While open textbooks offer opportunities to enhance inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA), it is often seen as an afterthought in open textbook publishing processes. By examining existing literature, this paper dispels myths surrounding open textbooks and IDEA, including that openness does not equal inclusion, access or…

Secondary school English is shaped not only by complex institutional and discursive forces but also by the mundane reality of available resources. Among the resources used by teachers are commercial textbooks. Classroom textbooks can play a significant role in determining what gets taught in English lessons. They can also influence assumptions…

Like all school textbooks, geography textbooks are authored. Almost all textbook research in and beyond geography has neglected their authors. This questionnaire-based multinational research project investigated the perceptions of 71 primary and secondary school geography textbook authors from seven countries in five continents. Though not…

In this article the author describes a collaborative project undertaken by two provincial education organizations to foster the leadership formation of school leaders. Leadership development through case inquiry was the focus of this innovative partnership between the Ontario College of Teachers and the Catholic Principals' Council of Ontario. The…

Tells how two teachers who have authored a number of popular geography textbooks got started. Describes what they attempt to accomplish when they write a book and gives insight into the difficulties that teacher-authors may encounter. (JDH)

Elementary social studies textbooks in the United States were analyzed to determine the sort of information they contained about Australia. Only those texts which made substantive references to Australia were analyzed; these included 4 books for level 3, 2 for level 4, and 4 for level 6. Books examined were all published by major textbook…

This paper summarizes the findings of a study examining the impact of standards-based and curriculum reforms on the role of curriculum materials in educational systems in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and Australia. Concepts derived from a model of decision-oriented evaluation were applied to define a typology to classify…

Presents five experiments examining the use of illustrations in the comprehension of technical material by students of good to very good reading ability. Concludes that technical content which lends itself to presentation as an illustration will be comprehended better as an illustration than as text and will be comprehended best of all if…

Reports on a pilot survey of the authors of three sets of textbooks used in Australia and Canada, which have previously been shown to include a relatively high proportion of Indigenous and other minority groups' knowledges, cultures and sciences. Explores issues of voice and power in the production of textbooks. (MM)

Examines the effect of a variety of picture-text conditions on third and fifth grade average readers' comprehension. Concludes that the advantage of presenting children of normal reading ability with illustrated text is small and primarily dependent on the placement of illustrations adjacent to related textual materials. (RS)