) challenge this assumption: "[Readers] do not passively receive texts, but actually read them based on their own class, race, gender/sex, and religious experience" (p. 14). Likewise, textbook authors approach their writing and research tasks from their own unique perspectives. As Levstik (1997) notes of historians, "there is no such thing as just the facts. Someone sorts through the available data, perceives some facts as more relevant than others, organizes those facts, and assigns them a place . . ." (p. 48). Thus the information put forth in textbooks is derived from a selective perspective. Importance is attached to particular sources and not to others, even though all the information presented to the researcher might merit attention.
Textbook publishers claim that their products are free of bias. Even some researchers have bought into this claim: "Textbooks now do the same job as a dictionary, they give references and landmarks, no arguments or even, except rarely, analysis" (Ferro, 1984, p. 224). On the contrary, textbooks argue for their particular perspective by presenting a wide variety of supporting information.
Prior to the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were rarely represented in textbooks. For most African American Baby Boomers the only black person ever pictured in textbooks was Dred Scott, a mere footnote in history because of the Supreme Court case that bears his name. Given the widespread impact of the Civil Rights Movement, it can be assumed that references to African Americans occur more frequently in social studies textbooks. But the question is, are these portrayals fair and accurate?
Glazer and Ueda (1983) surveyed ethnic groups in history textbooks and concluded that certain ethnic themes emerge in the representation of blacks. The focus is on slavery and its aftermath, with blacks being portrayed as victims of tragic circumstances and beneficiaries of humanitarian concern and...