Book Proposal
The New Politics of the Textbook: A Project of Critical Examination and Resistance
Editors:
Dr. Heather Hickman
Lewis University College of Education / Argo Community High School
heather.hickman@comcast.net
Dr. Heather Hickman is an adjunct instructor of Education at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL and a full-time high school English teacher at Argo Community High School in Summit, IL. For the university Heather teaches courses on reading instruction, curriculum and instruction, the history of American education, and introductory research. In her ten years at Argo Community High School she has taught all levels of English language arts and literature. Dr. Hickman’s teaching focus, whether at the university or high school level, takes a critical stance examining the status quo and addressing marginalization. This teaching lens was developed through her doctoral program at Lewis University in Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning. Heather earned her Ed.D. from Lewis in May of 2009. In addition to teaching, Heather has presented and published papers on the topic of heteronormativity and critical theory in education.
Dr. Brad J. Porfilio
Lewis University Department of Educational Leadership
porfilio16@aol.com
Dr. Brad J. Porfilio is Assistant Professor of Education at Lewis University in Romeoville, IL. He teaches courses on critical pedagogy, qualitative research, globalization and education, multicultural education, foundations of education, and curriculum theory in the Educational Leadership for Teaching and Learning Doctoral Program. The Educational Leadership Program at Lewis University is unique in its critical and transformative focus where students are prepared to become transformative educational leaders who are deeply discerning, knowledgeable and approach the educational system as a potential avenue for challenging and transforming the status quo. Dr. Porfilio received his PhD in Sociology of Education in 2005 at the University at Buffalo. During his doctoral studies, he served as an Assistant Professor of Education at Medaille College and D’Youville College, where he taught courses across the teacher education spectrum and supervised pre-service and in-service teachers from Canada and the US. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, edited volumes, and conference papers on the topics of urban education, youth culture, neoliberalism and schooling, transformative education, teacher education, gender and technology, and cultural studies
 
 
Overview
This collection will consider the links among politics, commercialism, and textbook curricula. In an age of standardized high-stakes testing and the commoditizing of schooling, textbooks and other products sold to schools for student consumption become the narrowed “official” knowledge circulated in schools (Apple, 1999). Given the dominance of commercial interests and the ability of dominant social groups to control knowledge production through the creation and implementation of textbooks in K-12 schools across the globe, a critical analysis of these cultural artifacts is overly needed. In the vein of the essays in The Politics of the Textbook (Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991), the contributors will highlight the continued power of these products to shape social views, perpetuate power in dominant groups, demonize or trivialize social groups who are oppressed on the structural axes of race, class, gender, sexuality and (dis)ability, and regulate student thought and behavior. Chapters in this volume will make sense of the political, social, moral, and economic dimensions of textbooks. Additionally, contributors will provide lived examples from their classrooms in how they have positioned their students to critically analyze how power shapes the production of textbooks; to evaluate whether textbooks still perpetuate dominant Western narratives that normalize and privilege patriotism, militarism, consumerism, White supremacy, heterosexism, rugged individualism, technology, and a positivistic conception of the world (Kornfeld, 1998; Wong, 1991; Lugg, 2003; Meyer, 2008) and to recognize whether textbooks offer counter-hegemonic views of knowledge, citizenship, minoritzed groups, and the social and economic structures and practices responsible for generating asymmetrical relations of power. 
Purpose
The purpose of this edited volume is to highlight the continued need for educators to be critical of the content of materials presented to students. As Apple (2006) notes, “in the absence of an overt national curriculum, the commercially produced textbook . . . remains the dominant definition of the curriculum in the United States” (2006, p. 46). Moreover, with large-scale Western corporate conglomerates controlling knowledge production through textbooks and other commercialized curricula in K-12 schools in countries across the globe, there is also an immediate need to critically evaluate how commercial logics, Western values, and dominant social norms are being propagated though these cultural texts. Given the increased power of textbook publishers and elite members in various social contexts to narrowly regulate curricula, textbooks must be reconsidered for the role they play in the creation of students’ political, social, and moral development and in perpetuating asymmetrical social and economic relationships, where social actors are bestowed unearned privileges and entitlements based upon their race, gender, sexuality, class, and religious and linguistic background.
Significance
Since 1991, there has been little research on the impact of textbook content on students (Sedgwick, 1985; Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991; Frederickson, 2004; Woodrow, 2007). What research has been conducted remains unconnected to other recent studies. For example, Woodrow’s work (2007) considers culture as reflected in middle school science textbooks while Frederickson (2004) examines gender in history textbooks. Individually, these studies suggest the types of “othering” found in textbooks. Bringing these and other studies together in this volume will paint a more clear and accurate view of the impact of politics and commercialism on textbooks and students. Given the new age of testing ushered in by No Child Left Behind, the corporate dominance over textbook production inside and outside of US, and the US’s quest for cultural and economic dominance since 9/11(Chomsky, 2003) it is important to examine the materials used with children in schools for the messages both explicit and implicit in the content.
For example, the decision by the Texas State Board of Education to “water down the teaching of the civil rights movement, slavery, [and] American’s relationship with the U.N” (Castro, 2010) is one example of the conservative attitudes impacting curricula. Not coincidently, textbook manufactures and White elite citizens were behind the attempt to propagate lies about the nature of the US society and to further narrow what students learn from textbooks. These groups support their own economic and social dominance when they stymie teachers from reflecting upon what groups enjoy unearned privileges and entitlements due to the institutional arrangements that have been in place in the US for over 400 years. Further, they position teachers to view textbooks as rarified forms of knowledge that not only should never be questioned, but also must be at the center of their instruction, where students continually regurgitate this information to pass a battery of high-stakes examinations and come to believe social and economic inequalities are individual rather than social and economic phenomena. In a similarly narrow move, the Arizona State Legislature passed HB 2281, which
prohibits a school district or charter school from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that: promote the overthrow of the United States government; promote resentment toward a race or class of people; are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group; [or] advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of people as individuals (Arizona H.R., 2010, HB 2281).
This bill limits the availability of classes that might challenge the dominant Western narrative and examine the inherent privileges associated with that narrative.
In each instance described above, states are controlling the content of what students learn in school. In each instance there are clear political and social dimensions to the decisions. This volume will consider how these and other social forces impact the production and reception textbooks.
Structure
This volume will include 10-14 chapters of 6000-8000 words each as well as an introduction, foreword, and afterword. Upon contract, we hope to ask Michael Apple and/or Linda Christian-Smith to contribute to this text.
Audience
This volume will be appealing to students and educators in colleges of education. Specifically, pre-service teachers and their educators can use this book to facilitate discussion of course content selection and analysis. Further, students and professors in the areas of educational leadership and curriculum and instruction can use this text to consider policy regarding texts and the political implications of choices. School administrators are another audience for this text. Administrators can refer to the volume as a guide when considering textbook adoptions. Likewise, state and local policy makers may find this volume useful when creating policy for textbook adoption and use at the state or district levels.
Marketing / Selling Points
This volume will demonstrate the political, social, moral, and economic implications of textbook adoption and use. It can be marketed directly to schools, districts, and colleges of education.
The volume will address the following questions:
1.      How have standardized tests influenced the content of textbooks in Reading/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Science among others?
2.      What do scripted curricula reveal about political, social, moral, and economic dimensions of both education and culture?
3.      Are traditional textbooks becoming obsolete in favor of other commercial products tailored to tests (for example, the College Board’s curricula)?
4.      How do textbooks perpetuate dominance based on race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, language, religion, etc., and how are these areas of difference interconnected as they are portrayed or silenced in textbooks?
5.      Are Western textbook publishers promoting dominant myths and narratives to inculcate children to support the commercialization of their schools and communities as well as to believe their heritage and culture are inferior to their Western counterparts’?
6.      How are educators guiding their students to understand the political and economic forces behind the creation and implementation of textbooks?
7.      Are there alternative narratives generated in textbooks that can be harnessed by educators to challenge dominant Western narratives surrounding the nature of social stratification, (his)story, citizenship, schooling, and minoritized groups?
Submission Process and Timeline
Interested scholars, researchers, and educators will be asked to email the editors by a given date with the following:
1.      Names, positions, mailing addresses, fax and phone numbers, and email addresses of authors.
2.      Title of proposed chapter
3.      Description, of no more than 250 words, of the chapter including type of research, approach, context, connection to the book, and other pertinent information
4.      Acknowledgement of the requirement to formulate five questions for reflection at the end of the chapter
Within one month of the proposal submission date, authors will be notified whether or not their chapter is accepted.
Chapters and questions written using the APA Manual (6th edition) will be due three months following the acceptance of a chapter.
·         Formatting should be as follows: 12 pt. Times New Roman font, 1 inch margins, double spaced text throughout (including references), header with author(s)’s last name(s) and page number
Within two months of the chapter deadline, authors will be notified whether or not their chapter will be moving forward in the volume. Those that are will be asked to complete revisions based on feedback from the editors.
Revised chapters will be due one month after a request for revisions is made.
Within two months of receiving revised chapters, a draft of the volume will be sent to foreword and afterword writers. Writers will have two months to complete their sections.

January 20, 2011

Chapter proposals due

February 15, 2011

Acceptance of chapter proposals complete

May 1, 2011

Draft chapters and questions due

July 1, 2011

Request for chapter revisions complete

July 1, 2011

Revised chapters due

August 1, 2011

Request for foreword and afterword complete

October 1, 2011

Foreword and afterword due

December 1, 2011

Final draft complete

 
References
Apple, M. W. (1999). Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age. New York, NY: Routledge.
Apple, M. W. & Christian-Smith, L. K. (1991). The politics of the textbook. New York, NY: Routledge.
Apple, M. W. (2006). Educating the “right” way: Markets, standards, God, and inequality (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Castro, A. (2010, May 21). Texas OKs school textbook changes: Critics claim conservatives trying to revise history. MSNBC.com. Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37271857/.
Chomsky, N. (2003). Hegemony or survival: America’s quest for global dominance. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.
Frederickson, M. (2004). Surveying gender: Another look at the way we teach United States history. The History Teacher, 37(4), 476–484.
Kornfeld, J., & Goodman, J. (1998). Melting the Glaze: Exploring Student Response to Liberatory Social Studies. Theory Into Practice 37(4), 306-313
Lugg, C. A. (2003). Sissies, faggots, lezzies, and dykes: Gender, sexual orientation, and a new politics of education? Education Administration Quarterly, 39(1), 67–93.
Meyer, E. J. (2008). A feminist reframing of bullying and harassment: Transforming schools through critical pedagogy. McGill Journal of Education, 1(1), 33–48. Retrieved from http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/1077/2086
Prohibited courses; discipline; schools, 49th Arizona State H.R. HB 2281 (2010).
Sedgwick, E. K. (1985). Between men: English literature and male homosocial desire. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wong, S. L. (1991). Evaluating the content of textbooks: Public interests and professional authority. Sociology of Education, 64(1), 11–18.
Woodrow, K. E. (2007). Culturally responsive middle school science: A case study of needs, demands, and challenges. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, 2007). Retrieved October 22, 2008, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text database. (Publication No. AAT 3273663)