Inheriting the Tradition: Research Methods in Geographical Textbook Analysis

Over the last decades geography educators have been involved in both developing and evaluating textbooks. As a consequence, textbook research in geography education is expected to have developed myriad research methods. However, little attention has been dedicated to the specific research methods used by geography educators when doing textbook research. Therefore, the aim of this presentation is twofold. Firstly, it aims to explore the variety of research methods applied by researchers working with geography textbooks. Secondly, it seeks to map the development and change of research methods over the last decades. To achieve these objectives, a meta-analysis of published research was carried out. The sample consisted of research articles published in international and selected national journals. Each article was subjected to text analysis that identified the research methods and outlined its algorithm. In a second step, network analysis served to position each study within "schools" of textbook research and research paradigms. The results show that textbook research was limited to few methods and was concentrated around few researchers. Consequently, literature on geographical textbook research was published in a rather episodical manner.

Prof. Dr. Péter Bagoly-Simó
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Lehrstuhl für Didaktik der Geographie