A survey of 18 college textbooks published between 1980 and 1991 showed that there are significant shortcomings in how public administration is presented. Many authors rely on narrow perspectives and popular myths and fail to cite many of the field's leading contributors or consider the critical issues facing the public service profession.…

Examines the production of new history textbooks that appeared after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Argues that the radical revisions in official history in this context are shaped by the Bakhtinian process of "hidden dialogicality." Suggests that the importance of hidden dialogicality between narrative forms must be considered. (SC)

Documents the rise and fall of public relations in public-administration education through a content analysis of textbooks. Notes some early signs of renewed attention. Suggests reestablishing public relations as a valuable part of contemporary public-administration education. (RS)

Reviews methods for analyzing gender bias in English-as-a- Second-Language textbooks and suggests a methodology that deals with (1) continuous discourse (prose) and context-reduced language (sentence-level items); and (2) interpreting language content (meaning) and counting language items (number of occurrences) based on the work of M.A.K.…

Investigates the manner in which one particular ethnic group, African American, is represented in five elementary school social studies textbooks published in 1991. Locates sections of text, identifies case relationships, and determines noun ethnicity. Finds that there were many more noun-verb relationships related to African Americans compared to…

Finds that most elementary social studies textbooks were lacking in adequate background information, illustrations, vocabulary definitions, and examples of key concepts essential for readers' construction of meaning. Finds that combining select tradebooks with the textbook can enhance children's knowledge and multicultural awareness. Suggests ways…

A study examined accommodations and adaptations for students with special needs in four teacher edition textbooks for the elementary and secondary grades. Results found that all mentioned special populations, and suggestions for students with various characteristics took the form of a page or two of general suggestions in the front matter. (CR)

Many students enter high school unskilled in the art of reading to learn from science textbooks. Even students who can read full-length novels often find science books difficult to read because students have relatively little practice with the various types of expository text structures used by such textbooks (Armbruster, 1991). Expository text…

Elementary teachers lead students on prereading picture walks, engage them in prediction activities, and model previewing processes, secondary teachers often fail to do much more than distribute the textbook. To help middle and high school students learn to use their content area textbooks more effectively, teachers can engage them in previewing…

This paper aims to demonstrate that two traditionally opposed approaches--the official view and a revisionist approach--conflate in defence of authoritarianism in the teaching of History. The main focus is on school textbooks published between 1956, the year when an educational reform was introduced following President Peron's overthrow, and 1983,…

A study extended the work of M. Allen and R. Preiss (1990) that analyzed the issues in public speaking textbooks and the level of accuracy with which scientific information is represented. A total score analysis of 112 textbooks showed no significant improvement in the accuracy of textbooks over time or with new editions. Findings of the…

A study of 24 composition anthologies that reprinted E. B. White's "Once More to the Lake" reveals a number of disturbing assumptions among the editors of these anthologies. Four areas of examinations were concentrated on: (1) classifications of White's essay; (2) thematic categories; (3) suggestions for writing; (4) study apparatuses;…

Intended for use by educators and administrators working in textbook-connected projects, this report reviews the problems encountered in textbook production and distribution in developing nations and indicates some solutions that have been found for many of those problems. The first major section of the report focuses on the role of governments in…

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the Latin American content of contemporary world geography textbooks published for United States secondary schools. A preliminary review of the literature indicated that Latin America was generally omitted from world geography texts, Central America was given minimal attention, and…

A presentation by the general manager of the Harvard Cooperative Society to the College Division of the Association of American Publishers in which he illustrates with survey data the contention that suggested publishers prices for textbooks are arbitrarily set too low by publishers to cover minimal costs of marketing textbooks. (JT)