Teaching introductory sociology is one of the primary means by which sociologists mobilize knowledge. Ongoing critical reflection on the content of sociology textbooks is therefore an important disciplinary enterprise. The current critical moment in which many nations, institutions, and publics face a reckoning with their historic and current…

The aim of this paper is to explore how the Alberta Social Studies 30-1 textbook, "Perspectives on Ideology" (Fielding et al., 2009) can contribute to orientalist discourse in its presentation of Islam, especially with respect to terrorism, extremism, and illiberalism--three concepts that appear in the Alberta Social Studies Program of…

This paper examines the textual coverage of the topic of work in Canadian English--language introductory sociology textbooks. Our findings are based on a content analysis of 21 Canadian texts published between 2008 and 2012. We found that only 12 of 21 textbooks included a chapter on work, suggesting that work occupies a peripheral position in…

In the 1980s, in Quebec history textbooks, authors presented history through linear, monocausal designs and attributed most social, political or economic changes favourable to democracy to unstable external causes or to stable external causes. They seldom attributed the evolution of democracy to "unstable internal causes". These…

We examined several popular integrated skills textbooks used in Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) and English as a second language (ESL) programs for pragmatics and oral fluency activities. Although many instructors use other resources to supplement classroom instruction, the textbook is still the backbone of many language…

Current reforms in elementary and secondary science education call for students and teachers to develop more informed views of the nature of science (NOS)--a process in which science textbooks play a significant role. This paper reports on a case study of the development of representations of the NOS in a senior high school chemistry textbook by…

Same-sex marriage is part of a global civil rights struggle for LGBQ rights. How this movement is framed, advanced, and critiqued across the globe can be linked to how young people in schools are prepared to deliberate social issues in the political sphere. This article examines national history books as cultural artifacts that present what is…

Despite being a landmark of 20th century biology, the "classical molecular gene concept," according to which a gene is a stretch of DNA encoding a functional product, which may be a single polypeptide or RNA molecule, has been recently challenged by a series of findings (e.g., split genes, alternative splicing, overlapping and nested…

One route to uncovering schooling's goals for an improved citizenry is to track certain subjects of the compulsory curriculum. In this case, health is investigated, and especially its messages on smoking and drinking. First introduced as scientific temperance instruction (in the 1880s), renamed hygiene (from about 1910), then as health (from the…

In order to examine the value of explicating genre and rhetorical rules for teaching, this study explores the level of consistency between the linear, deductive discourse pattern recommended for school writing and the actual structure of reading materials selected from seventh- and eighth-grade English language arts textbooks. We focus on 25…

The lack of "Canadian content" in Canadian public school textbooks can be more easily explained by changing national educational goals than by foreign ownership of the publishing industry. Science textbooks are used to illustrate. (SB)

Heterosexism exists throughout Canadian society, but to what degree is it present in classrooms? In this article, I explore this question through content analysis of twenty francophone Quebec secondary-school textbooks, examining how sexuality and relationships are discussed in five different subjects. These texts are persistently and…

The geographical analyses and descriptions of Appalachia "not only reflect reality, but they help to constitute this reality." This work first analyzes the status of the North American (United States and Canada) regional courses in the 210 geography degree-granting institutions listed in the Association of American Geographers…

A study of pedagogy, form, and content of the "Irish Readers," the first textbooks authorized for Upper Canada (1846), gives an ideological picture of society. Class-specific social theory of the time structured the textbooks, and the Readers assisted in the promulgation of a specific world view. (SLD)

Presents a study on the process involved in the "Canadianization" of U.S. textbooks for the domestic market. Explores whether disciplinary values have been shaped by the United States in the field of communication. Focuses on the experience of developing the Canadian edition of the book "Public Speaking: Strategies for Success"…