-Saxon civilization. This category of knowledge helps her to select resources in light of the educational objective(s). Didactic knowledge refers to progression (i.e., content taught before and after the sequence) or learning strategies (e.g., adapting exercises to educational objectives). Curriculum knowledge comprises national (e.g., an audio extract must last less than 3 min) or European (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) rules and guidelines. It also includes knowledge on textbooks, supplied curriculum resources, educational websites, such as Audiolingua, or other resources that Audrey usually consults. Knowledge of students encompasses what Audrey learned by experience in class about students in general, and her sixth-grade group in particular (e.g., attention capacity, frequent difficulties, etc.). Along her personal career path, she developed beliefs, such as students learn better if they have fun. Knowledge of the informational environment enables Audrey to act in the informational world. Knowledge of information sources is needed to access the right resource (e.g., YouTube to find a video or textbooks for an exercise) and can help her to ascertain the reliability of individual resources. The interplay of these five types of knowledge is necessary to evaluate potential resources. As Audrey needs to consider a lot of constraints, she falls back on broad knowledge that is probably organized along a hierarchy of criteria to determine the value of each resource. 4.2

Role of Resource Selection for Pedagogical Design Capacity

In the first part of the findings section, the focus was on the professional knowledge involved in the resource selection process. This section will explore pedagogical design

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capacity. When teachers prepare a new lesson, they design the plan, decide on content, progression, and assessment. Design processes transform teachers’ ideas into materiality along the process of documentational genesis. Audrey’s example illustrates both instrumentation and instrumentalization. Instrumentation refers to the process where resources transforms Audrey’s plans. After having begun her lesson preparation with the list of student learning goals, Audrey looked for audio material. She found a dialogue in the class textbook material. However, while she listened to it, she commented that the passage was adapted to work not only on present continuous, but also on personal pronouns. For this reason, she decided to add this new learning goal to her initial list. The folder containing all her materials indeed contained specific activities on personal pronouns. In this case, the interaction with the resource impacted the lesson planning process. Audrey adapted her lesson’s educational objectives in such a way that the selected resource was used as profitably as possible. The second process–instrumentalization–refers to teacher activities aiming at resource transformation. Audrey’s documentation work illustrates this process. She selected the trailer of the movie Ratatouille on YouTube to add fun for her students to an oral activity of describing actions. The trailer is an authentic resource (i.e., not designed for teaching) prescribed by the curriculum standards. Initially, this resource was created with the business goal to promote the movie. Audrey added to it a learning objective and created an activity sheet to guide students in the comprehension of the trailer and the acquisition of the present continuous. Thus, she used the movie as learning material to describing actions. Hence, the selection process illustrates the documentational genesis. In the first case, the resource moved Audrey to add an additional learning goal to her previous planning. The audio track is a curricular resource which originates from textbook material (Round the Corner). However, the textbook task associates the audio track to both present continuous and personal pronouns. This is evidence that this resource was designed with specific learning intentions, which Audrey followed even being unaware of them while listening to the track. In the second case, the opposite thing happened, namely the teacher altered the educational resource. However, for this to happen, the resource must carry a certain potential. The main issue during the stage of resource selection is the ability to recognize the potentiality of a resource: What can I teach with the help of this resource? Answering this question depends on the knowledge mobilized in the scheme selecting a resource. Compared to the component of teacher design capacity, the expression of an intention and the reflection in action were identified in the stage of selecting a resource.

5 Discussion The research described in this chapter bears some limitations. Firstly, the study presented in this chapter forms part of a doctoral project on the development of teachers’ information literacy skills through the documentation work. For the purposes of this chapter, we isolated the stage of resource selection. However, this process is intertwined with the other tasks of the documentation work, which were excluded for the purposes of this chapter. Secondly, the results are based merely on one of the three case studies. Audrey’s case study is not representative of all French teachers. However, she is a regular teacher, a

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woman between 30 and 40 years of age, with around 15 years of teaching experience, and currently working in an average school. Thirdly, reflective investigation requires the full involvement of teachers. Teachers who agreed to be followed must remain involved for a long period of time and participate in data collection. With these limitations in mind, the results described above show that five types of knowledge guide the teacher during the stage of resource selection. Furthermore, they also point revealed that the documentational genesis is implied in the teacher design capacity. Regarding the types of knowledge guiding teachers during resource selection, we described the scheme selecting a resource for the class of situations prepare a lesson. Both Audrey’s narratives and the observation of her actions on the recording enabled the deduction of rules of action, control, and information as well as the delimitation of operational invariants. The five types of operational invariants, which are knowledge in action, are knowledge of subject content, didactic knowledge, curriculum knowledge, knowledge of students, and knowledge of the informational environment. They enter the process of defining the goal of information retrieval and evaluation of each resource’s relevance. Indeed, knowledge included in these categories is effectively used and transformed in action. For example, the use of a particular resource enriches Audrey’s knowledge of this resource. The rules of action identified concur with the ESP model (Rouet and Tricot 1996). For the stage of resource selection, expertise implies knowledge linked to the teaching experience, content taught, and informational environment. Research on interactions between teachers and resources (Pepin et al. 2013; Rocha et al. 2017) highlights the importance of the documentation work for professional knowledge, but leaves the question of information literacy, despite it being increasingly necessary to search, select, adapt, and transform resources in our digital world, unconsidered. Wang (2018) proposes to define documentation expertise for mathematics teachers as expertise in documentation work. This definition needs to be refined in light of the information seeking process. Furthermore, the majority of papers on teachers’ interaction with resources focuses on science and mathematics teachers. A case study with an English teacher is the opportunity to test the conceptual tools of the documentational approach to didactics in a new subject field. The results also highlight the dynamic nature of our model. Professional knowledge evolves with experience (Pastré et al. 2006). Despite several similarities, Audrey’s two videos recording during the preparation of her lessons one year apart also bear an essential difference. While the first video showed Audrey searching for new resources, the second video contains actions of her checking the existing resources to confirm the selection made the previous year. She used her experience of preparing the lesson and its enactment with students to re-evaluate the resources deciding to keep, reject, or transform them. Davis et al. (2011) confirmed that teachers not only adapt teaching materials based on their students’ knowledge. They also transform or enact teaching materials in a profound manner based on educational objectives. The example of documentational genesis given in this paper demonstrates, on the one hand, the dynamics of the resource selection process, and, on the other hand, the knowledge involved in the teacher design capacity. Pepin et al. (2017) defined components of teacher design capacity but not the knowledge that is involved in this. Thus, the knowledge identified for the stage of resource selection seems to help teachers in assessing a certain resource’s potential and imagining its usage.

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6 Conclusions Resource selection is part of lesson planning. This stage gathers various kinds of knowledge. This study showed that five categories of operational invariants provide landmarks which help teachers to decide on the relevance of a resource. Relevance seems to be the driving force of teachers’ resource selection. Regarding the design process, the formulation of an intention and reflection in action are shared points during resource selection. Moreover, the five categories of operational invariant also participate in the design process. Our results also illustrate the dynamics of this process, as teachers improve their knowledge while selecting resources for lesson designing. Future research will focus on the results obtained from the remaining two observed teachers. The relevance criterion is expected to uncover knowledge that guides teachers when looking for information during lesson designing. While this chapter only considered the stage of resource selection, the other skills implied in information literacy (i.e., needs, selection, evaluation, and usage) are likely to have contributed to the construction on what was considered to be relevant. Defining the field of teachers’ documentation expertise could help us better understand how teachers design their lessons and how this process bears upon their professional development.

References ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries), Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. (American Library Association (ALA), 2015), http://www.ala.org/acrl/ sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/infolit/Framework_ILHE.pdf M.D. Alturkmani, P. Daubias, C. Loisy, A. Messaoui, L. Trouche, Instrumenter les recherches sur le travail documentaire des enseignants: le projet AnA.doc. Education & didactique 13(2), 31–60 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4000/educationdidactique.3987 ACRL (Association of College & Research Libraries), Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education (Text) (American Library Association (ALA), 2000). http:// www.ala.org/acrl/standards/informationliteracycompetency M.W. Brown, The teacher-tool relationship, in Mathematics Teachers at Work: Connecting Curriculum Materials and Classroom Instruction. ed. by J. Remillard, B. HerbelEisennmann, G. Lloyd (Routledge, New York, 2009), pp. 17–36 E.A. Davis, C. Beyer, C.T. Forbes, S. Stevens, Understanding pedagogical design capacity through teachers’ narratives. Teach. Teach. Educ. 27(4), 797–810 (2011). https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.tate.2011.01.005 A.R. Diekema, W.M. Olsen, The notion of relevance in teacher information behavior. Proc. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 49(1), 1–9 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1002/meet.14504901202 J. Dinet, A. Chevalier, A. Tricot, Information search activity: an overview. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée/Eur. Rev. Appl. Psychol. 62(2), 49–62 (2012). https://doi.org/10. 1016/j.erap.2012.03.004 G. Gueudet, L. Bueno-Ravel, S. Modeste, L. Trouche, Curriculum in France: a national frame in transition, in International Perspectives on Mathematics Curriculum. ed. by C.S.D. Thompson, M.A. Huntley (Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, 2017), pp. 41–70 G. Gueudet, B. Pepin, L. Trouche (eds.), From Text to ‘Lived’ Resources. Mathematics Curriculum Materials and Teacher Development (Springer, Dordrecht, 2012), https://doi.org/ 10.1007/978-94-007-1966-8

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The New Status of Music in Brazilian Schools Since 2012 and the Role of Music Textbooks Guilherme Gabriel Ballande Romanelli(&) Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter is based on a keynote delivered during the 13th International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media that took place in Berlin in 2015. Its main objective is to understand music textbooks emplacement in the present Brazilian music education. In this scenario, music textbooks assume an important position as teaching support, especially among generalist teachers in pre-school and elementary school. Souza et al. (2009) systematized a wide sample of music textbooks to reveal main teaching conceptions, but there are still many challenges in studying Brazilian music textbooks. One main concern is to define what could be considered as textbook (Choppin 2004), since music teaching tradition often relies mainly on music scores as textbooks. Other aspects may reveal that although many advances influenced Brazilian music education in recent years (Mateiro and Ilari 2012) several textbooks continue with the tradition and didactic orientation of the 1940s. It is possible to assert that many analyzed materials expose a conception of music education aligned with the Eurocentric and privileged cultural classes conceptions. This idea views the music textbook as instrument that promotes social inequality inside school, eventually contributing to maintain certain social status (Bourdieu and Passeron 1992). Beyond the assumption that textbooks represent the selective tradition of school (Forquin 1993), the study of Brazilian music textbooks reveals an important panorama of a country that is rebuilding its own conceptions of music education with the challenges of proposing nationwide textbooks and, at the same time, respecting its multicultural particularities. Keywords: Music textbooks
Brazilian schools Textbook research
Conservative conceptions


Elementary schools


1 Introduction After four decades as a marginal subject in the Brazilian school curriculum, music became mandatory across basic education after a law from 2008 was implemented in February 2012 (Brasil 2008). This new status brought along important debates on both content and the very teaching of music in classrooms. This chapter starts with an overview of the historical development of Brazilian music education with special emphasis on its irregular path as a school subject. In a next step, a review of the research on music textbooks in Brazil complements the background information. Subsequently, a detailed discussion of selected textbooks by major Brazilian publishers highlights the specifics of textbooks written for school © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 294–305, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_24

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students and higher education teacher-training programs. In addition, textbook content along with remarks on teaching music represents a second analytical category that explores the complexity of music teaching and the challenges of putting it in a textbook. The chapter concludes with some suggestions regarding future research.

2 Music Education in Brazil – A Historical Approach Brazilian music, including Samba, Bossa Nova, and numerous others popular and folkloric genres, is renowned across the globe. However, even considering the musicality of the Brazilians, formal music education in schools reveals an irregular path. When the Portuguese officially arrived in Brazil in the year 1500, the majority of the native Brazilians considered music as an important part of their culture, although their music learning was based on informal experiences through social life. The Jesuits not only recognized the importance of music for evangelization, Ignacio de Loyola (founder of the Jesuits) even accepted music as part of religious education (Holler 2010). In consequence, from the middle of the sixteenth century throughout to the middle of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits included music into their colonial school system becoming the main reference for music education. It was only a century after the expulsion of the Jesuits, it is only in 1854, that the first official law prescribed music education as mandatory in schools (Fonterrada 2005). However, it was available only to a small portion of the population who could attend to school during the pre-republican time (the Brazilian Empire last until 1889). It was in 1932 that the Orpheonic Chant project became the first nationwide model of music education. Heitor Villa-Lobos, one of the most important Brazilian classical composers, used a French model of choral music to set the ground stone of what became the modern music education in schools. However, once government support around the mid 1950s ceased, the coral music program rapidly declined. In 1971, music was removed from the official curriculum and was seen as a cultural activity instead of a school subject. It was only in 2012 that music became compulsory as the 11.769/08 Law prescribed the general mandatory subject Art for all educational levels (Brasil 2008). The irregular trajectory of music as a subject in Brazilian schools led to a gap of music education after several decades of its absence from the official curriculum. This led to a doctoral research carried out between 2005–09 analyzing the presence or absence of music in public primary schools without formal music education or extracurricular music programs (Romanelli 2009). The result of this study, conducted mainly using ethnographic approaches, showed music expression done by children in many different school spaces and moments. The research concluded that, despite its absence from the official curriculum for almost half a decade, children still spread music in school in different peer learning processes. These conclusions go along with the paradox of Brazilian musicality versus the lack of music education in formal school education. Given the new status music received within the 2012 curriculum, a number of essential question need to be asked: What should be selected as topics for music education? How should music classes be taught? What kind of textbooks and educational media should be selected?

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One of the dangers is to follow music teaching models that reproduce outdated teaching methods that seem less suitable for the current generations. According to Mota (2000), isomorphism refers to teachers copying their own teachers’ methods without questioning their need to be adapted to each group of students. Isomorphism can also influence textbooks, as it will be shown in this chapter. The present status of Brazilian music education puts in evidence the role of music textbooks and their importance to build a solid pathway of music in Brazilian schools. This is particularly important in pre-school and primary school, where mainly generalist teachers with poor music education training conduct classes (Hentschke and Oliveira 2000). This only demands more support for music textbooks.

3 Research on Music Textbooks Research on music textbooks in Brazil is still a growing field. Despite some progress over the last years, it represents a very small portion of the overall research on textbooks and educational media. Reasons for this might be the absence of music as mandatory subjects from the national curriculum for more than forty years and the resulting decrease of textbook publication activity. From the most recent studies, Mateiro (2013) set up an index of authors and content elements made by the Brazilian Association for Music Education (ABEM) between 2006 and 2012. The findings of the study showed that only four papers out of over a thousand had textbooks as a central research subject. A research group under the lead of Souza et al. (2009) analyzed against the background of Bourdieu’s field theory and Chartier’s cultural history 432 music textbooks published between the 1920s and 1990s. In addition, Souza also published in 1997 a commented review of Brazilian school textbooks. It is important to point out that as a result of Souza’s active research on music textbooks, UFRGS’s graduate program promoted a significant amount of researches on this field. Barbosa (2013) analyzed in light of the work of Roch-Fijalkow (2007), Rüsen (2001) and Morgado (2004) three collections of music textbooks for primary schools. The books targeted generalist teachers and evidenced a directive conception towards music education along with several misconceptions on music contents. Research on Brazilian music textbooks is certainly an inspiring field for new studies, but it still faces several challenges. The first one is to define what can be considered to be a textbook (Choppin 2004). Beside the theoretical discussion over the minimum requirements that define a written work as a textbook, the specificities of music as a field of knowledge requires other types of written materials. For instance, the music score is a form of writing, but can it be defined as a textbook when used as a main teaching support? This is the case of the majority of textbooks written between the 1940s and the 1960s that were mostly orientated to support the Orpheonic Chant project (Villa-Lobos 1940, Arruda 1964) and were mainly based on music scores. This tradition is a translation of the conservatory music education model towards regular school. Many analyzed books from the mid-twentieth century contained mainly music scores with very limited additional text. This structure reminds of traditional nineteenth century music education typical for music schools and aimed at single student classrooms.

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Teaching music in regular schools, however, is a completely different task than music education in conservatories. Given that the objectives are different, the pedagogical model should not be simply translated from one school system to another. Whenever this happens, a number of problems arise. A subsequent brief overview of the content analysis of contemporary Brazilian textbooks exemplifies these challenges.

4 Discrepancy on Textbooks Brazil experienced, over the course of the last decades, an increased production of music textbooks. It is possible to distinguish three main communities the textbooks are designed for: (1) university music education training programs; (2) music schools and non-specialist individuals interested in music education; and (3) regular school art/music classes. Each of these communities displays specific requirements that are reflected in the textbooks. Textbooks produced for university level music education exhibit scientific rigor and feature the state-of-the-art of Brazilian and international music education in terms of multi-reference theories. Their content is related to different disciplines, such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, musicology, and general education. These textbooks are mainly designed for music teacher education programs and influence the nationwide discussion over how to teach music (Mateiro and Ilari 2012). Textbooks produced for music schools and non-specialist individuals interested in music education also contain new references. However, these references are much more original and attractive. This type of textbooks commonly targets early childhood and pre-school music education (Ilari 2009, Madalozzo et al. 2011, Ilari and Broock 2013). In contrast, textbook production for regular music education in schools exhibits a completely different conception. In terms of didactic approaches, these textbooks link back to the 1940s. The following sub-chapter explores in detail some of these textbooks.

5 Inside the Textbooks Content analysis served to analyze two collections of the most widely used Brazilian school music textbooks. The sample was chosen from a total of 13 textbook collections produced by the four biggest Brazilian publishing houses. These companies are listed among the world’s 52 biggest publishers and altogether had revenues of €701,700,000.00 in 2011 (Wischenbart 2013). Regarding level, the sample contained textbooks for primary and secondary schools, where music is part of the mandatory subject art. As music is not a separate subject in Brazilian public pre-schools, this level remained unconsidered. Due to copyright issues, only elements of older textbooks could be used for visualization purposes. The first content element to be explored in detail are the music objects featured in the music textbooks. Despite the overall improvement of Brazilian music education over the last decades, the similarity between today’s textbooks and those published

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seven decades ago is striking. Mota (2000) calls this development a conservation of the written form of isomorphism in music education. One example is the content of basic music theory, which includes music notation. Several textbooks of recent publication date use the same names of music notes coming from the Latin European system (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la and si) as textbooks published in the 1950s (Fig. 1) did. -6e intensidade , podem ter dis3) Dois sons de mesma altura, tintos timbre, conforme o instrumentos que os produziram. Em particular, fazendo variar de altura, os sons, recebem universalmente, os seguintes nomes : – –

– Mi – –

–

–

–

– Mi –

– Si –

que se chama escala, pode ser continuada, repetindo-se Aprenda-se de cor, a ordem dos nomes ries anteriores.

duas

-

2

Antes do . as obras musicais se transmitiam oral ou determinavam concretamente a altura e os valores dos sons. Ao monge beneditino Guido d’Arezzo, no ano 995 Para se representar gr empregam-se, por convensinais chamados “notas”. Estas notas, se distribuem no pentagrama que consta de cinco linhas e quatro espaços. 5 4 3 2 1

linha linha linha linha linha

espaço espaço espaço espaço

4 3 2 1

ta

. Por exemplo, no pentagrama abaixo.

42 - o

Fig. 1. Second lesson (source: Sami 1950, p. 42, amended).

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Music notation is certainly a legitimate content of music, but it proves less helpful for a Brazilian student who never studied music formally. Most student gained their music experience through their communities that have nothing to do with the Western music notation system. In consequence, for these students, music notation as shown in Fig. 1 should be considered as marginal rather than core content. Understanding all the aspects of music notation, as note names, note values, musical symbols, and their distribution on the music staff, did make sense seventy years ago when the Orpheonic Chant project was a mandatory school subject. At that time, children would sing based on a music sheet. Nowadays, due to the limited time resources of music education, students encounter difficulties to make connections between music notation and what they listen in their daily lives, on the radio, TV, and internet. Alternative music notation as seen in contemporary classical music and nonWestern cultures could be an interesting approach to the challenge of putting music to paper. However, this approach is rare and, when used, is brought as a curiosity. The other recurrent theoretical content in the analyzed textbooks are the elements of sound and elements of music. The former is mainly related to acoustics (part of physics) and focus on the four properties of the sound: pitch, intensity, duration and timbre. The latter are aspects directly accrue from the elements of sound, and encompass the study of the definitions of melody, harmony, rhythm, pulse, measure bar, dynamics, tempo, and form. These content elements, mainly studied in traditional musicology, are primarily related to Western classical music, although they can be used as an analytical base for any kind of music. However, a very Cartesian way to dissect music can convert music into a very arid subject, resulting in reduced student interest. It is important to emphasize that music notation and elements of sound and music, criticized here as music textbook content, are certainly a manner to understand music. However, their study should always come after and never prior to a very intense music experience. The second aspect the content analysis dedicated special attention to is the body of cultural conceptions behind the music textbooks. Mostly aligned with Eurocentric and culturally privileged class conceptions, these textbooks can be considered to be instruments of social inequality inside school. The way the importance of music education and music itself is defended in those books, contributes to put it as a redeemer subject in every child’s education. The textbook content is written in a manner to elevate the poor culture of the students. This presentation actually maintains the social inequality between culturally privileged and less privileged students (Bourdieu and Passeron 1992), since the textbooks bring information about music that is distant from most part of the students’ cultural reality. For instance, one of the selected topics that spreads across a considerable number of pages is the classical orchestra, its components, its history, and the classification of the instruments in families. However, to place of other music formation within the curriculum also requires consideration. It seems worthy of mentioning that the orchestra drawings and diagrams depicted in the textbooks are the same as decades ago, as noticeable by the model of some instruments that evolved in shape, such as the timpani.

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When the traditional classical orchestra instruments classification is taken as the main way to understand how to categorize musical instruments, we face logical problems that do not help the students to build their own capability of understanding musical instruments. For example, one could select the woodwind family, which includes the clarinet, the oboe, and the bassoon. However, the traverse flute belongs to the woodwinds, but is made of a very shinning metal (generally silver and even gold alloy). How does a metal instrument belong to a woodwind family? The traverse flute was originally made of wood, but in the mid-nineteenth century, it started being built in metal for a better control of the pitch and timbre. Another interesting musical instrument that is classified under the woodwind family is the saxophone. Well known as a metal instrument, one might wonder how it sits beside its wooden orchestra siblings. The logical explanation would be to use the same arguments as used for the traverse flute, but, again, the deduction does not help. Invented by Adolph Sax in the midnineteenth century, it was never built in wood, but always in metal. However, as it uses a mouthpiece to produce sound that comes from the clarinet, providing a velvety tone, it uses this similarity to be classified as a woodwind instrument. All this traditional Western way of learning about musical instruments is surely interesting, but is more familiar to those students that have the opportunity to go to orchestra concerts. For students who cannot attend concerts, this whole subject may sound uncomfortably unfamiliar. An alternative and better way to understand the particularities of musical instruments and organize them in groups (of families) is the Hornbostel-Sachs classification. Presented a little more than a hundred years ago, this system of musical instrument classification takes as reference the way sound is acoustically produced. Erich Hornbostel and Curt Sachs regrouped every instrument in only four big groups: chordophones, aerophones, membranophones and idiophones (Michels 1996). On the one hand, chordophones have a string as vibrant element (e.g. violin, piano and banjo), while aerophones are instruments whose sound depends on air vibration (e.g. flute, accordion and pipe organ). On the other hand, membranophones, such as drums, Indian tabla and timpani possess vibrating stretched membranes, while idiophones are instruments with a vibrating body (e.g. cymbals, triangle and xylophone). In the 1970s, a fifth additional group of instruments was proposed: the electrophones. Although, specially crafted for the new electric and electronic instruments, it is possible to classify most part of the electrophones as membranophones, since the element that actually produces sound is the membrane of a speaker. In consequence, the Hornbostel-Sachs model is far more embracing as it assembles instruments following a logical instead of a traditional approach, but is missing from all analyzed school music textbooks. The Hornbostel-Sachs classification can be used to understand any musical instrument of any culture or time, an aspect that stimulates the student to classify the musical instruments of its own culture. This approach is not only more accurate than the classical orchestra family instruments, it is also more captivating to students who can build bridges between their own culture a new learning content (including, of course, the orchestra instruments). Almost all approaches of music education entail listening to music as one of their main activities. Thereby, two major advantages can be mentioned. First, there are the benefits of approaching to music itself through the mediation of a teacher, expanding

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students’ music repertoire. There are endless aspects of the music that can be brought to the students during listening experiences in classroom, such as general impressions and connections with other music. Second, it is possible to study all the cultural aspects related to a certain music: Who is the composer? Who was it composed for? For which occasion? Unfortunately, the analyzed textbooks simplify the listening experience by mostly emphasizing composer biographies. In doing so, they adopt strategies already applied during the mid-twentieth century. Oddly, the composers featured in the textbooks are part of what the European tradition defines as great composers (i.e. Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Vivaldi). While the importance of these great musicians remains uncontested, music experience should neither be simplified to biographies nor feature only the same musicians, denying the wonderful work of not so famous composers (including popular ones). Although the analyzed textbooks contained some references of popular music, they were rather the exception and the emphasis remained on biographies. Multicultural music references remained the exception. Non-Western music and even Brazilian traditional music missing from mainstream media were not part of the analyzed textbooks. Only a few of the analyzed textbooks offer additional media (e.g. CD or links) in support of listening activities. The limited repertoire contained music recorded with midi (computer) sounds instead of real instruments. This last aspect may limit the access of students to the richness of discovering new timbers and sounds. Many of the described shortcoming of the analyzed textbooks may be a consequence of who the authors were. The overview of the thirteen textbook collections from the four biggest Brazilian publishers revealed a discrepancy between authors’ knowledge of music and music education. This is likely a result of the authors’ scientific background. A total of fifteen authors wrote all thirteen collections, and only five of them have a background in music education. In others words, the most widely distributed music textbooks in Brazil were written by authors who did not master music as a field of knowledge. This challenge is related to the status of music education in the national curriculum. In Brazil, music is not an independent school subject, but part of the general arts subject, which also includes visual arts, drama and dance. As a result, art is a multidisciplinary subject that falls into the responsibility of one teacher. However, these polyvalent teachers face an almost unsolvable problem: How to master four different art subjects that have their specificities? In general, every teacher masters only one of the four artistic fields and has an en passant approach to the other three. While this is a huge challenge for teachers during classroom activities, it becomes an even greater challenge for textbook authors as there is a minimum requirement expertise on the field of music in order to write a textbook. The limited expertise of non-specialist textbook leads to numerous false information in the textbooks concerning images, diagrams and several theoretical misconceptions.

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6 Remarks on Teaching Music and Writing Music Textbooks After having discussed aspects of music education and music textbooks in the Brazilian context both in historical and empirical terms, the author considers it essential to assume a certain position regarding the sample. Doing so, however, requires the description of the author’s conception of music education. The author of this chapter strongly believes that music is part of formal education “[…] to prepare an individual to be autonomous in the musical world where he/she lives” (Romanelli 2014, p. 66). Along these lines, the aims of music in the curriculum is to prepare every student to be able to make own choices of music experiences. To achieve this aim, music education should rest on three main non-hierarchic pillars: (1) musical practice; (2) exploration of sound source; and (3) music listening. This model is based on several theories, among others on the work of Swanwick (2014), Delalande (1984), Jaques-Dalcroze, Kodály, Orff, and Wuytack (Mateiro and Ilari 2012), and prescribes the musical experience (practice and listening) as a mandatory part of music education. Still, how can one write a music textbook that includes experiences? As music is a practical experience, it is challenging to convert into words and images its contents. This very challenge might explain some of the above-described shortcomings of the analyzed music textbooks. On a quest for writable content for music, many authors seek such subjects that can fill most pages of the textbooks. This is how music theory and music history with emphasis on the biography of composers and musicians end up being the dominant content. Nonetheless, what appears to be an obstacle for writing music textbooks is also the challenge that enables authors to become creative and find ways to put translate into words and pictures the wonder of discovering music and respecting its particularity of practical human activity. For instance, propositions of musical practices based on teachers’ and children’s former experience are a good path to build solid connection between learning new music content and respecting each one’s culture. Featuring musical games in the textbooks seems to be very interesting, since they musically instigate the students in classrooms and enable experiences at home, confronting different generations (siblings, parents and grandparents). One of the biggest challenges is to develop manners to include musical media in the textbooks. As listening to music is an essential part of music education, textbooks must contain samples of music to be listened to in the classroom and at home. The main challenges are the expensive copyrights of composition, arrangement and recording. For example, in a collection of ten music textbooks for primary education published in 2011 (Schlichta and Romanelli 2011), the publishing house had to spend US $50,000 to purchase licenses and produce CDs that came with the textbook. In contrast, a much bigger publisher declined the request to include CDs in three music textbook collections for upper secondary education (Schlichta and Romanelli 2013) arguing the high cost. Along these lines, new forms of media are an interesting path to support music listening activities, maybe offering the intersection between books and online sources that host a music media library.

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7 Future Research This chapter merely analyzed selected elements of a few textbooks. Future research on Brazilian music textbooks is urgently needed, enlarging the analysis criteria and selecting a wider sample of books. Some of the ongoing and future research should explore the authors of music textbooks. Along these lines, two essential questions are related to their theoretical grounds of their formal training and experience as music teachers. Furthermore, authors’ voices could offer valuable insight into the constraints of textbook writing, such as educational laws, publishers, book markets, and many other. Another area of interest is textbook usage with special emphasis on the role they play during lesson planning and overall teacher autonomy from educational media. Along with teachers, research on textbook usage should also explore student interaction with the music textbooks, specifically at upper secondary level, where teenagers are culturally involved with music. From a methodological point of view, as shown by Chaves (2014) and Romanelli (2009), ethnography could offer a useful framework.

8 Conclusions This chapter offers a first insight into music education’s complex and troubled path in Brazil. It also showed that research on music textbooks is a young and dynamic filed requiring additional work on so many aspects. The analysis of different kinds of music textbooks (produced for higher education, communities and schools) by example of two book collections revealed the paradox of the double role music textbooks play in Brazil. On the one hand, some of the books promote an avant-garde reference in music education. On the other hand, especially textbooks written for schools tend to perpetuate old tradition reaching back to Brazilian music education projects from as early as the 1930s. It is important to point out that the analyzed textbooks were chosen from the most representative ones available for Brazilian schools. Certainly, there are well written music textbooks with innovate propositions on the market; however, they have a limited impact due to limited distribution. It is difficult to understand the hiatus between innovative examples of teachers’ handbooks (Ilari 2009, Brito 2003) and school textbooks that standardize old methods and content with rather low significance for students. This might be the central message of this chapter. Like any other written material, textbooks reflect the selective tradition of school (Forquin 1993). However, when the school subject is music, an additional problem emerges: as music is a very evident trait of culture, how can we respect the multicultural particularities of the Brazilian culture? Bringing Eurocentric music references is not a mistake, but its space within the textbook could be reduced in favor of native Indian and African heritage present in Brazilian music. Thinking about music as a mandatory school subject in Brazil may instigate us to question the didactics of music. Should music be taught as any other school subject?

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Finally, research on music textbooks is a privileged way to discuss new forms of music education that will overcome the pedagogies of resilience surrounding music, namely the misconception that only gifted persons are able to learn music and interact happily with it.

References Y. Arruda, Elementos de Canto Orfeônico (Irmãos Vitale, São Paulo, 1964) V. Barbosa, Análise de Livros Didáticos de Música Para o Ensino Fundamental (PPGM-UFPR, Curitiba, 2013) P. Bourdieu, J.C. Passeron, A Reprodução (Francisco Alves, Rio de Janeiro, 1992) Brasil, Lei nº 11.769, de 18 de agosto de 2008 (Ministério da Educação, Brasília, 2008) T. Brito, Música Na Educação Infantil: Propostas Para a Formação Integral Da Criança (Editora Peirópolis, São Paulo, 2003) E. Chaves, A Presença Do Livro Didático de História Em Aulas Do Ensino Médio: Estudo Etnográfico Em Uma Escola Do Campo (PPGE-UFPR, Curitiba, 2014) A. Choppin, História dos livros e das edições didáticas: sobre o estado da arte. Educ. Pesqui. 30 (3), 549–566 (2004) F. Delalande, La Musique Est Um Jeu d’enfant (Buchet/Chastel, Paris, 1984) M. Fonterrada, De Tramas e Fios: Um Ensaio Sobre Música e Educação (Editora UNESP, São Paulo, 2005) J.C. Forquin, Escola e Cultura (Artes Médicas, Porto Alegre, 1993) L. Hentschke, A. Oliveira, A educação musical no Brasil, in A educação musical em países de línguas neolatinas. ed. by L. Hentschke (Editura Universidade UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 2000), pp. 47–64 M. Holler, Os Jesuítas e a Música No Brasil Colonial (UNICAMP, Campinas, 2010) B. Ilari, Música Na Infância e Na Adolescência (IBPEX, Curitiba, 2009) B. Ilari, A. Broock, Música e Educação Infantil (Papirus, Campinas, 2013) T. Madalozzo, B. Ilari, G. Romanelli, L. Bourscheidt, F. Kroker, C. Pacheco (eds.), Fazendo Música Com Crianças (Editora UFPR, Curitiba, 2011) T. Mateiro, B. Ilari, Pedagogias Em Educação Musical (InterSaberes, Curitiba, 2012) T. Mateiro (ed.), Publicações Da Associação Brasileira de Educçaão Musical: Índice de Autores e Assuntos (UDESC, Florianópolis, 2013) U. Michels, Atlas de Música I e II (Alianza, Madrid, 1996) J. Morgado, Manuais Escolares: Contributos Para Uma Análise (Porto Editora, Porto, 2004) G. Mota, O ensino da música em Portugal, in A educação musical nos países de línguas neolatinas. ed. by L. Hentschke (Ed. UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 2000), pp. 123–138 G. Romanelli, A Música Que Soa Na Escola: Estudo Etnográfico Nas Séries Iniciais Do Ensino Fundamental (UFPR, Curitiba, 2009) G. Romanelli, Antes de falar as crianças cantam! Considerações sobre o ensino de música na educação infantil. Revista Teoria e Prática da Educação 17(3), 61–71 (2014) C. Roch-Fijalkow, Présentation d’um modéle-type d’analyse de contenu de manuels, ouvrages ou tous support pédagogiques, pour la recherche et la pratique en éducation musicale. Recherche en education musicale. Québec 26, 253–265 (2007) J. Rüsen, O livro didático ideal, in Jörn Rüsen e o ensino de história. ed. by M. Schmidt, I. Barca, E. Martins (EdUFPR, Curitiba, 2001), pp. 109–127 Sami, Alfa Da Música (Irmãos Vitali, Rio de Janeiro, 1950)

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C. Schlichta, G. Romanelli, Linguagens: Prepare – Artes Visuais e Música (Editora Aymará, Curitiba, 2011) C. Schlichta, G. Romanelli, Educação de Jovens e Adultos: Alcance EJA: Arte Anos Finais Do Ensino Fundamental (Editora Positivo, Curitiba, 2013) J. Souza (ed.), Livros de Música Para a Escola: Uma Bibliografia Comentada (PPG Música– UFRGS, Porto Alegre, 1997) J. Souza, M. Torres, L. Gonçalves, F. Oliveira, A Construção Da Música Como Uma Disciplina Escolar: Um Estudo a Partir Dos Livros Didáticos. Anais Do XVIII Congresso Nacional Da Associação Brasileira de Educação Musical e 15o Simpósio Paranaense de Educação Musical (ABEM, Londrina, 2009) K. Swanwick, Música, Mente e Educação (Editora Autêntica, Belo Horizonte, 2014) H. Villa-Lobos, Canto Orfeônico. Marchas, Canções e Cantos Marciais Para Educação Consciente Da “Unidade de Movimento” (Irmãos Vitale, São Paulo, 1940) R. Wischenbart, Content and consulting (2013), http://exame.abril.com.br

Criteria of Educational Media Selection for French Secondary School English Margaret Bento(&), Estelle Riquois, and Aurélie Beauné Université de Paris, Paris, France [email protected]

Abstract. As part of a research project on French high school teachers’ educational resource use (REVEA–Living Resources for Teaching and Learning), this chapter introduces results on English as a foreign language teachers’ resource selection criteria. Based on the work by Robert and Rogalski (2002) and Roditi (2011), we identified criteria, such as personal, institutional, cognitive and social components. These criteria may play a different role one each teacher’s educational resource selection. The results presented in this chapter contribute to better understand teachers’ resource selection practices. Keywords: L2 English


Secondary education
Resource selection
France

1 Introduction The research presented in this chapter is part of the ReVEA (Living Resources for Teaching and Learning) project focusing on French high school teachers’ use of educational resources. The aim of this chapter is to present selected results of an explorative study concerning the criteria guiding French secondary school English teachers’ resource selection. Starting with the development of the communicative approach to language teaching in France during the 1970s, the authentic document moved to the center of didactic discourse. The action-oriented approach, which emerged during the 2000s, built upon these previous recommendations (Beauné et al. 2015; Puren 2002, 2012). The Ministry of Education prescribed for foreign language teaching the use of authentic language at all educational levels along with the exploitation of various authentic and timely documents, such as sound, images, and videos (Bulletin Officiel 2005, 2010). The legal framework, thus, invites teachers to use these resources extensively in their teaching. Despite the intensified discourse and the multitude of recommendations concerning resources, current research in language teaching gives little information on teachers’ practices regarding their choice of resources during lesson planning. Information is particularly limited on selection criteria. This chapter aims to present an initial exploration of criteria guiding resource selection used by French secondary school English teachers. Setting its focus on resource selection criteria, the research presented in this chapter also touches upon questions raised of teacher professionalization.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 306–314, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_25

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2 Theoretical Framework The practices of a teacher are a structured set of situated activities: they are carried out in singular places, within specific timeframes, in relation to their institutional and social context, and simultaneously written into the personal history of the teacher. As suggested by Bru (2002) and Roditi (2011), teaching practices are not only determined by external rules but are also subject to more punctual processes. For example, teaching practices rest on teachers’ unique life experiences leading to adjustments of their teaching practices through their interactions with students and other participants of the teaching-learning process. Against this background, the way teachers choose their resources cannot be reduced to the finalities of the process or the context that determines resource selection. It is important to also consider the dynamic nature of these instrumented activities. In this sense, the research presented in this chapter draws upon the work of, on the one hand, Rabardel (1995) and Rabardel and Pastré (2005) on the instrumental genesis, and, on the other hand, on the work of Leplat (1992, 1997) and Goigoux (1997) based on concepts and methods of ergonomic psychology. Resource use, however, remains tied to a number of challenges, including linking the normative and professional requirements to organizational constraints and educational situations as well as each teacher’s conceptions of the relevant criteria of resource selection. Robert and Rogalski (2002) and Roditi (2011) identified six dimensions: considered likely to influence teaching practices: institutional, commercial, scientific, territorial, community, and relational dimension with the parents of students. These six dimensions were used in the analysis of interviews carried out with 15 secondary school teachers in France. Data collection happened within the ReVEA project and served the main purpose to further analyze the criteria of resource selection. The following section describes alterations made to the six original dimensions.

3 Method and Sample Semi-structured interviews served to study the resource selection criteria of French secondary school teachers. All interview partners taught English as a foreign language and participated voluntarily in the research. Present chapter presents results that rest on 15 interviews carried out with eight upper secondary, five general and technical secondary, and two vocational secondary school teachers. In consequence, the sampling encompassed all three types of French secondary schools. Two of the 15 participants were men and 13 women–a distribution that is consistent with the national statistics on the share of women teaching languages at the secondary level (83.2% in 2015–16; Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale 2016). Regarding teaching experience, the sample contained both experienced teachers and beginners (Table 1). Although limited in quantitative terms, the sample remains heterogeneous concerning the working environment and teaching experience.

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M. Bento et al. Table 1. Sample structure according to teaching experience (source: author). Experience in years Upper secondary school Other secondary schools Total 1–5 4 1 5 5–15 3 4 7 >15 1 2 3 Total 8 7 15

The interview guide included, along with social data, a series of questions on teachers’ conceptions on resources, their selection and use (cf. Appendix A). The interview guide aimed to understand the processes teachers carried out during the collection, transformation, and lifespan (dissemination, deletion, etc.) of their resources. Semi-structured interviews both encourage respondents to give spontaneous answers and enables attentiveness to details that are meaningful to participating teachers. The combination of these two features allow to explore the complexity of resource selection. Nevertheless, due to the small sample, the results presented in this chapter merely serve as an exploration of the questions asked. Thematic content analysis served to process data (Bardin 2007). Thereby, the focus remained on the question of criteria for resource selection. The analytical step first identified the significant elements in each teacher’s answers and subsequently set up categories. In a following step, instrumented analysis using Modalisa supported the identification of the most frequent types of answers across the sample. Thematic content analysis followed the six dimensions likely to affect teachers’ practices (Robert and Rogalski 2002; Roditi 2011). Additional variables taken into account were age, gender, [1] teaching experience, and the educational levels they taught during data collection. Iteration required several alterations of the categories, including renaming, addition of new or deletion of old categories. A possible explanation is the fact (cf. the previous section) were primarily focused on what may affect teaching practice in general instead of resource selection criteria. The final list of categories encompassed the following dimensions: institutional (program changes, new instructions, etc.), personal (seniority, training, tastes, etc.), contextual (level of students, type of institution, etc.), materials (constraints related to discipline, establishment, etc.), didactic and pedagogical, organizational, and scientific. Both the commercial and the relational dimension are missing from the final list of categories. Based on the proximities between the categories, the identified criteria were organized into three classes of factors that may influence teachers’ choice in generic terms, namely (1) individual and relational factors, (2) didactic and pedagogical factors, and (3) factors corresponding to contextual constraints. Factor definitions rest on both intensive exchange among the ReVEA project participants and the definitions provided by the Trésor de la langue française (TLFI). According to TLFI, “[…] factor(s) common to several products” in the academic field refer to a criterion designating “[the] element to which we refer in order to […] define something”. In a subsequent step, the

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analytical criteria were refined by listing criteria for each class of identified factors (Table 2). This final step followed Van Campenhoudt and Quivy’s (2011) distinctions between the dimensions, components, and indicators of a concept. Table 2. Factors and criteria influencing teachers’ resource selection (source: author). Factors Personal and relational

Didactics and pedagogy

Contextual constraints

Criteria (1) personal (preferences, conceptions about the subject, teaching/learning and learners, curriculum, leisure, etc.) (2) seniority/teaching experience (3) relation with students’ parents (4) community activities (teachers’ associations, collaboration with colleagues) (1) particularities of the teaching situation (e.g., educational level, students with disabilities) (2) pedagogical approach (e.g., re-use of resources, (in)authentic documents) (3) scientific and pedagogical knowledge (4) objectives assigned to resources (5) institutional framework (i.e., continuing education, curricular reform, new instructions) (1) material (related to the subject, types of documents, establishment, the teacher’s know-how) (2) commercial (new textbooks, review copies, innovative material, labelling of resources) (3) territorial (policies of local authorities, school heads, and academies, influence of parents as voters)

The naming of categories is simplistic and the terms chosen to indicate what they name are sometimes limited. Nevertheless, these categories enabled a meaningful grouping of significant information entailed in the interview texts. The exploratory categorization led to the emergence of categories along with less frequently mentioned criteria which seemed to have a rather secondary role in teachers’ resource selection. In contrast, other categories were frequently encountered in interviews and, therefore, appear to play a more important role in teaching resource selection. The subsequent section first describes minor factors and criteria. Subsequently, it proceeds to introducing major criteria according to their order of appearance in the analyzed interview materials.

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4 The Minimal or Minimized Influence of the External Environment Concerning the category of individual and interpersonal factors, only two teachers reported to work in a collective of teachers. While the majority of teachers interviewed worked alone, five interview partners even found more difficult to work with other colleagues. Involvement in a group, therefore, seems fairly insignificant to the interviewed teachers. Another individual an interpersonal factor, namely parental demands, turned out to have little influence on their work. Regarding teaching and learning factors, only two teachers reported about benefits in the aftermath of continuing training, namely a more efficient resource processing. In addition, these teachers were also open to more training, particularly to improve their computer skills. Such skills were considered important as they equipped teachers with the ability to import and edit the resources they choose for class. Generally, teachers acquired such skills individually and without the support of continuing training. Several teachers reported in different ways that they had to search for a long time to find adequate resources, which can lead to discouragement. In consequence, continuing training should focus more explicitly on efficient resource selection. Also, both the institutional context criterion and continuing training for teachers seem to have a minor influence on resource selection practices. The curricular framework in terms of institutional specificities also had a minor influence on teachers’ resource selection practices. Most interviewed teachers indicated a reduced influence of the official instructions given the open nature of the foreign language syllabi and, therefore, the reduced need to consult them. Three of the 15 participating teachers, however, mentioned syllabi as the starting point of their resource selection. Nevertheless, all teachers declared to follow the four notions prescribed in the curricula for secondary schools and the progression in college. They also confirmed to check the examination procedures. Overall, teachers declared to use various media and prefer authentic documents. Most upper secondary school teachers stated that they rarely used textbooks purchased by the school. One teacher believed that textbook had to be used as they were purchased. Participating teachers also stated to rarely use samples offered by publishers. Still, some teachers selected resources for evaluation, including audio files, because they differed from those featured in the textbooks used in the classroom. The data also suggests that the commercial, scientific, and territorial criteria belonging to the category of contextual factors, had a relatively minor influence on teachers’ resource selection–especially for higher educational levels. Overall, the result show that secondary French teachers of English as a foreign language remain greatly autonomous and widely uninfluenced by external factors. While the community which manages the establishments, editors, colleagues, students’ parents, and continuous training could be viewed as potential support, the teachers do not seem to perceive them as such. The interviews conducted underlined how important the freedom of action and choice for teachers was.

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5 The Importance of Individual Criteria The most frequently named criteria by the interviewed teachers highlight the importance of personal preferences in resource selection and pertains to the individual and relational factors. Eleven teachers confirmed to choose resources they liked and intended to present to the students. Thereby, important coordinates seem to be the personal preference for the topic, the resource type, and the clarity of the resource. Whenever these prerequisites cannot be met, teacher tend to discard the resource. Two teachers also reported that they prepared resources for educational use whenever they found them, rather than look for specific resources when they need to prepare a course. Such actions indicate a certain favuritism towards particular resources. As for the use of personal documents (same criterion, individual and relational factors), the results showed that teachers conducted resource collection activities throughout the year, for example, during their stays in English speaking countries, in their spare time, or while spending time online (e.g., excerpts from novels or films). These resources, having a character of authenticity, are important for teachers as they reflect the target culture: they are sought in order to vary resources, to have a good time with students, to share their taste in film, play, or travel in the country of the target language. While the interpersonal criterion in resource selection played a rather minor role for the interviewed teachers, individuality expressing the importance of personal criteria proved to be essential. The characteristics of the teaching context (category of teaching and learning factors) were also important to the participating teachers. When relating about the teaching context, eleven teachers mentioned students’ preferences emphasizing their crucial role in resource selection. It appears to be important for teachers to provide resources that appeal to learners or, at least, that are chosen for their appeal. Teachers also selected the resources in relation to their students’ level and, whenever their class included students with special needs, they tended to use the same resource with slight modifications (e.g., font size, additional illustration, simplified text). Finally, within the category of contextual and equipment factors, the material criterion seemed to be of particular importance. All participating teacher specified that resource selection rested on the availability of equipment. Whenever the classrooms are equipped with a computer and a projector, teachers were able to use videos. Similarly, a reliable Internet connection allowed video streaming directly from the host website. Whenever the infrastructure is (partially) unavailable, teachers are forced to download content–an act that requires technical skills. The material criterion of resource selection also seemed to correlate with an evolution of practices and with the seniority of teachers. Teachers who have been teaching for more than five years confirmed that they made many amendments thanks to updated classroom equipment. Paper copies and the overall use of paper were particularly important in this context. Resources, such as worksheets, that the teachers distributed to students were designed and produced using software rather than originating from manual cutting and gluing.

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The results of this study also showed that time spend on resource selection increased with Internet usage. Despite considerably more time spent looking for resources, ten interviewed teachers preferred to spend time searching for audio resources online instead of using the audio materials provided in the textbook, which they considered less interesting for learning. In the teachers’ reading, the Internet provides access to authentic resources, such as online journals or television programs, while textbook resources appeared inauthentic and therefore less interesting. In sum, the criteria with the strongest influence on teachers’ resource selection seems to revolve around the involved individuals, around people and their preferences, around teachers’s and students’ preferences tied to specific situations. Distinguishing between minor and major criteria links back to processes described by Goigoux (2007): the appropriation of pre-existing occupational schemes could be associated with the major criteria, while customizing these patterns would become visible through minor criteria. Nevertheless, such links remain hypotheses given the sample structure of the data discussed in this chapter.

6 Conclusions This chapter presented results of an exploratory investigation, qualitative in nature, based on responses provided by a small number of volunteer teachers. Further research is expected to test the hypotheses and to reflect on the factors and criteria that guide resource selection for English as a foreign language. The results presented in this chapter showed that the loose curricular framework gives English teachers the freedom to favor personal criteria during resource selection. Such personal preferences become even more explicit when considering the authenticity of the documents–a feature that particularly applied to high school teachers. Another striking, even paradoxical result, is the mismatch between the time invested into resource selection and the need for continuing training. Most interviews contained hints concerning the long hours invested into resource selection–especially online. However, the correlation with the need for continuing training on resource selection and IT skills is negative. This findings highlights the need for further research on resource selection both in foreign languages and in other disciplines. The ReVEA project aims to compare resource selection criteria of various subjects. Based on the results presented in this chapter, comparing teachers’ statements with the observation of their practice is also a required next step. In English as a foreign language, as in other subjects, resource identification and selection is an essential activity on which teachers spend significant time resources. The results of our study uncovered many components that contributed to a different extent to the teachers’s resource choices. Future research could also explore the interactions between these components.

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Appendix A. Excerpts of the Interview Guide (Source: Authors). Demographic data Institution Teacher’s name Gender Age Which year did you start teaching your subject (in school/out of school context, name of the institution and the number of years per place)? What is your formal qualification to teach your this discipline (initial, continuing education)? Which year did you graduate/become licensed? What educational level(s) have you taught (specify the number of years for each level in terms of age, type of school)? Open exploratory questions Resource selection Can you describe how your resource research ways have changed over time? Where and how do you look for resources? What resources do you use and which resources do you consider to be crucial? What are the reasons to discard a resource? What are the reason to archive discarded resources rather than deleting them? Are there resources developed together with students? Do colleagues in your institution guide or influence your resource choices? If so, in which ways? Can you describe a specific request from a parent that led you to choose or design resourcea? Resource transformation When you choose resources, does it happen that you modify them and if so, is this a common action? How do you modify resources? What is the impact of evaluation in resource selection and modification? Communities What are the resource designer communities that can provide resources for your subject that you know about? Are you aware of communities that produce more general resources for teaching? Can you describe a situation where a community made you feel the need to create new resources for your subject?

References L. Bardin, L’analyse de Contenu (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2007) A. Beauné, M. Bento, E. Riquois, the authenticity of resources for the teaching of foreign languages and cultures in france: variable geometry notion. IARTEM e-J. 7(3), 1–24 (2015) M. Bru, Pratiques enseignantes: des recherches à conforter et à développer. Revue française de pédagogie 138, 63–73 (2002) Bulletin Officiel (2005). Bulletin Officiel, 6, 25 août 2005. ftp://trf.education.gouv.fr/pub/edutel/ bo/2005/hs6/MENE0501647A_annexe01.pdf Bulletin Officiel (2010). Bulletin Officiel, 1, 4 février 2010. http://www.education.gouv.fr/ cid50475/mene1002838c.html

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R. Goigoux, La psychologie cognitive ergonomique: un cadre d’étude des compétences professionnelles des enseignants de Français. in Pratiques enseignantes et activités des élèves dans la classe de Français. Didactique du Français Langue Maternelle (DFLM), vol. 21 ed. by E. Bautier, D. Bucheton. (Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur1997), pp. 56–61 R. Goigoux, Un modèle d’analyse de l’activité des enseignants. Éducation et didactique 1(3), 47– 69 (2007) J. Leplat, L’analyse Du Travail En Psychologie Ergonomique (Octarès, Toulouse, 1992) J. Leplat, Regards Sur l’activité En Situation de Travail (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1997) Ministère de l’Éducation Nationale (Ed.) (2016). Les enseignants du second degré « face à élèves » par discipline. http://cache.media.education.gouv.fr/file/2016/48/9/DEPP-RERS2016-9.11-enseignants-second-degre-discipline_623489.xls C. Puren, Perspectives actionnelles et perspectives culturelles en didactique des langues-cultures: vers une perspective co-actionnelle co-culturelle. Les langues modernes 2002(3), 55–71 (2002) C. Puren, Traitement didactique des documents authentiques et spécificités des textes littéraires: du modèle historique des tâches scolaires aux cinq logiques documentaires actuelles (avec quelques hypothèses pour des programmes de recherche) (2012). Retrieved from: http://www. christianpuren.com/mes-travaux-liste-et-liens/2012j/ P. Rabardel, Les Hommes et Les Technologies. Approche Cognitive Des Instruments Contemporains (Armand Colin, Paris, 1995) P. Rabardel, P. Pastré (eds.), Modèles Du Sujet Pour La Conception. Dialectiques Activités Développement (Octarès, Toulouse, 2005) A. Robert, J. Rogalski, Le système complexe et cohérent des pratiques des enseignants de mathématiques: une double approche. Revue canadienne de l’enseignement des sciences, des mathématiques et des technologies 2(4), 505–528 (2002) E. Roditi, Recherches sur les pratiques enseignantes en mathématiques: apports d’une intégration de diverses approches et perspectives. Synthèse de HDR. Université Paris Descartes, 2011 L. Van Campenhoudt, R. Quivy, Manuel de Recherche En Sciences Sociales (Dunod, Malakoff, 2011)

Memory Practices and Media Use in Educational Contexts: Relationships Between History, Politics and Memory in Schools Roman Richtera(&) Université de Rouen, Rouen, France [email protected]

Abstract. The curriculum of the German state of Lower Saxony states that history, taught as a school subject, enables young people to access their society’s ‘cultural memory’ and participate in the memory of their community. Can the history taught in schools today meet this objective, specifically against the present-day backdrop of today’s heterogeneous student body? What is the role of teachers and educational media in this context? Research into educational media has focused primarily on the content of these materials. Policymakers, curriculum planners and educationalists still lack academically sound information on the ideas of history and its teaching and on the helpfulness of educational media in communicating history to young people. Our research aims to fill this gap in our awareness of these issues. Findings about contemporary history teaching will only be able to generate and implement recommendations for action when taken seriously by policymakers and educationalists. We are seeking to secure this by exploring the views of qualified history teachers at academic secondary schools with a quantitative survey. Our data points to interrelationships between issues, such as teachers’ media use, their thoughts on which specific historical events and processes are worth including in the canon of historical memory, and their views on the usefulness of educational media for the teaching of specific content and competencies. We believe that this piece of research will contribute to the international debate around memory, curricula, and educational media and provide insights for the further development of educational media and curricula going forward. Keywords: Memory practices teaching


Educational media
Curriculum
History

1 Introduction How are teachers involved in the negotiation of politics of memory? From a political science perspective, this chapter explores the production and negotiation of politics of memory, or to use the German terminology, Erinnerungspolitik, in the context of history education. Despite the immense public and scientific interest in the cultural memory during the last decades, there are surprisingly few empirical studies on how institutionalized collective memory objects (Beim 2007), such as textbooks and © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 315–329, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_26

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curricula, are being used and evaluated in everyday (classroom) practices. Furthermore, we still lack academically sound information, on the one hand, on how different interpretations of the past are being creatively enacted or contested, and, on the other hand, on the helpfulness of educational media in communicating history to young people. This chapter aims to fill this gap by responding to the voiced call in political science to look beyond the analysis of public-symbolic and administrative-political practices in order to explore new contexts of the negotiation of Erinnerungspolitik (Kohlstruck and Heinrich 2008; Schwelling 2008). To examine new and auspicious contexts, we will take a closer look at history teacher’s reflexions about history, cultural memory, and their educational media practices. Thereby, central questions of curriculum and memory studies as well as research into the politics of memory can be addressed. Questions that will be discussed in the course of this chapter are the following: Which and whose references to the past count as worth remembering, will be articulated and become therefore visible, audible and negotiable in history classes? The results presented in this chapter are preliminary findings from a quantitative survey among history teachers at secondary schools in the German state of Lower Saxony. The survey was conducted in 2014/15 as part of the empirical research of the Memory Practices research group at the Georg-Eckert-Institute. The research was supported with funding of the Leibniz Competition by the Leibniz Community.

2 Theoretical Approaches and Research Questions We aim to find answers to three different research questions. The first, descriptive question asks which memories or references to the past teachers mention as important for the cultural memory of the German society. The second, analytical question explores linkages between what our research group conceptualizes as policy curricula (e.g., national standards, federal curricula), programmatic curricula (e.g., textbooks and other educational media), and enacted curricula (negotiations, linkages or dissensus between official and objectified memories and subjective reflections) (Beim 2007). The third, analytical question investigates how teachers shape, extend, stabilize, reproduce, contest or interrupt official forms of politics of memory which are represented in institutionalized collective memory objects. In order to approach these research questions and to define the concepts memory and the politics of memory, we draw on findings of memory studies, media and discourse theory, curriculum research and the research into the politics of memory. The most relevant and crucial theoretical concepts and approaches for the scope of this chapter will be discussed in the following three sub-sections. The preliminary empirical findings of this chapter rest on the data retrieved by means of a quantitative survey. This data will be reported and discussed later in the Sects. 4 and 5. 2.1

Memory

The sociological contributions of Maurice Halbwachs during the first quarter of the twentieth century and the rediscovery of his works since the 1970s targeted a shift in

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the understanding of memory. A range of studies demonstrate how Halbwachs’ distinctive social perspective on memory emerged in different research communities. Memory is no longer understood as a static and inflexible storage system or product, but rather as a dynamic process or flow (Olick and Robbins 1998; Erll and Rigney 2006; Rothberg 2009). Moreover, the importance of the individual was decreased or mitigated. Memory is not anymore conceptualized as solely connected to a single person. Rather it is understood as social, collective, and entangled (Halbwachs 1992; Assmann 2003; Warburg 2003). Furthermore, memory is no longer theorized as property of an individual or as an internal individual cognitive process (even located inside the individual’s head) (Middleton and Edwards 1990), but rather as historical, materialized, and represented as objectified forms of social memory at different places and enacted as social practices (Nora 1984). In addition to that, memory is theorized as inherent to all kinds of social processes and interactions and, therefore, assumed to be playing an important role in processes of identifications (Brubaker and Cooper 2000). Furthermore, memories are conceptualized as socially and collectively constructed, contested, and inherent in power relations which shape any society or community (Sturken 1997; 2008). While this section revisited important conceptualizations of memory and its metamorphosis in general, the next sections will go a step further. In the Sects. 2.2 and 2.3, we will elaborate more on our own conceptualization and show why memory is not only an important category in disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, but also in the realm of curriculum research and political and educational science. 2.2

The Politics of Memory or Erinnerungspolitik

A cluster of studies stressed the meaning and relevance of memories with regard to the sphere of the political. State and non-state actors, such as governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), use and even take advantage of references to the past in order to produce legitimacy for political agendas. Through the selective use and construction of references to the past, those actors try and influence political decisionmaking processes to their advantage (Kohlstruck and Heinrich 2008). References to the past are being constructed to promote its specific interpretations to facilitate national identities and identifications for the sake of the erection or consolidation of political rule or domination (Reichel 1995; König 2008; Schwelling 2008). In some cases, politics of memory were merely a political necessity to get to terms with a troubled past or the remains of political regimes through actions of memory, such as historicalpolitical trials, commemorative instaurations or dates and places of remembrance (Frei 1996; Jelin 2002). Erinnerungspolitik is also utilized to reproduce and stabilize established discourses and references to the past or to contest and destabilize hegemonic memories and interpretations of historical events (Wolfrum 1999). Alternative memories can therefore operate in opposition to dominant memories and fissure the hegemonic discourse of history (Jelin 2002; Hodgkin and Radstone 2003). To sum it up, following memory studies, we conceptualize memory as radically socially constituted and constructed, shaped by social activities and social frames and therefore not as a static storage system, but rather a dynamic communication process. Drawing on media and discourse theory, we understand memories as precarious,

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provisional, and unstable discursive formations, which are always struggling for articulation and the achievement of discursive hegemony. Consequently, memory is rather conflictual, fragile, and fissured than finished, settled or eventually agreed on. With regard to curriculum research and the findings of the research into Erinnerungspolitik, we assume educational media to play a vital and important role in state efforts to shape the collective memory of a community and society. 2.3

History Education and the Political–Why History Classes?

For the following section it is important to introduce a certain differentiating feature from recent post-foundational political theory: the difference between politics and the political. This difference has been virulent in recent continental and Anglo-American political thought and recieved quite a bit of attention (Marchart 2007; 2010). For Bröckling and Feustel (2015), this difference is one of the most, if not the most fundamental differentiating feature (Leitdifferenz) in contemporary social philosophy. Although many authors utilize a different vocabulary to describe this difference, in post-foundational political theory, politics can be rather identified with an institutionalized system of political control and management, whereas the political is understood in a more discursive sense (for details on the difference between politics and the political cf. Marchart 2007; 2010; Bröckling and Feustel 2015; Lauth and Wagner 2012; Münkler and Straßenberger 2016). We adopt this differentiating feature from post-foundational political theory and apply it as heuristics to history education in order to identify history education as a political field. As a result, history education becomes visible as an arena where politics understood as references to the past that are objectified in state-sanctioned educational media and educational regulations intersect with the political represented by teachers’ and students’ reflexions. The political theory of Ernest Laclau and the political philosophy of Jaques Rancière showed that what is publicly being referred to as politics is not (only) to be found in an institutionalized system of political control, management or common notions of governance. Both authors actually located their understanding of general notions of politics explicitly outside and in opposition to such regulations (Laclau 1990; Rancière 2000). Their understanding of politics is a rather discursive one. Following Laclau, the actual mode of politics is the struggle of alternatives, discourse hegemony, and stabilization or fixation of sense (Laclau 1990; 2002; Laclau and Mouffe 2015). Rancière (2000) emphasizes the confrontation of different interpretative patterns, antagonisms, and especially dissensus in his attempts to locate and define his understanding of politics. For him, the manifestation of dissensus is really the essence of politics. Understood in its more discursive notion, politics becomes visible when contingencies of decisions surface, because dominant discourses, political decisions or identifications are being challenged by alternative offerings and therefore become visible as merely contingent political decisions, which could have also been decided in a totally different way (Laclau 2002). The general notion of politics is then rather being represented by a strategy which irritates, destabilizes, and reorganizes the distribution of the sensible, the partition of what is visible and invisible, sayable and unsayable, audible and inaudible (Rancière 2000; 2002).

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Apart from political theory and philosophy, the curriculum of the German state Lower Saxony itself conceptualizes history education as a political field. It states that history, taught as a school subject, enables young people to access their society’s cultural memory and participate in the memory of their community (Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium 2008, p. 7–8). It further argues that it is, among others, history education where students gain their own identity and develop a reflective awareness of history. After all the curriculum promotes the construction of national, collective identifications and implies a connectedness between German and European identities, when it states that history education contributes to the development of student personality based on Christianity, European humanism and the ideas of the movement for democracy, liberty, social stability, and safety (Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium 2008, p. 7–8). Studying the negotiation of politics of memory in history education can, however, never be about tracking a simple, linear reception of memories transmitted by teachers to their students with the help of educational media. Since teachers and students utilize creative strategies and practices of media appropriation and adoption (Künzli and Santini-Amgarten 1999; Oelkers 2006; Edwards 2009; Edwards, Miller and Priestley 2009). Nevertheless, teacher’s reflections about what counts as worth remembering in conjunction with their educational media practices are structuring the distribution of the sensible in history classes and, thus, influence what is visible, negotiable, and audible in the classroom (von Borries et al. 2005; Breidenstein 2006). Nevertheless, by taking the accounts of the curriculum seriously and by applying the difference between politics and the political as heuristics to educational contexts, history education becomes visible as a promising new context for the analysis of how Erinnerungspolitik or the politics of memory are produced and negotiated. A quantitative methodology, as described in the following sections, will offer insight into the negotiations of Erinnerungspolitik in Lower Saxony’s history education at secondary level.

3 Methodology Data collection followed a quantitative approach and was based on closed-ended questions. The cross-sectional full survey contained questions or statements along a scale continuum of seven-level Likert items with labelled endpoints, where the value 1 represented the lowest, while value 7 the highest rating. The pen-and-paper questionnaire was pre-tested, standardized, and validated. The sample consisted of 462 questionnaires returned by History teachers employed at Lower Saxonian secondary schools. This represents a response rate of approximately 20%. Given the absence of precise data on the number of History teachers, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs of Lower Saxony, a rough calculation or estimation was carried out. While the total population of qualified History teachers amounted for 3,787 persons, only 60–70% (n = 2,272) of them taught at secondary level.

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4 Initial Findings and Results 4.1

Curricula and Cultural Memory

This section introduces preliminary findings about teacher’s reflections towards the cultural memory of Germany and their educational media practices. What do teachers mention to be worth remembering and which media is relevant to them for communicating history to young people? The first questions targeted teacher satisfaction with the current focus of Lower Saxony’s history curricula. Thereby, the focus was set specifically on the satisfaction with the amount of content beyond German and European history. We asked teachers to rate their level of agreement (1 = don’t agree at all, 2 = totally agree) with the statements included in Table 1. Table 1. Content of history curricula in Lower Saxony (source: author).

1: more content beyond German and European history 2: prevailing content in Germany history

N

Min.

Max.

Mean

425

1

7

4.33

Std. deviation 1.965

431

1

7

3.75

1.867

Both statements showed low mean values. The mean value of statement 1 (M = 3.75) is smaller than the scale’s neutral middle value which represents only a medium (more-or-less) amount of agreement with the statement. Same is true for the mean value (M = 4.33) of statement 2, which is slightly higher than the neutral value of the scale (4.00). On average, teachers neither perceived the curricula as overtly focused on Germany, nor did they express the need for more content beyond German history. However, the standard deviation for both statements are rather high, representing a more pluralistic range of the teachers’ assessment. While some teachers were satisfied with the curricular focus, others expressed more critical views and wished for more content beyond German and European history. A selection of all answer categories shown in Tables 2 and 3 facilitates a comparison of historical events already included in programmatic and policy curricula (i.e., established and dominant references to the past) and those memories which are not yet part or underrepresented in current curricula and educational media. Following two questions served to map what importance and relevance did teachers attribute to selected historical events and processes: 1. What is your assessment of the importance of the following events of world contemporary history. What is your personal opinion? How important are the lowing items for society in general? (Table 2) 2. What is your assessment of the importance of the following events of world contemporary history. What is your personal opinion? How important are the lowing items for society in general? (Table 3)

and foland fol-

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Table 2. Events and processes of world and contemporary history (source: author). Holocaust/Shoa French Revolution Industrialization World War II Cold War Imperialism and colonialism World War I Roman Empire Discovery of America European Integration (e.g., EU) Transatlantic slave trade Ancient Greece USA USSR Arab and Islamic world Vietnam War and Vietnam War protests October Revolution 1917 Decolonization Prague Spring History of Eastern Europe after World War II Proletarian internationalism/international socialism Pre-colonial Africa Feminist movement/women’s liberation movement China India

N 437 440 437 437 436 437 435 440 435 438 433 439 439 434 435 439 437 432 438 434 435 434 435 435 432

Min. 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Max. 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Mean 6.79 6.31 6.16 6.13 6.09 6.04 5.84 5.63 5.46 5.42 5.38 5.32 5.29 5.08 4.98 4.94 4.89 4.82 4.70 4.68 4.04 3.94 3.92 3.92 3.47

Std. deviation .585 .938 .976 1.219 .946 .968 1.275 1.328 1.330 1.274 1.282 1.457 1.195 1.249 1.394 1.290 1.392 1.390 1.331 1.332 1.455 1.528 1.578 1.515 1.454

Those historical events of German and world history that are already included in programmatic and policy curricula or relate to well established grand narratives in public, political, and historical discourse, such as the Holocaust (M = 6.79; M = 6.84), German division (M = 6.58), German reunification (M = 6.68), the world wars (WW I: M = 5.84/5.65; WWII: M = 6.13/6.01), the history of the two German states (M = 6.14/6.09) etc. were on average rated highly relevant, as shown by the high mean values. Moreover, the smaller or rather small standard deviations represent a fairly homogenous assessment.

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Holocaust/Shoa German Reunification German Division Resistance during National Socialism Federal republic of Germany (FRG) German Democratic Republic (GDR) World War II Weimar Republic Political debates and confrontations during the Weimar Republic World War I Absolutism and Enlightenment November Revolution of 1918/19 German Empire Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation German Revolutions of 1848/49 History of migration from and to Germany History of colonization and its implications for Germany Labor movement of Germany Social democratic resistance during National Socialism Socialist resistance during National Socialism Women’s movement/feminism in Germany Political confrontations inside the leftist fraction during the Weimar Republic Environmental Movement in Germany China India

N

Min.

Max.

Mean

441 440 439 441 442 437 439 440 439

1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2

7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

6.84 6.68 6.58 6.34 6.14 6.09 6.01 5.59 5.66

Std. deviation .509 .769 .807 .976 1.006 .990 1.248 .914 1.163

440 441 441 437 440

1 2 2 2 1

7 7 7 7 7

5.65 5.59 5.38 5.36 5.26

1.299 1.223 1.243 1.180 1.371

436 437 440

1 1 1

7 7 7

5.17 5.08 4.82

1.421 1.324 1.436

432 436

1 1

7 7

4.81 4.80

1.298 1.423

434

1

7

4.74

1.484

439 438

1 1

7 7

4.26 3.97

1.560 1.548

429 435 432

1 1 1

7 7 7

3.67 3.92 3.47

1.499 1.515 1.454

The mean values of those items which are not yet included or underrepresented in programmatic and policy curricula or less established in public, political, and historical discourse, such as the history of the German (M = 4.26) and international (M = 3.92) feminist movements, German (M = 4.81) and international (M = 4.04) labour movements, German environmental movement (M = 3.67), India (M = 3.47), China (M = 3.92), pre-colonial Africa (M = 3.94) or of decolonization processes (M = 4.82) were rated less relevant. In contrast to the first group of items, however, the smaller standard deviations of the second group indicate a less homogenous and more pluralistic assessment of teachers towards those memories. While a majority emphasized

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the importance of dominant memories, there was still a reasonable number of teachers who highlighted the relevance and importance of alternative memories, which can represent a more critical, even post-colonial perspective. Thus, taken into consideration the standard deviations, a more nuanced picture unfolds. 4.2

Educational Media Practices

This section explores some of the teachers’ educational media practices. In doing so, it takes a closer look at the relevance of educational media, such as textbooks and open educational resources (OER) for the preparation on the teachers lectures and for communicating history to their students. Table 4. Teachers’ textbook usage (source: author). Valid

Yes No Total Missing No answer Total 444

Frequency % Valid % Cumulative % 428 96.4 99.1 99.1 4 .9 .9 100.0 432 97.3 100.0 100.0 12 2.7 100.0

The overwhelming majority of the teachers (99.1%) currently (2015) used a textbook (Table 4). Regarding the frequency of educational media usage (1 = never, 7 = every lesson), a big majority of teachers (72%) used the textbook each lesson or almost each lesson (Table 5), while merely 4% worked less regularly with textbooks. As shown in Table 6, only 59.1% of the teachers have heard of OER. In addition to that, Table 7 displays that a big majority (76.3%) of those teachers, who were aware of the existence of OER, reported an under-average usage in classrooms. Moreover, 49% of those teachers even never or almost never used OER. Regarding the importance and relevance of different types of educational media for lesson planning (1 = not relevant at all, 7 = highly relevant), the mean values of curricula and textbooks were significantly higher (from M = 5.59–5.3) than those of OER (M = 1.97) or other materials (M = 2.67–4.91) and the standard deviations were significantly smaller with the exception of the standard deviation for OER (Table 8). Curricula and textbooks are, thus, more important for teachers when creating, structuring and orientating their lectures. Nevertheless, the standard deviations for all items are fairly high, which implies a broader range of teacher option. To sum it up, textbooks are (still) highly relevant and very frequently used, while OER seem to be less important. OER are not well known, less frequently used, and less relevant for lesson planning.

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2 3 4 5 6 Each lesson Total Missing No answer Total 444

Frequency 6 10 23 74 161 129 403 41 100.0

% Valid % Cumulative % 1.4 1.5 1.5 2.3 2.5 4.0 5.2 5.7 9.7 16.7 18.4 28.0 36.3 40.0 68.0 29.1 32.0 100.0 90.8 100.0 9.2

Table 6. Teachers’ awareness of OER (source: author). Frequency Valid Yes 256 No 177 Total 433 Missing No answer 11 Total 444 100.0

% Valid % Cumulative % 57.7 59.1 59.1 39.9 40.9 100.0 97.5 100.0 2.5

Table 7. Teachers’ OER usage frequency (source: author). Frequency % Valid % Cumulative % Never 33 7.4 13.3 13.3 2 89 20.0 35.7 49.0 3 68 15.3 27.3 76.3 4 41 9.2 16.5 92.8 5 17 3.8 6.8 99.6 6 1 .2 .4 100.0 Total 249 56.1 100.0 Missing No answer 19 4.3 System 176 39.6 Total 195 43.9 Total 444 100.0 Valid

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Table 8. Relevance of different types of educational media for lesson planning (source: author). N Min School curriculum 437 1 State curriculum 434 1 Textbook (student edition) 436 1 Teachers’ lesson preparation 424 1 Teachers’ self-designed educational media 432 1 Sourcebooks 432 1 Supplementary material publishers 434 1 Departmental committees’ material 421 1 Free material (e.g., OER) 408 1

Max 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7

Mean 5.59 5.30 5.30 4.91 4.82 4.24 3.61 2.67 1.97

Std. deviation 1.356 1.386 1.378 1.605 1.513 1.624 1.776 1.482 1.249

5 Discussion and Conclusions In the research reported here, we investigated how teachers are involved in the negotiation of politics of memory, or to use the German terminology, Erinnerungspolitik, in the context of history education. The specific research questions we addressed in this chapter were: Firstly, which memories or references to the past do teachers mention as important for the cultural memory of the German society? Secondly, which linkages between policy curricula, programmatic curricula, and enacted curricula can be identified? Finally, how do teachers shape, extend, stabilize, reproduce, contest or interrupt official forms of politics of memory’? There is evidence that relations between policy curricula, programmatic curricula, and enacted curricula exist. Teachers’ reflections on which or whose memories count as worth remembering suggest a quite strong linkage between the contents of policy curricula, programmatic curricula, and enacted curricula. In particular, memories already objectified in collective memory objects are rated on average as highly important for the cultural memory of the German society. At the same time, we also found evidence indicating that alternative memories that are not yet represented in policy and programmatic curricula or under-represented in these collective memory objects seem to be on average less important for history teachers. Thus, the results indicate a rather strong reproduction and stabilization of established and dominant references to the past. On average, teachers seem to rather strongly reproduce official forms of politics of memory or Erinnerungspolitik. Further we found evidence that state-sanctioned educational media, such as textbooks as well as media that hold the potential to influence, guide, and direct the teacher’s lesson preparations and classroom teaching practices, such as curricula, are, on average, still highly relevant for both history lesson planning and classroom teaching practices. It is important to note that we found very few evidence for the high relevance or importance of other kinds of (educational) media, such as OER. Media which possibly hold the potential for the articulation and negotiation of alternative memories appear to be, on average, less important for history lessons. It seems that well established, codified, and, therefore, obligatory references to the past have a higher probability of being introduced, becoming visible, audible, negotiable, and possibly

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reproduced in history classrooms. The negotiation and reproduction of alternative references to the past appear to be less likely. Our findings support, at least partly, results of some of the previous studies, which stated that education cannot be understood as a linear process of transmission and reception of content (cf. Anix 1983; Kunert 1983; Klose 1988; Künzli and SantiniAmgarten 1999; Oelkers 2006; Edwards 2009; Edwards et al. 2009). Despite recent attempts of educational stakeholders, such as teachers, curriculum designers or researchers to destabilize and shift what counts as worth remembering, it seems to be difficult to interrupt or destabilize the echo of memories (Halbwachs 1980) of previous dominant educational discourses. Our data supports the conclusion that, in the digital global world, memories are rather personalized and fragmented, implying the end of master narratives (Leggewie 2009; Freadman 2014). One explanation for the rather strong linkage between policy curricula, programmatic curricula, and enacted curricula shown here can possibly be found in the high relevance of curricula and state sanctioned educational media for the orientation of teachers’ lectures. A second explanation might lie in the obligatory and mandatory nature of Lower Saxony’s curricular content. A third potential explanation for our findings is the strong sedimentation of specific memories and contents in public and academic German political and historical discourse. A final point to consider is our research focus and the limitations of the quantitative methodology applied. Some of the previous studies are primarily concerned with effectiveness of curricula with regard to the implementation of curricular reforms by teachers or the effects of teachers’ teaching practices on student learning. As this aspect was outside of chapter’s aims, our findings can only refer to the teachers’ reflexions. We cannot draw any conclusions or make inferential estimations with regard to the effects on students or the collective negotiations of memories of students and teachers in the classroom situation. Nevertheless, some evidence for the above mentioned unexpected ambivalences and differences with previous research can also be found in the data reported here. Looking more closely at the survey data, and taking into account not only the mean values but also the standard deviations among teachers’ responses, an interest in historical perspectives and references to the past beyond well established memories objectified in state mandated educational materials becomes more visible for some teachers. Furthermore, the conflictual nature of this interest, which by no means all teachers share, also becomes more apparent. A certain number of teachers emphasizes the importance of alternative memories and wish for content beyond German and European history. In this way, teachers also hold the potential to destabilize, contest, and extend official forms of Erinnerungspolitik. This potential is a trace for a perspective on history or past events, which is both less focused on Germany and less Eurocentric. Still, on average, teachers’ reflections clearly suggest a rather strong stabilization and reproduction of content which is mandated by the state curriculum and textbooks. In any case, a simple or even monocausal explanation for the rather strong reproduction of established memories and discourses appears to be unlikely and more research seems advisable and necessary. Beside more descriptive statistical analysis, such as the investigation of frequency distributions of teachers’ responses, additional

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inferential statistical analysis (e.g., analysis of variance and regression) seems advisable to identify possible relevant group differences among teachers (c.f. Macgilchrist et al. 2017). Apart from that, the implementation of other methodologies, such as qualitative methods, especially classroom observations, might be a helpful tool to gain a better insight in the actual classroom practices of teachers and students (particularly to further investigate the consistency of teachers’ reflections and practices). Overall, this kind of research can possibly contribute to the collective production and negotiation of memory and Erinnerungspolitik of teachers and students. Addressing the broader political and social implications of our findings, it is worth mentioning that history education (beside others) provides a relevant context for the exploration and analysis of the processes around the negotiation and production of politics of memory and the important role of educational media during these processes.

References K. Anix, Der Lehrplan Aus Lehrersicht. Ergebnisse Einer Befragung von Hauptschullehrern in Bayern (Fischer, Frankfurt Am Main, 1983) A. Assmann, Three stabilizers of memory: affect–symbol–trauma, in Sites of Memory in American Literatures and Cultures. ed. by U. Hebel (Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg, 2003), pp. 15–30 A. Beim, The cognitive aspects of collective memory. Symbolic Interact. 30(1), 7–26 (2007) G. Briedenstein, Teilnahme Am Unterricht: Ethnographische Studien Zum Schülerjob (VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, 2006) U. Bröckling, R. Feustel, Das Politische Denken. Zeitgenössische Positionen (Transcript, Bielefeld, 2010) U. Bröckling, R. Feustel (eds.), Das Politische Denken. Zeitgenössische Positionen (Transcript, Bielefeld, 2015) R. Brubaker, F. Cooper, Beyond ‘Identity.’ Theory Soc. 29(1), 1–47 (2000) R. Edwards, Translating the prescribed into the enacted curriculum in college and school. Educ. Philosophy Theory 43, 38–54 (2009) R. Edwards, K. Miller, M. Priestley, Curriculum-making in school and college: the case of hospitality. Curriculum J. 20(1), 27–42 (2009) A. Erll, A. Rigney, Literature and the production of cultural memory: introduction. Eur. J. Engl. Stud. 10(2), 111–115 (2006) A. Freadman, Fragmented memory in a global age. The place of storytelling in modern language curricula. Modern Language J. 98(1), 73–385 (2014) N. Frei, Vergangenheitspolitik: Die Anfänge Der Bundesrepublik Und Die NS-Vergangenheit (C. H. Beck, München, 1996) M. Halbwachs, The Collective Memory (Harper & Row, New York, 1980) M. Halbwachs, On Collective Memory (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1992) K. Hodgkin, S. Radstone (eds.), Contested Pasts: The Politics of Memory (Routledge, London, 2003) E. Jelin, Los Trabajos de La Memoria (Siglo XXI de España editores, Madrid, 2002) P. Klose, Verwendung Und Rezeption Staatlicher Lehrpläne in Schulen. Eine Empirische Untersuchung Am Beispiel Des Sachunterrichts (Lang, Frankfurt Am Main, 1988) M. Kohlstruck, H.A. Heinrich (eds.), Geschichtspolitik Und Sozialwissenschaftliche Theorie (Steiner, Stuttgart, 2008)

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H. König, Politik Und Gedächtnis (Velbrück Wissenschaft, Weilerswist, 2008) K. Kunert, Wie Lehrer Mit Dem Lehrplan Umgehen. Bericht Über Eine Befragung von GrundUnd Hauptschullehrern-Interpretationen-Folgerungen (Beltz, Weinheim and Basel, 1983) R. Künzli, B. Santini-Amgarten, Wie Lehrpläne umgesetzt und verwendet werden, in Lehrplanarbeit: Über den Nutzen von Lehrplänen für die Schule und ihre Entwicklung. ed. by R. Künzli, K. Bähr, A.-V. Fries, G. Ghisla, M. Rosenmund, G. Seliner-Müller (Verlag Rüegger, Chur/Zürich, 1999), pp. 144–163 E. Laclau, New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (Verso, London, 1990) E. Laclau, Emanzipation Und Differenz (Turia + Kant, Wien, 2002) E. Laclau, C. Mouffe, Hegemonie Und Radikale Demokratie: Zur Dekonstruktion Des Marxismus (Passagen Verlag, Wien, 2015) H.J. Lauth, C. Wagner (eds.), Politikwissenschaft. Eine Einführung (UTB, Paderborn, 2012) C. Leggewie, Einleitung, Von der Visualisierung zur Virtualisierung des Erinnerns. in Erinnerungskultur 2.0: Kommemorative Kommunikation in digitalen Medien, ed. by E. Meyer (Campus, Frankfurt a. M., 2009), pp. 9–20 F. Macgilchrist, J. Ahlrichs, P. Mielke, R. Richtera, Memory practices and colonial discourse: on text trajectories and lines of flight. Critical Discourse Stud. 14(4), 341–361 (2017) O. Marchart, Eine demokratische Gegenhegemonie – Zur neo-gramscianischen Demokratietheorie bei Laclau und Mouffe, in Hegemonie gepanzert mit Zwang. ed. by S. Buckel, A. FischerLescano (Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG., Baden-Baden, 2007), pp. 105– 121 O. Marchart, Die politische Differenz. Zum Denken des Politischen bei Nancy, Lefort, Badiou, Laclau und Agamben (Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin, 2010) D.E. Middleton, D.E. Edwards (eds.), Collective Remembering (Sage, London, 1990) H. Münkler, G. Straßenberger, Politische Theorie Und Ideengeschichte. Eine Einführung (C. H. Beck, München, 2016) Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium, Kerncurriculum für das Gymnasium Schuljahrgänge 5 - 10: Geschichte (2008). http://db2.nibis.de/1db/cuvo/datei/kc_gym_gesch_08_nib.pdf. Accessed 30 Mar 2020 P. Nora, Les Lieux de Mémoire (Gallimard, Paris, 1984) J. Oelkers, Lehrpläne als Steuerungsinstrumente? in, Lehrpläne und Bildungsstandards: Was Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen sollen. Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Prof. Dr. Rudolf Künzli, ed. by L. Criblez, P. Gautschi, P. Hirt Monico, H. Messner (H.E.P. Verlag, Bern, 2006), pp. 241–268 J.K. Olick, J. Robbins, Social memory studies: from ‘collective memory’ to the historical sociology of mnemonic practices. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 24, 105–140 (1998) J. Rancière, Konsens, Dissens, Gewalt, in Gewalt: Strukturen, Formen, Repräsentationen. ed. by M. Dabag, A. Kapust, B. Waldenfels (Fink, München, 2000), pp. 97–129 J. Rancière, Das Unvernehmen: Politik und Philosophie (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M., 2002) P. Reichel, Politik Mit Der Erinnerung: Gedächtnisorte Im Streit Um Die Nationalsozialistische Vergangenheit (Hansa, München, 1995) M. Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization (Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2009) B. Schwelling, Politische Erinnerung: Eine akteurs- und handlungsbezogene Perspektive auf den Zusammenhang von Gedächtnis, Erinnerung und Politik, in Geschichtspolitik und sozialwissenschaftliche Theorie. ed. by M. In, H.A. Kohlstruck (Steiner, Stuttgart, 2008), pp. 99–121 M. Sturken, Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the AIDS Epidemic, and the Politics of Remembering (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1997) M. Sturken, Memory, consumerism and media: reflections on the emergence of the field. Memory Stud. 1(1), 73–78 (2008)

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Easy Readers for Young Adults in Swedish Classrooms–Learning Material or Literature? Anna Nordenstam1(&) and Christina Olin-Scheller2 1

University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden [email protected] 2 Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

Abstract. This article explores the text type ‘easy reader novels’ for young people, which is on the rise in Sweden. These novels exist in a field of tension, being perceived as literature as an aesthetic product, on the one hand, and as learning material in the literature classroom, on the other. Our results show that the reading forms supported by the teacher and student material accompanying easy reader novels mainly support plot-, value- and subjective-oriented forms of reading. Many questions also go beyond the text and pose ethical dilemmas to the students regarding how they might behave in a similar situation. In contrast, the books can be used uncritically as learning material, and for reluctant readers with no motivation for reading literature, the article shows that the books pay little attention to supporting aesthetic values and interpretive reading forms, which are important issues in reading literature.

1 Easy Readers–An Increasingly Popular Text Type in Swedish Schools Today there is a great deal of concern about the reading abilities of young people (Persson 2012; Pettersson et al. 2015). In Sweden, one solution often advocated is to offer teenagers who are considered demotivated and poor readers easy reading novels. Publishing houses that publish only easy readers have begun to appear in the market, and established authors of traditional young adult literature have begun writing easy reader novels. These books are marketed as literature; they have hard covers with lavish layouts and resemble traditional young adult literature in many ways. Thus, easy readers now appear to be a type of text approaching mainstream young adult novels. As such, the target groups for the books can be described as much wider than readers with serious language difficulties, such as dyslexia. Instead, these books are aimed for use by large groups of young, possibly only reluctant, readers. In this article, we analyze the teacher and student materials accompanying 15 newly written Swedish easy reader novels. The aim is to study what kind of reading forms the material could be said to encourage. Easy reader novels in Sweden are primarily used in schools and are mainly distributed through teachers and school librarians. In libraries, the books are categorized as literature, and both authors and publishing houses strongly advocate the text type being perceived and read as novels (Nordenstam and Olin-Scheller 2017b). However, © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 330–340, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_27

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the books are often accompanied–at no extra cost–by material with tasks aimed at guiding individual reading and by reading instructions for the classroom. Teaching guides are not generally an accompaniment to traditional young adult literature. This makes the text type easy reader novels different from the mainstream publications. As such, easy reader novels can be described as existing in a field of tension, being perceived as aesthetic pieces of literature, on the one hand, and as simply learning materials in the literature classroom, on the other. International researchers, such as Graves, Juel and Phillip (2001), McGill-Franzen and Allington (2001) and Liang (2002) argue that easy readers could have a positive impact on the development of a reader, including of fiction. In the Nordic countries, there are also a few studies about the easy reader text type in general (see Lundberg and Reichenberg 2008; Heimann Mühlenbock 2013; Reichenberg 2013); however, none highlights the teaching and student material. By focusing on this material, we discuss in our article whether or how easy reader novels serve either as fiction as an aesthetic product, focusing on literary reading strategies, or primarily as learning material (Skjelbred 2010).

2 Easy Readers in Sweden The idea of using and producing easy readers originates from a democratic argument that all citizens should be able to read and understand civic information. The publication of easy readers in Sweden began in 1968 as a part of the National Board of Education (Wennström 1995) where the so called Specialpedagogiska myndigheten–a department handling questions regarding special needs and education, had a specific responsibility. Since 1987, when the board was transferred to a foundation financed by the government, it has remained an important actor, publishing easy readers as well as functioning as a knowledge center for authors, schools and libraries. In recent years, the publishing landscape has changed, and today, several commercial publishing houses also publish easy readers. Thus, the availability of the easy reader novels for young people through schools and libraries in Sweden can be described as high. The books were, from the starting point in the late 1960s, directed towards people with reading problems but in the past ten years a new niche for the publishing houses has been the reluctant young reader. This is the reason why the easy readers are interesting to study both from an educational and a literary perspective. Usually, the novels consist of short texts (25–100 pages) with one single intrigue and no parallel stories. Descriptions of settings are rare; there are only a few main characters, and the stories are told without broken narratives. The language is simplified, which means that the sentences are short, with no complicated or long words or metaphors. The easy reading novels are mostly realistic, although there are a few easy readers in the fantasy genre. Hence, the fantasy genre is not included in our sample. Most of the easy readers for young adults have a protagonist who is a teenager, and the setting is contemporary Sweden. The books have traditional themes, such as relations to friends, partners, parents and hobbies, and so forth. A new study (Nordenstam and Olin-Scheller 2017a) shows that many of the easy readers for young adult readers are stereotypical according to gender and class. The girl protagonists are often passive and

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exposed to violence by young boys. In contrast, the boy protagonists are more violent and active, and have interests, such as sports and motor vehicles.

3 Theoretical and Methodological Considerations Our point of departure is that the student and teacher material accompanying the easy reader novels guides the reading towards different forms of reading (Ullström 2009; Skjelbred 2010; Graeske 2015). Tengberg (2011) discusses different readings in relation to literary conversations in secondary school classrooms and distinguishes six different forms of reading: plot-oriented reading, where the reader focuses on the plot; meaning-oriented reading, where the reader discusses the themes; value-oriented reading, where aesthetic and ethical questions receive emphasis; subjective-oriented reading, where the reader’s personal experience and feelings are in focus; intentionoriented reading, where the intention of the author is the main topic; and metacognitive reading, where the reader focuses on the own reading process. Graeske (2015) has added three forms of readings in her study about teaching materials/books in literature: historical reading, where the reader analyzes the historical context of the book; form-oriented reading, where narratology is in focus; and gender-oriented reading. The selection of novels corresponds to the empirical material analyzed in a previous study (Nordenstam and Olin-Scheller 2017a), where we selected the books in relation to the fact that the authors and publishing houses clearly distinguish two distinct groups of readers−boys and girls–to which the publications are directed. The books in our study were all published between 2011 and 2015, by three different publishing houses focusing on easy reading literature. According to the authors and publishing houses, the teacher and student material was exclusively produced by the publishers (Nordenstam and Olin-Scheller 2017b). The common practice is to have trained teachers, often with experience of special education, produce the material. The material is easily accessible via the home pages of the publishing houses, and it is free. At one of the publishing houses, Hegas, the material is called a Reading key (Swedish: Läsnyckel) and consists mainly of a number of questions about the book, followed by a key to the answers. In comparison with the other two publishing houses studied here, Nypon and LL-förlaget, Hegas’ material can be described as sparse, often only one or two pages long, while the guides offered by the other two publishing houses are more extensive and also directed separately to the teacher (Teachers’ material), and the students (Students’ material). This material, like the material following the book Men jag är kär i henne, may include up to eleven pages of questions and assignments. According to the publishing houses, the teaching material is intended to help the teacher plan and implement the literary instruction, as well as support the students’ reading development. Hegas, for example, state on their homepage (www.hegas.se) that “[…] the idea of the questions about the text is that they should support reading comprehension on a deep level and, by encouraging reflection during and after reading the text, help the reader to see what is written between the lines” (authors’ translation). At the same time, it is clear that the material also functions as a lesson planner for the

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teacher. Nypon, for example, states that the material consists of “[…] a guide with tips and ideas for teachers” (authors’ translation, www.nyponforlag.se).

4 Student Material The student material varies according to the individual publishing houses. There is also some variation concerning the number of assignments between the novels studied here. However, in general, the material can be described as self-instructing, and all the books have a list of questions relating to the story. The questions are mostly plot-oriented and deal with details from the text. For example, “How many people are there at the party?” (Nyårsfesten), “What kind of drink/liquor does Isa order?” (Värsta fyllan), “What is the name of the leader of the gang?” (Vänd dig inte om) and “What is written in the note?” (Ska vi ses?). Correct answers are often presented in a separate key in the teachers’ material. Sometimes the students are asked to write answers in their own words, sometimes the questions have multiple-choice answers and sometimes the reader is asked to say whether a statement is true or (Ring mig). These questions can therefore be said to support a plot-oriented form of reading. In the student material, there are also examples of questions where no direct answers are to be found in the text. Instead, they ask for the reader’s knowledge and personal reflections about matters mentioned in the text. For example, “How do you feel when somebody you love is in love with another person?” (Utan att säga hej då), and “How would you feel if you were Julia?” (Gå ensam hem). In some cases, the answers to these questions must be considered quite obvious to the target group of readers. The answer to a question like “What is Instagram?” (Det här är privat) ought to be known by most teenagers today, and the same would apply to questions about texts intended for boys interested in motorized vehicles (“What is a visor?” or “What is an ‘Epatractor’ [a kind of vehicle]?”). These types of open questions can be described as supporting a subjective-oriented form of reading, leading the reader away from further interpretation of the text (cf. Ullström 2009). In the student material, we find a number of examples of organizing and labelling groups of questions that are inspired by widespread notions about teaching models supporting reading comprehension (cf. Westlund 2015). The material also contains references to the widespread notion of supporting reading by explicit teaching of reading strategies (cf. Olin-Scholler et al. 2015). On the whole, very few of the questions in the student material deal with analysis of text, form and style, central themes or focalization, themes that are central to formoriented forms of reading. As a complement to the questions mentioned above, the student material also consists of assignments, taking different themes or phenomena in the books as starting points. In Parkour, for example, the characters in this story have parkour as a hobby, and the story has related activities as its framework. As shown in Fig. 1, the material asks students to find on YouTube five different parkour jumps (Monkey Vault, Precision, Roll, Tic-tac, Cat Leap). “Maybe”, the assignment says, “you can practice one of them yourself!” In addition, the students are asked to choose one of the jumps and draw it on the paper. Thus, in many ways the student material can be described as relating to the students’ own life experiences and to reading strategies connected to subjective-oriented and plot-oriented reading forms.

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Fig. 1. Parkour (source Güettler 2013)

The student material makes many references to the idea that reading instruction should support a greater awareness of reading strategies, an opinion common among teachers (cf. Olin-Scholler et al. 2015; Olin-Scheller and Tengberg 2016). The questions, like the ones above, are also labelled with concepts, such as the cowboy and the

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reporter, labels aimed at helping the teacher to categorize which reading strategy to use when reading. These labels can be connected to an overarching didactical concept called Läsfixarna (Reding improvement people) (see http://www.nok.se/Laro medel/-Laromedelswebb-/-B1-/-Lararwebb-/ABC-klubben/-Flik-2-/Lasfixarna/Vad-arLasfixarna/). In Sweden, you’ll find Läsfixarna in all different kinds of popular reading material aimed at teachers of Swedish, primarily for younger students (cf. En läsande klass [A reading class] and ABC-klubben [The ABC club]). In the student material, there are many examples of questions that are organized in relation to the student’s reading ability (cf. Westlund 2015). For instance, there are references to a hierarchical notion about reading competences, where concepts such as reading on the lines, reading between the lines and reading beyond the lines are used. The material for students that accompanies the easy reading novel Lucialinnet [The Lucia linen] is one typical example where this is used: Questions between the lines (You have to think after you have read the text. You will find the answers through clues in the text.) 1. Which day of the week is it? 2. Who do you think will become the Lucia of the class?

Another example in the student material is from the novel Det här är privat (This Is Private) in which the story circulates around an incident where a young girl takes off her clothes off in front of her web camera when a man on a chat site encourages her to do so. In the student material, it says: Questions beyond the lines (By using your own experiences, what you have seen, heard and read before, you can answer these questions). 1. What would you have done if you were Jojo, and your classmates were silent when you arrived? 2. Would it have been all right if someone had taken photos of you when you were naked?

These two questions are examples of how student material includes personal questions which refer to private experiences far beyond the text, and in this way, encourage a subject-oriented form of reading. The problematic thing here is not the subject-oriented form in itself, but the personal question, which raises sensitive ethical questions in the classroom. It must be considered a great risk for students to be expected to share their experiences of a very private nature in the classroom, and a relevant question here is, why should these experiences be a part of the reading lesson at all?

5 Teachers’ Material The teachers’ material, too, varies in relation to the specific publishing house. However, the scope of the material is normally shorter than the student material, ranging from one or two pages up to four to six pages. The Nypon publishing house always initiates the teacher material with a brief summary of the book’s plot, followed by references to the

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curriculum for the school subject of Swedish. The curriculum is mentioned for the teachers as a link to the aim and guidelines of the subject, which is Swedish. For example, the book Det här är privat contains the following goals from the curriculum Lgr 11, which applies to students in secondary school (aged 13–15 years). Main content and skills taught: 1. Reading strategies to understand, interpret and analyze texts from different media. Discern the message, theme and motives, as well as their purpose, sources and context (Swedish, grades 7-9) 2. Oral presentations and narratives aimed at different audiences, about topics relating to school and society. Adjustment of language, content and structure in accordance with aim and recipients. Different tools, for example, digital, for planning and implementing oral presentations (Swedish, grades 7–9) 3. Youth identities, lifestyles and well-being and how these are affected by, for example, socio-economic background, gender, sexual orientation (Social sciences, grades 7–9). Students practice the following skills: 1. Being able to communicate orally and in written text 2. Reading and analyzing literary texts as well as other texts, for different purposes 3. Reflecting on how individuals and societies are shaped and changed, and how they cooperate. The teachers also get information about which abilities the students should be trained in, in relation to the tasks in the book. Here, the form-oriented types of reading are in focus, and the themes and motives of the novel are also stressed. Furthermore, the teachers’ material also gives methodological suggestions, such as how to organize a discussion of the literature, inspired by Chambers (1995/2011) book talks, a method which is much used in Swedish classrooms and encouraged in the teacher education, where students are supposed to discuss the book with the whole class or in smaller groups (called reflections or book talk). Sometimes the questions are connected to matters concerning the author’s intention, ‘What message do you think the author has in Bokhataren?’–a question encouraging an intention-oriented form of reading. Questions are sometimes also connected to plot-oriented forms of reading: ‘How long does the story take?’ (Ring mig), ‘How does the book begin?’ and ‘How many people are in Eremias’s family?’ (Kickboxaren). However, the most dominant type of question encourages the value-oriented form of reading: ‘Was there something in particular special you liked about this book?’ ‘Was something in particular special you disliked about this book?’ (cf. Vänd dig inte om, Bokhataren, Ring mig), and the subjective-oriented form of reading, as in the task ‘Choose a passage from the text which affects you, and read it to the class’ (Bokhataren), and the questions ‘Are dog fights cruelty to animals?’ (Pitbull) and ‘Do you know the symbol of White Power, the one that Dennis has tattooed on his arm?’ (Ring mig). It’s obvious that the book talks are a way of discussing both the book itself and matters indicated by questions that lead away from the text (cf. Ullström 2009). It is therefore of interest that there are also some exceptions whereby the book talk becomes

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literary analysis (Ska vi ses? and Parkour). Here, the teacher has a template to give the students for analyzing the text. The aspects the students are encouraged to discuss are plot, characters, settings, the style and language, which could all be considered as supporting form-oriented types of reading. The last assignments in each set of materials, however, elicit the students’ own opinions by asking ‘Did you like the book?’ and ‘Did you like the ending?’ and support a value-oriented form of reading as well as an intention-oriented form of reading by asking ‘Do you believe the author wants us to learn something?’ The teachers’ material also includes a key to the students’ material with the answers. In the students’ material accompanying one of the books (Det enda rätta), there are 14 questions about the text, typically of the kind ‘Why did the moped stop?’ In the teachers’ material, the answer to this question is: ‘Because the throttle cable was broken.’ Another example is ‘How old do you think Olle is?’ (Bokhataren), with the answer given in the teachers’ material, ‘Each student’s own answer.’ Many of the easy reader novels for young people have topics that are closely connected to youth culture, or to being young. Common themes in the stories include topics about going home alone (Gå ensam hem), love and relationships (Skall vi ses?), sexual harassment (Det här är privat) and different sports and interests like parkour, boxing and mopeds (Parkour, Kickboxaren, Det enda rätta). The teachers’ material also contains suggested classroom activities, such as writing a letter to the author about the book (Gå ensam hem), dramatizing the topic in smaller groups (Parkour), doing evaluation exercises together in class (Ska vi ses?) or finding further material on websites about the topic of the book (Call me), in this case, racism. The teacher material also contains not only material on reflections, (e.g. ‘Is there something special you like about the book? Is there something special you dislike?’), but also linguistic tasks (Bokhataren). This could involve working with word classes and encouraging the students to work on the task in collaborative teams. Another task is a competition: Cut out words from different kinds of word classes that you’ve been working with previously. Put them in a bag. Divide the students into two teams. Pull a piece of paper from the bag. The teams are then to decide which word class the word belongs to and write it down on a paper. Let the teams read the word and the word class aloud when they are finished. Give the teams one point for every correct answer.

To sum up, in the teachers’ material, literature is used to encourage the students to go on to other assignments, and when there are questions related to the text and previous reading experience, the subjective-, value- and plot-oriented forms of reading are mainly in focus. The intention-oriented form of reading is also supported by the material. The meta-cognitive form of reading is sometimes present, but only with one type of question: ‘What have you learned?’ How learning is assessed is not discussed, nor is the historical form of reading. In our study, all the stories take place in realistic and contemporary settings, which require a reader who is familiar with these contexts.

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6 Conclusions In Sweden, easy readers as a type of text are considered literature. The publishing houses provide the reader, in our case the reluctant young reader, with recently written fiction. From the publishers’ and authors’ perspectives, easy readers are regarded as an introduction to literature and literary reading, and hopefully the readers will become interested in reading more advanced literature later on (Nordenstam and Olin-Scheller 2017b). It is beyond the aims of this study to explore how the easy readers and the pedagogical material are used in classrooms, but if perspectives on literature are neglected in the teaching activity, it is doubtful whether the intentions of the publishers and the authors will be fulfilled. The activity of reading literature is connected with aesthetic values and with challenging the perceptions of the reader, as well as providing opportunities to face the self through stories about other people and their thoughts (Olsson 2016). In relation to the easy readers, aesthetic reading is not encouraged at first hand; neither is it in the pedagogical material or in the narrative texts. Instead, we can see much more of what Rosenblatt (1995) labelled as efferent reading. In efferent reading, texts are apprehended as information, and the reader is searching for information about the characters in the text (effere, Latin: to lead away from). The pedagogical material often contains questions taking the text’s theme as a point of departure, but leading away from the actual story. Some questions are very personal, which raises ethical dilemmas about the role of the teacher in the classroom as well as the aim of the reading activity as presented in the curriculum of the school subject Swedish. The analyzed material offers limited possibilities to treat the books as literature in an aesthetic way, where interpretation and aspects of form are given attention. Hence, there is, as the authors see it, a tension between, on the one hand, the obvious and strong intention of the publishing houses, as well as the authors, to talk about and market the books as literature, and, on the other hand, the way the books, in parallel, are treated as learning material with little intention to support aesthetic values and interpretive reading forms. The tendency of the assignments in the student and teacher material to step away from the text is also found in research conducted about learning material for literature in the school subject Swedish (Ullström 2009; Lilja Waltå 2016). Another study points out that Swedish upper secondary school students are good at discussing literary texts, but that they often go beyond the texts, using the subjective-orientated form of reading (Johansson 2015). In this perspective, it is interesting to note that easy reading novels for young adults are increasingly prevalent in the market, and that the books are paid more and more attention in the schools and in the public debate. Important aspects that remain to be investigated are how the easy reading novels are used in the Swedish classroom, how the teachers and students are using them and what forms of readings the books are encouraging.

References A. Chambers, Tell Me. Children, Reading and Talk (Thimble Press, Woodchester, UK, 1995/2011)

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G. Graeske, Fiktionens mångfald. Om läromedel, läsarter och didaktisk design (Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2015) M.F. Graves, C. Juel, B.B. Graves, Teaching Reading in the 21st Century (Allyn & Bacon, Boston, 2001) K. Heimann Mühlenbock, I See What You Mean. Assessing Readability for Special Target Groups (Department of Swedish, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, 2013) M. Johansson, Läsa, Förstå, Analysera: En Komparativ Studie Om Svenska Och Franska Gymnasieelevers Reception Av En Narrativ Text (Linköpings universitet, Linköping, 2015) L.A. Liang, On the shelves of the local library: high-interest, easy reading trade books for struggling middle and high school readers. Preventing Sch. Fail. 46(4), 183–189 (2002) K. Lilja Waltå, ‘Äger Du En Skruvmejsel?’: Litteraturstudiets Roll i Läromedel För Gymnasiets Yrkesinriktade Program under Lpf 94 Och Gy 2011 (Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion, Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg, 2016) I. Lundberg, M. Reichenberg, Vad är lättläst? (Specialpedagogiska myndigheten, Stockholm 2008) A. McGill-Franzen, R.L. Allington, Summer Reading: Improving Access to Books and opportunities to Read. Reading Today, June/July 2001 A. Nordenstam, C. Olin-Scheller, Om moderna lättlästa ungdomsromaner. in Samtida svensk ungdomslitteratur. Analyser, ed. by Å. Warnquist (Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2017), pp. 127– 145 A. Nordenstam, C. Olin-Scheller, Att göra gott. Svenska författares och förläggares röster om lättläst ungdomslitteratur. Barnboken. J. Child. Lit. Res. 40, 1–16 (2017) C. Olin-Scheller, M. Tengberg (eds.), Läsa Mellan Raderna (Malmö, Gleerups, 2016) C. Olin-Scheller, M. Tengberg, A. Lindholm, Lässtrategieri rörelse. Att fördjupa elever läsförmåga. in, Litteratur och Läsning, ed. by M. Jönsson, A. Öhman (Studentlitteratur, Lund 2015), pp. 129–149 A.-L. Olsson, Strävan Efter Unselfing. En Pedagogisk Studie Av Utbildningstanken Hos Iris Murduch (Örebro universitet, Örebro, 2016) M. Persson, Den Goda Boken. Samtida Föreställningar Om Litteratur Och Läsning (Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2012) T. Pettersson, S.K. Nilsson, M. Wennerström Wohrne, O. Nordberg, Litteraturen på undantag? Unga vuxnas fiktionsläsning i dagens Sverige (Makada, Göteborg/Stockholm, 2015) M. Reichenberg, Are “Reader-Friendly” texts always better? IARTEM – e-J. 5(2), 64–84 (2013) L. Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration (Modern Language Association of America, New York, 1995) D. Skjelbred, Lærerveiledninger og oppgaver, in Lesing av fagtekster. ed. by D. Skjelbred, B. Aamotsbakken (Novus forlag, Oslo, 2010), pp. 169–184 M. Tengberg, Samtalets Möjligheter. Om Litteratursamtal Och Litteraturreception i Skolan (Brutus Östlings förlag, Stockholm/Stehag, 2011) S.-O. Ullström, Frågor om litteratur – om uppgiftskulturen i gymnasieskolan, in Läsa bör man? Den skönlitterära texten i skola och lärarutbildning. ed. by L. Kåreland (Liber, Stockholm, 2009), pp. 118–143 K. Wennström, Å Andras Vägnar. LL-Boken Som Litteratur-, Kultur- Och Handikappspolitiskt Experiment. En Kommunikationsstudie (Linköping universitet, Linköping, 1995) B. Westlund, Aktiv Läskraft. Att Undervisa i Lässtrategier För Förståelse (Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2015)

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List of Analyzed Resources M. Björn, N. Krog, Kickboxaren (LL-förlaget, Stockholm, 2013) A.H. Degerman, Det Ringer, Det Ringer (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2015) A.-C. Ekensten, Nyårsfesten (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2014) K. Erlandsson-Svevar, Utan Att Säga Hej Då (Hegas förlag, Helsingborg, 2011) E. Frey-Skött, Lucialinnet (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg 2014) K. Güettler, Parkour (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2013) T. Halling, Pitbull (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2011) T. Halling, Ring Mig (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2012) L. Jacobsson, Den Enda Rätta (Hegas förlag, Helsingborg, 2011) E.C. Johansson, Vänd Dig Inte Om (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2013) M. Melin, Ska vi Ses? (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2013) M. Melin, Men Jag Är Kär i Henne (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2015) C. Wahldén, Gå Ensam Hem (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2011) C. Wahldén, Värsta Fyllan (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2012) C. Wahldén, Bokhataren (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2013) C. Wahldén, Det Här Är Privat (Nypon förlag, Helsingborg, 2014)

The Function of Fiction. Textbooks After the 2011 Swedish Senior High School Reform Caroline Graeske(&) Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden [email protected]

Abstract. The aim of this study was to analyze how work with fiction is organized in six textbooks for senior high schools in Sweden after the 2011 school reform. Research into Swedish teaching materials has been neglected in recent years, and there is a knowledge gap regarding how work with fiction has been affected by the 2011 reform. In this study, quantitative and qualitative methods are used and Bernstein’s theories relating to horizontal and vertical discourse are applied to the empirical material. The results show that work with fiction in textbooks has been marginalized, particularly work with fiction written by women. The study also shows that students enrolled in vocational programs have access to different knowledge than students enrolled in university preparatory programs. This is remarkable, since the learning objectives in Svenska 1–the common curriculum for vocational and university preparatory programs–are the same. This means that core values of equal education were eliminated after the reform, and the knowledge gap between different groups of students is likely to increase. Keywords: Bernstein’s theory Sweden
Textbooks


Curriculum
Fiction
Reading types


1 New Curriculum–New Textbooks Students first entered the reformed Swedish senior high school system in the autumn of 2011. One major change in the new system is that the differences between the preparatory programs for vocational and university courses were clarified (SOU 2012). These differences also have consequences for Swedish language as a subject, particularly in vocational preparatory programs where two courses in Swedish language– Svenska A and B, each worth 100 credits–were replaced by a single Swedish course worth 100 credits (Svenska 1). This is a new direction in Swedish educational policy and the effects of the reform must be analyzed (Nylund and Rosvall 2011). Paradoxically, the reform took place at a time when new reports offered proof of the deteriorating reading ability of young people in Sweden (PISA 2009; SOU 2012). Investigating the effects more closely, in particular the consequences for reading comprehension and the Swedish language as a subject, is essential. Changes in curricula demonstrate the important function textbooks play, as they provide clear guidance in understanding the subject; knowledge about the design of teaching materials therefore becomes important (Englund 2006; Ammert 2011). © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 341–347, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_28

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The official peer review of textbooks in Sweden was abolished in 1991. In consequence, educational publishers enjoy a free market. This new development also calls for further studies on teaching materials (Johnsson-Harrie 2009). There is an urgent need to learn more about the design and production process of Swedish textbooks (Graeske 2010; Dahl 2015). The aim of this chapter is to analyze how new Swedish textbooks produced both before and after the 2011 reform are designed, and how these textbooks present reading and fiction comprehension to students enrolled in vocational and university preparatory programs. In this study, the functions performed by fiction (fictional literature, film, theater, and other media) in teaching materials are investigated; the central research questions are: What is the proportion of fiction in textbooks? What is the justification of fiction presented and how are the tasks related to them designed? What reading types are sought? Are there differences in textbooks for vocational and university preparatory programs, and if so, which ones?

2 Theoretical Framework Basil Bernstein’s theories stressing how different knowledge discourses can be linked to a class and power perspective (Moss 2002; Norlund 2009) are at the heart of this chapter’s theoretical framework. Bernstein (1990; 2000) argues that there are different types of knowledge, which he divided into vertical and horizontal discourse. Additional concepts central to Bernstein’s theoretical framework are control, framing, and classification. Classification refers to relationships between categories and the power that maintains them, for example, between subjects and different forms of knowledge and learning (Bernstein 2000). Classification can be both strong and weak and is linked to the concept of framing, which is related to how teachers organize knowledge and to the freedom the students have to affect the content. In weak framing, the students enjoy more freedom to alter the content, while in strong framing the students have fewer opportunities to do so. Framing is, therefore, a matter of who controls what in terms of the content and how it is organized (Bernstein 2000). Along with Bernstein’s discourse concept, this study also focuses on reading types. In doing so, it draws upon Tengberg’s (2011) reading types in classroom discussions of literature and on Mehrstam’s (2009) categories of types of reading as expressed in school policy documents from 1971 to 2000 on teaching literature. A total of six categories are employed: 1. plot-oriented reading types which focus on the fiction’s plot line; 2. meaning-oriented reading types which focus on the motif and themes of the fiction; 3. subjective-oriented reading types that address the students’ personal experiences–things that influence their own lives (Tengberg 2011, p. 210); 4. technical/analytical reading types that focus on analysis of the narrative technique, style, and form; 5. historical reading types that take historical perspective into account and relate fiction and its interpretation to a historical perspective (cf. Mehrstam 2009); and 6. metacognitive reading types in which the reader becomes conscious of his/her ways to read and analyze texts (cf. Tengberg 2011). This study investigates how these reading types are presented in textbooks and how they can be linked to different types of knowledge discourses.

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3 Methods and Sample The teaching materials included in the sample of this study consist of six Swedish language textbooks for senior high school. Three textbooks–Svenska för livet. Basbok för Svenska 1 (Björk and Eskilsson 2011); Respons. Svenska för gymnasiet (Larsson and Åhlgren 2011); Insikter i svenska (Harstad and Tangaard 2011)–were produced for vocational preparatory programs, and the latter three–Svenska timmar. Litteraturen (Skoglund 2012); Svenska rum 1 (Eriksson et al. 2012); Fixa genren (Sahlin and Stensson 2011)–for university preparatory programs. These teaching materials were included in the sample of this study because they entered the market as the first textbooks produced for the Gy11 curriculum (Gy11 2011) by three of Sweden’s leading publishers. Another important criterion for their selection was that these textbooks contained fiction, in other words fictional texts in genres, such as literature, film, theater, and other media (cf. Olin-Scheller 2008, p. 9). A mixed methods approach served to answer the research questions. Quantitative methods served to determine the number of fiction elements featured in the book, along with the space dedicated to both fiction and the tasks related to them. Units of measurement were full and half pages. Space analysis enables to determine the room textbooks dedicate to the comprehension of fiction, and to identify possible differences (along with their characteristics) between teaching materials for vocational and university preparatory programs. The qualitative method of content analysis served to analyze the tasks related to the selected fiction. Its main objective was to map the prescribed types of reading and the task framing.

4 Brief Extracts and Various Discourses The individual textbooks dedicate varying space to fiction. Respons includes two separate chapters on fictional literature and film that account for almost a quarter (24%, 40 pages) of the book’s total page count. Similarly, Insikter i svenska, dedicates separate chapters to fiction that occupy 66 pages (28% of a total of 233 pages). The textbook Svenska för livet, however, uses fiction to illustrate the different topics. As a result, fiction is spread across the chapters dealing with schooling, life knowledge, communication, and working life (Björk and Eskilsson 2011). Fiction receive more space in textbooks produced for university preparatory programs. The textbook Svenska rum 1 discusses fiction in four of its eight chapters corresponding to 143 pages out of a total of 244 (58%). Fixa genren, features fiction in five of its eleven chapters (82 pages or 36%). In contrast, Svenska timmar. Litteraturen includes fiction and literature with a historical context in every chapter (343 pages). While most fiction elements consist almost exclusively of fictional literature, some chapters also consider film and drama. Fixa genren also examines the blog genre (Sahlin and Stensson 2011). TV, computer games and other media remain uncovered. The teaching materials for vocational and university preparatory programs display a number of differences. Overall, the tasks and instructions in textbooks for vocational preparatory programs are few and brief, while their counterparts for university preparatory programs are more extensive. In addition, fiction serves quite different

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functions for the two programs, even though the curriculum (Gy11 2011) prescribes the same objectives for the subject Svenska 1. The tasks in the textbooks produced for vocational preparatory programs are usually based on plot-oriented and subjectively-oriented reading types. These generally ask students to investigate the plot and to compare the fiction with personal experience in everyday situations. Regarding their length, task instructions are brief and target descriptive aspects, such as actions and the character features. The explanatory notes in Svenska för livet also contain instructions about how to conduct an analysis of a short story, namely: (1) People, (2) Time and place, (3) Plot, (4) Language and purpose, and (5) About the author (Björk and Eskilsson 2011, p. 214). The framing of the questions in this task is weak (cf. Bernstein 2000), as the instructions are open and quite vaguely formulated, which gives students great freedom in designing the analysis themselves based on the five points above. There are no specific questions and no clear distinction is made between narrative techniques, such as action and intrigue, nor are concepts, such as theme and motive examined. Instead, the instructions emphasize a plot-oriented reading type of a descriptive nature, and the students receive no help from specific questions which would guide them in analyzing the short story on a deeper technical and analytical level. The tasks relating to fiction in textbooks for vocational preparatory programs are, thus, organized in a horizontal knowledge discourse, which focuses on the well-known and familiar, on the students’ everyday lives (cf. Bernstein 1990; 2000). Overall, the comprehension of fiction in these textbooks tends to remain rudimentary and superficial. The students are often required to make connections to their personal experiences where fiction becomes a “springboard” (Ullström 2009, p. 133) into their own selfawareness, in which a literary transfer skill dominates (Thorell 2002). This means that textbooks for vocational preparatory programs often remain at the level of a naiverealism reading type (cf. Ullström 2009, p. 128) characterized by recognition, the familiar, and daily life knowledge–what Bernstein called horizontal discourse (Bernstein 1990; 2000). Textbooks for university preparatory programs more often display a vertical discourse, as many of their tasks aim to achieve a deeper reading type where more analysis is required. Here, fiction is placed into historical context and several tasks deal with genres, themes, narrative techniques, and stylistic features which must be verified. Svenska rum 1, for example, discusses the issue of what can be considered to be timespecific and what is generally valid in a variety of myths. In addition, it also explores the differences and similarities between myth and saga: EXAMINE THE TEXT: One of the most well-known myths is the myth of Perseus. Think about the following while you read the summary of the myth of Perseus: 1. What are the similarities with the saga? 2. What are the differences? 3. What in the myth is generally valid? What is time-specific? (Eriksson et al. 2012, p. 20).

The tasks require students to sort and verify important features. They are also expected to make connections to the historical context–a historical reading type–and discuss what is generally valid and what is time-specific. In addition, this textbook

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discusses different genres and narrative techniques and it focuses on fiction. In doing so, students are required to work with fiction, rather than their own lives, as the starting point during discussions. Below are a few examples of tasks for short story analysis in Svenska rum 1, intended for Svenska 1: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6. 7. 8. 9.

What conflict, problem or theme does the narrative problematize? When does the action take place? Is the story told chronologically or does the perspective change? Who is the main character in the narrative and which are the secondary characters? How are their external and internal characteristics described? Give examples! Can we follow the thoughts of these people directly, or is it made clear indirectly what they are like and how they feel and think by means of what they say and how they act in different situations? Where is/are the turning point(s) of the narrative? Does the narrative contain small and large threats that create tension and increase the desire to read further? What narrative techniques does the text contain? […] Is there imagery, and if so, are the images new, original, and bold or commonplace and tiresome? Give examples! (Eriksson et al. 2011, p. 77).

When contrasted with the instructions and text for short story analysis featured in Svenska för livet, Svenska rum 1 seems to contain more comprehensive, concrete, and strongly framed tasks (Bernstein 2000). Moreover, the textbook contains more questions requiring analysis and students must answer questions relating to action, characters, and themes as well as form and structure. To complete the tasks in Svenska rum 1, students are expected to sort, verify, and analyze content and structure (Eriksson et al. 2011). As a consequence, the textbook fosters both a meaning-oriented reading type focusing on themes and motifs and a technical/analytical reading type examining narrative techniques. Knowledge organization follows, thus, a vertical discourse in which specialized literary science concepts, such as theme, imagery, conflict, turning points, and in medias res are used.

5 Expanding Knowledge Gap The results of this study show that fiction is generally a marginal element of textbooks. This applies particularly for educational media produced for vocational preparatory programs. One textbook for vocational preparatory programs, Response, dedicated merely one quarter of its content to fiction–something that can be regarded as an effect of fiction reading devaluation in the policy document after the reform (Lundström et al. 2011; Lundström 2011). Fictional literature and films are the most represented, while TV and computer games the least represented genres in the textbooks. It is also striking that the selection is not justified and that didactic discussions are missing. Short extracts and summaries of fictional texts, however, are frequently part of the textbooks, which can make it more difficult to understand and interpret the fictional texts (Öhman 2015).

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The results also show that fiction has different functions, as exemplified by the marked variance of tasks featured in textbooks for university and vocational preparatory programs. The textbooks seek different reading types and knowledge despite the same objectives prescribed in the curriculum. Textbooks for vocational preparatory programs organize the knowledge on the grounds of horizontal discourse (Bernstein 1990; 2000) in which life knowledge and students’ personal experience and judgement remain in focus. In contrast, textbooks for the university preparatory programs contain specialized knowledge that is organized on the basis of vertical discourse (Bernstein 1990; 2000) in which students are trained in analytical and critical thinking by using the tools and concepts of literary science analysis. The tasks are comprehensive and tightly controlled, while those designed for vocational preparatory programs are more open. In consequence, tasks included in textbooks for university preparatory programs are more strongly framed and the teaching methods are visible, while the relationship in the teaching materials for the vocational preparatory programs is reversed (Bernstein 1990; 2000). Thus, students enrolled in vocational preparatory programs receive less guidance in completing the tasks. Weak framing can also impede the work, as the students themselves are expected to break the code–in other words, to determine by themselves which knowledge will be rewarded under less visible teaching methods (cf. Norlund 2009). Another aspect the results indicate is the risk of increasing knowledge gaps between different student groups. This might result from teaching materials for vocational and university preparatory programs enabling access to different knowledge discourses, despite the goals for Svenska 1 being the same for both programs. It is remarkable that the knowledge about fiction is organized in such differentiated discourses, given the fact that–according to Swedish scholastic values–all students have he right to equivalent education (Orlenius 2001). A question that arises is, thus, whether Swedish language as a subject can still be considered a democratic subject? Will in the near future, two different subject plans with different goals perhaps be necessary? In the aftermath of the 2011 reform, it is clear that students enrolled in vocational preparatory programs–largely recruited from educationally challenged environments (Nylund and Rosvall 2011)–are given less time and acquire not only less knowledge, but also different knowledge. This could lead to challenges in achieving the stated knowledge goals and that the knowledge gaps in society could increase.

References N. Ammert, Om läroböcker och studiet av dem, in Att spegla världen. Läromedelsstudier i teori och praktik. ed. by N. Ammert (Studentlitteratur, Lund, 2011), pp. 25–42 B. Bernstein, Class, codes and control, vol. IV. The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse (Routledge, London, 1990) B. Bernstein, Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research, Critique (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, 2000) U. Björk, K. Eskilsson, Svenska för livet. Basbok för Svenska 1 (Liber, Stockholm, 2011) C. Dahl, Litteraturstudiets legitimeringar. Analys av skrift och bild i fem läromedel i litteratur för gymnasieskolan (Göteborgs universitet, Gothenburg, 2015)

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B. Englund, Vad har vi lärt oss om läromedel? En översikt över nyare forskning: Läromedlens roll i undervisningen. Grundskollärarens val, användning och bedömning av läromedel i bild, engelska och samhällskunskap (Skolverket, Stockholm, 2006) L. Eriksson, H. Heijdenberg, C. Lundfall, Svenska rum 1 (Liber, Stockholm, 2012) förhandsgranskningar av läromedel 1938–1991 (Linköpings universitet, Linköping) C. Graeske, Värdefull eller värdelös? Om värdegrund och genus i läromedel i svenska. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap 40(3–4), 119–132 (2010) Gy11, Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskolan 2011 (Skolverket, Stockholm, 2011) F. Harstad, I. Tanggaard, Insikter i svenska (Gleerups, Malmö, 2011) A. Johnsson Harrie, Staten och läromedlen. En studie av svenska statliga (2009) P. Larsson, A. Åhlgren, Respons. Svenska för gymnasiet (Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2011) S. Lundström, Förnimmelser av fiktion: Svenskämnet i förändring? Perspektiv på de nya kursoch ämnesplanerna. Svensklärarföreningens årsskrift 2011 (Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2011) S. Lundström, L. Manderstedt, A. Palo, Den mätbara litteraturläsaren. En tendens i Lgr11 och en konsekvens för svensklärarutbildningen. Utbildning Demokrati, 20(2), 7–26 (2011) C. Mehrstam, Textteori För Läsforskare (Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg, 2009) G. Moss, Literacy and pedagogy in flux: constructing the object of study from a Bernstein perspective. Br. J. Sociol. Educ. 23(4), 549–558 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1080/ 0142569022000038404 A. Norlund, Kritisk sakprosaläsning i gymnasieskolan. Didaktiska perspektiv på läroböcker, lärare och nationella prov (Göteborgs universitet, Göteborg, 2009) M. Nylund, P.-Å. Rosvall, Gymnasiereformens konsekvenser för den sociala fördelningen av kunskaper i den yrkesorienterade utbildningarna. Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige 16(2), 81– 100 (2011) A. Öhman, Litteraturdidaktik, fiktioner och intriger (Gleerups, Malmö, 2015) C. Olin-Scheller, Såpor istället för Strindberg? Litteraturundervisning i ett nytt medielandskap (Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2008) PISA, PISA Results 2009. What Students Know and Can Do. Student Performance in Reading, Mathematics and Science, vol. I (OECD Publications, Paris, 2010) P. Sahlin, H. Stensson, Fixa genren (Natur och kultur, Stockholm, 2011) S. Skoglund, Svenska timmar. Litteraturen (Gleerups, Malmö, 2012) SOU, Läsandets kultur. Slutbetänkande av litteraturutredningen. Statens offentliga utredningar (Fritze, Stockholm, 2012) M. Tengberg, Samtalets möjligheter. Om litteratursamtal och litteraturreception i skolan. Göteborg (Brutus Östlings Bokförlag, Stockholm/Stehag, 2011) Ö. Torell, Resultat – en översikt: Hur gör man en litteraturläsare? Om skolans litteraturundervisning i Sverige, Ryssland och Finland (Mitthögskolan, Härnösand, 2002) S.-O. Ullström, Frågor om litteratur – om uppgiftskulturen i gymnasieskolan, in, Läsa bör man-? Den skönlitterära texten i skola och lärarutbildning, ed. by L. Kåreland (Liber, Stockholm, 2009), pp. 116–145

History Textbook Evaluation by High-School Students Edilson Aparecido Chaves1 and Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia2(&) 1

2

Setor de Ciências Humanas/ProfHistoria/ NPPD, Instituto Federal do Paraná/ Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected] Programa de Pós Graduação em Educação/Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas/CNPq, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This paper aims to explore the views of high school students concerning history textbooks approved by the PNLD program. The theoretical framework rests on the concept of the ideal textbook by Rüsen (2010), and takes into consideration the definitions and criteria derived from the official Notes and Textbook Guidelines PNLD (Brasil 2012). The subjects who participated in the research were high school students from a public school located in a rural area on the outskirts of Curitiba, which is officially identified as a Countryside School. The approved textbooks were available for the students’ analysis during history classes. The activity proposed to the students was based on analysis guidelines which were produced explicitly for this purpose, and which had been elaborated in reference to elements and criteria established by the PNLD. The results show that the students analyzed the textbooks based on general criteria, such as the quality of text and images, as well as specific historical criteria, such as the presence of sources and chronological content approach. In general, the students presented a positive review of the textbooks analyzed, but were also able to point out problems and limitations in the materials, especially regarding the relationship of the content with the local culture. Keywords: History education


History textbooks
Youth and textbooks

1 Introduction Brazil has a universalized National Textbook Program for all school subjects of Basic Education (primary, lower, and upper secondary education), along with special programs, such as Library for Students, Library for Teachers, Textbooks in Braille. The National Textbook Program (PNLD, Programa Nacional do Livro Didático), prescribed by the Ministry of Education, evaluates and pre-selects textbooks based on criteria outlined in the official notes and guidelines. After the evaluation, the approved textbooks are included in a guide and may then be chosen by the teachers. In theory, the assessed books are free of misconceptions and prejudice, follow the national curricular guidelines, and present coherent content from both theoretical and methodological points of view. These are the main criteria used to evaluate the © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 348–360, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_29

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textbooks. In addition, there are other criteria related to the specific contents and the proposed teaching methodology for each school subject. Regarding history textbooks in Brazil, it is relevant to point out that since the 1980s, both in the academic field and in the official curricular documents, there are recommendations in place prescribing the use of documents in the teaching of history. Some authors (Abud 2005; Schmidt and Cainelli 2004) published books aimed to guide teachers, following the academic perspectives and showing strong consensus on the idea that it is necessary to change traditional conceptions of history teaching. In order to accomplish this, according to these authors, new didactic ways aimed to stimulate students to produce historical knowledge are required. The recommendations aim to support work with historic documents and align teaching with historical research, highlighting the fact that it is necessary to overcome the conception that documents are mere illustrations. According to this perspective, documents must be treated as historical sources. This methodological requirement was also included in the criteria presented by the government for the PNLD program. According the Ministry of Education Edict, it is indispensable to a textbook to present sources to introduce students to the historical methodology and, thus, produce the historical knowledge. During the last decades, another aspect discussed in the academic field, with consequences for history textbooks, is the organization of contents. According to Silva and Fonseca (2010), concerning the contents in terms of historical knowledge selected to be taught, the Brazilian curricular documents suggest its organization around thematic axes. This suggestion is a result of debates that took place since 1980 and represents an answer to the criticism at the address of traditional approaches of teaching history in a chronological perspective. In 2004, PNLD approved only a few textbooks that followed thematic axes. However, the perspective called integrated history gradually became hegemonic. Thus, nowadays, all the textbooks are organized in a European chronology, integrated with related themes to Brazilian, African, and American History, whenever possible. Concerning textbook research, there are many Brazilian contributions, but also many gaps. Despite the strong presence of textbooks in classrooms and their importance as a defining element of teaching and learning, different assessment studies in Brazil and other countries have indicated that few studies approach the classrooms to understand what teachers and students think about the textbooks or how they are used for teaching and learning (Martinez et al. 2009; Garcia 2009). Regarding history textbooks in particular, as Rüsen (2010) argues, another shortcoming mentioned in many studies is the low number of empirical research carried out on the use of textbooks and their role in the learning process within the classroom. Textbooks are an important artifact of school culture and represents a relevant source for researchers. According to Choppin (2000, p. 108), the main function of the textbooks– which is also the most evident one for teachers and students–is that they are “pedagogical tools”. Nonetheless, they are also a framework for all principles society wishes to pass on to the next generations, as well as the knowledge and techniques that should be preserved. Furthermore, textbooks are a very efficient means of communication, which transmit values, ideology, and culture beyond a school program (Choppin 2000). In addition to these functions, Rüsen (2010) also claims that a textbook with specific features can contribute to the development of students’ historical

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consciousness. These features are: (1) a clear and structured format (to enable student receptivity); (2) a clear didactic structure (allowing the student to recognize what is most important); (3) an effective relationship with the student (presenting proper learning conditions); and (4) a practical relationship with the lesson (featuring the possibility of classroom work). Rüsen (2010) emphasizes the aspects regarding the relationship that students develop with the textbook. Teachers can choose textbooks which contribute to the development of the students’ historical consciousness, or they can opt for other textbooks. Such decisions depend, among others, on teachers’ training, knowledge of educational media, and their experience. But how much do we know about the criteria used by teachers when choosing textbooks to use in history classrooms? In Brazil, teachers, schools, or other stakeholders of the educational system are involved in the selection of textbooks selection according to various criteria, which do not necessarily include the relationship of the students with the book. During textbook selection, teachers add additional criteria to facilitate their choice from the body of textbooks approved by the PNLD program. There is little research on these criteria. Also, there is little research on the students–the textbooks’ main users–which lead to a limited understanding of what they actually about their textbooks. This is, therefore, the main interest of the research presented in this chapter. The results presented are a part of a larger study carried out by the members of the Research Group on Didactic Publications at the Federal University of Paraná (NPPD/UFPR).

2 Method and Sample The main objective of the research presented in this chapter was to improve the understanding of students’ relations with history classes, and, particularly, with history textbooks. The objective derives from the research gap identified by several authors concerning the relationship between students and their textbooks (cf. Sect. 1). The first phase of the research observed history classes to understand processes in the classroom around the teaching and learning of history, as well as to map how the textbook was used during those classes. The observations showed that the textbooks were used in the history classrooms for different purposes. Young students were used to work with the history textbooks and were also able to evaluate them expressing their own point of view on this resource. In a second step, empirical studies were organized and developed. Although the larger research also included additional objectives, this chapter focusses on the following two aims: (1) Identify the criteria used by students to analyze the history textbook they use; (2) Contribute to debates on the evaluation of history textbooks, adding elements related to the students’ point of view as subjects of learning. A survey was conducted in a public school located in a rural area of Curitiba metropolitan region, in the state of Paraná, Southern Brazil. A total of 150 students from grade 9–12 (aged 14–17) participated in the research. The questionnaires were developed based on information and opinions given by young students in the context of other research developed by NPPD/UFPR in which history textbooks were evaluated. Participative observation in the classrooms and document analysis were complementary methods.

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The first instrument was a questionnaire aiming to collect identification data about students and their family life to capture some social, economic, and cultural data concerning their relatives. Aspects, such as reading habits, leisure, and Internet access were included in this instrument. Targeting a better understanding of the relationship between students and their history textbooks, we included questions from earlier studies on the frequency of textbook use of both public and private school students. The second research instrument consisted of closed and open question aiming to register students’ perspective on some elements of their history textbook, such as what a history class was, what the best way to learn history was, what was the historical knowledge in the textbooks, as well as motivation and interest to use history textbooks. One open question was included to explore whether the students wanted to suggest specific topic that should be taught in high schools located in the countryside. The third instrument required students to do an evaluation of their textbooks. The form included elements, such as the presence or absence of images, the documents presented, the proposed activities and exercises, students’ previous knowledge as a reference to propose the contents to be taught, as well as the relationship between the content presented and the cultural and social experience of the students. Subsequently, the history textbooks approved and included in the PNLD guide for high schools were made available to the students for analysis. The analysis and discussion concerning the textbooks was carried out in history classrooms along with the analysis of one book chapter chosen by the students. The students were organized in groups of two or three persons. The research instrument was applied in two history classes. The results obtained with the help of these instruments are presented in the next section.

3 Results and Discussion The data collected by means of questionnaires was organized in different categories. The categories were previously defined, based on selected elements, to map young students’ views concerning the characteristics of a good history textbook. The categories originate from both the evaluation criteria set by the PNLD program and Rüsen’s (2010) criteria. 3.1

Who Were the Participating Students?

Students participating in the study were nested in a rural space with particular sociocultural features that sometimes differentiated them from the young students from urban areas. They had knowledge of online sources and understood that the Internet is a means of communication and socialization that allowed them to perceive the world as any other young person. The participating young people also had access to social networks and used it as a means to expose their way of life, their opinions, and other constituent elements of their identity as young individuals. The participating young people dressed in the same way as their urban counterparts did. The same brands of sneakers, t-shirts, and caps worn by urban youngsters were

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part of their wardrobe–a typical trait of a globalized society. However, all young Brazilians also share the same social problems, such as violence, insecurity, worries about the future, and difficulties in getting employed. The young people of Escola Mundial, however, also participate in processes in which they share their ancestors’ culture that remains present in the rituals, celebrations but also in the objects that they produce in their work activities, like balaios and wood boxes to storage agriculture products prior to their transport to urban markets. These cultural elements are rooted in the lives of the immigrants who arrived in this region and, despite technological progress, shape agricultural activities even in current days. Orality is another hallmark of the traditional cultures. As many of the young students are new immigrant, their speech differs considerably from that of students whose families have lived in the region for over a century. New immigrants perceive word with the mark of another linguistic variant as faulty and even turn them into subject of ridicule. About 70% of the students studied in rural schools since their initial primary grades. Overall, the young students expressed not being interest in politics. As for reading practices, about one quarter mentioned that they enjoyed reading very much, about 60% read little. Most of the students mentioned that they had few books at home. As for what students expected from high school, 62% indicated the desire to improve their level of education and 17% expected to improve their current employment situation. Many stated, in informal conversations, that studies were worthless and that after finishing high school, they would look for employment in the formal or informal sector. A small group expressed interest in continuing their studies and, during the classes, they were very attentive and dedicated to the studies. 3.2

General Elements Concerning the History Textbook

The first research instrument showed that students did not use the book very frequently in class. Participatory observation throughout the year confirmed this finding. The textbooks, however, bore some importance to the students. One of the questions started with the statement “History is presented in different forms, in different ways, and in different places”, followed by the question: “Which history do you trust the most?”. The answers indicated that students trusted in museum history (52%), the history told by their teachers (48%), the history entailed in documents (42%), and the history described in the textbooks (40%). Additional data revealed a low degree of importance attributed to the textbook as a pedagogical tool. A total of 75 of the 113 students answered to learn little or not at all using the textbook. Thus, although believing that the textbook presented a reliable source of knowledge, most young people failed to recognize its role in the processes of learning history. Nevertheless, the students attributed some functions to the textbook. About half of them agreed with both the opinion and the fact that, on the one hand, the textbook can help a deeper understanding of a topic treated in class by the teacher, and, on the other hand, that the textbook contained diagrams, tables, and pictures that facilitate the understanding of a topic. How do these results relate to the assessment students made of history textbooks?

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Evaluating the History Textbook

For this phase of the empirical research, several textbook collections approved by the PNLD program for high school were arranged on the classroom table, and, following what teachers usually do selecting the textbooks, students were able to preselect, change, and, finally, select one of the textbooks. After a general analysis, students selected a chapter for detailed analysis, recording in the instrument their opinion on the requested elements. The first part of the research instrument required students to work in pairs while collecting data from the textbook they selected. Data collected entailed title, authors, number of pages, visual aspects, and other elements of the textbook. Next, the students recorded in 14 objective and discursive questions the result of their evaluation of different visual, graphic, content, and methodological elements. These elements originated in PNLD’s official evaluation documents of history textbooks. The second part of the instrument, which consisted of seven questions, the students recorded their opinion on individual elements, such as the presence or absence of images, documents presented in the textbook, activities, and the appreciation of the previously acquired knowledge. Finally the students were asked, based on their analysis, to state, whether they would recommend the textbook to other students of their age. Some of these results are presented below. Regarding the organization of historical content, in general, the students found the textbooks to be well-structured written in an accessible language and could be used in their classes. The textbook collection used by the students in school followed a chronological approach linking topics related to general history (Africa, Asia, and Europe) with that of America and Brazil. When asked about their ideal history textbook, the participating students agreed that the chronological approach, showing the “beginning, middle and sometimes the end of a subject” was most suitable. Regarding the organization of the content, the students stated, for example, that “the chronological approach makes students learn about their ancestors, how they used to live and how they have evolved up to the present time” (CG, 15 years old and JRL, 14 years old, grade 10). Other students share this view: “Clear and objective text that raises interest; explanatory and illustrative images; organized topics of each aspect of the history studied; chronological order” (TF, ER, 15 years old, grade 11). Students’ perspectives are not in accordance with the most valued approaches prescribed in the Brazilian official curriculum documents or with the theoretical discourse in the field of history education, as both prioritize the thematic approach. However, students’ feedback is in accordance with teachers’ perspectives, as most of the materials approved by PNLD they selected followed a chronological approach. Concerning the presence of different languages and documents in the textbooks, the students attributed high importance to historical documents. However, they also demonstrated difficulties in the analysis of different types of documents. For the students, cartoons, songs, movies, and pictures included in the textbooks allowed a better understanding of the content, as long as teachers further explained them. The students also pointed out that these content elements could be included more frequently in the textbooks.

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For many students, the documents presented in the history textbooks represented absolute truths and, in this regard, the work with the textbook required a major contribution of the teacher. This finding confirms the function of the textbook as a framework for the truth (Choppin 2000), which proves that textbooks are elaborated to strengthen certain notions rather than to discuss them. Regarding the presence of different languages and documents, the students observed that “the historical sources present in the textbooks broaden our knowledge because often the text alone does not give us all the content, and with historical documents we can associate the facts more easily” (A, 16 years old, grade 10). Other students mentioned that “[the books] could present further explanation about the documents, reports, etc.” (N and P, 15 years old, grade 9) or that “a report by Thompson was included to help students understand more about history” (AN and D, 15 years old, grade 9). A’s response, along with those of other Escola Mundial students, reveals that the textbook allows, as Caimi (2009) states, the establishment of relations between the past and present, in order to produce intelligibility on the social and cultural experiences of the present, identifying differences/similarities, ruptures/continuities, and turning the study of various documents in the classroom more dynamic. T and R mentioned the presence of the narrative structure of history that organizes the temporal course as a positive feature of the textbook, “because what happened before changes the present and will change the future”. In this context, before refers to the past, history’s object of study. N and P claimed that some textbooks “could have more explanations of documents, reports”. AN and D pointed to a situation clearly related to the context of historical learning by stating that a “Thompson report was placed in order to get students to understand more about history”. Most students considered historical documents to be an important content element of textbooks. However, they also signaled difficulties in analyzing the different types of documents, as shown in R’s statement: “The images in the book are pictures from that time and they show things the way they used to be”. As pointed out by Silva (2013), this difficulty is linked to the way the documents are incorporated in the materials, frequently without receiving any proper didactical revision to enable an adequate historical interpretation. The students also gave their opinion on the different languages featured in the textbook: “[…] the images help understand what the text intends to inform. Although the facts are not often followed by text to help understand what the images represent” (NA, 15 years, IA, 16 years, grade 11). “With the lyrics of the songs in the book, the subjects are easier to memorize and understand than only with the text” (E, 14 years old, Ana, 15 years, grade 10). The students’ statements show that they were aware of different ways to study the school discipline of history. They also realized that working with documents and languages was an appropriate way to acquire knowledge in certain topics. Movies, music, cartoons, and maps allow interpretation and deconstruct the idea that there is only one possibility of comprehending the past, which assists the construction of historical knowledge. An important aspect is that textbook images often only illustrate the text and, in this case, the students do not know “what they represent”, as NA and IA argued. Students’

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perceptions coincide with expert evaluations that criticize textbooks for using images without providing the necessary background information required for their usage as historical sources. Most students stressed the importance of historical documents. However, they also pointed out difficulties in analyzing the different types of documents included in the textbooks. These difficulties, according to Silva (2013), are linked to ways the documents are incorporated into the materials, often without any proper didactical revision that could enable adequate historical interpretation. Didactic activities included in the textbooks received a positive evaluation. Only 10% of the students found the activities as insufficient or inadequate. Students preferred activities and tasks positioned at the end of each chapter rather than the end of the textbook. The students also argued that the textbooks should contain questions from the National Examination (ENEM, Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio) and from the vestibular (entry examination to higher education) of Brazilian universities. Concerning individual, group, and collective work, the students DA and DI (16 years old, grade 11) pointed out the importance of sharing their answers with the entire class and thus to construct meanings, not only with the knowledge that was produced individually, but also with the contributions of classmates. They emphasized that “the author proposes that we students can respond to the activities by discussing with our classmates”, and they argued that team activities were more productive and could broaden the possibilities of creating problematizing situations in the classroom and mobilizing the knowledge of classmates while looking for a solution. Furthermore, the students pointed out the value of collective activities, debates, and exchange of ideas, which all demand the various students’ opinion. This is in accordance with the PNLD criteria that also call for interactive activities among students and stimulate the development of their own ideas. As for the didactic activities proposed in the textbooks, the students claimed that “the questions are in accordance with the content of the chapter, are very objective, and have preparatory questions for the ENEM and the vestibular. This is great because there are those who cannot afford a pre-vestibular course, and the book enables a qualified, easy to access preparation” (HA, 17 years old and MI, 15 years old, grade 9). In the students’ reading, the fact that the textbooks contain questions that prepare them for the admission examination to universities was important especially because these young people, given their socioeconomic conditions, cannot afford preparatory courses for the examination. Therefore, the small group of students who were hoping to pursue their studies considered that the textbooks could help them study alone and prepare for the exam. For such purposes, students considered activities based on memorization and objective questions as a criterion for choosing a history textbook. On the margins of the relationship between the textbook content and the students’ daily life, many students believed that events of the past remained without impact on their present and even less on their future. For the students, in general, the topics and problems raised in history textbooks were insufficient evidence of the relationships between the past and the present and contributed little to the comprehension of their everyday reality. Some topics were related to the daily life of both the participating students and their ancestors. Especially the topic of immigration to Brazil–as the community is composed

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of immigrant descendants–and the military dictatorship in Brazil seem to be of special relevance. The latter often receives attention in textbooks in the context of explaining the democratization process that occurred in the last four decades. On the relationship between the textbook content and the students’ social and cultural experiences (one of PNLD’s textbook evaluation criteria), the students claimed that “if the youth knew more about the history of Brazil, maybe they would understand and criticize the society in which we live” (R, 15 years old, grade 10). EE (16 years old, grade 11) argued that “because I live in a place colonized by Polish people who came after the First World War [there are topics that interrelate] […] with my grandparents’ history, but not to mine”. In RO’s (15 years old, grade 10) view, “yes, [there is a relationship] because if what happened had not happened, maybe Brazil would not be a country with such freedom of expression”. Regarding the adequacy of textbooks for other students, the participating students had different opinions and different arguments were used to justify their point of view. For example, DO and V (17 years old, grade 12) argued that “[it is not adequate because] the work does not present anything new, and therefore does not make us deepen the knowledge we have”. EU (16 years old, grade 10) considered that “[it is adequate because] it has everything, graphs, maps, and tables that help us better understand and carry out the activities based on them”. In the reading of JO and ME (17 years old, grade 12), “[it is adequate because] the texts are good, activities are well prepared and they not only include the knowledge from books, but also other learning situations from ENEM and activities related to college examinations”. When evaluating the textbooks approved by the PNLD program, students pointed out different types of elements when judging their social and cultural appropriateness. Some of these were the accessibility of the language, the links between the featured topics and the students’ own history, the repetition of content studies in previous grades, the diversity of documents and languages, as well as the inclusion of activities and tasks preparing them for university entrance exams. Summing up, students’ perspectives on textbooks rested on relevant official evaluation criteria of history textbooks aimed for young students.

4 Concluding Remarks The research presented in this chapter followed two objectives. On the one hand, it focused on textbook usage in classrooms. On the other hand, then it aimed to analyze students’ perspectives on history textbooks distributed by the PNLD program between 2012–15. The results presented in this chapter focused on the second objective. Once participatory observation confirmed the use of the textbooks in the history classrooms, the results allowed the verification of the ways teachers and students used them. The results showed that students established, in the beginning, a contradictory and ambiguous relationship with their textbooks (Chaves 2014). Textbooks were either knowledge bearers in which students trusted or were evaluated as resources that had no contribution to history learning. The results also allowed the identification of features

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that the participating students valued when selecting their preferred textbook. Overall, based on the results, four main conclusions can be drawn. First, young students are able to evaluate the textbooks using a range of criteria from the field of subject-specific knowledge, spanning from formal up to epistemological criteria. Although schools frequently consider students unable to perform this type of evaluation, the research results showed that they are able to contribute to the decisions regarding their schooling process. In particular, the results showed that the experience with textbooks during the eighth or ninth grade prior to high school supported students in the definition of criteria for history textbook evaluation. Some of the formal criteria, such as language and visual aspects, were also present in PNLD’s edicts and were part of experts’ evaluation sheets. In addition, these criteria are also mentioned in literature describing the ideal textbook (cf. Rüsen 2010). Second, regarding the particularities of history as a school subject, the students agree with the experts that sources and documents in textbooks is relevant to the historic learning. The orientations given by the National Curriculum and the PNLD on the use of documents since 1990 have been incorporated into history teaching, and the students consider this element as a criterium of history textbook analysis. The opinion of some students matches that of specialists concerning the limited contribution of documents featured in textbooks to history learning. Some researchers, such as Silva (2013), claim that, in the last decade, textbook authors, in order to meet the requirements of the academic production and the PNLD edicts, have gradually been considering historical documents. Thus, both from a quantitative point of view and from the point of view of the diversity of documents, the textbooks currently meet the requirements. However, Silva (2013) found that few documents were treated didactically as historical sources in the analyzed textbooks, which reduces their impact on building historical knowledge. Often, the activities related to the documents focus more strongly on the analysis of language than on the analysis in support of historical interpretation. Third, the presentation of topics in chronological order was referred to as a criterion when selecting a good textbook, showing that students have a preference for content following the chronological approach. Although eleven per cent of the history textbook collections display a thematic approach–which is endorsed by experts and recommended in many official educational documents–the students’ opinion indicated the permanence of the traditional chronological approach. One explanation for this preference is that thematic textbook collections, despite their positive evaluation by PNLD’s experts, have been used in few schools during the last decade. Nearly all students (99%) had previously studied in public schools, which means that they must have studied using history textbooks approved by PNLD. These textbooks certainly had an influence on the way they the participating students understand school history should be presented. Therefore, the chronological form remains predominant in the textbooks. As discussed by Caimi (2009, p. 3), since 1980, the debates on the history curriculum in Brazil have been affected by the “academic productions with a theoreticalhistoriographic orientation linked to the Annales” and the so-called new history, “as

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well as their various manifestations and aspects: history of daily life, history of mentalities, cultural history”. Considering some of the main elements of this conception, such as the “substitution of narrative history by problem-history; incorporation of social and cultural approaches to the predominantly economic detriment and political history; new criteria of scientificity, which admit a greater degree of subjectivity in the historiographical making”, Caimi (2009, p. 4) stresses the emphasis of the history curriculum on “thematic history” and “history by thematic axes.” Among the main proposals of this pedagogical approach are some elements that became criteria for the evaluation of textbooks in the PNLD program: (1) the problematization of the historical knowledge against students’ social practices; (2) the use of different teaching languages and historiographic sources; (3) familiarizing students with procedures of historical research by studying documents in classrooms. Summing up, although the thematic approach along axes was only incorporated by some textbook series in the early 2000s, over time, the approach lost space, but some of its elements remain as requirements in the edicts and in the evaluation of the textbooks. As a result, most textbooks currently follow a chronological approach. This development explains why students, in general, believed that the best way to teach and learn history is through chronologically organized content. However, the students also associated the chronological approach with the importance to feature documents and include music, comics, and other languages in the textbooks. Caimi (2009), however, also points out that teachers preferred the chronological approach. According to her, the curricula for undergraduate history courses have been “organized in the classical form, by periods and ages, from the origins and along the years. Only very recently, a few programs have made it possible for the chronological spatial organization to incorporate thematic approaches” (Caimi 2009, p. 7). Against this background, it is easy to comprehend why teachers continue with the chronological presentation of content in their classrooms, preferring textbooks in the chronological tradition and strengthening their students in the view that the chronological approach is preferable. Students, as a consequence, turned their beliefs into a criterion for the selection of a good history textbook. Fourth, the topics and activities featured in the textbooks should take into consideration that students already finished elementary school and studied history throughout this educational level. In consequence, the knowledge taught in history textbooks stands for a repetition of previously studies content. As a result, students’ interest in the subject of history decreased. This finding points to the need to review the structure of contents presented in history textbooks, comparing the elementary and high school to avoid the repetition of topics. The students’ conclusions correlate with criticism from experts in history education on the fact that high school repeats the chronological structure prescribed by the curriculum for the secondary schools–also in textbooks. Formulating problems along a thematic approach failed to get established as an alternative in high school, which challenges experts to find alternative paths for high school history textbooks.

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Young students may not understand the complexity of the issue, but the perception they expressed is that they lost interest in history classes largely because they have already seen the content in previous years. The similarity of the explanatory texts concerning historical facts and chronologically presented processes makes the unnecessary and little stimulating repetition evident to the students. The research presented here, in this sense, showed that the repetition of content was the argument some students used not to recommend the certain textbooks to other students. For these students, some textbooks featured no new content and, thus, had no contribution to deepen the historical knowledge at this stage of formal education. To conclude, the research presented in this chapter, besides evidencing the ability of students to evaluate history textbooks, contributes to the progress of the scientific debate. As previous researchers rarely listened to the students–privileged textbook users–to learn about their thoughts on the history textbooks, the data collected here showed that students attributed importance to the history textbook in their learning process. Despite this finding, which constitutes a positive evaluation of the textbook in the world of schools, students were able to critically evaluate the content and form of the textbooks they examined, including the chronological and thematic approach to history, justifying their views based on criteria that often correlated with those listed by history experts and evaluators of the PNLD program. Further research may address the limitations and open questions uncovered in this contribution.

References K.M. Abud. Processos de construção do saber histórico escolar. História & ensino : revista do Laboratório de Ensino de História. Centro de Letras e Ciências Humanas, Faculdade Estadual de Londrina, 11, 25–34 (2005). https://doi.org/10.5433/2238-3018.2005v11n0p25 Brasil, Ministério da Educação e Cultura Guia de livros didáticos história - PNLD 2012: ensino médio (2012), http://www.fnde.gov.br/programas/livro-didatico/guia-do-livro/item/2988guia-pnld-2012-ensino-m%C3%A9dio F.E. Caimi, História convencional, integrada, temática: uma opção necessária ou um falso debate? in XXV Simpósio Nacional de História: História e Ética, Anais do XXV Simpósio Nacional de História: História e Ética (Editora UFC, Fortaleza, 2009), pp. 1–10 E.A. Chaves, A presença do livro didático de História em aulas do ensino médio: estudo etnográfico em uma escola do Campo (Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação/UFPR, Curitiba, 2014) A. Choppin, Pasado y presente de los manuales escolars, in La cultura escolar de Europa. Tendencias históricas emergentes. ed. by J. Ruiz Berrio (Editorial Biblioteca Nueva, Madrid, 2000), pp. 107–167 T.M.F.B. Garcia, Textbook production from a local, national and international point of view. Brazil, in Local, National and Transnational Identities in Textbooks and Educational Media, ed. by J. Rodríguez Rodríguez, M. Horsley, S. Knudsen. The 10th International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media (IARTEM, Santiago de Compostela, 2011), pp. 30–46 N. Martínez, R. Valls, F. Pineda, El uso del libro de texto de Historia de España en Bachillerato: diez años de estudio, 1993–2003, y dos reformas (LGE-LOGSE). Didáctica de las ciencias experimentales y sociales 23, 69–93 (2009)

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J. Rüsen, O livro didático ideal, in ed. by M.A. Schmidt, I. Barca, E.R. Martins. Jörn Rüsen e o ensino de história (Editora da UFPR, Curitiba, 2010), pp. 109–127 M.A. Schmidt, M. Cainelli, Ensinar História (Scipione, São Paulo, 2004) A.C.F. da Silva, Manuais de história para o ensino fundamental: a presença de fontes legais relacionadas à escravidão no Brasil (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação/UFPR, Curitiba, 2013) M. Silva, S. Fonseca, Ensino de História hoje: errâncias, conquistas e perdas. Revista Brasileira de História 30(60), 13–33 (2010)

The ‘Scramble for Africa’ in German and English History Textbooks: Politics of Memory During Decolonization Lars Müller(&) State Museum Hannover, Hanover, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Representations of colonialism in textbooks are currently the subject of considerable academic interest. This chapter seeks to establish whether, and if so, how, knowledge about Africa and Africans entered textbooks during the historical period of decolonization and the transition to the postcolonial age; its focus is on what is known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’. The chapter is based on comparative analysis of history textbooks from England and the Federal Republic of Germany and places particular emphasis on maps as integral elements of the textbooks’ chapters on imperialism. The analysis uncovers incremental inclusion of knowledge about Africa and African people in textbooks from both countries, with differences related in part to their divergent systems governing the production and use of textbooks. Keywords: Colonialism


Maps
Textbook research
Scramble for Africa

1 Introduction The increased contemporary interest in colonial history has many potential explanations. Since the 1990s, for instance, academic research has received inspiration and impetus from the discipline of postcolonial studies, while at political level, the repercussions of colonization have increasingly come to the fore as a result of migration towards Europe (Conrad and Randeria 2002; Castro Varela and Dhawan 2005). Issues connected to textbooks representations of colonialism, however, had been a topic of intense debate since decolonization started. The historian G. P. Gooch noted in the preface of one of the first large-scale textbook studies about race in English textbooks–which was also concerning questions of colonialism–that the study. “[…] reveals that the life and needs of the sixty-five million Coloured Peoples, excluding India, are almost entirely ignored. This discovery is at once a reproach and a call to action. The possessors of the greatest of empires live in a glass house, and critical eyes all over the world are on the watch to see how far our practice corresponds to our lofty professions, that we govern not as conquerors, or exploiters, but as benevolent trustees. The problem has assumed a new urgency since the war has brought so many of our coloured fellow-subjects to England.” (League of Coloured People 1944)

Six decades later, little seems to have changed. Sherwood (2003, p. 51) argues that the findings from 1944 remain relevant to this day, with British schools keeping © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 361–375, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_30

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students “[…] in ignorance of the histories and achievements of black peoples in Britain and in their countries of origin”. Research on German history textbooks reached to similar conclusions. Poenicke (2008) and Marmer (2013) described the omission of Africans in German history textbooks and concluded that an engagement with African pre-colonial history rarely reaches beyond its mere acknowledgement. Despite some changes, textbooks are still face criticism because of their European perspective, for reproducing colonial discourse, and for representing Africans as colonial objects of European subjects (cf. Macgilchrist and Müller 2013). This chapter explores how history textbooks represent the so-called Scramble for Africa, enquiring whether the narrative takes a national or an European point of view and seeking to identify the extent to which textbooks discuss pre-colonial history and/or the consequences of colonialism (for Africa). Thereby, special attention was dedicated to the way visual material included in the textbooks, particularly maps, reflects African history. A brief discussion of the research principles underlying the study along with the description of research methods and the sample precede the results.

2 Textbook Research on Colonialism In his preface, Gooch pointed out three issues of significance to textbook-related research (League of Coloured People 1944). The first issue concerns the close links between the knowledge contained in textbooks and the self-image of the nation the textbook addresses. Textbook researchers (cf. Nicholls 2003; Fuchs 2011; Macgilchrist and Otto 2014) have been aware of this link whenever they analyzed textbooks in the context of cultures of memory as expressions, for instance, of what is deemed as key to the collective memory of a society, or as instruments of knowledge transmission to the next generation. Second, Gooch (League of Coloured People 1944) points out that the knowledge textbooks impart is neither static nor fixed, but in need of adaptation to changes within global politics. Third, beyond the adaptation of textbooks to global change, they can themselves become the object of debates (Müller 2013). Several institutions and individuals criticized textbooks and suggested improvements. Textbooks can, thus, be seen as objects of politics of memory as they illustrate the use of the past to shape an identity founded in history (Fuchs and Otto 2013). The issue to be pursued in this chapter is whether, and, if so, to what extent, textbooks, in their pursuit of this purpose, are inclusive of Africa and Africans in their historical narratives. An overview of current research on the representation of colonialism in textbooks shows that most studies rely, directly or indirectly, on concepts drawn from postcolonial studies. Over the last decade, three leading journals–International Textbook Research (2008), Journal of Education, Media and Memory Studies (2013), and Yearbook. International Society of History Didactics (2014)–published special issues on colonialism. Despite the increased attention paid to colonialism in textbooks, comparative studies still represent a challenge. In methodological terms, most studies focus on the text at the expense of textbook visuals. Maps are particularly neglected elements (Müller 2018).

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The research presented in this chapter seeks to fill these gaps by exploring representations of the Scramble for Africa in the context of decolonization in two countries, and, in so doing, regarding maps as integral components of the knowledge the textbooks seek to carry.

3 Method and Sample Methodological challenges present themselves to these studies in the shape of differences in school and textbook systems (Schissler 1983). In Germany, the textbook market is partially regulated. There are compulsory curricula and textbooks must be approved by the state institutions of the various federal states (Schönemann and Thünemann 2010). As a result, textbooks tend towards similarity in form and content. In England, on the other hand, there is a free textbook market. Until the early 1990s, there were no centrally designed curricula, nor was there a state authority for the approval of textbooks (Marsden 2001; Cannadine et al. 2011). A source of general orientation were the syllabuses of the various Examination Boards. As a result, textbooks in England, especially between the late 1960s and roughly 1990, differ dramatically in terms of both content and form from their German counterparts. Textbook series surveying history from antiquity to the present day (ISCED 2) published in the Federal Republic of Germany and England between the 1950s and the 1990s served as sample of this comparative study. The choice of countries results from the fact that both countries had colonies in Africa, yet differ in terms of the extent and duration of their respective colonial pasts as well as in their involvement in the process of decolonization. Due to limited space, this chapter solely focuses on the region frequently referred to as sub-Saharan Africa. The textbooks cover colonialism in Africa, but case studies, such as Egypt or South Africa are often covered in more detail. The German sample contained textbook series published by C. C. Buchner, Diesterweg, Klett, and Westermann, all of which produced relatively long-standing and successful series. The English sample encompassed textbook series published by Oxford University Press, Longman, and Edward Arnold. While this selection enables the detection of general shifts, the substantial heterogeneity of the English textbook market, as outlined above, must be taken into account. For this reason, books on particular topics from other publishers, which are of great importance in England, were also added to the sample. In contrast, similar materials were excluded from the German sample, as they play a very insignificant role in the teaching of initial historical overviews. This sample of textbooks was subjected to qualitative analysis based on Postcolonial Studies and visual history, following a comparative approach.

4 Scramble for Africa Until well into the mid-nineteenth century, European countries had their trading posts only on African coastal strips. With the First World War, however, almost the entire African continent was divided into European colonies. The following section will

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examine how, over the course of time, history textbooks in England and Germany depicted the so-called Scramble for Africa, or, alternatively, the process of the occupation of Africa. 4.1

England

The dominant topic in the English history textbooks sampled from the 1950s up to the 1990s was the growth or development of the British Empire. The process of occupation was initially referred to as the Grab for Africa (e.g., A1957, A1960) or the Partition of Africa (L1967). Verbs used to describe the European occupation explained how land was acquired (L1955, pp. 598–599) or that European powers gained colonies (O1956, p. 59). The verb scramble dominates the description of events in the 1950s. On the whole, the textbook narratives of this time are highly homogenous and abstain from endowing Africans with agency in favor of merely mentioning them in passing. Textbook authors, such as Rayner (L1955), indeed described the Scramble for Africa without mentioning Africans at all. A slight change can be seen in the textbooks of the 1960s. Richards, for example, concluded that the “[…] annexation by a European power generally brought better government, particular in Africa where society was still primitive and where the Arab slave-trade had devastated huge areas. Annexation brought, too, though more slowly, the material benefits of western civilisation– benefits ranging from railways to scientific medicine. Of this aspect of imperialism–the duty to improve the lot of the governed–Kipling was the English prophet. ‘The White Man’s Burden’, he called it” (L1967, p. 150).

However, any further information about the Africans as well as an African perspective on the events is missing from the textbook. Taking additional teaching materials (i.e., themed books and not chronological books from antiquity to the present day) into account reveals a change of greater proportions. During the mid-1960s, Basil Davidson published the first textbooks on African history along with books for use in schools (e.g., Davidson 1965). Such publications dedicated a large number of pages to both pre-colonial and colonial Africa and brought new perspectives into the discourse. David Killingray’s book A Plague of Europeans. Westerners in Africa since the Fifteenth Century (1973) visualizes the above-described. Like other textbooks, Killingray’s (1973) work refers to Scramble for Africa in so-called scare quotes, which have a distancing effect (cf. Macgilchrist and Müller 2012). When introducing other aspects of the topic, the book refrains from using the typical history textbook language of the time and introduces another viewpoint. Furthermore, it also states that European forces invaded (Killingray 1973, p. 65) certain areas and that “[u]nder colonial rule Africans had their land taken from them by white settlers” (Killingray 1973, p. 72). Killingray, thus, describes the process not merely as the emergence of power in a previously empty continent but as an incursion with direct and negative impact on the people already living there. While most standard textbooks ignored this new perspective, other books on African history also conveyed it. Stokes and Stokes (L1977) followed a slightly different strategy and adopted selectively the new perspective. They commenced the

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chapter about imperialism in his textbook with the assertion that “[u]ntil well into the nineteenth century Europeans knew little about the interior of Africa. For centuries, it remained the Dark Continent […]” to subsequently point out that “[c]ivilisation in the Negro kingdom of Ghana had reached a high level”, that “Timbuktu in Mali was once a centre of Muslim learning”, and that “stone ruins found in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in southern Africa are the work of people with an advanced culture” (L1984, p. 24). A half-page photograph of ruins in Zimbabwe served as visual evidence of an African culture (L1984, p. 24). Nevertheless, a number of textbooks published during this period of time featured content with Africans playing a passive role–not even appearing as victims (e.g., A1986). The Education Reform Act of 1988 and the introduction of the first English National Curriculum had a huge impact on textbooks. The new textbooks became more similar in terms of form and content. Most of the books from this period devoted fewer pages to African colonialism and focused instead on other areas, such as India. A broad spectrum of stances is in evidence as regards value statements on colonialism. Buxton, for instance, writes that the Europeans “[…] claimed the land for their empires even though there were people living there already”, illustrating this with a picture of European soldiers and Africans (A1995, p. 34). Subsequently, he emphasizes four main consequences of colonialism, however, without mentioning any (negative) implications for Africa. In contrast, Roberts’ portrayal of colonialism, particularly in the chapter The harm done by the Empire, clearly names the violent aspects of colonialism, using visual matters for support (e.g., the photo The End of the Shona Rebellion of 1896) (L1995, pp. 71–72). Although both textbooks were published in 1995, their perspective differs dramatically. 4.2

Federal Republic of Germany

The dominant topic in the history textbook sample from the Federal Republic of German spanning the decades between the 1950s and the 1990s is the race for colonies. The story of colonialism unfolds from a European point of view and the conflict between the European powers dominates the narrative. In the 1950s, the perspective was still predominantly colonial, as manifest in the wording of assertions, for instance, that areas were initially “placed under protection” (e.g., K1951, p. 54) and that territories were “acquired” (D1951, p. 68). Nevertheless, at least one textbook displayed what can be considered as the beginning of a shift in perspective. The observation that there was a “chase after the ‘unclaimed land’” (D1951, p. 81) reflects a certain distance from the colonial view. An incremental change began to unfold starting with the early 1960s. A textbook from the early years of the decade states that Europeans “[…] had no awareness of the characteristics of the Africans and of the partly ancient and high cultures of those who were occupied” (W1961, p. 136), however, any further explanation about these cultures is missing from the text. Overall, there is little to no exploration of African agency or subjectivity in depictions of colonization processes. Towards the end of the 1960s, one publisher implicitly referred to Africans as agents in Africa by visually presenting the seizure of African land (B1969, p. 115). This matter of depiction became more explicit in the early 1970s. Another textbook–a clear exception–marks a turning point by

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discussing African ways of life on three pages before turning to imperialism in Africa from a European point of view (B1972, pp. 17–19). All textbooks published at a later date paid more attention to African people, albeit without abandoning a European perspective. The second half of the 1970s stands for yet another turning point, as textbooks increasingly point towards problematic aspects of colonialism and begin to address the German-Herero War for the first time (e.g., D1976, p. 16), and, simultaneously highlight the neglecting of Africans as subjects in the narrative. A textbook by Klett introduces the chapter on the Scramble for Africa with a subchapter entitled Africa–An Unclaimed Land?. The question mark implicitly questions the perspective deeming Africa unclaimed. Next to a quote from Henry M. Stanley, the book also includes an African person describing the arrival of the Europeans (K1980, pp. 177–178). Moving into the 1990s, it becomes obvious that attention dedicated to African people experienced a non-linear development. On the one hand, Diesterweg published textbooks that dedicated more attention to Africans. During the 1970s and 1980s, editions use quotation marks around the phrase unclaimed land in the heading and include a subchapter on how Europeans treated Africans. An edition published in the 1990s contain further criticism of colonialism. The textbook gives a voice to Africans by introducing as source material a mural relief from a palace in Dahomey depicting “the conquest and resistance from an African point of view” alongside colonial photography (D1976, pp. 14–17; D1985, pp. 14–17; D1991, pp. 8–15). Successive editions of the C. C. Buchner textbook, by contrast, alter the text without increasing or decreasing attention towards Africa. While in 1981 the seizure of land is illustrated by a half-page picture featuring Europeans and Africans (B1981, p. 85), the 1993 edition contains only a short quotation on the European seizure of land (B1993, p. 35). Editions of other books, such as the widely used series Die Reise in die Vergangenheit, were published between 1973 and the 1990s with minimal to no alterations concerning the Scramble for Africa. With the exception of some slightly restructured text, updates left the perspective, the sources or images untouched (W1973, p. 43–46; W1990, p. 175–179). 4.3

Maps

Most German and English textbooks–with the exception of B1955, B1969, and O1956–visualize the Scramble for Africa in their chapters on imperialism using maps of the world and/or Africa. A major aim of the empirical work underlying this study was to ascertain whether these maps showed similarities with the findings regarding continuous text presented above. Most textbooks feature a map of colonized Africa that constructs the continent as the surface of land on which imperialism takes place. The maps either depict an empty continent into which the colonies have been inserted, or present a continent entirely colored in shades corresponding to European countries (Fig. 1 and 2). In some cases, maps from different periods of time illustrate what can be considered a before-and-after sequence. In doing so, they re-enact the colonization of Africa in a visual manner. Both English and German textbooks from the 1950s to the 1990s (e.g., A1986, O1987, L1995, B1969, D1976, K1993, W1973) contain such maps. The only traceable change

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resulted from technological development enabling, for example, a more liberal use of a multitude of colors. While German textbooks introduced colored maps from about 1970, some English textbooks were still using black and white maps up to the 1990s (e.g., Arnold). Oxford started using colored maps in 1987. However, the way the content was presented in textbooks of both countries remained untouched.

Fig. 1. The Partition of Africa (source: L1968, p. 37).

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Fig. 2. Africa in 1900 (source: O1995, p. 263).

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The maps featured in the chapters dedicated to imperialism of, what one might refer to as traditional English history textbooks, contain no trace of pre-colonial African history. Instead, they show how colonization takes place on an empty continent. In additional teaching materials maps are used differently. Killingray (1973, p. 11) uses them in his thematic book A Plague of Europeans also to illustrate, for example, Africa to 1500, showing major cities (e.g., Zimbabwe, Timbuktu, Gao) and major kingdoms, such as Benin and Ghana. German history textbooks experienced more radical change. While the early editions–as their English counterparts–simply depict an empty continent that is gradually filled in with European colors, editions from 1980 onwards exhibit a shift accurately illustrated by textbooks of the publishing house Klett.

Fig. 3. German colonies before the World War I (source: K1951, p. 54).

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Fig. 4. Africa before the colonial partition [which commenced] around about 1880 (source: K1980, p. 177).

The early textbooks include the traditional imperialistic map of Africa, with a specific focus on German colonies (Fig. 3). In 1980, Klett included for the first time a map also showing the pre-colonial African realms (Fig. 4). This map confronted students with the fact that Africa was not an empty continent before colonization. The textbook issued in 1993 brought yet another major change by providing illustrations of Africa (maps from different time periods) before and after the colonial partition (Fig. 5). One map illustrates the first European possessions; however, the African realms dominate the map. The other map displays Africa during decolonization and indicates the sites of several liberation struggles (Freiheitskämpfe). These types of maps, which show Africans as possessed of historical agency, can be found in textbooks published by Diesterweg (1997), but not in the books by C. C. Buchner or Westermann.

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Fig. 5. Africa prior to and after the Colonial Partition (source: K1993, p. 41).

5 Conclusions Currently used textbooks, both in the Federal Republic of Germany and England, continue to receive criticism for the omission of African history and Africans as historical subjects. The results presented in this chapter showed that, when discussing Scramble for Africa, textbooks generally adhere to a national or European perspective. However, within this perspective, a degree of change has taken place–change that in the view of critical textbook research represents improvement. With the progress of decolonization and the transition to the postcolonial era, increasing amounts of knowledge about Africa and African people became textbook content. To a certain extent, the roots of this change originate in global transformations. As African states attained independence, textbook authors evidently seemed to place greater importance on the inclusion of historical knowledge about the continent. A close analysis of the language of textbooks allows to pinpoint change more accurately. In the 1950s, textbooks from both England and the Federal Republic of Germany still remained largely within a colonial discourse and included little or no knowledge about Africa and its peoples. German textbooks underwent a process of incremental change, with quotation marks used for distancing purposes and greater emphasis on the visibility of Africans in illustrations. Around 1980, new textbooks questioned the idea of Africa as unclaimed land and shone a spotlight on violent aspects of colonial struggles, albeit without departing fundamentally from the reiteration of older narratives. English textbooks likewise saw successive change, with two key aspects. First, textbooks manifested the emergence of a broader spectrum of knowledge on this topic,

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with editions that primarily emphasized positive aspects of colonialism existing alongside those giving increased weight to negative impacts. Second, change first emerged in additional and supplementary teaching materials, which provided more space for new knowledge than course textbooks and were generally authored by experts in colonial history. These materials supplied content for authors of more general textbooks, which helped drive change in these publications. The maps on colonialism included in textbooks of the 1950s supported this tendency in depiction, excluding African perspectives and effectively performing a visual re-enactment of colonization. English textbooks essentially retained this perspective throughout the period under investigation, with only supplementary materials adding major cities and kingdoms to their maps. Starting with the 1980s, German textbooks updated their views as exemplified by maps showing pre-colonial African realms in the textbooks issued by two publishers. While general criticism of textbooks’ omission or inadequate introduction of knowledge on Africa and African people remain valid, successive change is apparent. The overarching national or European perspective experienced some alterations both in English and German textbooks and moved towards a more inclusive portrayal of knowledge on Africa. Most textbooks achieved such shifts by applying a number of strategies, such as the introduction of linguistic signifiers (quotation marks) around particular expressions to distance themselves from colonial discourse or the use of images and source material to add new facets to the perspective displayed without altering the details of the text. The maps used in German textbooks visualize this development in a particularly striking manner. Unclear remains, to what extent classroom activities as well as teachers and students considered these new trends. Textbooks merely offered the opportunity to change the traditional discourse about colonialism.

References D. Cannadine, J. Keating, N. Sheldon, The Right Kind of History. Teaching the Past in Twentieth-Century England (Palgrave, London, 2011) M. Castro Varela, N. Dhawan, Postkoloniale Theorie. Eine kritische Einführung (Transcript, Bielefeld, 2005) B. Davidson, History of West Africa (Longman, London, 1965) E. Fuchs, Current trends in history and social studies textbook research. J. Int. Coop. Educ. 14(2), 17–34 (2011) E. Fuchs, M. Otto, Educational media, textbooks, and postcolonial relocations of memory politics in Europe. J. Educ. Media Mem. Soc. 5(1), 1–13 (2013) D. Killingray, A Plague of Europeans. Westerners in Africa since the Fifteenth Century (Penguin Education, Harmondsworth, 1973) League of Coloured Peoples, Race Relations in the Schools (League of Coloured Peoples, London, 1944) F. Macgilchrist, L. Müller, Kolonialismus und Modernisierung. Das diskursive Ringen um Afrika bei der Schulbuchentwicklung, in AfrikaBilder im Wandel?. ed. by J. Breidbach, M. Aßner, A.-A. Mohammed, D. Schommer, K. Voss (Peter Lang, Frankfurt Am Main, 2012), pp. 195–208

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F. Macgilchrist, M. Otto, Schulbücher für den Geschichtsunterricht 1.0. DocumentaZeitgeschichte (2014), http://docupedia.de/zg/Schulbuecher. Accessed 18 Feb 2014 E. Marmer, P. Sow, African history teaching in contemporary German textbooks: from biased knowledge to duty of remembrance. Yesterday Today 10, 49–76 (2013) W. Marsden, The School Textbook. Geography, History and Social Studies (Woburn Press, London, 2001) L. Müller, “We need to get away from a culture of denial”? The German-Herero war in politics and textbooks. J. Educ. Media Mem. Soc. 5(1), 50–71 (2013) L. Müller, Concepts of the past. Colonialism, in Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies. ed. by A. Bock, E. Fuchs (Palgrave, London, 2018), pp. 218–291 J. Nicholls, Methods in school textbook research. Int. J. Hist. Learn. Teach. Res. 3(2), 11–26 (2003) A. Poenicke, Afrika in deutschen Medien und Schulbüchern (KAS, Stakt Augustin, 2008) S. Randeria, S. Conrad, Jenseits des Eurozentrismus. Postkoloniale Perspektiven in den Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften (Campus, Frankfurt am Main, 2002) H. Schissler, Englische und deutsche Schulgeschichtsbücher im Vergleich. Aus Politik und Zeigeschichte 32/33, 39–46 (1983) B. Schönemann, H. Thünemann, Schulbucharbeit. Das Geschichtslehrbuch in der Unterrichtspraxis (Wochenschau Verlag, Schwalbach/Ts, 2010) M. Sherwood, White myths, black omissions: the historical origins of Racism in Britain. Int. J. Hist. Teach. Learn. Res. 3(1), 49–59 (2003)

Analyzed Textbooks

C.C. Buchner J. Habisreutinger, W. Krick, Geschichtliches Werden IV: Geschichte der Neuesten Zeit 18151950 (Buchner, Bamberg, 1955) J. Engl, Geschichtliches Werden III: Geschichte der Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart (Buchner, Bamberg, 1969) H. Brack, Geschichte für Realschulen 4: Neuste Zeit (Buchner, Bamberg, 1972) J. Engl, et al., Geschichtliches Werden III: Geschichte der Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart (Buchner, Bamberg, 1980) W. Bernecker, Geschichte entdecken 8: Neuzeit (Buchner, Bamberg, 1981) H. Brack, Unser Weg in die Gegenwart 4: Neueste Zeit (Buchner, Bamberg, 1984) H. Brack, Geschichte 3: Neuzeit (Buchner, Bamberg, 1986) B. Mestel, Geschichte entdecken 8 (Buchner, Bamberg, 1993)

Diesterweg E. Busch, Grundzüge Der Geschichte VII: Von Der Französischen Revolution 1789 Bis Zur Gegenwart (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1951) A. von Geschichtslehren, G. der Geschichte, Von Der Frühgeschichte Europas Bis Zur Weltpolitik Der Gegenwart (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1964) W. Hug et al., Geschichtliche Weltkunde 3: Von Der Zeit Des Imperialismus Bis Zur Gegenwart (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1976)

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W. Hug et al., Geschichtliche Weltkunde 3: Von Der Zeit Des Imperialismus Bis Zur Gegenwart (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1985) W. Hug, Unsere Geschichte (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1991) E. Hinrichs et al., Wir Machen Geschichte 3: Vom Absolutismus Bis Zum Imperialismus (Diesterweg, Frankfurt Am Main, 1997)

Klett H. Pinnow, F. Textor, Geschichtliches Unterrichtswerk IV: Geschichte Der Neuesten Zeit (Klett, Stuttgart, 1951) F. Lucas et al., Menschen in Ihre Zeit 4/5: In Unserer Zeit (Klett, Stuttgart, 1969) F. Lucas et al., Menschen in Ihre Zeit 4/5: In Unserer Zeit (Klett, Stuttgart, 1978) P. Alter et al., Erinnern Und Urteilen 3 (Klett, Stuttgart, 1980) P. Alter et al., Erinnern Und Urteilen 10 (Klett, Stuttgart, 1984) P. Alter et al., Geschichte Und Geschehen III (Klett, Stuttgart, 1986) G. Eck, Lebendige Vergangenheit 8 (Klett, Stuttgart, 1988) L. Bernlochner et al., Erinnern Und Urteilen 9 (Klett, Stuttgart, 1993)

Westermann H. Ebeling, Deutsche Geschichte. Weltgeschichte der Neuesten Zeit 1789-1914 (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1952) H. Ebeling, Die Reise in die Vergangenheit IV: Unser Zeitalter der Revolutionen und Weltkrieg (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1961) H. Ebeling, Die Reise in die Vergangenheit IV: Unser Zeitalter der Revolutionen und Weltkrieg (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1966) H. Ebeling, W. Birkenfeld, Die Reise in die Vergangenheit IV: Geschichte und Politik unserer Zeit (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1973) S. Graßmann, Zeitaufnahme 2 (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1979) H. Ebeling, W. Birkenfeld, Die Reise in die Vergangenheit IV: Geschichte und Politik unserer Zeit (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1982) H. Ebeling, W. Birkenfeld, Die Reise in die Vergangenheit 3: Vom Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg (Westermann, Braunschweig, 1990)

Edward Arnold (later with Hodder) C.P. Hill, Survey of British History, Book IV, 1783–1939 (Arnold, London, 1957) M.L.R. Isaac, A History of Europe 1870–1950 (Arnold, London, 1960) G. William, Portrait of World History, Book III: Nationalism to Internationalism (Arnold, London, 1966) C.P. Hill, Survey of British History, Book IV, 1783–1951, 2nd edn. (Arnold, London, 1972) J.F. Aylett, In Search of History, The Twentieth Century (Arnold/Hodder, London, 1986) S. Buxton, Action History, Book 4: Industry, Expansion and Empire: Britain 1750–1900 (Hodder, London, 1995)

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Oxford University Press C.H.C Blount, History Through the Ages. Book 5: The Last Hundred Years (OUP, London, 1956) L.F. Holey, A Social and Economic History of England 1760–1960 (OUP, London, 1965) W. Robson, 20th Century Britain (OUP, London, 1973) C.P. Hill, J.C. Wright, British History 1815–1914 (OUP, London, 1981) D. Heater, Presenting the Past. Book 3: Reform and Revolution (OUP, London, 1987) W. Robson, Access to History. British History 1066–1990 (OUP, London, 1995)

Longman R.M. Rayner, A Concise History of Britain (Longman, London, 1955) D. Richards, A. Quick, A History of Britain 1851–1945 (Longman, London, 1967) D. Richards, A. Quick, Twentieth Century Britain (Longman, London, 1968) D. Richards, An Illustrated History of Modern Europe 1789–1974 (Longman, London, 1977) J. Stokes, G. Stokes, Europe and the Modern World 1870–1970 (Longman, London, 1977) L.E. Snellgrove, Longman Secondary Histories 5: The Modern World since 1870 (Longman, Burnt Mill, 1981) D. Richards, An Illustrated History of Modern Europe 1789–1984 (Longman, London, 1987) M. Roberts, Sense of History. The British Empire (Longman, Harlow, 1995)

Fostering Historical Thinking with Textbooks. A Case Study of Tasks in Austrian History Textbooks Christoph Bramann(&) University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter follows the paradigm shift in the goals of history teaching from focusing on historical events and facts to foster domain-specific skills and concepts of historical thinking. In this context, the chapter explores the question whether current Austrian history textbooks provide approaches to promote historical thinking. Textbook tasks are important didactical factors of initiating and organizing processes of historical learning. Therefore, the chapter presents results of a categorial analysis of textbook tasks. The analysis of the required cognitive performances as well as the connections between tasks and other textbook materials offers analytical insights into the conceptualization of history textbooks as learning media in context of a domain-specific task culture. Keywords: History education research
Historical thinking learning
Textbook research
Task culture


Historical

1 Introduction The purpose of history education has changed in many countries. For a long time, it was the teacher’s job “[…] to transmit a simple, uncontested version of the past to pupils, so that they would have a mental map or framework of the past, […] for understanding the country they lived in” (Haydn, 2011, p. 69). Instead of this understanding of history education which is mainly conducted to consolidate national identity through historical master-narratives (Carretero et al. 2012), it has been emphasized that acts of historical thinking (Körber et al. 2007; Seixas and Morton 2013) or historical reasoning (van Drie and van Boxtel 2008) are more appropriate to prepare students for the challenges of contemporary societies. Because of these fundamental changes, it is obvious that history textbooks as key learning media in history lessons in school have to be revised as well (Schreiber et al. 2013). Thus, this chapter focuses on the question whether the books provide approaches to learn historical thinking understood as a “[…] process of orientation in the temporal dimension originating from a present need for, or uncertainty about, one’s own (historical) identity and options” (Körber and Meyer-Hamme 2015, p. 93). To what extent do current history textbooks in Austria fulfill this new conceptual focus? What approaches do they provide for handling history? These questions will be addressed within the methodological framework of a categorial textbook analysis (Schinkel 2014). Because of their © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 376–395, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_31

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crucial significance for learning processes (Heuer 2011), the analysis focused on textbook tasks. This chapter aims to uncover the conceptual directions of tasks in current history textbooks from Austria and to give indications of starting points for further textbook revisions with a greater focus on a new task culture in history textbooks (Heuer 2017; Bramann 2019).

2 Research Context: Historical Thinking and Textbook Tasks 2.1

Historical Thinking and the Austrian School Curriculum

For a long time, history education in school used to focus on teaching a pre-constructed story of the national past. This approach was based on a positivist view on history as a conglomerate of historical facts and developments (Kühberger 2015). In contrast to this understanding, societal change and deeper epistemological beliefs of history as a human-made construct that is based on historical sources and other representations of the past led to the insight that history education in school should help young people to achieve a moderate-constructivist view on history in order to enable analytical approaches to the past and its representations (cf. Borries 2008; Rüsen 2008). Thus, “[…] in addition to cultivating and building onto students’ frameworks of the past, teachers are called on to involve their students in disciplinary thinking and to improve their understanding of how historical knowledge is constructed” (Voet and De Wever 2016, p. 57). In a nutshell: a new and contemporary goal of history education in school is to initialize and foster historical thinking processes. In this context, and also as a consequence of the results of international large-scale assessments in other subjects (e.g., PISA-study), theory-based models to ascertain historical thinking processes emerged in the German-speaking countries (Barricelli et al. 2012). While there is still no consensus about a preferred model in Germany (also because of the federal educational system), in Austria the model of the international FUER-Group (Förderung und Entwicklung von reflektiertem Geschichtsbewusstsein; Promotion and Development of Reflected Historical Consciousness) (Körber et al. 2007; see also Körber and Meyer-Hamme 2015) constitutes the normative standard since 2008 (BGBL 2008; BGBL 2016). In the model, historical thinking is defined as a circular process consisting of the three procedural dimensions historical questioning (Fragekompetenzen), re- and de-constructing history (Methodenkompetenzen), and historical orientation in one’s own life (Orientierungskompetenzen), as well as the dimension of the reflective use of epistemological concepts (Sachkompetenzen) (Körber et al. 2007). 2.2

History Textbooks in Austrian Schools and in History Education Research

In spite of the increasing popularity of digital media and first developments of digital history textbooks (Schreiber et al. 2013), printed textbooks are still important media in history lessons in Austria (Kipman and Kühberger 2019). The Austrian Bundesministerium für Bildung (Federal Ministry of Education) admitted for the school year

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2016/17 a total of 14 different editions of history textbooks (approved as competenceoriented) for secondary schools. Hence, textbooks also affect the construction of mental frameworks about the conception of history and this framework retroacts to the production of new textbooks in a circular process (Lässig 2010). Consequently, any changes in the goal of history education in school must be considered during the revision of textbooks (Schreiber et al. 2013). The procedure of the official approbation of textbooks in Austria often leads to teachers planning their lessons based on textbooks rather than on the curriculum. Thus, history textbooks become the hidden curriculum (cf. Schönemann and Thünemann 2010; Brauch 2015). Their popularity might result from modern design and concepts that support learning and exercising, turning textbooks into multi-media-packages featuring a number of different elements, such as authors text, visual and textual historical sources and representations, tasks etc. (Schönemann and Thünemann 2010). Thus, history textbooks offer not only the chance to spend less time on lesson planning (Brauch 2015), but also contain a variety of options to use in history lessons (Sauer 2016). Additionally the linguists van Leeuwen and Kress (1995, p. 25) have pointed out that “[…] textbooks […] are no longer just written, but ‘designed’ and multimodally articulated”. This refers to a specific intertextual structure that creates a multitude of interpretations and constructions about the past (Pandel et al. 2011; Kühberger 2016). In this context, textbook tasks can reveal particularly well the intended connection between the different elements and, therefore, the didactical concept of textbooks. A mixed-method study on the use of history textbooks in Austrian secondary schools showed that 85.4% of the surveyed teachers and 79.8% of the surveyed students used textbooks at least every second lesson (Kipman and Kühberger 2019, pp. 61 and 78). In addition, qualitative classroom observations have shown that in 43% of the total teaching time the class worked either directly with the textbook or different textbook-based materials (Bernhard 2018). Thus, the hypothesis of textbooks as key media in history lessons seems to be verified–at least for Austria. Nevertheless, there is still only a limited number of textbook analyses focussing on the concrete didactic structure of history textbooks and their presentation of historical thinking processes (e.g., chapters in Kühberger and Mittnik 2015; Bramann et al. 2018; Kühberger et al. 2019a). One of the core aspects these studies highlight is the important role of textbook tasks in initializing and structuring domain-specific learning processes (Brauch et al. 2011; Thünemann 2013; Heuer 2017). 2.3

Textbook Tasks as Key Factors for Historical Thinking

The understanding that historical thinking depends on domain-specific skills and concepts, which cannot be taught by merely memorizing historical facts (Krammer and Kühberger 2011), led to a greater awareness towards the importance of learning tasks in initializing and regulating historical thinking processes (Gautschi 2009). The quality of tasks and different approaches to achieve these became the focus of both interdisciplinary (Keller and Reintjes 2016) and history education research (Pandel 2005; Heuer 2011; Thünemann 2013; Brauch 2014; Köster et al. 2016). While some of the developed didactic models for good learning tasks in the domain of history are strongly

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related to general didactic aspects, as used in the models of Blömeke et al. (2006) and Maier et al. (2010) (see also Gautschi 2009; Heuer 2011; Wenzel 2012), other models try to include more domain-specific aspects of creating historical narrative more closely (e.g., Thünemann 2013; Köster et al. 2016). Although “[…] suggestions pertaining to the didactic quality criteria are available for the teaching domain of History” (Resch and Seidenfuß 2017, p. 236), there still is no uncontested model for the design of good tasks for historical learning (Heuer 2019). Many of the models for learning tasks were classified in context of the postulation of a new task-based culture in the domain of history (Heuer 2011; Wenzel 2012). This culture positions tasks within a broader learning setting including assignments of tasks as well as the performance and evaluation of tasks (Heuer 2011). Some first approaches in history didactics focus on aspects of a domain-specific task culture in textbooks (Heuer 2017; Bramann 2019). In order to consider the widest range of textbook tasks possible in the analysis, this chapter refers to a broader definition of tasks, which includes comprehensive and reproductive tasks, tasks to compare or reflect on historical sources and other types of historical representations as well as tasks to write one’s own (hi-)stories (Waldis 2013). Another starting point for the specification of categories for analyzing textbook tasks is a Guideline for Domain-specific Competence-orientation in Textbooks published by the Austrian Ministry of Education in 2011 (Krammer and Kühberger 2011). The guideline that became the normative recommendation for textbook authors in Austria (Kühberger and Mittnik 2015) outlines the key function of tasks in line with the current discourse in history education research. Nevertheless, only few studies on tasks in history textbooks were published since the turn of the millennium (Michler 2007; Brauch et al. 2011; Wild 2012; Thünemann 2013; Bernhard 2016; Bramann 2019). In spite of different methodological approaches and defined criteria, the studies found that the majority of the textbook tasks still focus on content-oriented approaches to history whereas reflection and reasoning–key elements fostering historical thinking–are still outnumbered (a brief status of research focussing on textbook tasks in the German-speaking countries–Austria, Germany, and Switzerland–will be given in the respective sections below).

3 Research Design and Sample The methodological approach follows the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2010) and its adaptions by history education research (Schreiber et al. 2013; Schinkel 2014). The analytical framework used to code and evaluate the tasks is based on qualitative categories for tasks in history textbooks. The developed categories refer to the following three key questions: (1) Do the tasks require different sets of cognitive performance? (2) Do tasks refer to other tasks within task connections and do they imply an inherent graduation of cognitive performances? (3) Do tasks refer to domain-specific material and is this connected material executed in a challenging way (i.e., cognitive performances beyond reproduction)?

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Analytical categories were based on these questions and will be described prior to result presentation. Thus, this analysis describes a domain-specific and media-specific approach to learning tasks in history textbooks. However, by analyzing aspects, such as the references to subject-specific materials and task sequences, criteria of processoriented learning settings (Kiper et al. 2010; Heuer 2017) as important aspects of a new task culture in history textbooks (Bramann 2019) were also considered. These criteria have so far remained rather marginal in history education research. The sample consisted of 14 Austrian history textbooks (TB01–TB14) for grade 7 (lower secondary education, students aged 12–13). During the process of sampling, the following three criteria were followed: (1) official approval for the school year 2016/17; (2) first release in the aftermath of the implementation of competence-based school curricula in 2008; and, (3) considerations of tasks featured in the selected thematic chapters (this was not the case with TB13). The selected thematic units were dedicated to the formation of modern nation-states and the genesis of the concept of nationalism (nineteenth and twentieth century). Thereby, this paper focuses on rather general aspects of historical learning. Aspects of teaching the nation as an imagined community (Anderson 1983) in a contemporary moderate-constructivist way, will be discussed elsewhere. Based on the glossary entries of the books, a total of 188 tasks were located in the corresponding sections (TB01 = 28; TB02 = 13; TB03 = 18; TB04 = 21; TB05 = 5; TB06 = 17; TB07 = 6; TB08 = 9; TB09 = 8; TB10 = 25; TB11 = 12; TB12 = 9; TB13 = 0; TB14 = 19). Each textbook contained between 5–18 tasks (Ø = 14/book; excluding TB13).

4 Data Analysis and Discussion of Results 4.1

Cognitive Performance

Previous work showed that students are often “under-challenged and de-motivated” when working with reproductive tasks (Pandel 2005, p. 54). Furthermore, history textbooks in German-speaking European countries tend to feature few tasks dedicated to higher cognitive performance levels (Michler 2007; Wild 2012; Thünemann 2013; Bernhard 2016; Kühberger et al. 2019b). Against the background of Benjamin Bloom’s revised taxonomy of educational objectives (Anderson et al. 2001), this means that tasks featured in textbooks exclude processes requiring higher cognitive skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis, evaluation). While the taxonomy is based on six categories of cognitive processes (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create), it has been adopted and reduced to three cognitive performance level for the subject of history (see Kühberger 2011, pp. 6–7): • Cognitive Performance Level 1 (PLV 1) refers to reproduction, the repetition of information and details included in a source, definitions, and methods (e.g., types of sources, the difference between historical sources and representations of the past). • Cognitive Performance Level 2 (PLV 2) entails reorganization and transfer. Within this PLV, students independently explain and map content and transfer the appropriate methodological steps to new and other content.

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• Cognitive Performance Level 3 (PLV 3) encompasses reflection, reasoning, and problem-solving. At this PLV, students argue their case, choose and apply methods in a reflexive manner to new contexts, reflect specific historical narrations and create their own interpretations of the past. The classification of tasks according to PLVs happened on the grounds of operators (i.e., verbs targeting specific actions, such as compare, analyze etc.). In the German-speaking community of history educators, there is a considerable body of research that recommends task formulation based on operators given their ability to establish transparency with respect to the required student action (Kühberger 2011; Heuer 2011; Köster et al. 2016). In order to determine the cognitive performances required to complete a task, all tasks were reconstructed using operators (see Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Example of a task: original vs. reconstructed task with operator (source: author).

Fig. 2. Cognitive performance level (PLV) required to complete a task (n = 188) (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 194).

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The results (Fig. 2) showed that 83% of all tasks require students to carry out reproduction (PLV 1, 42%) and reorganization (PLV 2, 41%). In consequence, tasks that require challenging processes of historical thinking are still outnumbered (17%). The results show remarkable similarities with earlier findings (Michler 2007; Bernhard 2016). Both from a domain-specific and a normative point of view, these results are unsatisfactory. On the one hand, the official Austrian school curriculum for history demands that “[…] domain-specific learning processes at all levels of cognitive performance” (BGBL 2016, p. 15) should be fostered. And on the other hand, research in history education also states, rather vaguely, that all performance levels have to be promoted “[…] to an appropriate extent” (Schinkel 2014, p. 484). 4.2

Task Sequences

One important aspect of the constructivist task-based learning culture in history is a sophisticated connectivity between the tasks to enable cumulative learning (Wenzel 2012). Therefore it is required to structure tasks into task sequences–a deliberately planned connection between several tasks that require individual cognitive steps. The work described in this chapter refers to connections between clearly separated (visually or by different numbers) but semantically related textbook tasks as external task sequence. Several individual cognitive steps within one textbook task are called internal task sequences (Fig. 3). In order to avoid duplicate codings, tasks that are located in an internal and an external task sequence have been coded as internal task sequence.

Fig. 3. Task examples: internal and external task sequences (source: author).

In order to plan a structured learning process, however, it is not enough to provide task sequences. It is also important that these task sequences require increasing cognitive performances from task to task (Kühberger 2011). This aspect refers to processoriented textbook analysis targeting the core of competence-oriented learning (Kiper et al. 2010) (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4. Task examples: task sequences with increasing respectively decreasing cognitive performances (source: author).

The results (Fig. 5) show that 35% of the 188 tasks are organized in internal or external task sequences while the majority (65%) of the tasks featured in the textbooks are still isolated. The findings also show that the majority of tasks with connection to other tasks is organized within internal sequences (29%), and, therefore, designed to be solved in series. In this regard, the small number of external task sequences (3%) proves that most of the textbooks offer limited active support to cumulative learning through the provided tasks. However, the interesting issue is the question whether these task sequences require increasing cognitive performances.

Fig. 5. Internal and external task sequences identified across the sample (n = 188) (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 195).

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The analysis of the identified task sequences (Fig. 6) demonstrates that only half of the connected tasks (n = 66) require increasing cognitive performance, while 41% remain within the same performance level. A total of nine per cent of all task sequences even exhibit a decrease in performance level.

Fig. 6. Cognitive Performance Levels (PLV) required within task sequences (n = 66) (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 196).

Regarding the entire corpus of 188 tasks, the results show that only 17% of all tasks are organized in task sequences with increasing cognitive performance levels. Thus, the results indicate that most textbooks support single task learning rather than processoriented learning with task sequences. 4.3

Connections Between Textbook Tasks and Textbook Material

Already in 1992, Rüsen (1992, p. 244) emphasized that textbook tasks that are based on historical sources and other representations of the past are “highly welcome” to initiate independent learning. For the quality of tasks in history textbooks, this translates into the requirement to establish some form of connection between the tasks and the historical material provided, should historical thinking be initiated (Krammer and

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Kühberger 2011; Schreiber et al. 2013). In addition, particularly in the multimodal structure of history textbooks, the quantity of the connected material can also influence the tasks complexity (Kühberger et al. 2019b). Research on textbooks has emphasized the importance of the relationship between textbook tasks and textbook material, as some books require students to solve tasks without suitable material (Matthes and Schütze 2011). Solutions provided on the grounds of such tasks can only relate to students’ individual memory and, thus, counteract the possibility of creating the same learning conditions for all students through history textbooks (Bramann and Kühberger 2020). Thus, the use of historical sources and representations of the past is an important issue for the promotion of all domain-specific competencies (see chapters in Körber et al. 2007), as required by the Austrian school curriculum. Moreover, the connectivity between tasks and domain-specific material refers to a core aspect of the implementation of a task-based culture in textbooks in general (Kiper et al. 2010) and in history textbooks in particular (Heuer 2017; Bramann 2019).

Fig. 7. Origin of the material connected to textbook tasks (n = 188) (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 201).

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The results (Fig. 7) show that almost three quarters of the 188 tasks can be solved with material provided by the textbooks. Thereby, 5% of the textbook tasks should be solved with individual knowledge (e.g., remembering facts) while 15% of the tasks are not linked to any material (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8. Task examples: task referring to remembering facts or unknown material (source: author).

In consequence, the findings differ from those of earlier studies on tasks in Austrian history textbooks that identified merely 52% of the task to be tied to materials (cf. Mittnik 2017). Thus, the issue of tasks-material-connectivity requires more attention in textbook research. The subsequent analytical step consisted of determining the type of textbook material the tasks refer to. Although the importance of the connection between a task and appropriate historical sources and representations is quite obvious, it continue to be an under-researched field. An additional difficulty is the reduced comparability of these studies, as they explored a variety of details. Michler (2007) found that nearly half of the textbook tasks in German, French, and English textbooks include historical sources. Wild (2012) concluded that around one-third of the tasks in German textbooks refer to visual and textual sources, and less than 10% to authors texts, understood as “[…] author’s narrative [re]presentation of the past” (Haydn 2011, p. 70). Without going too much into detail, these findings may be result of an imprecise categorial definition of material types. As a result, the coding relied on four main categories of materials used in history textbooks: (1) textual and visual historical sources as evidences from the past; (2) textual and visual representations of the past (e.g., texts by historians, but also graphs and schemata visualizing historical topics); (3) text written by textbook authors (authors texts), as a special type of historical representation–including long information texts for pictures, mini-encyclopedia articles etc.–and; (4) other textual or visual representations presenting the present (e.g., photos of demonstrations and flags, legal texts, etc.). The fourth category is necessary because in Austria, civic education is an important aspect of the school subject Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung (History and Social Studies/Civic Education) (Kühberger 2015). The coding process only considered material explicitly mentioned in the assignment of a task and material that is substantially required to solve it. In consequence, implicate references (e.g., illustrating pictures without additional value) were skipped during the coding process.

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Fig. 9. Textbook elements connected to textbook tasks in total (n = 188) (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 203).

Fig. 10. Subcategories of textbook elements connected to textbook tasks (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 204).

First of all, the results (Fig. 9) show that the majority of the tasks that refer to textbook material are connected to authors texts (n = 109). A total of 63% of these 109 tasks refer to classical authors texts (Fig. 10). It is this kind of textbook texts that affect the story the textbook authors construct about the past (the history). Thus, authors texts provide students with a suggestive and interpretive offer of the topic treated, as does the rest of the provided textbook material (Sauer 2008). Whether such texts foster reflexive processes or become reduced to factual stories about the past, will be discussed later. The results (Fig. 9) also show that only 49 of all tasks relate to historical sources and 47 to representations of the past. The use of visual textbook media is dominant in both cases (Fig. 10). In light of the fact that historical learning should be based on the examination of both written and visual historical sources and representations, this finding alone can be regarded as unsatisfactory. However, a detailed look at the tasks

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referring to sources and representations also shows that they rarely add value to the task, because all the information needed to solve these tasks can only be reproduced from authors texts. Thus, even if textbook tasks refer to sources and representations, they often remain on a purely illustrative level and are not actively involved in processes of historical thinking and learning (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Task example: task referring to historical material with only illustrative character (source: author).

In the example, the information required to “state a reason” can be reproduced directly from the authors text: “Above all, the German-speaking officials, who mostly spoke no Czech, feared to be replaced by a bilingual Czech official. Protests and riots were the result” (TB14, p. 96; translated by CB). The other historical material the task refers to (Q 97.1, Abb. 97.1), thus, is only used to illustrate the authors text as a given historical master narrative, instead of supporting processes of historical thinking. Regarding the spatial conditions during textbook production, it remains unclear, why the textbook involves the printed material so ineffectively. In light of the fact that history does not simply exist but is constructed through historical thinking processes and communicated and negotiated in a narrative way (Körber et al. 2007; Rüsen 2013), research in history education emphasizes that cognitive performances at the level of reproduction are not sufficient to initiate or even foster historical thinking (Krammer and Kühberger 2011). General textbook research also emphasizes that task analysis should consider both the provided material and the cognitive way in which the material should be used (Kiper et al. 2010). Thus the examination of these aspects requires a combined analysis of the tasks connected to specific materials and the required cognitive performance levels (PLV) to solve the tasks. Due to their importance for historical learning processes, especially in school, the focus is primarily on three textbook elements: authors texts, historical sources, and representations of the past (Fig. 12).

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Fig. 12. Required Cognitive Performance Level (PLV) for solving textbook tasks connected to specific textbook elements (source: author, see also Bramann 2018, p. 205).

The results of the combined analysis (Fig. 12) show that higher cognitive performance levels, as required for reflection or reasoning, are rarely required by textbook tasks, even if they refer to domain-specific material. Especially the results for tasks connected to historical sources and representations show that almost three quarters of the tasks referring to historical sources and 94% of the tasks referring to historical representations do not require cognitive acts of reasoning or reflecting. However, it must be emphasized that, of course, cognitive acts of reproduction are also important for learning processes. For example, reading and understanding historical texts or images is an important prerequisite for historical learning. Fostering historical thinking as the goal of a competence-oriented history education, however, requires that the learning process continues from the previously “reproduced” knowledge to initiate concrete historical thinking processes (Krammer and Kühberger 2011, p. 29). From the post of view of history education, textbook exercises that require low cognitive performance are particularly problematic, if they are not integrated in structured task sequences (Bramann 2019). Figure 13 visualizes some of such standalone tasks that are not part of task sequences.

Fig. 13. Task examples: required Cognitive Performance Level (PLV) for solving textbook tasks connected to historical sources (source: author).

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While the first and second task (Fig. 13) requires the work with historical sources with medium (reorganization) and higher (creation) cognitive performances, in the third task it remains unclear why a poem from 1848 should be summarized without taking a stand to the obtained information or to compare it with other sources or representations of the past. In such cases, the provided historical material could surely be involved more thoroughly in the promotion of historical thinking. In this regard, 83% of the tasks referring to author’s texts are also limited to lower or middle cognitive performance levels. The task example showed in Fig. 14 illustrates a typical example of such tasks whose only purpose is to reproduce information from authors texts.

Fig. 14. Task example: task requiring PLV 1 referring to an Authors Text (source: author).

Working with authors texts in textbooks, however, does not always have to follow this approach. In fact, the text could serve instead of a quarry for information about the past as a practice field for epistemological principles of the subject history. For example, textbook tasks could question the authors texts by providing contrary historical sources (multiperspectivity) or they could require students to raise questions about whose history remains untold in the text (selectivity, constructivity).

5 Conclusions Do current history textbooks from Austria provide approaches to foster historical thinking? Because of the existing broad inter-disciplinary common sense that tasks contribute significantly to the formation of general as well as domain-specific thinking skills (Keller and Reintjes 2016), the research presented in this chapter focused on textbook tasks as key factors for competence-oriented learning. Following approaches of a process-oriented task analysis (Kiper et al. 2010), the analysis considered both single tasks as well as all their connections to others tasks (task sequences) and to further textbook material. Thus, the analysis also included important approaches to a new task culture in history textbooks, as they are currently being discussed (Heuer 2017; Bramann 2019). With regard to the results presented in this chapter, the tasks provided by Austrian textbooks seem to be less suitable to promote historical thinking. The majority of the tasks require cognitive performances only at a low or middle level–most of them without being connected to other tasks through structured task sequences. The results show that only 17% of all tasks are part of sequences that require a progression of cognitive performance levels and, therefore, focus on historical learning as a process (see Fig. 5 and Fig. 6). Overall, the majority of the examined textbook tasks remains as single tasks with limited potential to support a reflected and critical approach to historical sources and representations–or even of a historical topic.

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But what about the findings on tasks including historical material as a more domain-specific approach to the quality of learning tasks in history textbooks? The results show that less than one-third of the tasks refer to different types of historical sources and representations of the past (see Fig. 9 and Fig. 10). Even if the tasks are connected to domain-specific material, they are often illustrative addendums without any deeper contribution to the answer or even to target historical thinking, because these tasks rarely foster higher cognitive performance levels (Fig. 12). When viewed against the background of the Austrian curriculum for history in school, which demands “[…] a self-contained and critical handling of historical sources to gain insights and create narrations about the (re-construction) of the past” (BGBL 2016, p. 16), the findings of the work presented in this chapter also seem unsatisfactory. Moreover, the result that one fifth of all tasks do not even refer to any textbook material at all (Fig. 7)–and, thus, to any verifiable sources–gives rise to the assumption that textbook authors grossly underestimate the necessity to link domain-specific materials to textbook tasks. Even though a will to implement the new goals of history education is traceable in some Austrian textbook series (i.e., by introductory explanations of the particular historical competences that should be fostered), the results presented in this chapter show that the provided textbook tasks in particular are often not consistently constructed towards initiating and accompanying processes of historical learning that are capable to foster historical thinking in a targeted and sustainable manner. Remark This chapter contains updated and revised results of the author’s contribution to the CAOHT project (2015–2018; especially Bramann 2018) and discusses them in the context of current research.

Textbooks TB01: Bachlechner, M. (2012). Bausteine 3: Geschichte, Sozialkunde, Politische Bildung (Lizenzausg., [HS, AHS], 1st ed.). Wien: öbv. TB02: Kreiner, C., Amler, H., & Huber, G. (2012). Einst und heute 3 - Chronologisch: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung ([HS, AHS], 1st ed.). Wien: E. Dorner. TB03: Baumgartner-Lemberger, C. (2014). Genial! Geschichte 3: Geschichte und Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung ([HS - Hauptschule/NMS - Neue Mittelschule, AHSUnterstufe - Allgemein bildende höhere Schule], 2nd ed.). Wien: Bildungsverlag Lemberger. TB04: Monyk, E., Schreiner, E., & Mann, E. (2012). Geschichte für alle 3: [7. Jgst.] (3rd ed.). Wien: Olympe. TB05: Feyerer-Fleischanderl, M., Hammerschmid, H., Windischbauer, E., & Pramper, W. (2011). Geschichte live 3 - [mit Politischer Bildung]: Geschichte, Sozialkunde/Politische Bildung ([HS, AHS], 2nd ed.). Linz: Veritas.

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TB06: Gidl, A., & Leutgöb, G. (2011). Geschichte schreiben 3: Geschichte und Sozialkunde - Politische Bildung (1st ed.). Wien: Dorner. TB07: Donhauser, G., Bernlochner, L. (2008). Geschichte und Geschehen 3 (1st ed.). Wien: öbv. TB08: Graf, M., Halbartschlager, F., & Vogel-Waldhütter, M. (2015). MEHRfach Geschichte 3. Teil 1 – Wissen & Verstehen (2nd ed.). Linz: Veritas. TB09: Hofer, J., & Paireder, B. (2012). Netzwerk Geschichte Politik 3 (1st ed.). Linz: Veritas. TB10: Lemberger, M. (2007). VG - Durch die Vergangenheit zur Gegenwart 3: Lehr- und Arbeitsbuch für die 7. Schulstufe (1st ed.). Linz: Veritas. TB11: Scheucher, A., Wald, A., & Ebenhoch, U. (2013). Zeitbilder 3: Geschichte, Sozialkunde und Politische Bildung ([HS, AHS - Unterstufe], 1st ed.). Wien: öbv TB12: Amler, H., Kreiner, C., Matzka, C., Scheichl, A., & Vocelka, K. (2010). ZeitenBlicke: Geschichte und Sozialkunde, Politische Bildung ([3. Klasse HS, NMS und AHS], 1. Aufl.). Wien: E. Dorner. TB13: Beier, R., & Leonhardt, U. (2010). Zeitfenster 3: Geschichte und Sozialkunde (Unterstufe AHS, NMS, KMS und HS, 1st ed.). Wien: Ed. Hölzel. TB14: Leonhardt, U., & Donner, R. (2015). Zeitfenster 3 duo: Geschichte, Sozialkunde, politische Bildung (1st ed.). Wien: Ed. Hölzel.

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Being a History Teacher: Handbooks for Teachers Produced in Brazil Between 1984–2014 Osvaldo Júnior Rodrigues1(&) and Tânia Maria F. Braga Garcia2 1

2

Departamento de História / Programa de Pós Graduação em História, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Cuiabá, Brazil [email protected] Programa de Pós Graduação em Educação/Núcleo de Pesquisa em Publicações Didáticas/CNPq, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter presents the results of an ongoing research that aims to identify and analyze what it means to be a history teacher in Brazil based on the content of history didactics handbooks. These handbooks are sources that depict the ways teaching was valued in different historical contexts. The handbooks are different from the textbooks aimed at students. While students’ books are focused on the content of the disciplines to be taught, handbooks focus on teacher training. The basic premise of the research presented here is the idea that every book establishes certain orders as a result of its production process, the views of the authors materialized in the books, and the deciphering done by readers. The study presented here aimed at identifying elements that constituted the understanding of what it meant to be a history teacher. Content analysis of seven history didactics handbooks produced in the phase known as the reconstruction of the history disciplinary code (since 1984) served to gather empirical evidence. The findings indicate that most handbooks contain an image of history teachers that are under the influence of educational psychology and general didactics. The conception of a teacher based on the specificities of the referenced science and its epistemology, in this case history, had very low incidence. Keywords: Handbook Brazil


History education
Didactics
History teacher


1 Introduction Handbooks are artifacts that have a strong presence in the Brazilian school culture. During the Empire and the beginning of the Republic (1822–1900), many books were produced for teachers to use in their classes. Teachers could read the content of the books to the students or write tasks or content included in them on the chalkboard for students to copy them. In the specific case of history, the transformation of schooling processes during the twentieth and twenty-first century also shaped the handbooks. According to Gatti Junior (2004), until the 1920s, most of these books were written by foreign authors and © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 396–406, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_32

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translated, especially by French publishers. This practice gradually changed during the 1930s. The establishment of the faculties of philosophy in this period was a factor that stimulated the emergence of textbook authors in Brazil. The expansion of basic education, starting in the 1960s, emphasized the role of handbooks, causing changes in these books that have widened with the creation of the National Textbook Program (PNLD–Programa Nacional do Livro Didático, 1985), by which the books are evaluated and distributed to the Brazilian public schools. Currently, the PNLD is responsible for the evaluation, acquisition, and distribution of textbooks, regulating their production. Textbooks are published for students of basic education in all school subjects and are mandatorily accompanied by handbooks for teachers that entail methodological indications related to teaching. Such handbooks are also evaluated by experts. Apart from handbooks, there is, on the publishing market, a specific type of material for teachers, known as teaching methodology handbooks or subject didactics handbooks. In Brazil, the handbooks are also evaluated, purchased, and distributed for free as part of a library program for teachers, stimulating the growth of a specific market for this kind of didactic material. Their existence can also be taken as an indicator of the belief that teachers in initial or continuing education need to be guided in their teaching, which can be done through the use of handbooks. History education handbooks are, therefore, a research subject at the Center for Research in Teaching Publications (NPPD–Núcleo de Pesquisas em Publicações Didáticas) of the Education Postgraduate Program at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). Their general objective was to identify the meanings of being a history teacher expressed in history education handbooks produced in Brazil between 1997–2014. The justification of the time frame is the federal curricular reform in 1996. Based on the curricular guidelines, there was a renewal movement in the teaching of history in the country, which also affected the understanding of what it means to be a history teacher. Considering the handbooks as visible elements of the disciplinary code, following Cuesta Fernández (1998), the purpose of this chapter is to examine the books that were produced especially to guide teachers in order to understand the concepts that the authors reveal about what it is to be a history teacher.

2 Handbooks Intended for History Teachers: Theorizing the Object The thesis of Circe Bittencourt, defended at the University of São Paulo in 1993, represents a milestone in the research of textbooks in Brazil. The author analyzed history textbooks produced between 1810–1910, used at the Dom Pedro II School in Rio de Janeiro (a school in established in1838), connecting the origins of books with the very origin of the school subjects. This way, “[…] the origin of the textbook is linked to the power set” (Bittencourt 2008, p. 23). From the 1990s, research on textbook intensified, either due to the emergence of research groups or to the promotion of specific events in the field (Munakata 2012). Since 1997, the studies developed at NPPD of the Federal University of Paraná have contributed to the research field, as pointed out by Cooper (2012, p. 65): “Tânia Braga and Maria

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Auxiliadora Schmidt (Schmidt and Garcia 2005) in an ambitious experiment, ‘Teaching history based on documents: a social experiment with Brazilian children’, helped a primary school to write the history of their own town, using maps, family histories and photographs, which was published as a hardback book (Schmidt and Garcia 2003).” Among the references used by NPPD researchers to understand the relationships between school textbooks and schooling, the concept of “school form” understood as “[…] particular historical setting, which arose in certain social formations at a certain time” (Vincent et al. 2001, p. 9) stands out. The contemporary school emerged between the sixteenth and seventeenth century with the establishment of the school as a secular institution in France. What set this origin was the “unprecedented form of social relationship between a ‘master’ (in a new sense of the term) and a ‘student’, a relationship we call pedagogical” (Vincent et al. 2001, p. 13). In addition, this form is related to the existence of a specific place of education (the school) and the source of a specific time in which teaching is organized (the school time). Vincent et al. (2001, p. 24) listed five characteristics of the school: (1) the school as a specific space for teaching and learning; (2) the pedagogization of the social relations of learning; (3) the encoding of knowledge and school practices; (4) the school as an area of objectification and coding; and, (5) the command of the written language as a means and purpose of schooling. Among the factors that allowed objectification and coding, mutual teaching “Treaties” or “Handbooks” played a central role containing tables with signs to be used and movements to be performed during teaching. The transformations in education over the past centuries are therefore closely related to changes in the production and circulation of school handbooks, considered an artifact of the school culture. The study of these handbooks can contribute to the understanding of the components of the ways of teaching and learning in different societies and times Bufrem et al. (2006). However, the analysis of the handbooks as a scientific object is recent, as pointed out by Choppin (2004). As it is a new field of research, some challenges must be mentioned. For example, the existence of different typologies as well as the definition of the nature of the prints taken as research object raise several challenges (Choppin 2004). School manuals, schoolbooks, textbooks, didactic handbooks, are some of the names given to the diversity of materials that circulate in school life. Thus, at the heart of this chapter lies a particular type of less studied handbook: handbooks produced to guide teachers in the teaching practice. Handbooks are different from textbooks for students, as shown by Buffer et al. (2006), as they are designed to guide teachers instead of presenting specific content of a school subject, such as history or mathematics. In consequence, the specific didactic handbooks “propose teaching methods and activities of certain subjects” and cover “[…] a range of knowledge that can be included in the knowledge and practices of the subjects didactics themselves” (Bufrem et al. 2006, p. 123). The empirical work presented below rests on these concepts and will close research gaps identified by Guereña et al. (2005) and by Bufrem et al. (2006). The research also originated from in need to understand the nature of history teaching handbooks, seeking to understand their relationship with the training of history teachers.

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3 Method and Sample The research presented in this chapter aims to identify in handbooks meanings of what being a history teacher means. Sample constitution first defined the time frame during which handbooks for individual subjects were produced. According to Schmidt (2008), in Brazil, the production of handbooks started in 1917. Also, Schmidt’s (2012) work based on history’s disciplinary code in Brazil, contained a division of the last almost one hundred years into four phases: (1) construction of the disciplinary code (1838– 1931); (2) consolidation of the disciplinary code (1931–1971); (3) crisis of the disciplinary code (1971–1984); (4) reconstruction of the disciplinary code (since 1984). The last period represents the return of history as a school subject in the aftermath of the Brazilian dictatorship. The research presented in this chapter focused on the last period, namely the reconstruction of the disciplinary code, starting in 1984 and continuing until present day. More specifically, the emphasis was on the years following the publication of the National Curriculum Standards (PCN–Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais) for the subject history (1997, 1998). The sampling rests on the understanding that “the PCN are a direct result of [a] moment of pedagogical renewal and expectations of a more citizen-like education, favored by political openness and redemocratization” (Avelar 2011, p. 42). During the fourth period (with emphasis on the year following the 1997 reform), a total of nineteen handbooks that dealt with guidance of history teaching were identified. There was an increase in publication starting with 2009, resulting from both re-editions of older handbooks and new publications. Also, a rise in the number of publishers was observed. One possible explanation of this development is the establishment of the National School Library Program (PNBE–Programa Nacional Biblioteca da Escola)– an initiative of the federal government to increase and qualify the libraries of schools, offering books to students and teachers. Handbooks produced for teachers were among the books purchased and distributed within the program. After the location of these guidance handbooks for the teaching of history, a preanalysis and floating reading of all the books was conducted to map the prerequisites of content analysis according to Barden (2011). The results of this first analytical phase led to four categories: (1) handbooks that dialogue with teachers indirectly through reflections on teaching: these books discuss elements of the methodology of teaching history without directly addressing the teachers and requiring them to suggest forms of teaching and activities; (2) handbooks that dialogue with teachers indirectly through accounts of teaching experience: these handbooks address elements of the methodology of teaching and confront teachers with results of teaching experiments carried out by other teachers without explicitly suggesting formats to organize the teaching; (3) handbooks that dialogue with teachers directly about the organization of teaching with emphasis on specific languages: these handbooks focus on languages, but their content does not discuss the methodology of teaching history as an area of knowledge or the nature of historical knowledge;

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(4) handbooks that dialogue with teachers directly and explicitly about the organization of teaching through a didactic structure: these are the handbooks that directly propose the organization of teaching, presenting a didactic structure that articulates discussions about the history of the subject, the curriculum, teaching and learning, assessing and suggesting activities for the classroom. Following the above-presented categorization, the study presented in this chapter focused on the last stage entailing specific recommendations and having clear emphasis on didactics. Seven textbooks (Table 1) corresponded to this last phase that were subjected to in-depth content analysis. Table 1. Handbooks considered for the final sample (source: authors). Handbook Ensino de História: fundamentos e métodos Ensinar História Ensino de História e experiências

Os desafios do ensino de História: problemas, teorias e métodos A docência em História: reflexões e propostas de ações Metodologia do ensino de História Vivenciando a História Metodologia do Ensino da História

Authors/Editors Circe Maria Fernandes Bittencourt Maria Auxiliadora Schmidt & Marlene Cainelli Ana Nemi, João Carlos Martins & Diego Luiz Escanhuela Alexandre de Sá Avelar

Publisher Cortez

Year 2004

Scipione

2004

FTD

2010

IBPEX

2011

Carmem Zeli de Vargas Gil & Dóris Bittencourt Almeida José Antônio Vasconcellos

Edelbra

2012

Intersaberes

2012

Marta de Souza Lima Brodbeck

Base Editorial

2012

4 The Handbooks and Their Intentions to Train History Teachers The seven analyzed handbooks outlined the intention to contribute to initial and continuing teacher training. The handbooks followed the objective of establishing dialogues with teachers or teacher training students regarding possibilities to teach and to learn history. The analyzed handbooks expressed this objective in different ways. When presenting her volume, the editor (Bittencourt 2004, p. 13) of the Docência em Formação series, which is part of Ensino de História: fundamentos e métodos handbook, indicated that the purpose of the series was to “[…] offer teachers still in training, and to those who already perform as education professionals, training subsidies”. Schmidt and Cainelli (2004, p. 5) indicated in the presentation of their handbook that the work “[…] is intended for undergraduate students and professors of higher

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education teaching courses, undergraduate students and professors of history, and teachers of primary and secondary education, displaying the diversity of readers that the authors intend to reach with their work”. Nemi et al. (2010, p. 3) stated that “[…] we hope to achieve the objectives of this work, contributing to the teachers’ training and expanding the children’s cognitive possibilities so that they understand the world around themselves”. In this case, the authors established a relationship between teacher training and its effects on student learning, particularly on children. In Brazil, during the initial stage of schooling, teachers are not specialists in history and this handbook intends to focus on the nonspecialist readers. Similarly, Avelar (2011, p. 9) stated that “[…] the text presented will seek to offer students and teachers useful reference material for reflection on the challenges, dilemmas, and perspectives of today’s History teaching”. Avelar’s (2011) intention was to contribute to initial teacher training (students) but also to address already practicing teachers. According to Filipouski and Marchi, responsible for the series Entre nós, which is part of the handbook A docência em História: reflexões e propostas para ações, the objective was “[…] to speak directly to primary school teachers, especially those who, from the perspective of their daily work in classrooms, seek to take on the task of conducting processes and creating meaningful learning opportunities for their students” (Gil and Almeida 2012, w/o p.). Vasconcellos (2012, p. 17) presented “[…] suggestions of practical activities in the classroom, not as a roadmap to be followed strictly, but as empirical models that illustrate theory and can, therefore, guide practice”. This statement stresses the author’s clear message concerning the open space he intends to leave for the teacher, as his content remains mainly at the level of models. For Brodbeck (2012, p. 3), the goal of his handbook was to “[…] exchange experiences with other teachers and rethink numerous didactic resources, in addition to organizing readings, learning and so much history lived, reflected, and learned in the classroom” done by means of a “[…] proposal of Methodology of the Teaching of History”. All the above-presented fragments illustrate that the handbooks aimed to merely offer suggestions to history teachers instead of prescribing any kind of aspects concerning the teaching and learning of history. A second important element of the handbooks is the way editors and authors approached the question of dialogue with both teacher training students and practicing teachers. While indicating what teachers could do in the teaching and learning process, the authors express both the meanings attributed to the teaching and explain what it is to be a history teacher. Bittencourt (2004, p. 50) stated that “[…] the teacher transformed the knowledge to be taught into knowledge learned, a fundamental action in the process of knowledge production”. The statement reminds of Chevallard’s (2005) concept of didactic transposition, indicating one of the stages in which this process of transformation of knowledge occurs. Schmidt and Cainelli (2004, p. 150) indicated that the teacher should “[…] place the student as much as possible in situations where he is a participant in the

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construction of his knowledge, because the teacher no longer only teaches to the students’ class but based on it and with it”. According to the authors, in spite of the transformations that take place in society and in the understanding of what it is to teach, the teacher was responsible for the “[…] development of the student’s cognitive capacities”. Drawing upon the social interactionist perspectives, Nemi et al. (2010, p. 29) claimed that “[…] the teacher must, from the first school years, awaken in the student the interest in knowing the groups in which he/she lives in his/her community and with whom he/she comes in contact trough the mass communication media; and the desire to act to transforming it”. Along these lines, “[…] the teacher of the Vygotyskian School is active and a participant. He intervenes in learning by assuming that the student has knowledge that can be reworked and deepened “ (Nemi et al. (2010, p. 44). Avelar (2011, p. 131) highlighted the transformations that occurred in the role of the teacher in teaching: “[…] instead of being the absolute holder of knowledge, of undisputed intellectual authority, the teacher must assume the role of guiding the activities to be developed, based on the definition of the thematic axes to be developed”. The author also indicated that “[…] the task of accompanying learning, being close to the students and experiencing their anguish, uncertainties, and achievements is still the teacher’s” (Avelar 2011, p. 131). Finally, he stated the following: [...] it is the teacher who plans the courses, who chooses the basic materials of work and the activities to be developed, who guides these activities and evaluates students. If this teacher has a democratic practice of thinking and working, he/she shares tasks with colleagues who teach other subjects, and talks about them with students, parents, and other sectors of society (social movements and associations, etc.). But the obligation to fulfill such coordination tasks is primarily his/hers, for that, he/she graduated and continues to train as a professional, for that he/she is hired and paid. Even if he/she is sometimes poorly paid, it is not the students’ fault. So, the exit from this professional devaluation framework will be reinforced with the emphasis on the essential role of the teacher in the educational process (Avelar 2011, p. 156).

Gil and Almeida (2012, p. 37) indicated that “[…] the teacher’s role is to create strategies that motivate the student to ask questions”. Therefore, the authors explained their intention in producing the handbook, stating that “[…] we try, at all times, to maintain close links and continuous dialogues with the teacher, imagining their needs and their daily conflicts” (Gil and Almeida 2012, p. 37). The idea that the teachers’ work is linked to mediation and orientation, was also present in the last two analyzed handbooks. Vasconcelos (2012, p. 74) also indicated the importance of the “[…] role of the teacher as mediator in the learning process”. Moreover, Brodbeck (2012, p. 22) stated that “[…] the teacher must carry out the role of guide and planner” and that “[…] the teacher should not seek the privilege of information, but the development of skills, especially those pertinent to concepts belonging to humanities” (Brodbeck (2012, p. 42). Starting from the analysis of the dialogues handbook editors and authors communicated and also from the literature, the dialogue seems to be thought from a renewed perspective that entails the teacher as a mediator between the student and the knowledge, being no longer the knowledge holder. This perspective matches the content of the PCNs:

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In the learning process, the teacher is the main responsible for the creation of situations of interaction, for stimulating the construction of relations between the studied and the lived, for integration with other areas of knowledge, for the possibility of students’ access to new information, for confrontations of opinions, for supporting the student in the re-creation of his/her explanations and for the transformation of his/her historical conceptions (Brazil 1998, p. 40).

Thereby, both the handbooks and the official text conceive the teacher as responsible for allowing the student to access historical knowledge. Along these lines and according to Duarte (2010), both stakeholders allow approximations with the hegemonic pedagogies of learning to learn. Such pedagogical theories rest on constructivism. Constructivism also appears in the references used by the handbook authors. For example, Piaget and Vygotsky were cited 23 times in the analyzed handbooks. In addition to the quantitative data and sparse remarks entailed in the authors’ explanations, the explicit indication of the socio-interactionist perspective makes it possible to highlight the importance of these theories for the dialogue the handbooks aim to engage in with the teachers (cf. Bittencourt 2004; Avelar 2011; Vasconcelos 2012). In addition to the official text of the PCNs, other official documents, such as the National Curriculum Guidelines for History courses (Brazil 2001a) and the National Guidelines for Teacher Education for Basic Education (Brazil 2001b) also feature references to constructivist approaches. According to Fonseca and Couto (2008), the first document highlights the differences between the duty of the historian and that of the history teacher as it imposes, with force of law, the particularities of a domain of competences to teaching. Also, the National Guidelines for Teacher Education for Basic Education (Brazil 2001b) require teacher training to be based on the principles of competencies, skills, and knowledge, following the main axes of institutional organization, training evaluation, and guidelines for organization of a curricular matrix. According to Fonseca and Couto (2008, p. 115), from the point of view of the official document, the training process “[…] must guarantee the knowledge of basic schooling” or the “competencies” that enable it to “qualify” for it. The National Guidelines prescribe specific verbs, such as create, plan, perform, manage, evaluate, master, and understand that establish the framework of teaching. In this sense, the it shows “[…] an application dimension inspired by the model of technical and scientific rationality” (Fonseca and Couto 2008, p. 116). All documents seek a supposed instrumentalization from a cognitive domain of teaching. In such a model of training, based on the pedagogy of competences, “[…] methods, technicality, and expertise triumph, believing that this is sufficient to promote and construct the ‘professional historian’, and also to define what is ‘to be a teacher’ nowadays” (Fonseca and Couto 2008, p. 120). The results show that the handbooks coincide with the official documents that advocate for the development of competences “[…] necessary for the citizen-worker inserted in a democratic society in a globalized economy” (Caimi 2006, p. 86). The handbook editors and authors primarily aim to address teachers who require guidance. In consequence, handbook editors and authors, in part of the volumes, link the theory with the practice regarding a reflexive perspective on the teaching based on

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the profile of “[…] solid theoretical and practical, as well as creative, know-how” (Caimi 2006, p. 86). Carlos Marcelo Garcia’s (1999) work serves a reference when it comes to understanding the role assigned to the teacher and the type of training intended by the handbooks when providing guidelines on how to teach. Garcia (1999) lists five training models: traditional, socially oriented, academically orientated, personalist reform, and competence movement. Thereby, the traditional model separates theory from practice, while social orientation rests on the constructivist view of knowledge. The academically oriented model formulates the requirement for the teacher to reproduce the academic discipline in the classroom. At the heart of the personalist reform models lies the need for the teacher to valuate the student as a single subject and center education on him/her. Finally, the constructivist view of knowledge with the competence movement model is based on the conception that the teacher is required to work with specific skills and abilities. The analyzed handbooks of history didactics rely on the socially oriented and competence movement models of teacher training. The handbooks depict an understanding of the constructivist conception of knowledge based on the idea that teachers must learn to work with the specific knowledge, skills, and competences of history as a discipline.

5 Conclusions The results of the analysis presented in this chapter provided evidence that allows the conclusion that–among the works aimed at history teachers–the handbooks of Didactics of History form a group that differs from other books or pedagogical handbooks by their didactic nature. This reveals itself in a structure that is organically articulated and was produced with the purpose of presenting the didactic elements fundamental and necessary to guide the teaching of history. This analyzed handbooks display tensions concerning three elements: (1) the perspective of reclaiming the place of history in the curriculum as a school subject; (2) the ongoing influence of educational psychology in the understanding of teaching and learning processes; (3) the prescribed objectives for teacher training in recent decades by educational legislation, authorized by conceptual strands strengthened in academic research, based on the overvaluation of practice and practical rationality. These tensions emerge in the handbooks that seek to communicate with teachers and propose ways of teaching and learning that combine elements of historiographical conceptions with a perspective of learning sustained by the contributions of educational psychology and general didactics along with methodological suggestions regarding teaching procedures rooted in methods of historical research. The last aspect, often translated into an orientation concerning the use of documents in classrooms, continues to be part of the handbooks as a didactic strategy that, along with others, can contribute to closing the gap between history as an academic discipline and as a school subject. Chartier’s (1998) work offers some explanations. In his view, “[…] the book has always sought to establish an order; whether it is the order of its deciphering, the order

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within which it must be understood, or the order desired by the authority which commissioned it or allowed its publication (Chartier 1998, p. 8). As books, the handbooks are aimed at establishing an order. Each editor and author aims to establish a dialogue with history teachers–either teacher training students or inservice teachers–with the deliberate intention to contribute to their formation following a didactic structure that allows organizing the teaching and that can improve the results of history teaching. It is within this framework of training that the editors and authors viewed history teachers as mediators, guiding the teaching and learning processes, possessing the know-how in terms of basic skills to teach. Professores no Brasil: impasses e desafios, a research work carried out by Gatti and Barreto (2009), draws a picture of the challenges around history teacher training in Brazil. Concerning the analyzed handbooks, their role could be to address some of the shortcomings of the initial training or even the almost inexistent continuous training of teachers. Nevertheless, the work of Chartier (1998) reminds, in this context also, of the necessity to view the handbooks within the framework of their production. Regarding the sample used in the present study, all handbooks stand under a much stronger influence of educational psychology and general didactics than the academic discipline of history. Much of this dominance is rooted in the influence of the constructivist psychologist César Coll on the PCNs in Brazil in the 1990s. The strong psychological influence on the debates revolving around the curriculum reaches even the most recently published analyzed handbooks. As a result, the role of the teacher refers much stronger on their general characteristics at the expense of subject-specific traits of a history teacher. Given the important role of the handbooks in school culture and considering their increased production over the last decade, undoubtedly stimulated by the acquisition of books through government programs, further research is required to learn more about the handbooks, their ways to address teachers, and the ways they depict teachers, their target audience.

References L. Bardin, Análise de conteúdo. (Edições 70, São Paulo, 2011) C. Bittencourt, Livro didático e saber escolar (Autentica, Belo Horizonte, 2008) Brazil, Parâmetros curriculares nacionais – História (Ministério da Educação e Cultura, Brasília, 1998) Brazil, Parecer CNE/CES n. 492/2001. Diretrizes Curriculares dos Cursos de História (2001a), http://portal.mec.gov.br/component/content/article?id=12991 Brazil, Parecer CNE/CES n.009/2001a. Diretrizes Curriculares Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais para a Formação de Professores da Educação Básica, em nível superior, http://portal.mec.gov. br/cne/arquivos/pdf/009.pdf L. Bufrem, M. Schmidt, T. Garcia, Os manuais destinados a professores como fontes para a História das formas de ensinar. Revista HISTEDBR On-line 22, 120–130 (2006) F. Caimi, Processos de Conceituação Da Ação Docente Em Contextos de Sentido a Partir Da Licenciatura Em História (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2006) R. Chartier, A ordem dos livros (Editora da UNB, Brasília, 1998)

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Y. Chevallard, La transposición didáctica: del saber sábio al saber enseñado (Aique, Buenos Aires, 2005) A. Choppin, História dos livros e das edições didáticas: sobre o estado da arte. Educ. Pesqui. 30 (3), 549–566 (2004) H. Cooper, History 5–11. A Guide for Teachers (Routledge, Abingdon, 2012) R. Cuesta Fernández, Clío en las aulas. La enseñanza de la Historia en España entre reformas, ilusiones y rutinas (Akal Ediciones, Madrid, 1998) N. Duarte, O Debate Contemporâneo Das Teorias Pedagógicas. Formação de Professores: Limites Contemporâneos e Alternativas Necessárias (Cultura Acadêmica, São Paulo, 2010) S. Fonseca, R. Couto, A formação de professores de História no Brasil: perspectivas desafiadoras do nosso tempo, in Espaços de formação do professor de História, ed. by S. Fonseca, E. Zamboni (Papirus, Campinas, 2008), pp. 101–130 C. Garcia, Formação de professores: para uma mudança educative (Porto Editora, Porto, 1999) D. Gatti Junior, A escrita escolar da História: livro didáticos e ensino no Brasil (1970–1990) (EDUSC, Bauru 2004) B. Gatti, E. Barreto, Professores No Brasil: Impasses e Desafios (UNESCO, Brasília, 2009) J.L. Guereña, G. Ossenbach, M.M. Pozo, Manuales Escolares En España, Portugal y América Latina (Siglos XIX y XX) (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, 2005) K. Munakata, Livro didático: alguns temas de pesquisa. Revista Brasileira de História da Educação 12(3[30]), 179–197 (2012) M. Schmidt, O aprender da História no Brasil: trajetórias e perspectivas, in Ensino de História: múltiplos ensinos em múltiplos espaços, ed. By M. Oliveira, M. Canelli, A. Oliveira (Editora da UFRN, Natal, 2008), pp. 9–20 M. Schmidt, História do ensino de História no Brasil: uma proposta de periodização. Revista História da Educação – RHE 16(37), pp. 73–91 (2012) G. Vincent, B. Lahire, D. Thin, Sobre a história e a teoria da forma escolar. Educação em 33, 7– 47 (2001)

Handbooks A. Avelar, Os desafios do ensino de História: problemas, teorias e métodos (IBPEX, Curitiba, 2011) C. Bittencourt, Ensinar História: fundamentos e métodos (Cortez, São Paulo, 2004) M. Brodbeck, Vivenciando a História – Metodologia do Ensino da História (Base Editorial, Curitiba, 2012) C. Gil, D. Almeida, A docência em História: reflexões e propostas de ações (Edelbra, Porto Alegre, 2012) A. Nemi, J.C. Martins, D.L. Escanhuela, Ensino de História e experiências: o tempo vivido (FTD, São Paulo, 2010) M. Schmidt, M. Cainelli, Ensinar História (Scipione, São Paulo, 2004) J. Vasconcellos, Metodologia do ensino de história (Intersaberes, Curitiba, 2012) M.A. Schmidt, T.B. Garcia. Recriando Historias de Campina Grande do Sul. (Prefeitura Municipal de Campina Grande do Sul/Universidade Federal do Paraná, 2003). M.A. Schmidt, T.B. Garcia. Teaching history based on documents from the family archives: a social experiment with Brazilian children. Int. J. Hist. Learn., Teach. Res., 5(2), 53–60 (2005).

An Analysis of French Teachers’ Digital Resources Production: From Personal Resources to Formal Communities Georges-Louis Baron(&) and Solène Zablot EDA Lab, Université de Paris, Paris, France [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter explores different modes of organization of collective action by French teachers producing digital resources for teaching, focusing on what fosters the empowerment of teachers, namely communities of activists. The authors chose to consider not only secondary general education but also vocational and primary education and contrasted captive, militant, and “proto-communities”. From a methodological point of view, exploratory interview-based research served to study the online production of resources by groups of teachers. Our first conclusions is that there is a strong dynamics in the field of teacher communities, with many groups organizing themselves using social networks, with different models, depending on the strength of pedagogical values. We argue that further studies on communities along the work of Ostrom and Basurto (2011) might offer better insights into mechanisms modifying teacher communities. Keywords: Digital resources Pedagogical freedom


Teachers
Communities
Commons


1 Introduction In French education, digital resources have a growing impact on the way students learn and teachers teach. One key issue for teachers is to integrate the use of resources into their pedagogy in ways that are simultaneously innovative, efficient, and acceptable by the milieu. While there are no simple answers to this challenge, in France, a series of contrasts add to its complexity. One of the main contrasts lies in differences between primary and secondary education. While pedagogy is central in primary education, secondary school teachers carry the personal responsibility for the transmission of disciplinary knowledge (e.g., mathematics, French, science, technology, etc.). Another contrast arises in upper secondary education from the differences between high end disciplines–essential in the perception of students and their parents–and vocational disciplines. The latter are considered to be at the lower end of the spectrum and have strong ties to the industrial sector. Regardless the discipline, teacher action must always comply with rules and also frameworks granted by institutions or communities. These frameworks may pertain either to a scientific domain (e.g., experimental science), industrial good practices, or social norms (Baron and Dané 2007). © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 407–417, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_33

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Teachers participate in a wide spectrum of initiatives. On the one hand, they may become clients of other teachers and providers of resources for others (Abramovich and Schunn 2012). On the other hand, they may act within activist communities united in a common credo (Quentin and Bruillard 2013). This chapter focuses both on individual teachers and the organizations they part get involved with and explores two main questions. On the one hand, it seeks to offer insights into what collective action is. On the other hand, it aims to better understand how teachers organize themselves in order to produce, transform, and share educational resources.

2 Commons, Communities, and Social Networks 2.1

Communities in a Nutshell

Commons enjoyed broad scientific interest outside of education and learning. The origins of commons lead back to Tönnies’ (1887) work and revolve around the distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft. Over the decades, a number of questions arose around commons. What might their future be: a tragedy, with the unavoidable ruin of a common property having free access (Hardin 1968)? Or rather something likely to bring well-being to everyone (Buck Cox 1985)? Or are they something that may prove more successful than other forms of economic solutions (Ostrom and Basurto 2011)? In their seminal work on social networks (Networks as personal communities), Wellman et al. (1988, p. 2) showed, based on longitudinal studies, how a conception of communities as networks centered around individuals could be useful for analyzing these communities: “It focuses attention on how networks channel resources to their members, locate them in small-scale social structures, and link them to large-scale institutions“. In the reading of Chua et al. (2009, p. 101), “[…] personal communities are defined as those connected to the individual at their centres […] There has been a shift in perception from spatially defined communities to relationally defined communities. These personal communities are social networks defined as an individual set of ties”. According to this school of thought, networks rarely have well defined boundaries, have no gatekeepers and are rarely visible to the public. Communities undergo processes that may lead either to their development or their disappearance (Wellman et al. 1988). The nature of ties within the network, such as immediate kins, extended kins, friends, neighbors, co-workers, organizational ties, received special attention. When the first results were published, before 1990, the Internet was still like science fiction for most people while the telephone was the prevailing technology of communication. The Internet, however, brought along change. The rise of services, such as Facebook and Twitter, brought new life to social networks. While much research was published on this topic, the issue of how teachers can use them in their professional work remains controversial. For the authors of this chapter, the reflective work of Ostrom and Basurto (2011) represents an important source of reflection. They did not explicitly envision the case of

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communities of teachers, but considered more generally the issue of the commons. In the reading of Ostrom and Basurto (2011, p. 323), […] any human interaction is composed of seven working parts: actors in positions choosing among actions at particular stages of a decision process in light of their control over a choice node, the information they have, the outcomes that are likely, and the benefits and costs they perceive for these outcomes.

Based on the case study of communities of practice managing irrigation, Ostrom and Basurto (2011) identified seven kinds of rules: (1) boundary rules; (2) position rules (entry and exit rules); (3) choice rules (what a participant must, may or may not do); (4) information rules; (5) aggregation rules (who is to decide what to do); (6) payoff rules (benefits and costs assigned to actors); and, (7) scope rules (which outcomes may, must, or must not be affected within a situation). This theoretical framework, in effect, allows to analyze what happens when groups of people unite their efforts to produce, maintain, and regulate an offer of educational resources. 2.2

A Brief Analysis of Previous Research on French Teachers’ Communities and Networks

Teacher communities form an archipelago that take on various formats. Some of these communities are captive communities. This term, which has the drawback of being easily associated with punitive institutions, reminds the authors of captive markets in economy. In our understanding, captive communities of teachers stand under the control of hierarchical pedagogical institution (e.g., inspectorates, ministries, universities) that condition teachers’ activities. Captive communities are often ephemeral and vanish once a project is concluded. Distance education learning communities are a good example, as they emerge around an instructor within a teaching program. Members of a captive community, nonetheless, may continue to communicate and even join another type of community. Once again, distance education serves as a good example. While distance education students tend to join formal communities tied to a specific course, they often create their own communities (with a Facebook group or something similar) outside the formal setting. Such groups may outlive the course duration. Teachers may also join communities of militants. These coagulate around activists representing strong pedagogical as well as political ideas and values that may not be mainstream and more or less rely on self-funding. An example is teacher communities dedicated to the development of open resources for constructivist teaching and learning approaches in science and mathematics. In France, extensive research activity analyzed teachers’ use of modern technology as a mean of emancipation and agency. Their roots may be found in Béatrice DrotDelange’s (2001) doctoral dissertation dedicated to the use of mailing lists by networks of teachers in three secondary level disciplines: technology (a compulsory discipline in junior high schools), management and economics, and social sciences. Drot-Delange (2001) highlighted the differences between the disciplines to distinguish between pedagogical and disciplinary networks. Members of pedagogical networks shared

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values and had a strong feeling of identity. In contrast, disciplinary networks unites individuals with variable identity who not always share the results of the network. Some of these networks may develop into pedagogical networks. In primary education, Turban (2004) and Villemonteix (2007), among others, studied how innovative teachers used mailing lists for communication and as a means of empowerment. In this case, pedagogy constituted the central element, while disciplinary issues remained in the background. Primary education, however, also faced technical issues. In his doctoral dissertation, Béziat (2003) studied the variety of online resources available to primary teachers. Starting from the observations that in the early 2000s there was a supply without any demand with the Internet being perceived as a vector of social visibility, he delimited three sectors (institutional, for profit, and cooperative). It was militants who set up the cooperative network aiming at contributing to a free and cooperative Internet and resisting merchants and rules-makers (Béziat 2003). In his findings, he also pointed out that the concept of cooperation was ambiguous and depending on the agendas of the people in charge of issuing orders. Based on the types of production the networks suggested, Quentin (2012, p. 3) identified two modes of operation: the hive and the sandbox. (1) Sandbox-like networks have flexible rules, they “[…] do not produce collective educational resources, but only share a set of individual resources, show all exchange between members publicly, systematically published on their website. All individual actions are highlighted […] Sandbox-like networks are spaces where expert teachers show their professional practice. So, other teachers can find some examples of practices that they can imitate and implement in their classroom”. The examples Quentin (2012) offered–ED, a community in education to management and Pedago2, in history and geography–were no longer active in 2017. (2) In the case of hive-like communities, operating rules are explicit and all users have specific roles, whereas, in the case of sandbox-communities rules are more flexible. According to Quentin (2012), hive-like communities do not really produce resources collectively, but propose a series of individual resources. Quentin (2012) analyzed two militant hive communities: Sesamath, very active in mathematics, and APSES, a militant community of economics and social science teachers. Other collectives are more or less loosely organized, sometimes with some degree of openness towards the market. We contend that they represent a third model, corresponding to a series of personal initiatives, both in primary education and in the secondary level subjects of science and technology. In the case of the third model, there is–strictly speaking–no explicit community, because the production of resources comes from personal initiatives and is not really shared. Nevertheless, the products are published, consulted, and even shared on the Internet (for example on personal websites or social networks). They are, in fact, intended to serve a community, or rather an audience of peers. Wellman et al. (1988) and his colleagues would perhaps have termed these organizations personal networks. Given the specificities of these groups (see Fig. 1), we chose to refer to them as proto-communities growing around emitting sources. We also hypothesize that there is a dynamic interconnectedness between the different forms of communities (cf. Figure 1).

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Fig. 1. Fluidity between different forms of communities (source: authors).

3 Method and Sample In this exploratory study, we focused on how several French teacher communities and networks worked. The results presented in this chapter rest on a set of case studies covering both primary and secondary education, also taking into account vocational education. The sampling rests on a research gap defined by Baron and Zablot (2015). 3.1

Selection of Networks

Unlike most studies, we decided against broadly researched subjects, such as mathematics and physics. In contrast, our study focused on subjects that both students and parents do not consider to be high-end. Some of these subjects are part of technological and vocational education in the industrial sector and for librarian teachers. Along with secondary education, we also studied the primary level (cf. Table 1). Table 1. Types of communities represented in the sample (source: authors). Captive communities Association nationale pour la formation automobile (ANFA)

Militant communities MySTI2D

Proto-communities La classe bleue

Bulletin de la PMEV Doc pour docs

TPMaint Hélène enseignante du primaire targa azimut

Institut coopératif de l'école moderne (Coop’ICEM)

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Against the background of primary experience in the field, we deliberately chose our sample to address very contrasted cases. We are, however, conscious of the sample size and the challenges connected to representativity. As this exploratory study primarily aims to draw attention to important issues and approaches that seem essential to study the evolution of teacher communities producing online resources, we consider the sample to be adequate. 3.2

Data Collection and Analysis

After studying the online presence of these networks, we carried out a qualitative analysis of websites taking into account the following variables: requirement to register with an account; existence of a team in charge of publishing the resources; format of the resources. In addition, we analyzed the opening page of the website presenting the community and its history. This first analytical step constituted the grounds for subsequent interviews with individual members of the different networks. The interviews aimed at collecting further information to understand each individual’s motivation and how the communities have changed since their creation. Interviews were conducted with the coordinator of an ANFA (Association Nationale pour la Formation Automobile) work-group and the teacher who created the website TPMaint. In addition, the moderator of the website Doc pour Docs provided further information on the history and development of the homepage in a message instead of an interview.

4 Initial Findings 4.1

Overview of the Communities

A brief presentation of the analyzed communities aims to contextualize our findings on rules and norms based on an empirical work carried out in 2015. ANFA (Association Nationale pour la Formation Automobile) is a captive community consisting of a teacher working group. Created in 1952, ANFA aims to follow educational changes in the field of automotive maintenance. The association both supervises a network of vocational colleges (Reseau des CFA pilotes) and offers resources designed and produced by the teacher working group. ANFA also offers financial support to institutions to support teachers dedicated to training in the automotive or pedagogical fields. Since 1995, the association also has a partnership with the Ministry of Education that enables ANFA to assist establishments of the automotive sector during the implementation of educational reforms. As habitual in the economy, network members have privileged access to all resources through a private extranet. However, a small fraction of the resources is shared on the website educauto.org. Militant communities constituted the second type of analyzed communities. Two of the four militant communities are teacher associations that aim to assist teachers in their work by offering activities shared online. MySTI2D is a collaborative network created in 2011 with the objective to offer resources created by teachers for the subject

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science and technology in the industry, while Doc pour Docs is a community that involves librarian teachers. According to the website http://www.docpourdocs.fr, the community initially was a personal initiative created by a teacher in 1998. Following the retirement of the initiator, in 2002, other teachers took over the initiative to continue the work. The remaining two militant communities strive to offer pedagogical alternatives to established practices in primary schools. Both communities support a pedagogical model centered on the student. Bulletin de la Pédagogie de maîtrise à effet vicariant (PMEV, http://www.pmev.fr/) started off as a personal initiative. Subsequently, two additional primary school teachers joined. The network is open to new contributions and offers resources based on Bloom’s (1968) concepts. In contrast, Institut coopératif de l’école moderne (Coop’ICEM) continues the work initiated by the French educational scientist Célestin Freinet before World War II. The website went online in 2007 and offers resources to teachers who want to put into practices Freinet’s pedagogical model. Proto-communities–the third community type–are a series of personal initiatives both in primary education as well as in science and technology. In particular, we focused on personal websites created by individual teachers and and on educational videos teachers published on YouTube. La classe Bleue is the personal website of a primary school teacher that allows individuals to share courses and exercises with primary school teachers. In addition, the website also features a forum to discuss particularities of the uploaded materials. TP Maint is another homepage created by a teacher that offers courses and exercises for the automotive maintenance field of vocational high-schools. Initially, the teacher only disseminated print-ready pdf files. Since 2010, he also uploaded slides for courses and online exercises to facilitate more diverse activities for students with computers in the classroom. However, animations remain behind a paywall. Interested parties are required to send a text message to a premium rate number and pay € 1.50. After having concluded payment, the purchaser receives a code to start the download of the animation. Other teachers used social network services to create professional profiles to disseminate resources. For example, Hélène Enseignante du Primaire created a Facebook account to share pedagogical projects. Users can interact with her via her public Facebook profile. Targa azimut is a vocational school teacher who shares short videos on vehicle interventions over his Youtube channel. 4.2

Rules and Norms

The description of the rules and norms that applied to each community followed the categories by Ostrom and Basurto (2011). Thereby, the main challenge is the reliability of the information available online. Therefore, the results presented in this section are first indications. Along with the results, this section also introduces a taxonomy of rules and norms the analyzed communities established and followed. In fact, the norms and rules are less strict models but orientations that change over time.

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Regarding the organization of communities, there are diverse procedures to become a member. Annex 1 illustrates the ways users can become a member of each analyzed community and the rules of these communities. The communities also exhibit different sets of boundary rules. Adherent and individual initiatives are predominant rules across the analyzed communities. In the case of the ANFA, Coop’ICEM, MySTI2D, and Bulletin de la PMEV, individuals can or have to become members to become active. For example, ANFA allows only schools to become members, while MYSTI2D and Bulletin de la PMEV offer individual adhesion. In contrast, Coop’ICEM offers both models of adhesion. Doc pour Docs is the only community that grants individuals access without becoming a member. However, interaction remains reduced to contacting individual members or use mailing lists. All proto-communities are exclusively administrated by their creators, but readers can comment on the content of the websites. Differences also arise in the ways rules are explained to users. ANFA and MySTI2D clearly communicate their rules on the websites and instruct users on the use of resources. In the case of Coop’ICEM, Doc pour Docs, Bulletin de la PMEV, TPMaint, and La Classe Bleue, the content creator or other members moderate and actions. The communication of rules to the users remains, however, sometimes incomplete. Targa azimut and Hélène Enseignante du Primaire closely follow the rules set by Facebook and YouTube and can only offer the standard features. The activities in communities are heterogeneous. We observed different participation schemes across the communities. In the case of captive communities, such as ANFA, the interviewed individuals expressed that they felt compelled to participate in the meetings on the design of resources because the association allocated funds to the schools. By contrast, in the case of Coop'ICEM, contributing is only an option. In the studied proto-communities, the possibility for users to contribute is neither public nor explicitly written. Moderation also expands to production and reaction. In some cases, moderation activities are done by external institutions. In the case of ANFA, all resources (should) revolve around curricular changes in the automotive field. Regarding the important networks, administrators are in charge of internal moderation (Doc pour Docs, le Bulletin de la PMEV, MySTI2D, Coop’ICEM). In proto-communities, it is the creators of resources who performs the moderation. Most probably, the conformity with official programs and curricula plays an important role in resource selection. However, further research is required to better understand the adopted rules. Resource sharing is a particular feature of the analyzed communities. The abovedescribed opportunities to participate differ from explicit act of consumption, such as reading resources–which represents the majority of consultations. In the case of ANFA, sharing is limited to members. Overall, we observed two models of sharing. On the one hand, some communities, such as STI2D, Doc pour Docs, and La Classe Bleue allow both members and nonmembers alike to freely share their resources. However, none of the analyzed communities or proto-communities indicated that their resources were covered by Creative commons regulations. On the other hand, some communities developed a marketoriented model according to which users pay to share resources. In the case of TPMaint, this model evolved in time. In the beginning, the founding teacher uploaded

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exclusively free resources accessible to all teachers involved in automotive maintenance. However, once he started using technically more advanced tools to create new courses and online exercises, he also decided to charge a fee. The resources each community creates and shares are quite heterogenous. Communities, such as ANFA and Coop’ICEM merely share the resources without any information regarding their use. In contrast, communities like Doc pour Docs publicly share resources along with instructions concerning their use. All communities propose turnkey resources, generally in formats that are difficult to modify (e.g., pdf, different video formats). MySTI2D also offers graphic files in the main format used in vocational schools for 3D drawing. In consequence, users can easily modify these files.

5 Discussion and Conclusions It is commonly known that, along with the materials teachers use, students have access to myriad learning resources. Some of these materials, however, not always entail the kind of knowledge curricula prescribe. Nonetheless, teachers also need to master a variety of resources that are instruments guiding students as they acquire new pieces of knowledge through different learning activities. From this point of view, modifying available resources to fit each teacher’s needs and redistributing the final product may be considered a way of teacher empowerment. Analyzing how communities dedicated to educational resource production emerge and evolve is a similar task to studying communities creating other patrimonial goods, in particular open source software. Research in education has dedicated little attention to the ways individuals teachers who are not part of communities use educational resources and modify them to better suit the needs of their students. The first results described in this chapter indicate the existence of considerable differences between members of communities and individual teachers who merely download resources. It is likely that the latter type of teacher also creates other resources that may be shared at the local level and perhaps even in other places. Their actions, however, need to become the focus of future research projects. A second aspect our results showed was that communities and networks were initiators of something that survives. Thereby, one essential question is the extent to which it is possible to track the usage trajectories of a given type of resource. Some of our findings uncovered a new tendency to use social networks with a small granularity to share resources produced by individuals. The question, what their impact on teaching activities will be, remains open. Finally, our findings also showed temporal variances of network organizations. Entities producing resources are in constant change. For example, proto-communities may give birth to militant or partly for-profit organizations. Also, communities experience frequent fragmentations similar to those typical for the free software domain. Following the work of Ostrom and Basurto (2011), it is worthwhile to study what kinds of rules communities follow or decide to change. A suitable methodology for such endeavors is an in situ longitudinal observation of teachers’ working sessions coupled with the analysis of individual resource production using the activity theory

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(Engeström and Sannino 2013). Also, many other issues might be raised, such as the issue of reference-guaranteeing resources with interesting insights into bottom-up validation.

Annex 1. Examples of rules of teacher communities (source: authors, based on Ostrom and Basurto 2011). Boundary rules B1 Individual initiative: Only the person who created the network is the actor B2 Adherent: Individuals must be registered to participate in network activities B3 Free adhesion: Individuals can participate even if they are not registered Position rules P1 Creator supervising: Only the creator can moderate comments or production of resources P2 Local supervising: Existence of moderators P3 External supervising; Validation by an external institution or partnership with an institution Choice (Allocation) rules C1 Creator-centered production: Only the creator can submit resources C2 Possible contribution: Users can submit their own resources C3 Strong proposal: Members of the networks are encouraged to contribute Information rules I1 Explication: Rules are clearly stated and there are public explanations about how to respect them I2 Non-explication: Moderators are in charge of enforcing the rules that are defined by administrators I3 Lack of rules: There are no rules or are below the media selected to communicate Aggregation rules A1 Lack of aggregation rules: Only the network creator can change rules A2 Collective decision: Members can participate in decisions A3 Do not know: No information about the subject Payoff rules Y1 Membership: free and unlimited use and share of resources for members Y2 Free: Free and unlimited use and share of resources for all users Y3 Market-oriented functioning: All users have to pay before sharing resources Scope rules S1 Free use: Resource use is undefined S2 Defined field: Resource use is defined by support materials but users can modify and adapt them S3 Turnkey resources: The resources do not require any modification

References S. Abramovich, C. Schunn, Studying teacher selection of resources in an ultra-large scale interactive system: does metadata guide the way? Comput. Educ. 58(1), 551–559 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2011.09.001

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G.-L. Baron, E. Dané, Pédagogie et ressources numériques en ligne: quelques réflexions. EpiNet: la revue électronique de l’EPI (Enseignement Public et Informa-tique) (97) (2007), https:// www.epi.asso.fr/revue/articles/a0709c.htm G.-L. Baron, S. Zablot, Research on educational media and resources in the field of French vocational education. The case of automobile maintenance. IARTEM e-J. 7(3), 25–44 (2015) J. Béziat, Technologies informatiques à l’école primaire. De la modernité réformatrice à l’intégration pédagogique innovante. Contribution à l’étude des modes d’inflexion, de soutien, d’accompagnement de l’innovation (University of Paris Descartes, Paris, 2003) B.S. Bloom, Learning for mastery. Instruction and curriculum. regional education laboratory for the carolinas and virginia. Topical Papers and reprints. Eval. Comment 1(2) (1968) S.J. Buck Cox, No tragedy of the commons. Environ. Ethics 7(1), 49–61 (1985) V. Chua, J. Madej, B. Wellman, Personal communities: the world according to me, in The SAGE Handbook of Social Network Analysis, ed. by J. Scott, P.J. Carrington (SAGE, Los Angeles, 2009), pp. 101–115 B. Drot-Delange, Outils de communication électronique et disciplines scolaires: quelle(s) rationalité(s) d’usage? Le cas de trois disciplines du second degré: la technologie au collège, l’économie-gestion et les sciences économiques et sociales au lycée (École normale supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, 2001) Y. Engeström, A. Sannino, La volition et l’agentivité transformatrice: perspective théorique de l’activité. Revue internationale du CRIRES: innover dans la tradition de Vygotsky 1(1), 4–19 (2013) G. Hardin, The tragedy of the commons. Science 162(3859), 1243–1248 (1968) E. Ostrom, X. Basurto, Crafting analytical tools to study institutional change. J. Inst. Econ. 7(3), 317–343 (2011) I. Quentin, Fonctionnements et trajectoires des réseaux en ligne d’enseignants (École normale supérieure de Cachan, Cachan, 2012) I. Quentin, E. Bruillard, Explaining internal functioning of online teacher networks: between personal interest and depersonalized collective production, between the sandbox and the hive, in Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2013, vol. 2013, no. 1, 2013, pp. 2627–2634 F. Tönnies, Communauté et Société. Catégories Fondamentales de La Sociologie Pure (Retz, Paris, 1887) J.-M. Turban, Listes de diffusion pour enseignants du premier degré: une expérience sociale formative, combinaison des logiques de l’action (intégration, stratégie, subjectivation) (Université Rennes 2, Rennes, 2004) F. Villemonteix, Les Animateurs TICE à l’école Primaire: Spécificités et Devenir d’un Groupe Professionnel Analyse de Processus de Professionnalisation Dans Une Communauté de Pratiques En Ligne (Université René Descartes, Paris, 2007) B. Wellman, P. Carrington, A. Hall, Networks as personal communities, in Social Structures. A Network Analysis, ed. by B. Wellman, S.D. Berkowitz (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1988), pp. 130–184

Learning Resources and Massive Open Online Courses–What’s Going On? René Boyer Christiansen(&) University College Absalon, Soro, Denmark [email protected]

Abstract. This chapter addresses the issue of learning resources in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) at the University College Absalon and explores how faculty teaches within this new format and design. MOOCs date back to 2008. Over time, fundamentally two kinds of MOOCs evolved: cMOOCs and xMOOCs. The latter was influenced by more traditional e-learning courses in distance learning and highlights the concept of massiveness (MOOCs for many) while the first was born from theories of connectivism and emphasizes the importance of collaboration, production, and bringing learners together. This chapter briefly introduces the evolution of MOOCs and then turns to the faculty’s views on using learning resources in MOOCs. The chapter concludes by listing relevant issues for further research Keywords: MOOC
Learning resources
Production
Teaching
Educational design

1 Introduction MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have become a serious player within the field of education and learning in the past few years. While MOOC research is still a relatively new field, it experienced a rapid development over the last years (Liyanagunawardena et al. 2013; Bayne and Ross 2014; Pilli and Admiraal 2016). Much of this research has had an emphasis on learners’ outcome as well as MOOC development as suitable business model for universities and other institutions of formal education. However, despite the abundance of MOOCs to attend, not much emphasis has been brought on the actual construction of learning resources within MOOCs. Similarly, little attention was dedicated to the demands they lay on teachers’ required competences and skills to meet these transformations in the educational design. Furthermore, pedagogical and didactical discussions about MOOCs often tend to adapt a more technical approach about a certain MOOC platform and its affordances and constraints (Knox 2013) rather than focusing on content, production, teaching, and learning (Christiansen and Rosenlund 2016). Only very limited research focuses on what happens when academic staff members are asked to reinvent themselves as MOOC educators (MOOC-utvalget 2013; Evans and Myrick 2015). In this chapter, I will tackle some of the challenges arising from teachers starting to work in a MOOC environment with special emphasis on the problems occurring when teachers become producers of MOOC content. Thereby, the aims of this paper are © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 418–423, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_34

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twofold. On the one hand, the author explores what characterizes learning resources being produced, and, on the other hand, what are the educator’s intentions with these learning resource Sect. 2 The history of MOOC dates back to 2008, the year of their initial introduction. Fundamentally, two kinds of MOOCs evolved the first years: cMOOCs and xMOOCs. While xMOOCs were influenced by more traditional e-learning courses in distance learning and highlight the concept of massiveness (MOOCs for many), cMOOCs emerged from theories of connectivism (Siemens 2005; Pilli and Admiraal 2016) and emphasizes along with the importance of collaboration and production the social aspect, i.e., bringing learners together. The digital researcher Mark Smithers (2012) put it this way: “In an xMOOC you watch videos, in a cMOOC you make videos”. One of the features of cMOOCs is that they establish a tight connection between learning and participation, communication, and collaboration in learning processes. Learning and studying are not isolated and lonely in nature, as both are activities that happen in collaboration with peers. A cMOOC emphasizes not only the importance of artifacts produced by students, but also the value of peer-to-peer feedback and networking. According to Pilli and Admiraal (2016, p. 225), the difference between the x and the c lies in the following: “The earliest, most well-known categorizations see MOOCs developed as either courses with an emphasis on connectivist ideas (cMOOCs) with students learning from and with both educators and each other in online course environments or as courses involving more individual-focused learning (xMOOCs) following traditional cognitivist-behaviorist approaches, with traditional course structure, content and methods”. Thus, cMOOCs emphasize creation, creativity, autonomy, and social network learning and focus on knowledge and creation, whereas xMOOCs emphasize a more traditional learning approach through video presentations along with short quizzes and testing with a focus on knowledge duplication. Put this way, it becomes clear that it is two–actually quite different–approaches to learning MOOCs offer: Learning as pulling-out information from a certain resource being a video or a text as opposed to learning as an activity that is social, communicative, collaborative, and productive. In consequence, one needs to be specific and cautious when choosing the MOOC type, its design, and the principles of learning and teaching that can be located in the MOOC-design. Learning in xMOOCs encompasses the acquisition of knowledge that is prepresented and made available via the MOOC for unlimited or limited periods of time. In this perspective, a MOOC is a collection of learning resources that can be explored and, during this exploitation, learning occurs. The main goal is, therefore, to gather and collect the best learning resources (e.g., text and videos) from the best teachers and scientists to make them available to all attending the MOOC. This fundamentally corresponds to a push ideology consisting of resources being pushed out to whoever attends the MOOC. In marketing, this is often referred to as taking the product to the customer and can be suitable for branding an institution. However, the x and c camps also have things in common. First, both formats carry the ability to become a player in the field of lifelong learning and learning for everyone. Second, they also share the idea of free access and the idea of scalability. Third, both

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camps can–at least to some point–cash in on the idea of open learning resources (OLR) for all. When it comes to concepts of learning and teaching and the role of pedagogy in the design, research uncovered substantial differences (Rodriguez 2013). The idea of openness in MOOCs are inspired by thoughts of democracy for all, accessibility, and trying to reduce the distance between those who enjoy access to formal education and those who are deprived of such opportunities. For the past five years, MOOC-design, however, has drawn inspiration from both of these basic approaches, which resulted in the emergence of more blended formats. According to Bayne and Ross (2014, p. 22), “[w]hat we are starting to see now is a move away from the cMOOC/xMOOC binary toward recognition of the multiplicity of MOOC designs, purposes, topics and teaching styles”. The empirical research presented in this chapters deals with a MOOC-design drawing on both the x and the c principles. Post-2010 MOOCs should rather be considered design frameworks (as proposed by Gynther 2015) drawing on both elements from the x and c alongside views on teaching and learning, curriculum, and roles of participants in a MOOC (Christiansen and Rosenlund 2016; Pilli and Admiraal 2016).

2 Methods and Sample This study runs along the lines of the work presented by Evans and Myrick (2015). MOOC teachers from the University College were interviewed individually and in groups. The educators produced MOOCs in the subjects of Danish, mathematics, and science for the teacher education program. The empirical part of this study derives from observations in workshops with 17 MOOC educators’ collaboration and negotiations on how to construct their subject in a MOOC milieu. These discussions were audio recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed. In a subsequent step, follow-up interviews with three educators offered additional information. The MOOCs analyzed in this study are to be seen as design answers to a certain and specific educational and political situation in Denmark, namely the requirement that by 2020 all Danish primary school teachers have to have a bachelor degree in the subjects they teach. Approximately 11,000 primary school teachers are affected who hold a bachelor degree in education but with majors in other subjects than the ones they currently teach. In other words, more than 10,000 primary school teachers, who for many years taught a course without being formally qualified, suddenly need professional development. This calls for a need for educational concepts that are. – based on the fact that the primary school teachers already have a large amount of professional knowledge, experience, and professional skills; – adaptive as the primary school teachers only have to take parts of the full curriculum thanks to their professional skills and experience acquired while having taught the subjects in question for some time; – scalable because it is uncertain how many primary school teachers need training in the individual subject areas; – flexible in relation to primary school teachers’ work situations;

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– and, at the same time, resource-efficient compared to the monetary and time resources required by regular teacher training programs. As an educational concept, MOOCs seem able to fulfill the requirements of scalability, adaption, and flexibility. In consequence, various Danish municipalities are examining the adequacy of MOOCS to respond to the political and educational challenge. The University College Absalon produced numerous MOOCs in various subjects for primary school. Some of the College’s academic staff that was involved in MOOC production, contributed to the empirical studies also discussed in this chapter. The MOOC-design developed by the University College Absalon consists of the following parts: – a digital environment covering one subject of the Danish teacher training program (e.g. English, mathematics, geography etc.); – a self-evaluation test taken by all future MOOC-students; – A face-to-face session between the student and the faculty in charge of the MOOC aiming at discussing the self-evaluation test; – MOOC-study; – face-to-face teaching and guidance both individually and in groups. As the design shows, this is a blended educational design mixing online-MOOC studying with on-campus teaching. Both the self-evaluation test and the session with faculty cover the primary school teacher’s strengths and weaknesses regarding the subject. The MOOC design allows the primary school teacher to attend only those parts of the program where he/she lacks important knowledge and skills. In contrast, they can skip all those areas the test certified satisfactory knowledge. Thus, the design allows the didactical skills these teachers already acquired, partially over more than ten years of teaching experience, to be become a recognized part of their studies.

3 Teachers’ Resource Intentionality in MOOCs Learning resources are essential to all teaching and learning processes as they play a huge part in lesson planning. This also applies to educational design transformations discussed here. Faculty working with MOOCs involved in our study expressed frustration about the lack of availability of suitable learning resources that they can make available to students in this new digital learning environment. In addition, they also felt forced to use learning resources available in digital formats via open, accessible links on the internet. In this matter, they felt obliged to replace validated learning resources they have been using in their traditional instruction for longer time with online resources of possible lesser or maybe even unknown value: “[w]hen we produced this MOOC we learned that it was somehow required or expected […] that we use digital, easy accessible, online, free resources […] and such resources are not always easy to find […] or replace, rather” (teacher end MOOC-developer). This could indicate that accessibility is viewed as more important than content and the overall decision to use the most suitable learning resources–and suitable in this case meaning easy online access. While the mere digitalization of textbooks can solve some of these challenges,

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the analysis of digital online learning resources suitable for this learning environment is crucial. Another matter of importance is that faculty in general, and teachers in particular, tends to behave like collectors. Particularly experienced teachers collected throughout their career various kinds of more personalized learning resources, such as student reports, texts or pictures. These resources are of a more personal nature and, thus, in contrast to traditional learning resources, unsuitable for digitized reproduction. In the view of the University College’s faculty, these resources are often not essential for the teaching but merely function as add-ons or extensions to more traditional learning resources. “We know, of course […] that all this […] well, what I have collected what I use in my teaching as what could you call it […] top of the iceberg […] is not crucial to my teaching but again it is my thing and […] well, it makes it personal in some way, do you know what I mean?” As we can see, this transformation is not easy and these “top of the iceberg personal things” do play a role in personalizing the teaching, both building a profile and adding a personal brand. A study (Christiansen and Rosenlund 2016) shows that developing such a personality profile is highly important for persons teaching in MOOCs.

4 Conclusions Teaching via MOOCs has proven to be both difficult and challenging for University College faculty. In addition, research on what is required to be or become a good MOOC teacher is very limited. The work done by Allen and Seaman (2014), Bayne and Ross (2014), and Lowenthal et al. (2018) all show that the attitude of faculty becomes more positive the more they teach online and gain experience within this field. However, competences must have room to develop and time is of importance regarding the development of these necessary competences. Time for discussions along with time for re-design is also of crucial importance. Some of our previous studies (Christiansen and Christensen 2010) showed that the difficulty to transform traditional teaching into online environments, such as MOOCs, are not primarily located in the subject itself. Challenges emerge from the attitudes of the teaching personnel and their view on their subjects, the specific pedagogies connected to the way this specific subject should be taught, the ways student learning is viewed as most successful, and what roles teachers and students should follow. It is highly unlikely that particular elements of a subject can be excepted from transformation into online teaching. In contrast, it is much more likely that some teachers found that the mentioned elements under no circumstances can be a part of online education, while others contradicted them and considered the very same elements to be best examples for a successful transformation. Nevertheless, the relationship between teachers’ views on their subjects and the solutions regarding to teaching transformations requires further research. Regarding research on MOOCs and students, results about the efficacy and outcomes of online education and learning for various student personae is by now well established. One of the major concerns is the proven limited efficiency of online education for specific student groups, such as individuals coming from educationally

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disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., Kalman 2014). Regarding MOOCs, research in this field is yet to be carried out (Liyanagunawardena et al. 2013). Consequently, MOOCs are in danger of inheriting the shortcomings of traditional e-learning, especially regarding student outcome. Further research is needed regarding MOOC-design sensitive to students’ individual needs and competences enabling individual learning paths (Gynther 2015).

References I.E Allen, J. Seaman, Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the United States (Babson Survey Research Group & Quahog Research Group LLC, 2014) S. Bayne, J. Ross, The Pedagogy of the Massive Open Online Course: The UK View (The Higher Education Academy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 2014) R.B Christiansen, O. Christensen. Lærerne og de nye vilkår.Copenhagen: Unge Pædagoger (2010) R.B Christiansen, L.T. Rosenlund, Presence-absence of absent-presence? the production of teacher positions and teacher-student relations in MOOCs. designs for learning, in A.-M. Nortvig, et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Designs for Learning. Aalborg: Aalborg University S. Evans, J. Myrick, How MOOC instructors view the pedagogy and purposes of massive open online courses. Dist. Educ. 36(3), 295–311 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2015. 1081736 K. Gynther, Design framework for an adaptive, hybrid MOOC: personalized curriculum in teacher professional development. in ed by A. Jefferies & M. Cubric Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on e-learning, University of Hertfordshire Hatfield, UK 29 – 30 October (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2015), pp. 255–264 Y.M. Kalman, A race to the bottom: MOOCs and higher education business models. Open Learn. 29(1), 139–153 (2014) J. Knox, The limitations of access alone: moving towards open processes in education technology. Open Praxis 5(1), 21–29 (2013). https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.36 T.R. Liyanagunawardena, A.A. Adams, S.A. Williams, MOOCs: a systematic study of the published literature 2008–2012. Int. Rev. Res. Open Dist. Learn. 14(3), 202–227 (2013). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v14i3.1455 MOOC-utvalget, Tid for MOOC (MOOC-utvalgets delrapport) (2013), https://www.regjeringen. no/globalassets/upload/kd/vedlegg/uh/styrer_rad_utvalg/moocutvalget_delrapport_1_ 13122013.pdf O. Pilli, W. Admiraal, A taxonomy of massive open online courses. Contemp. Educ. Technol. 3 (2), 223–240 (2016) O. Rodriguez, The concept of openness behind c and x-MOOCs (massive open online courses). Open Praxis 5(1), 67–73 (2013). https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.5.1.42 G. Siemens, Connectivism: Learning as Network Creation (2005), http://www.elearnspace.org/ Articles/networks.htm M. Smithers, OH: In an xMOOC you watch videos, in a cMOOC you make videos [Twitter] (2012), https://twitter.com/marksmithers/status/255562376659730434. Accessed 9 Oct 2012

The History of Textbook in the Library Fund of INDIRE Alessandra Anichini(&) Innovazione e Ricerca Educativa (INDIRE), Istituto Nazionale di Documentazione, Florence, Italy [email protected]

Abstract. The transition from paper to digital is reconfiguring the practice of learning and teaching. The survival of the textbook itself, as we have conceived it so far, is debatable. Looking back in our past can offer a stimulus for ample reflection and, abandoning cultural automatism, we are granted a perception of the textbook as tool not to be discounted. The textbook carried out a series of fundamental functions that can today represent the grounds for a correct design of a truly innovative textual format. The Library of INDIRE that boasts a very rich collection of textbooks of different ages, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, represents an important resource for the reconstruction of history, in such a crucial moment. Analyzing the library fund allows us to study some fundamental topics, which are particularly useful for the prefiguration of new textbooks or whatever didactic tools will take their place in schools. This chapter focuses on four central issues. The first concerns the role of the textbook as a substitute for the teacher’s voice. The second point targets the use of illustrations as a replacement of primary experience, but also as an element for lightening the practice of study. The third point focuses on the typographic aspects of the texts, which are functional for learning. Finally, the fourth point draws attention to the act of re-writing that allows the student to obtain knowledge in a better way. Our idea is that we have to learn so much from the past, even if we have to radically change our conception of textbook. Keywords: History of textbooks
Digital text
Illustration
Reading
Writing

1 Introduction At a time when European schools are preparing for a transition without precedent in the history of the textbook, an overall reflection on the features of the textbook itself and on its functions over the course of the centuries is necessary for the design of new texts, in order for them to carry out their traditional tasks in a better way with the help of the new opportunities offered by the ICT (Choppin 1987–1995). If the history of the book in general sheds light on the ways we read and still read today, school textbooks offer us even more material for research given their role as objects of service for a direct activity aimed at a group of learners or an individual learner (Bruillard 2005). The textbook is, in fact, a particular kind of book, the kind in which the concept clearly appears that a “[…] manufactured printing is not just the embodiment of the words of © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 424–436, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_35

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one author” (Finkelstein and McCleery 2006, p. 31) but it is something more complex that involves the consideration of factors related to reception and production of the text itself. A textbook often reflects the particularities of the educational system it was produced for and presupposes that its readers should study in a specific way. A textbook is always “an object of school culture”, an “artifact” (Braga 2009 , p. 34) of this culture that allows us to better understand some important features of a society. Today, given its particular nature, the survival of the textbook as a physical object is threatened by the spread of myriad subject-specific learning materials available online. Such materials can render superfluous the idea of a single text united within its bounds consisting of what is believed to be fundamental knowledge for the curriculum. The OER (Open Educational Resources) movement is invoking interest among many stakeholders of the teaching and learning process, defending a community vision of sharing knowledge and seeing the exchange between teachers, as opposed to the predominance of the commercial logic of many publishing houses. That textbooks are no longer necessary is confirmed by the experiences of some Italian schools (and also European schools) made, which decided to replace textbooks with digital texts or selfdesigned texts (didactic digital contents). In Italy, a recently ratified law (art 6. Comma 1 Legge 128/2013) authorizes schools to create their own textbooks, allowing a series of experiments to begin. Book in Progress and Libr@ (see siteography at the end of the chapter) are two models of self-produced textbooks designed by teachers with the help of their students. In particular, Book in Progress is a national-scale teacher network involved in the self-production of textbooks for different subjects, both in paper and digital format. Observing this development, the question arises, whether the textbook is destined to disappear and be replaced by other textual forms. It also seems essential to reflect on the question, how new formats of educational media will serve the functions traditional textbooks had. A historical overview of textbook functions over the centuries seems essential to clarify their role as basing points for teachers and students in the learning process. The history of the scholastic book (Choppin 1987–1995) can be illuminating and help highlight what teachers and students on their quest for more defined shapes and patterns need to demand today from the new textuality, in a new school context. As part of this endeavor, we commenced an analysis of some heritage specimens preserved in INDIRE (Istituto Nazionale di Documentazione, Innovazione e Ricerca Educativa, National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research). The sample included volumes from the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries–a total of 2,230 volumes, of which three editions from the 1400s, 102 editions from the 1500s, 66 editions from the 1600s, 392 editions from the 1700s, and 1,667 editions from the 1800s. These volumes are very significant in relation to the practices of teaching and learning Anichini and Giorgi 2013). We consider books to be material objects that can reveal valuable information regarding their use when paying attention to their publishing and printing. Price (2012, p. 5) defined three operations to support this process: “’reading’ (doing something with words),’handling’ (doing something with the object), and ‘circulating’ (doing something to, or with, other persons by means of the book)”. However, particular attention needs to be paid to typography. As McKenzie (2006, p. 39) argues, “[…] the symbolic

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function of typographic signs as an interpretative system” which makes typography to an indicator of readers’ behavior. Considering different, but mainly historical and pedagogical approaches to the study of textbooks, we proceeded with an analysis of the volumes available to us and carried out a transversal and oblique reading, aimed at finding, among pages of various tomes, revealing traces of didactic use suggesting there was a specific learning function assigned to each particular book. The analysis of textbook form and structure reveals information concerning their use and allows us to understand what were the functions attributed to this instrument over the course of the centuries. The analysis revealed as series of constants that can be described and that bring about a substantial conception of the textbook not only as an instrument of conservation and transmission of knowledge, but also as a tool that develops student autonomy with respect to the teacher’s subject domain. This conception restores the value of teacher guidance to student learning, but assigns the textbook the task of representing a personal tool, transforming each student into a potential master, each reader into a potential writer (Eco 1979).

2 Replacing the Teacher (The Voice of the Master) Two tables from the famous Orbis Pictus by Comenii published in 1658 show us different ideas of teaching and learning: one carried out in public schools, inside the classroom, and, the other carried out for an individual student learning with a private preceptor (cf. Fig. 1 and 2).

Fig. 1. The school in Johannes Amos Comenii’s Orbis Sensualium Pictus (source: Comenii 1777).

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Fig. 2. The preceptor in Johannes Amos Comenii’s Orbis Sensualium Pictus (source: Comenii 1777).

We could add a third model used in artisan workshops, places where experience and imitation represent the basis of learning. In every case, the word of the teacher and the direct observation of reality are the central elements for learning. The presence of a teacher is always fundamental. In the classroom depicted in Fig. 1, which is similar to those we see today, the teacher uses a series of didactic materials, among other a book, that facilitate his work. Students are required to learn the lesson by heart (mandata a memoria) by repeating aloud what their teacher explained to them with help from the textbook, which allows them rapid and immediate access to information they had already learnt from their teacher. The textbook serves to guarantee the persistence of the text to be learnt when the teacher’s voice is absent. In addition, the textbook also guarantees the delivery of the curriculum, namely the selection of particular content considered to be fundamental for young people’s education. Childrens’ books emerged during the eigteenth century. However, the production of printed volumes for learning, such as Latin grammars, courtesy literature or conduct books, moral instruction or anthologies preceded them (Immel 2013). One of the first books printed in Magonza was in fact a Latin grammar by Elio Donato, Ars Minor for beginners, one of the most important preparatory texts in medieval tradition. The grammars were poThe image works as a placeholderpular texts, which were also present in manuscript form later copied into print. For example, there were some volumes published in Italy by Aldo Manuzio, a publisher and printer who carefully designed both the book’s physical format and its content. The attention to the book’s design began to grow together with its production and the printer, in time, began to satisfy the needs of his readers. If grammar books introduced a number of para-textual elements useful for facilitating the studying activity, mathematics books from the fifteenth and sixteenth century had a striking use of typography (cf. Fig. 3). They made abundant use of figures, tables, symbols, and help in the learning of mathematical rules. The latter was a type of nonfigurative illustration aiming to revive arithmetic or logical operation revision. The

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iconography that enriches these volumes plays a key role as it is a concrete tool for facilitating the student who perhaps attended the lessons taught by distinguished teachers to revive in his mind, upon seeing them, the explanations and their content. The books in question–the work of masters–are notebooks turned into volumes. They are the result of drawn up lectures given by famous masters where the book becomes the space of resonance of one or more authors’ dictates expressed directly through the revival of their methods on the pages.

Fig. 3. Page from Pietro Borghi, Libro de abacho (source: Borghi 1540).

In what ways are current textbooks different? Nowadays, new ways to intend explanation are emerging as digital textbooks may use different and complex gimmicks to substitute the teacher’s work. However, we probably still need to reflect on the real effectiveness of new strategies. Thus, there is a problematic point in the digital era: we hardly recognize a point of view since we prefer to rely on many different materials, collected from different sources. The voice of the master is difficult to recognize, as it is hard for a student to identify a point of view in what she or he is reading. The mediation of the teacher is now truly much more important than in the past. Reasons for concern over the loss of centrality of the textbook and its author(s) originate in Italy as a result of an interesting legislative document on the adoption of textbooks attached to the Ministerial Decree #781 of 9/27/13. The attachment confirms the invitation for schools to produce their own texts or digital educational content as supplement to the textbook, but at the same time emphasizes the importance of the textbook as an appropriate tool to fulfill its unique functions (cf. Choppin 1993).

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The attachment refers particularly to the authorship function, which, in the opinion of the law, is the most appropriate instrument to avoid the risk of student disorientation targeted by the fragmentation of points of views resulting from the use of a multiplicity of resources. The issue is complex and involves a closer look at teachers’ widespread habit of gathering information from collected passages borrowed from various sources and often collated to form fragmentary collages. The use of a variety of sources for studying is, in fact, to be considered as the end point instead of the starting point for any learning path. The ability of handling information has become a skill that requires development. This skill is essential if the students are to take on the role of critical readers and be aware of the reality that surrounds them as well as the reality of a written book.

3 Replacing and Enriching Experience The book can replace the direct relationship with the teacher and her/his voice but sometimes it can also be a perfect substitute for direct experience. This happens especially by means of illustrations. After the invention of letterpress printing, the recent book industry is working to identify the strands leading to economic success. The increase in companies throughout Europe along with the development of more sophisticated techniques has enriched book production. The products are variate and include forms of popular press, such as travel books, illustrated prayer books, and textbooks. A production that makes extensive use of figures to grace the pages, but also to illustrate, explains concepts and ideas. The use of images as a substitute for objects seen in the external world is fundamental for volumes dedicated to science. These volumes feature illustrated tables with human and animal bodies. Anatomic incisions are accurate and, probably, the result of direct observation. The images aim visualizing occluded elements, such as bones, muscles, and internal organs. In doing so, they traversing the possibilities of direct experience–a function entrusted today by many visual simulations employed in the field of popular science. The same applies to geography and travel books that contain plates depicting cities and countries around the world along with the continuous text describing the physical and cultural aspect of a land. The pictures, in this case as well, enable the visualization of far away place unaccessible to some readers. The image works as a placeholder for unaccessible reality (cf. Fig. 4).

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Fig. 4. Table from Thomas Salmon, Lo stato presente di tutti i paesi e popoli del mondo (source: Salmon 1753).

Beyond the functional and representative role, illustrations also carry the idea of drawing as an ornament, as an element to enhance the pleasure of a text, especially where it is needed to emphasize precepts and moral teachings (cf. Fig. 5). This applies to collections of illustrated fables or anecdotes, gathered in small volumes, which represent a kind of summa moral to be offered to young people for their emotional and civil education.

Fig. 5. Table from Insegnamenti del vivere del conte Alberto Caprara a Massimo suo nipote (source: Caprara 1672).

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Clark and Lyons (2004) attributed to images the interpretative task that allows the use of a figure not so much simply to show reality, but rather to instruct and learn more about objects, crafts and situations by explanation, analytical techniques, procedures, and functions. Enyclopédie best illustrates this task as it contains tables that represent the same subject from three different perspectives. Barthes (1982) defined these three perspectives in his famous essay Les planches de l’Encyclopédie: (1) the anthological perspective reproduces the object itself in order to show the details and salient aspects and is, thus, the analytic view of things; (2) the anecdotal perspective, instead, places the object in a context of use, in a mise en scene that prefigures its possible use; and, (3) the genetic perspective, finally, tends to reconstruct the genesis of the object itself, underlining the creative power of human capability. The use of images is eclectic. In the Prefatio ad lectorem in the Orbis pictus – mentioned above–Comenii (1777) expressed his beliefs about images: “Notum enim est, pueros (ab ipsa propemodum infantia) picturis delectari, oculosque his spectaculis libenter pascere”. Pleasure is an immediate result of the use of images in textbooks, but this is not the only merit attributable to them. If experience is considered the basis of learning, pictures may represent its worthy replacement and the vision can be considered a special form of the experience itself: “Dico et alta voce repeto, postremum hoc reliquorum omnium esse fundamentum: quia nec agere nec loqui sapienter possumus, nisi proius omnia, quae agenda sunt et de quibus loquendum est, recte intelligamus. In intellectu autem nihil est, nisi prius fuerit in sensu” (Comenii 1777).

Vision is a key element for the intellectual growth of a child and that is why a comprehensive and detailed collection of images, such as that of the Orbis, is a work of extreme importance for the training of the young minds. During Comenii’s lifetime, the Church was also involved in deep reflections on this issue. In 1582, the bishop of Bologna, Gabriele Paleotti, wrote a speech about images. He wrote only two of the five planned volumes, but the index of all volumes, which survived, reveals the complexity and completeness of his plan in relation to the subject of the image and its uses. In Paleotti’s (2012, pp. 60–65) view, a “Painting is a’mute book’” and while the books written can be attended only by intelligent and educated scholars, paintings, on the other hand, “[…] universally embrace all sorts of people”, allowing the problem of “[…] the Babel of languages and minds” to be overcome. Images are able to talk to everyone, but everyone, as a result of their cultural background, will receive different stimuli (Antinucci 2011). The issue of images is still timely, though the origin of a still unresolved discussion lies in Renaissance times. At the heart of this discussion lies the juxtaposition of two logical approaches: the choice of simplified and more accessible information and concepts vs. the defense of cognitive effort considered only as an instrument for acquiring full content. Regarding this argument, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Walter Benjamin, convinced detractor of images, sustained that it was educational publishing that produced an impoverishment of the textbook. For him it was the Orbis pictus itself that was the beginning of such practice. His fear is still alive today. Nowadays, illustrations play a crucial role, becoming the principal cause of the simplification of the content and also the more effective persuasive tool.

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In our society, defined as an image society, the latter plays an important role in education. Digital texts can be enriched not only with still images, but also with videos or animations that explain, illustrate, describe phenomena and content of the curriculum. The video is a powerful training tool in that it serves to enrich the student experience, facilitating as it does the understanding of phenomena otherwise difficult to acquire or representing the substitute of experience that in some cases becomes necessary. Thus, the risk of an abuse of this form of knowledge representation has already been highlighted (Eco et al. 2015). Too often the image, and especially video, is considered as a form of simplification offered as an aid to an easy understanding of ideas and concepts that require instead complexity and a less immediate, slower reflection, such as the one proposed by complex alphabetical writing.

4 Encouraging Personal Reflection At the early time of letterpress printing the rapid spread of books enabled the emergence of private study, an activity carried out far from the continuous repetition in the classroom. The individual relationship of the individual with the book containing the text to be learnt is one the of key points for understanding the consequent transformation of the book itself over the course of time (Chartier 2006). Because the relationship of a student with the book was becoming very personal, the design of the book itself, intended as a graphic presentation, required special attention. Continuing a tradition already in use with the manuscript volumes, letterpress printing completes a series of useful gimmicks to promote the activity of the reader. In the absence of a teacher who explains learning contents, the book should help the reader in her or his solitary effort, should enable fast retrieval of information, and facilitate storage. Before letterpress printing, many manuscripted codices were written to encourage learning, memorization of concepts, and the storage of knowledge. Didactic aims are implicit in the forms taken on by the books; for example, the use of tables (widespread throughout the medieval period), illustrated capital letters with stories within, trees and branches etc. Printed volumes recover these simple systems that reveal particular attention to the use of the page as a memory theater. Furthermore, printed books gradually made more and more use of some other non-continuous text elements, such as indices. For books produced as long unwieldy rolls, the index entailed the author(s), title, and identification of content. Their main role was to facilitate fast retrieval of text within a library. After the passage to volumes, throughout the Middle Ages, alternatives were sought that allowed the quick recovery of information. But with the invention of letterpress printing, the need to table (intabulare) arises with clarity. Aldus is thought to be the first publisher and printer to use real indices in his publications of Greek and Latin volumes. (Gregory 1994). The use of lists of Notable Things inside prints clearly reveals the intention of turning the book into a kind of memory for fast retrieval of information (Fig. 6).

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Fig. 6. Page from Antonio Possevino, Coltura de gl’ingegni (source: Possevino 1598).

Nowadays, the digital text allows us to use innovative gimmicks and we could experiment new aspects of the typography even if tools for facilitating reading and memory have to be studied yet. We also have to define if such tools can improve the reflection on the content or they only reduce the reading effort. Again, digital textuality could still express latent potential by investing in, for example, and finding strategies to help students with special learning needs or sensory disturbances.

5 Encouraging Re-writing Knowledge Henri Jean Martin reads the new attention to the layout of the page, which has matured since the early years of letterpress printing, as “the definitive triumph of white over black” (Chartier 2006, p. 91). White space is the performance stage of the text; it is what gives the words a different value by virtue of their being silent. White space also encompasses the margins allowing the reader to annotate. During the early age of letterpress printing, books began to leave plenty of space on the page margins for the reader to put down reflections and enter in a relation with the text itself. Such activity requires the ownership of the book and a private relationship between the reader and the book. In fact, books at that time were starting to become a regular possession of each household. The relationship between the reader and her or his book became intensive: “Reading meant returning again and again to the same books” (Chartier 2006, p. 167) and, at the same time, also that reading presupposed the act of writing (Piper 2013, p. 77) in the sense of a personal re-elaboration of the content.

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The activity requires students to add some comments on the text just the way the first copyists did, according to operations that reveal the real comprehension of the text itself. Re-reading the text means selecting significant passages, commenting on them, adding to them personal notes, establishing connections with other readings in a network of references that represents a re-writing operation in all respects. Re-reading is, thus, a complementary activity of re-writing, that is to re-elaborate concepts and data and return them in a customized way. In this perspective, we would like to end this brief review by turning to Zibaldoni, a particular type of book, much in use during the humanistic period for educational purposes. Perhaps Francis Bacon legitimized a practice already in use which provided a transcript of excerpts from the classics to form collections to be used for various purposes. The approaches to books were, moreover, for Bacon, very varied: “Some books must be ‘tasted’, others gulped down, still others chewed and digested; that is, some must be read only in part, others without much attention, still others from cover to cover, intensely. One can also read books by proxy thanks to compendiums created by other individuals, but this must be done only for trite subject matter and with the most futile of books, otherwise the extracts are insipid like the common distilled waters. Reading renders a man complete, dialogue renders him ready and writing renders him precise” (Bacone 2009, p. 19).

Collections and compendiums were intended to pull readers to issues without necessarily studying them in depth. These kinds of books stimulated a practice of rewriting, urging the reader to produce, in turn, personal repertoire of texts, collected from various volumes, to form a kind of personalized archive of judgments, concepts, and suggestions. Reading and writing were considered complementary activities and there could be no profit if one was not inextricably linked to the other. Today, digital media and support offer new opportunities regarding the substantial reconfiguration of the relationship between reading and writing, allowing operations previously unimaginable and urging interaction with the text in a very physical form. Digital text possesses the feature of malleability that predisposes those who approach it to an idea of fluent and changeable text, on which it is easy to intervene (Anichini 2010). Remix is the operation that most seems to fit in with digital textuality (Manovich 2002). This was the dream of the first hypertext experiments, carried out in USAmerican universities at the end of the 1990s (Landow 1992), subjective and collaborative writings born with didactic intent. Interacting with the text meant first of all an operation of re-writing in all respects (Toschi 2001). A textbook was the result of a collective writing carried out by students and teachers, using a collection of different sources and establishing a connection between single nodes in a generative process of writing. This conception of interactivity got lost and, today, the interaction that digital texts propose, appears to be just physical and is likely to be only an illusion of activity offered to the students. Thus, schools can work in this way, making the texts to become the most fertile ground for exercising such operations of re-writing that represent the highest form of knowledge acquisition.

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Everything we have tried to extract from the form of old textbooks, must be refound in the new digital texts. At the end of the 1990s, Bolter and Grusin (1999) coined the term remediation to intend the change that had to be made to the book by re-reading the previous media. The operation set must now be studied and conducted for a textbook that is still awaiting its effective remediation to maintain and enhance its functions over time. Of all the items listed, we would like to emphasize the function of re-writing that seems to be the key activity of many learning processes and perhaps the only one which is worth continuing with to provide “[…] opportunities for students to internalize and reconstruct knowledge and skills” (Reints and Wilkens 2009, p. 469). “Every society rewrites its past, each reader has rewritten its texts, at some point printers redesign them” (McKenzie 1999, p. 30). One wonders, what forms the re-written texts of our society will take on in the future.

References Anichini, A. (2010). Il testo digitale. Milano: Apogeo. A. Anichini, P. Giorgi, Cento immagini di libri di scuola. Firenze: All’insegna del Giglio INDIRE (2013) F. Antinucci, Parola e immagine. Storia di due tecnologie (Roma/Bari: Laterza, 2011) F. Bacone, Saggi Filosofici. Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori (2009) R. Barthes, l grado zero della scrittura. Torino: Einaudi (1982) J.D. Bolter, R. Grusin, Remediation. Understanding New Media (MIT Press, Boston, 1999) P. Borghi, Libro de abacho. Venice: Bernardino de Bindoni (1540) T.M.F Braga Garcia, in Textbook production from a local, national and international point of view, ed. by J. Rodríguez Rodríguez, M. Horsley, S.V. Knudsen 10th International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media Santiago de Compostela: IARTEM (2009), pp. 30–47 E. Bruillard, Manuels scolaires, regards croisés. Caen: CRDP de Basse-Normandie (2005) A. Caprara, Insegnamenti del vivere del conte Alberto Caprara a Massimo suo nipote. Bologna: Domenico Barbieri (1672) R. Chartier, in The Practical Impact of Writing, ed. by D. Finkelstein, A. McCleery, The Book History Reader. (London: Routledge 2006), pp. 157–181 A. Choppin, Manuels scolaires. Etats et sociétés: XIXe-XXe siècle. Histoire de l'éducation. 58, fasc. Mon (1993) R.C. Clark, C. Lyons, Graphics for Learning: Proven Guidelines for Planning, Designing, and Evaluating Visuals in Training Materials (Pfieffer, San Francisco, CA, 2004) J.A. Comenii, Orbis Sensualium Pictus. (London, 1777) U. Eco, Lector in fabula. Milano: Bompiani (1979) U. Eco, M. Augé, G. Didi-Huberman. La forza delle immagini. Milano: Codice Editore (2015) D. Finkelstein, A. McCleery, The Book History Reader (Routledge, London/New York, 2006) T. Gregory, L’eclisse delle memorie (Roma/Bari: Laterza 1994) A. Immel, Children’s Books, in ed. by M.F. Suárez, S.HJ.H.R. Woudhuysenin The Book. A Global History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp. 220–230 G. Landow, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1992) P. Manovich, Il linguaggio dei nuovi media. Milano: Edizioni Olivares (2002)

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D.F. McKenzie, Bibliografia e Sociologia Dei Testi (Sylvestre Bonnard, Milan, 1999) D.F. McKenzie, in The Book As An Expressive Form, ed. by D. Finkelstein, A. McCleery , The Book History Reader. (London/New York: Routledge 2006), pp. 35–46 A. Piper, Il Libro Era Lì. La Lettura Nell’era Digitale (Franco Angeli, Milano, 2013) Possevino, A. (1598). Coltura de gl’ingegni. Vicenza: Giorgio Greco. L. Price, How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2012) A. Reints, H.J. Wilkens in Evaluating the Quality of Textbooks from the Perspective of the Learning Process, ed. by J. Rodríguez, M. Horsley, S.V. Knudsen 10th International Conference on Textbooks and Educational Media. Santiago de Compostela: IARTEM (2009) T. Salmon, Lo stato presente di tutti i paesi e popoli del mondo. Venice: Giambattista Albrizzi (1753) L. Toschi, Il linguaggio dei nuovi media. Milano: Apogeo (1999) http://www.bookinprogress.org/ http://www.istitutocomprensivocadeo.it/progetti/progetti-tecnologici/progetto-libr/

Edu.Data – Textbook Systems Worldwide Anna-Lea Beckmann(&) Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany [email protected]

Abstract. Edu.data is an international information platform providing data on textbooks within the contexts of their respective education systems. It is a central module of the Edumeres information portal for international educational media research. This chapter first describes the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research followed by a description of Edumeres. The information platform edu.data with its main features is presented in the final part of the chapter. Keywords: Global textbook systems
Education systems research
Information and research tool
Data


Educational

1 Introduction In creating and evolving edu.data, the Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) is pursuing the aim of providing an international English-language information platform on the development and use of textbooks in the context of the education systems they serve. The ultimate purpose of this research infrastructure is the development of an information system which will enable users to compare textbook systems worldwide in accordance with a number of selectable criteria. Thus, edu.data will supply its target group, which includes educational media researchers, students and others with an interest in the topic, with key basic information relating to textbooks. Therefore, edu.data is able to fill an urgent desideratum of textbook research which is commensurate with contextual, user-oriented information and is guided by the particular information needs and working methods of its users. This is the reason why we presented edu.data at the IARTEM Conference in Berlin 2015 during the session Community Resources & Libraries. This paper will present the database edu.data, its idea and development as well as its impact on the field of textbook research. Further sections will provide a brief overview of the GEI and its other information service within the Edumeres platform.

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015, Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 437–447, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9_36

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2 The Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook research – A Member of the Leibniz Association The GEI, located in Braunschweig in Germany, is an academic institution committed to research into textbooks in various contexts. In response to the nationalist idealism of the First World War and its aftermath, the League of Nations advocated the revision of textbooks on an international scale. The detrimental role played by textbooks in shaping concepts of the enemy had become brutally clear. UNESCO continued this work following the Second World War. The Braunschweig historian Georg Eckert, who later became the chairman of the German UNESCO Commission, was one of the catalysts behind this renewed textbook revision. He campaigned for international communication and understanding through cooperation on textbooks and history teaching. Until his death in 1974, he organized bi- and multilateral textbook conferences and meetings, primarily with Germany’s neighbors and former enemies. GEI was founded in its current form in 1975 as the result of a new law passed by the state parliament of Lower Saxony. The institute became a member of the Leibniz Association in 2011 and is therefore eligible for joint funding from both federal and state government. The institute’s central mission is to conduct international and multi-disciplinary research into textbooks and educational media for schools from a cultural and historical studies standpoint. It also provides advisory services to national and international education policymakers, practitioners and organizations, and acts as a coordinator and mediator in international issues and projects related to textbooks. The principal strengths of the institute lay in applied research as well as in the long-term and reliable provision of research infrastructures and diverse knowledge-transfer services. The international and multi-disciplinary research conducted by the institute closely combines the three areas of research, research infrastructure and knowledge-transfer. The heart of the institute is its unique research library, which is the only such facility in the world to hold over 180,000 textbooks from 174 countries in addition to related academic and specialized literature. The collection, guided by the institute’s research orientation, specializes in textbooks pertaining to the identity-defining subjects of history, social studies, geography and religion. The library, which is also open to the public, provides the optimum environment for academics from many different disciplines conducting research into the medium of textbooks. The information platform edu.data is integrated into an information network at the GEI which is presented in the following section.

3 Edumeres – The Virtual Network for International Textbook Research GEI has a mandate to develop infrastructures for research into textbooks. It therefore devotes considerable energy to up-to-date and user-oriented research infrastructures and transfer services. Its work in this area follows a circular model: in the interests of generating academic value research, research infrastructures and knowledge transfer

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are closely linked with one another in order for practice to stimulate research and vice versa. Researchers around the world benefit from the academic tools and instruments provided by the institute’s infrastructure services. GEI does not simply aim to further its own research; its concept is to ensure first-class research conditions for academics in the field of textbook research. The international online communication and information portal Edumeres (Educational Media Research) was developed with this goal in mind. Since 2008, GEI has been creating, through Edumeres, a virtual network for international textbook research. The focus of the platform and its individual modules lays principally on textbooks and educational media used in schools. Edumeres provides a central access point to GEI’s research-oriented information and communication infrastructure. The portal consists of several information and publication modules that combine up-to-date information with extensively researched and carefully prepared data from the field of textbook and educational media research. The Edumeres portal currently incorporates the following information and research instruments: edu.news (collates event and conference announcements), edu.docs (provides access to freely available publications from the world of international educational media research), edu.reviews (review platform for German-language textbooks), edu.experts (a module in the development phase that will facilitate networking between members of the international community researching textbooks as an educational medium), edu.data (a platform providing information on textbooks in the context of their respective education systems), Curricula Workstation (provides free access to German and international curricula) and GEI-DZS (database containing textbooks approved for German schools from year 5 onwards). Edu.data is one of the Edumeres modules and will be described below.

4 Edu.Data The international information platform edu.data provides data on the development and application of textbooks within the context of their respective education systems. The platform’s principal aim is to deliver an information system enabling comparisons between global textbook systems. The Digital Information and Research Infrastructure department are responsible for the creation, maintenance and long-term sustainability of the database. The primary role of the database is to capture and process country-specific data and to uniformly summarize that data according to predefined categories, presenting it together with the respective sources in order to allow global textbook systems to be compared with one another. In consequence, edu.data is able to fill an urgent desideratum of textbook research which is commensurate with contextual, useroriented information and is guided by the particular information needs and working methods of its users. The development and implementation of the module began in May 2013. A kickoff workshop involving academics, librarians and other interested parties from the institute determined the demand and gathered ideas and recommendations. The requirement profile was created in summer 2013, based closely on the results of the workshop. The database was constructed by an external agency; leading experts in

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TYPO3 who specialize in the development of internet portals and custom-made web applications. During the design phase, external partners were also closely involved in the conception, UI design and web development. The database is programmed using the TYPO3 web content management system. The respective backend and frontend access processes allow data to be captured, edited and posted. The development of the database and initial information searches proved complex and time-intensive meaning that information could first be entered into the database at the beginning of 2014. Two further workshops, one in February and another one in March 2014 focused on database development and its presentation to both GEI’s librarians and academics. Following a range of user tests, and after consultation with internal and external researchers, the functionality of the database was adjusted and its usability subsequently improved greatly. A beta version of edu.data was online since 10 March 2015. The full, official launch took place in summer 2016, as part of a larger relaunch of the entire Edumeres portal. The portal has been expended and organized in a modular format in order to simplify access to the individual elements of the infrastructure and to ensure technical connectivity. Functionality will be improved by the addition of a central search option. Context information is organized according to the following criteria: education system, reforms, curricula, duration of compulsory schooling, textbook production, publishers, authors, approval and selection of textbooks, textbook provision, teacher training and lessons in GEI’s subjects of interest (Geography, History, Politics and Religion). The information gathered under these categories is also accompanied by an extensive list of sources. This requires relevant data to be initially collected and documented at a national level. In individual cases, it is also necessary to research at state or province level (i.e., USA, Canada) in order to represent regional distinctions and differences. The strong international orientation of edu.data led to the decision to use English as the standard language. Print and online media are the predominant sources of information. GEI’s library has a comprehensive collection of literature covering a wide range of education topics and originating in a large number of countries. Online sources are also used; the simplest search method being the use of key word searches in search engines. It is possible to find both general and specific information and documents concerning countries and regions online. Overviews and specific information can be found for example at Eurydice (reports on European education systems), UNESCO-IBE (upto-date educational reports on UNESCO member states), Global Partnership (information on developing countries) and the World Bank. The government internet pages of the individual countries also provide valuable information. Our editorial team has researched the basic details of textbook systems in over 100 countries and entered this into the database. During the process of monitoring and completing specific information, in which GEI will involve its international cooperation partners and contacts, the captured information will be secured for the long-term. One aim of this process is to archive all data in a way that enables the patterns of development in each country to become visible over time.

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5 How to Use Edu.Data The database can be entered by searching for a country on an interactive world map (Fig. 1). Users can select one or more countries on the map (Fig. 2). Alternatively, users may select countries from a drop-down menu (Fig. 3). A facet filter is also used to provide the user with a more structured search function (Figs. 4 and 5). The basic search results for the selected countries are presented in a comparison table (Fig. 6). The details in the individual categories consist of standard phrases in order to present comparable information (Figs. 7 and 8). It is also possible to view details for each country, including a comprehensive list of verified and reliable sources that enable users to access sources and look up the citations used (Figs. 9 and 10). Links to digital sources are provided wherever possible enabling direct access for further research. One or two countries are shaded light grey on the interactive world map. These cannot be selected because we do not yet have sufficient, reliable information about the textbook systems in those countries.

Fig. 1. Main page of edu.data (source: author).

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Fig. 2. The country search via an interactive world map. You may select one or more countries in which you are interested (source: author).

Fig. 3. The drop-down menu ‘Choose a country’ enables an alternative way to choose countries (source: author).

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Fig. 4. The third main function in Search by theme (source: author).

Fig. 5. Search by theme (source: author).

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Fig. 6. The selected countries will be displayed side-by-side in a comparison table. The information is presented in standard phrases (source: author).

Fig. 7. Tooltips help users to read a short description of each criterion whenever required (source: author).

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Fig. 8. Comparison table with detailed view of sources for each country (source: author).

Fig. 9. Details on the relevant criteria (source: author).

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Fig. 10. The more detailed view provides additional information on the standard phrases used (source: author).

6 Further Steps After successful completion of data cataloguing and after the process of filling the database with information, the priority for edu.data’s ongoing development is now ensuring this content is of high quality and consistently up to date. Staff, visiting researcher, user and contributor feedback helps us to achieve this. The Edumeres team at GEI have not only created edu.data but they are ensuring it can be sustained in the long-term. This involves a close circle of feedback and cooperation with the researchers using the resource, who not only provide additional information but can also inform us of further requirements or features deemed useful, which can be developed for later versions. A feedback function is therefore provided in order to incorporate the expertise of our users into future extensions and to secure this knowledge for the future. The function provides space for comments to be sent to the editorial team and the name and e-mail address of the user. The aim of the feedback function is to enable individual users to augment the available country information and thus expand and upgrade the database improving the service for all database users. In the future, the database content will be expanded and sources regularly added to and monitored. Graphics depicting the development of individual countries will also be created. Edu.data will be linked with the Curricula Workstation, which is another GEIrun project. It constitutes an archive and central storage location for German and international curricula for the subjects history, geography, social studies/politics and religion/ethics. Easy access to the curricula is provided through a user-friendly research tool with a structured search function and the possibility to conduct full-text searches of electronically available curricula.

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At the same time, the development of internationally available open educational resources and the interest shown by educational media research in information on these materials are constantly on the rise. In response to these developments, we are planning to expand edu.data on the basis of the information on digital educational media held at GEI’s research library. The planned activities will include the provision and linking in edu.data of information on OER and their providers, which will then be available for international comparative research. The edu.data database can be reached at edu-data. edumeres.net.

Author Index

A Álvarez, Rosa María Vicente, 90 Anichini, Alessandra, 424 B Bagoly-Simó, Péter, 1, 134 Baron, Georges-Louis, 407 Beauné, Aurélie, 306 Beckmann, Anna-Lea, 437 Behnke, Yvonne, 180 Bento, Margaret, 306 Bläsi, Christoph, 59 Borowicc, Roseli, 35 Bramann, Christoph, 376 C Castro-Rodríguez, María Montserrat, 67 Chaves, Edilson Aparecido, 348 Christiansen, René Boyer, 418 D de Cássia Fernandes Hegeto, Léia, 193 de Souza, Edna Luiza, 234 Dimopoulos, Kostas, 269 E Eilard, Angerd, 101 F Ferré, Sylvie Joublot, 147 G Galletly, Susan A., 47 Garcia, Nilson Marcos Dias, 234, 256 Garcia, Tânia Maria F. Braga, 35, 202, 348, 396 Gómez, Luisa Fernanda Duque, 23

Graeske, Caroline, 341 Guimarães, Fernando, 211 H Hannoun, Pascale Kummer, 242 Heidemann, Daniel Sucha, 256 Hilander, Markus, 171 K Knight, Bruce Allen, 47 Kowasch, Matthias, 147 M Mendoza, Miguel Ángel Gómez, 23 Messaoui, Anita, 279 Müller, Lars, 361 N Nascimento, Fernanda Esthenes, 202 Nordenstam, Anna, 330 O Olin-Scheller, Christina, 330 P Philippou, Demetrios, 269 Piedrahita, María Victoria Alzate, 23 R Richtera, Roman, 315 Riquois, Estelle, 306 Rodrigues, Osvaldo Júnior, 396 Rodríguez, Jesús Rodríguez, 77, 90 Romanelli, Guilherme Gabriel Ballande, 294 Roux-Goupille, Camille, 227

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 P. Bagoly-Simó and Z. Sikorová (Eds.): IARTEM 2015 Textbooks and Educational Media: Perspectives from Subject Education, pp. 449–450, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80346-9

450 S Seoane, Denébola Álvarez, 77 Sikorová, Zuzana, 1 Šimik, Ondˇrej, 119

Author Index V Vieira, Edilaine Aparecida, 35 Z Zablot, Solène, 407