Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Textbook Analysis to Uncover the Hidden Contributors of Science and Mathematics

  • Article
  • Published:
Science & Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Science and mathematics are universal endeavors. However, the historical perspective of science and mathematics has been westernized across the curriculum in the USA. There is a limited number of textbook analyses centered on exploring the representation of science and mathematics under a historical standpoint. This research seeks to discuss the dominated historical viewpoints presented in the textbooks and uncover the untold historical perspectives of science and mathematics contributors from non-western regions. A discourse analysis of eleven science and mathematics textbooks published over the course of 10 years was examined under an ethnocentric and cultural imperialistic lens with a focus on the hidden curriculum. The findings reflect that science and math textbooks continue to exhibit male Eurocentric representations. This research offers counter-hegemonic discourses in the history of science and mathematics not present in the analyzed textbooks with the purpose of diversifying the scientific and mathematic historical content knowledge. By offering teachers and students with diverse perspectives of the history of science and mathematics, the curriculum becomes enriched with accurate knowledge that serves and represents all learners.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Textbooks utilized for this research are readily available to the public at public higher education institutions. Details of the textbooks are located in Sect. 4, and are listed as references at the end of this manuscript.

References

  • Amr, S. S., & Tbakhi, A. (2007). Jabir ibn Hayyan. Annals of Saudi Medicine, 27(1), 53–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atwater, M. M. (2010a). Multicultural science education and curriculum materials. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 47(4), 103–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atwater, M. M. (2010). Dr. Geneva Gay: Multicultural education for all disciplines. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas, 47(4), 160–162.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, D. (1998). Equity issues in science education. In B. J. Fraser & K. G. Tobin (Eds.), International handbook of science education (pp. 869–896). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Banks, J. A. (2015). Citizenship, global migration and education. In H. P. Baptiste, A. Ryan, B. Araujo, & R. Duhon-Sells (Eds.), Multicultural Education: A renewed paradigm of transformation and call to action (pp. 56–67). Caddo Gap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barba, R. H. (1998). Science: In the multicultural classroom (2nd ed.). Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J. (2015). Tracing “Ethical Subjectivities” in science education: How Biology textbooks can frame ethico-political choices for students. Research in Science Education, 45(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-014-9411-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bazzul, J., & Sykes, H. (2011). The secret identity of a biology textbook: Straight and naturally sexed. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 6(2), 265–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-010-9297-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyer, M. & Apple, M. (Eds.). (1998). Values and politics in the curriculum. In The curriculum: Problems, politics, and possibilities (pp. 3–11). SUNY Press.

  • Boyer, C. B. (1944). Zero: The symbol, the concept, the number. National Mathematics Magazine, 18(8), 323–330. https://doi.org/10.2307/3030083

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, C. B. (1991). A history of mathematics (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer, J. B., & Baptiste, H. P. (1996). Transforming the curriculum for multicultural understandings: A practitioner’s handbook. Caddo Gap Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braga, M., Guerra, A., & Reis, J. C. (2013). History of science, physics, and art: A complex approach in Brazilian syllabuses. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 8(3), 725–736.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curran, F. C., & Kellogg, A. T. (2016). Understanding science achievement gaps by race/ethnicity and gender in kindergarten and first grade. Educational Researcher, 45(5), 273–282.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeBuvitz, W. (2011). Adding a bit more history to science courses. Physics Teacher, 49(5), 282–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Good, R. (1995). Comments on multicultural science education. Science Education, 79, 335–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, W., & Naidoo, D. (2008). Science textbooks in the context of political reform in South Africa: Implications for access to science. Science Education International, 19(2), 235–250.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guerra, A., & Braga, M. (2014). “The name of the rose”: A path to discuss the birth of modern science. Science Education, 23(3), 643–654.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, D. (1993). In search of a rationale for multicultural science education. Science Education, 77, 685–711.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ideland, M. (2018). Science, coloniality, and “the great rationality divide”: How practices, places, and persons are culturally attached to one another in science education. Science & Education, 27(7–8), 783–803. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-018-0006-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, P. W. (2009). The daily grind. In D. J. Flinders & S. J. Thornton (Eds.), The curriculum studies reader (pp. 29–36). Routledge Falmer.

  • Joseph, G. (2011). The crest of the peacock: Non-European roots of mathematics (3rd ed). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7sdsb

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ju, M. K., Moon, J. E., & Song, R. J. (2016). History of mathematics in Korean mathematics textbooks: Implication for using ethnomathematics in culturally diverse school. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 14(7), 1321–1338. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-015-9647-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leite, L. (2002). History of science in science education: Development and validation of a checklist for analyzing the historical content of science textbooks. Science & Education, 11, 333–359.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, R. K. (1979). The mystery of the discovery of zero. ETC: A review of general semantics, 36(1), 16–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Longino, H. (1990). Science as social knowledge. Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loving, C. (1995). Comment on ‘multiculturalism, universalism, and science education.’ Science Education, 79, 341–348.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luke, A. (1989). Open and closed texts: The ideological/semantic analysis of textbook narratives. Journal of Pragmatics, 13, 53–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton, W. S., & Lewis, C. M. (2010). China: Its history and culture. World Publishing Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mujawamariya, D., & Hamdan, A. (2013). Appropriately diverse? The Ontario science and technology curriculum tested against the Banks Model. Canadian Journal of Education, 36(4), 416–448.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ndura, E. (2004). ESL and cultural bias: An analysis of elementary through high school textbooks in the Western United States of America. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 17(2), 143–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ninnes, P. (2000). Representations of indigenous knowledges in secondary school science textbooks in Australia and Canada. International Journal of Science Education, 22(6), 603–617. https://doi.org/10.1080/095006900289697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ninnes, P. (2001). Representations of ways of knowing in junior high school science texts used in Australia. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 22(1), 81–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300120039777

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ninnes, P. (2001b). Writing multicultural science textbooks: Perspectives, problems, possibilities and power. Australian Science Teachers Journal, 47(4), 18–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ninnes, P. (2002). Discursive space(s) in science curriculum materials in Canada, Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 34(5), 557–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220270110114081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peterson, S. B., & Kroner, T. (1992). Gender biases in textbooks for introductory psychology and human development. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16(1), 17–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinar, W. F. (2004). Autobiography: A revolutionary act. What is curriculum theory? (pp. 35–64). Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pingel, F. (1999). UNESCO guidebook on textbook research and textbook revision (pp. 9–11). Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T. S. (2009). Curriculum study, curriculum history, and curriculum theory: The reason of reason. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 41(3), 301–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popkewitz, T. S. (2011). Curriculum history, schooling and the history of the present. History of Education, 40(1), 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rajan, R. G. (1983). The first chemist. Journal of Chemical Education, 60(2), 126. https://doi.org/10.1021/ed060p126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rezende, F., & Ostermann, F. (2020). Hegemonic and counter-hegemonic discourses in science education scholarship from the perspective of post-critical curricular theories. Cultural Studies of Science Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-019-09969-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, A. J. (2007). “Science for all” and invisible ethnicities: How the discourse of power and good intentions undermine the National Science Education Standards. In M. Hines (Ed.), Multicultural Science Education: Theory, practice and promise (pp. 21–35). Peter Lang Publishing Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Romanowski, M. H. (1996). Problems of bias in history textbooks. Social Education, 60(3), 170–173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Slattery, P. (2013). Introduction to curriculum development, reconceptualization, and postmodernity. Curriculum development in the postmodern era (pp. 17–36). Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeter, C. E., & Grant, C. A. (1991). Textbooks and race, class, gender and disability. In M. W. Apple & L. K. Christian-Smith (Eds.), Politics of the Textbook. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Starck, J. G., Riddle, T., Sinclair, S., & Warikoo, N. (2020). Teachers are people too: Examining the racial bias of teachers compared to other American adults. Educational Researcher, 49(4), 273–284. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20912758

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson, J. D. (1968). The double helix. Atheneum.

    Google Scholar 

Textbook Resources

  • Carter, J. A., Cuevas, G. J., Day, R., Malloy, C., Holliday, B., & Casey, R. (2012). Glencoe Algebra 2 (teacher). Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles, R. I., Illingworth, M., McNemar, B., Mills, D., Ramirez, A., & Reeves, A. (2013). Mathematics common core teacher edition course 1. NJ Pearson/Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles, R. I., Illingworth, M., McNemar, B., Mills, D., Ramirez, A., & Reeves, A. (2013). Mathematics common core teacher edition course 2. NJ Pearson/Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charles, R. I., Illingworth, M., McNemar, B., Mills, D., Ramirez, A., & Reeves, A. (2013). Mathematics common core teacher edition course 3. NJ Pearson/Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ebbing, D. D., Gammon, S. D., & Ragsdale, R. O. (2006). Essentials of general chemistry (2nd ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacket, J. K., Moyer, R. H., Vazquez, J., Teferi, M., Zike, D., LeRoy, K., Terman, D. T. J., & Wheeler, G. F. (2011). 4th grade Science a closer look. McMillan/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacket, J. K., Moyer, R. H., Vazquez, J., Teferi, M., Zike, D., LeRoy, K., Terman, D. T. J., & Wheeler, G. F. (2011). 5th grade Science a closer look. McMillan/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacket, J. K., Moyer, R. H., Vazquez, J., Teferi, M., Zike, D., LeRoy, K., Terman, D. T. J., & Wheeler, G. F. (2011). 6th grade Science a closer look. McMillan/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Phillips, J. S., Strozak, V. S., & Wistrom, C. (2005). Chemistry: Concepts and applications. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilbraham, A. C., Staley, D. D., Matta, M. S., & Waterman, E. L. (2005). Chemistry. Pearson Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zumdahl, S. S., & Zumdahl, S. A. (2003). Chemistry (6th ed). Houghton Mifflin Company.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express her immense gratitude to Dr. Christine Sleeter for providing thorough feedback at the initial stages of the manuscript and to Ana Gabriela Chacón-Díaz for proofreading the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teaching and Learning, College of Education and Human Ecology, The Ohio State University, 1945 High Street, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

    Lucía B. Chacón-Díaz

Authors
  1. Lucía B. Chacón-Díaz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lucía B. Chacón-Díaz.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chacón-Díaz, L.B. A Textbook Analysis to Uncover the Hidden Contributors of Science and Mathematics. Sci & Educ 31, 193–211 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00246-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00246-7

Search

Navigation