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The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies pp 103–114Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Textbooks and Education

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Abstract

The first section of this chapter is an overview of how research on the production of textbooks is entangled with historic processes of institutionalisation of education and the attributes ascribed to textbooks over time. I show how, as the role of textbooks decreases in the present, textbooks have been relatively decentred from educational research: they are no longer perceived as the sole sources of school knowledge in the classroom, and the contingent processes of their production (and appropriation) are made visible. In the second section, I discuss the few attempts there have been to theorise the production of textbooks and their role in institutional education. I finally summarise the lines of research that appear promising for future studies of textbooks in education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I analyse general trends on the study of textbooks in educational contexts with only slight references to different national studies and traditions. Whereas most of my revision is based on English literature, I also refer to a handful of works in German, French, and Spanish. Moreover, although I often discuss individual contributions, where possible, I refer to works revising the state of the art of the issues discussed. I do not consider research on textbook uses and appropriation in the classroom, since that is the subject of other chapters of this handbook.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Research, CINVESTAV, Ciudad de México, Mexico

    Eugenia Roldán Vera

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  1. Eugenia Roldán Vera
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georg Eckert Institute - Leibniz-Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany

    Eckhardt Fuchs

  2. Georg Eckert Institute - Leibniz-Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig, Germany

    Annekatrin Bock

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Roldán Vera, E. (2018). Textbooks and Education. In: Fuchs, E., Bock, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Textbook Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53142-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53142-1_7

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