Researching the Ideological and Political Role of the History Textbook- Issues and Methods

Abstract In many nations debates over the content and format of school textbooks are sites of educational and political conflict. The paper argues that school textbook knowledge is socially constructed and that evidence from national education systems strongly suggests that textbook content is manufactured by powerful groups who see it as being central in the creation of particular forms of collective national memory designed to meet specific cultural, economic and social goals. Based upon this analysis, a possible framework for the critical analysis of textbook construction is identified and possible areas for investigation offered with the aim of making more visible and transparent the cultural, ideological and political motives of dominant groups