Palgrave Studies in Educational Media – serie

This volume reflects on the role played by textbooks in the complex relationship between war and education from a historical and multinational perspective, asking how textbook content and production can play a part in these processes. It has long been established that history textbooks play a key role in shaping the next generation’s understanding of both past events and the concept of ‘friend’ and ‘foe’. Considering both current and historical textbooks, often through a bi-national comparative approach, the editors and contributors investigate various important aspects of the relationships between textbooks and war, including the role wars play in the creation of national identities (whether the country is on the winning or losing side), the effacement of international wars to highlight a country’s exceptionalism, or the obscuring of intra-national conflict through the ways in which a civil war is portrayed. This pioneering book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of textbooks, educational media and the relationships between curricula and war.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book explores how the socially disputed period of the Cold War is remembered in today’s history classroom. Applying a diverse set of methodological strategies, the authors map the dividing lines in and between memory cultures across the globe, paying special attention to the impact the crisis-driven age of our present has on images of the past. Authors analysing educational media point to ambivalence, vagueness and contradictions in textbook narratives understood to be echoes of societal and academic controversies. Others focus on teachers and the history classroom, showing how unresolved political issues create tensions in history education. They render visible how teachers struggle to handle these challenges by pretending that what they do is ‘just history’. The contributions to this book unveil how teachers, backgrounding the political inherent in all memory practices, often nourish the illusion that the history in which they are engaged is all about addressing the past with a reflexive and disciplined approach.

This book introduces multimodality and technology as key concepts for understanding learning in the 21st century. The author investigates how a nationwide socio-educational policy in Uruguay becomes recontextualised across time/space scales, impacting interaction and learning in an English as a Foreign Language classroom. The book introduces scalar analysis to better understand the situated and fractal nature of education policy as meaning-making, subsequently defining learning from a multimodal socio-semiotic approach. The analytical integration of different policy scales shows what policy means to various stakeholders, and what learning means for students and teachers. This depends both on how they position themselves and how they engage with the policy educational media. This innovative book will appeal to students and scholars of technology and learning, as well as multimodality.

This book introduces multimodality and technology as key concepts for understanding learning in the 21st century. The author investigates how a nationwide socio-educational policy in Uruguay becomes recontextualised across time/space scales, impacting interaction and learning in an English as a Foreign Language classroom. The book introduces scalar analysis to better understand the situated and fractal nature of education policy as meaning-making, subsequently defining learning from a multimodal socio-semiotic approach. The analytical integration of different policy scales shows what policy means to various stakeholders, and what learning means for students and teachers. This depends both on how they position themselves and how they engage with the policy educational media. This innovative book will appeal to students and scholars of technology and learning, as well as multimodality.

This book explores the potential of social media as a space for teaching and bringing about sustainable peace. Using cutting-edge research, the editors and authors analyze the fundamental transformations taking place in the digital and interactive public sphere, most recently with the advent of the ‘post-truth’ age and the impact of this upon young people’s perceptions of ‘friend’ and ‘foe’. Peace initiatives at almost every level recognize the importance of education for sustainable peace: this volume examines the opportunities emerging from these societal transformations for both formal and informal education. This book will appeal to students and scholars of social media, peace education and the post-truth age.

This book explores the potential of social media as a space for teaching and bringing about sustainable peace. Using cutting-edge research, the editors and authors analyze the fundamental transformations taking place in the digital and interactive public sphere, most recently with the advent of the ‘post-truth’ age and the impact of this upon young people’s perceptions of ‘friend’ and ‘foe’. Peace initiatives at almost every level recognize the importance of education for sustainable peace: this volume examines the opportunities emerging from these societal transformations for both formal and informal education. This book will appeal to students and scholars of social media, peace education and the post-truth age.

This open access book examines the complex relationship between education, media and power. Exploring the entanglement of education media and power structures, the contributions use various examples and case studies to demonstrate how subjectivation processes and digital structures interact with one another. The book asks which modes of subjectivation can be identified with current media cultures, how subjects deal with the challenges and potential of digitality, and how coping and empowerment strategies are developed. By addressing theoretical as well as empirical evidence, the chapters illuminate these connections and the subsequent significance for media education more widely.

This open access book provides the theoretical and pedagogical foundations for a promising new approach to civic education: using social media to teach civics. While many measures indicate that youth civic engagement has long been in decline, many of these measures fail to take into account all of the ways that youth can interact with civic life. One of these understudied ways is through social media, including platforms like Twitter, where young people have the opportunity to encounter the news, engage with people in power, and bring attention to the needs in their community. Throughout this volume, Chapman explores how and why teachers can use social media to teach civics, as well as how it might meet the needs of students in ways other approaches do not.

This volume explores the socio-cultural and media background of a critical and ongoing political challenge: the complex entanglement between European integration and strong national agendas in the context of globalisation. It does so using educational media - both textbooks and digital media - as sites of cultural contestation to enquire into the intricate relationships around national and European identities and aspects of students’ knowledge and reception. Using a variety of methods and technologies, the chapters analyse identity constructions present in educational media discourses, embedded as they are in their national and European contexts and as both the catalysts and products of their time. The book is a study of the post-digital condition in an educational context, exploring the potential of digital humanities and linguistic approaches for educational media research and employing methods such as eye-tracking or concept maps.

This volume explores the socio-cultural and media background of a critical and ongoing political challenge: the complex entanglement between European integration and strong national agendas in the context of globalisation. It does so using educational media - both textbooks and digital media - as sites of cultural contestation to enquire into the intricate relationships around national and European identities and aspects of students’ knowledge and reception. Using a variety of methods and technologies, the chapters analyse identity constructions present in educational media discourses, embedded as they are in their national and European contexts and as both the catalysts and products of their time. The book is a study of the post-digital condition in an educational context, exploring the potential of digital humanities and linguistic approaches for educational media research and employing methods such as eye-tracking or concept maps.

This open access book examines the interrelations and correlations of the postdigital condition and its relationship to education, with a particular focus on participation. Contributions reflect on how educational institutions are affected by the recent transformations of media technologies and practices, and how at the same time institutions such as schools and universities are supposed to enable people to participate in media practices in an informed and reflective way. How, and under what conditions, can teachers and students participate in contemporary media constellations? The book will be of interest to academics and researchers involved in teacher education, digital pedagogy, educational technology, instructional design, education philosophy and media education.

This open access book examines the interrelations and correlations of the postdigital condition and its relationship to education, with a particular focus on participation. Contributions reflect on how educational institutions are affected by the recent transformations of media technologies and practices, and how at the same time institutions such as schools and universities are supposed to enable people to participate in media practices in an informed and reflective way. How, and under what conditions, can teachers and students participate in contemporary media constellations? The book will be of interest to academics and researchers involved in teacher education, digital pedagogy, educational technology, instructional design, education philosophy and media education.

This book analyzes the changing portrayal of GDR literature in German Gymnasium textbooks 1985-2015. Addressing the need for textbook research to broaden its focus from GDR history to GDR literature, the author presents case studies of well-known GDR authors (Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, Anna Seghers, Wolf Biermann, and Christa Wolf), each examining a particular aspect of the societal discourse about GDR literature and the tension between (literary) text and (historical) context. Taken together, the case studies reveal the frequently underestimated power of ideology in literature textbooks. They also show how attempts to package these authors into simplified categories ultimately reveal the profound complexities of the GDR literary legacy. By examining the clear tension between literature and politics in textbooks and curricula, the author demonstrates how ideological messages are transmitted in all textbooks, as well as the importance of attending to overt and covert ideology.

This book analyzes the changing portrayal of GDR literature in German Gymnasium textbooks 1985-2015. Addressing the need for textbook research to broaden its focus from GDR history to GDR literature, the author presents case studies of well-known GDR authors (Bertolt Brecht, Johannes R. Becher, Anna Seghers, Wolf Biermann, and Christa Wolf), each examining a particular aspect of the societal discourse about GDR literature and the tension between (literary) text and (historical) context. Taken together, the case studies reveal the frequently underestimated power of ideology in literature textbooks. They also show how attempts to package these authors into simplified categories ultimately reveal the profound complexities of the GDR literary legacy. By examining the clear tension between literature and politics in textbooks and curricula, the author demonstrates how ideological messages are transmitted in all textbooks, as well as the importance of attending to overt and covert ideology.

This open access book investigates how representation of Native Americans and Mexican-origin im/migrants takes place in high school history textbooks. Manually analyzing text and images in United States textbooks from the 1950s to 2022, the book documents stories of White victory and domination over Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) groups that disproportionately fill educational curricula. While representation and accurate information of non-White perspectives improves over time, the same limited tropes tend to be recycled from one textbook to the next. Textual analysis is augmented by focus groups and interviews with BIPOC students in California high schools. Together, the data show how misrepresentation and absence of BIPOC perspectives in textbooks impact youth identity. This book argues for an innovative rethinking of US history curricula to consider which stories are told, and which perspectives are represented.

This open access book investigates how representation of Native Americans and Mexican-origin im/migrants takes place in high school history textbooks. Manually analyzing text and images in United States textbooks from the 1950s to 2022, the book documents stories of White victory and domination over Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) groups that disproportionately fill educational curricula. While representation and accurate information of non-White perspectives improves over time, the same limited tropes tend to be recycled from one textbook to the next. Textual analysis is augmented by focus groups and interviews with BIPOC students in California high schools. Together, the data show how misrepresentation and absence of BIPOC perspectives in textbooks impact youth identity. This book argues for an innovative rethinking of US history curricula to consider which stories are told, and which perspectives are represented.

This book presents the findings of three studies on the use of diagrams in civic education. The first study presents an international comparison of textbook diagrams promoting national unity in diversity, with examples from ten countries. The second focuses on the depiction of migration in diagrammatic form in German textbooks, The final study was conducted in collaboration with teachers in Swedish social science classrooms, and focuses on teaching comprehension of flow charts and scatterplots. The book will be of interest to scholars of educational media, didactics, the history of education and citizenship education.

This open access book examines global poverty education in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms, with particular focus on Germany as a case study. Combining textbook analysis with teacher interviews, it uncovers dominant narratives of poverty representation and education, revealing moral and pedagogical framings that impact learning outcomes within the framework of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. Beginning with an overview of international and national policy frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as of contemporary research and theory on Education for Sustainable Development in foreign language pedagogy, the book explores how English-language materials depict poverty through language, imagery, and intercultural narratives, as well as what educational aims they target. It problematizes these perspectives in light of contemporary research on the complex causes and solutions of global poverty, revealing tensions between educational intentions and empirical realities. Even well-meaning materials, it argues, can reproduce stereotypes, simplify global dynamics, or promote paternalistic and misleading worldviews. Drawing on insights and experiences of teachers, the study highlights the ethical and emotional challenges of addressing such issues in the classroom and calls for pedagogies that engage learners critically and empathetically. Finally, it uncovers the subtle cognitive, cultural, and moral biases that shape how poverty is framed in education, reflecting patterns that extend far beyond the classroom and carry implications for global understanding and responsibility. Integrating insights from global poverty research, foreign language didactics, sustainability studies, and critical pedagogy, Reframing Global Poverty in Language Education offers practical guidance for educators, researchers, and policymakers committed to fostering reflective and globally aware learners.

This edited book discusses the historical role of textbooks in promoting national ideology. It brings together chapters from several continents, establishing a dialogue between the Global North and South, and between authors from relatively newly independent states and those working in countries that were once centres of colonial empire.Anchored in the symbolic space of the Atlantic, the book examines how empires, nations, and identities were historically constructed and contested across the ocean that once linked Europe, Africa, and the Americas through trade, slavery, and migration. It highlights the enduring influence of colonial legacies in textbooks from Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, and beyond, revealing how these narratives continue to shape civic imagination and historical consciousness.Clear, engaging, and highly accessible, National and Global Historical Perspectives on Textbooks: The Atlantic Connection invites readers to examine closely what schoolbooks convey, through words and images, and to reflect on how these narratives shape public memory and civic life. By combining theoretical insights with comparative perspectives, the book offers a fresh and timely understanding of the role of education in an era marked by global inequalities, renewed nationalism, and debates over historical truth.This volume will appeal not only to researchers and students in textbook studies, history education, curriculum theory, and memory politics, but also to teachers, policymakers, and anyone interested in how societies craft the stories they tell their children.

This Open Access book explores the evolving dynamics of postdigital learning in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), offering a comprehensive ethnographic and discursive analysis. Through an exploration of educational media - including traditional tools and AI-driven technologies - it examines how public schooling, identity formation and neoliberal influences intersect within post-transitional societies.Focusing on Poland, this study investigates the interplay between national identity, European integration and shifting educational paradigms amid conservative and neoliberal currents. Drawing on fieldwork conducted between 2022 and 2024 in high schools in Gdansk, the book presents empirical insights from ethnographic research, critical discourse analysis and interviews with students and teachers. It captures the tensions between passive knowledge transfer and the incidental, technology-mediated learning habits of iGen youth.By weaving theoretical perspectives with firsthand observations, this book illuminates the ways in which education is being reshaped in the postdigital knowledge society. It invites readers to reconsider how schools, policies, and digital media together define the emerging landscape of learning, identity, and knowledge production in the 21st century.

This book provides an unconventional account of post-1989 education reform in Romania. By drawing on policy documentation, interviews with key players, qualitative data from everyday school contexts, and extensive textbook analysis, this groundbreaking study explores change within the Romanian education system as a process that institutionalises world culture through symbolic mediation of the concept ‘Europe’. The book argues that the education system’s structural and organisational evolution through time is decoupled from its self-depiction by ultimately serving a nation-building agenda. It does so despite notable changes in the discourse reflecting increasingly transnational definitions of the mission of the school in the post-1989 era. The book also suggests that the notions of ‘nation’ and ‘citizen’ institutionalised by the school are gradually being redefined as cosmopolitan, matching post-war patterns of post-national affiliations on a worldwide level.

This book highlights and examines the role of the textbook in legitimising established political and social orders. It analyses the way in which the ‘other’ is presented in school textbooks, focusing on  a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and argues that the role of textbooks in developing and maintaining a national identity should be afforded greater critical attention. Textbooks can help form national identities by developing a society’s collective memory; this might involve a historical narrative which may be self-contradictory or even fabricated to a certain extent, including myths, symbols and collective memories that divide “us” from “them”, and ultimately resulting a dichotomy between the Self and the Other. As well as addressing a range of theoretical questions relating to the study of textbooks generally, the volume also covers a broad spectrum of Middle Eastern states and societies, with contributions from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus,Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdistan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and Palestine. It will be essential reading for researchers and students working in the fields of Education, Sociology and History, particularly those with an interest in national identities in the MENA region.

This book provides an unconventional account of post-1989 education reform in Romania. By drawing on policy documentation, interviews with key players, qualitative data from everyday school contexts, and extensive textbook analysis, this groundbreaking study explores change within the Romanian education system as a process that institutionalises world culture through symbolic mediation of the concept ‘Europe’. The book argues that the education system’s structural and organisational evolution through time is decoupled from its self-depiction by ultimately serving a nation-building agenda. It does so despite notable changes in the discourse reflecting increasingly transnational definitions of the mission of the school in the post-1989 era. The book also suggests that the notions of ‘nation’ and ‘citizen’ institutionalised by the school are gradually being redefined as cosmopolitan, matching post-war patterns of post-national affiliations on a worldwide level.

This book highlights and examines the role of the textbook in legitimising established political and social orders. It analyses the way in which the ‘other’ is presented in school textbooks, focusing on  a number of countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and argues that the role of textbooks in developing and maintaining a national identity should be afforded greater critical attention. Textbooks can help form national identities by developing a society’s collective memory; this might involve a historical narrative which may be self-contradictory or even fabricated to a certain extent, including myths, symbols and collective memories that divide “us” from “them”, and ultimately resulting a dichotomy between the Self and the Other. As well as addressing a range of theoretical questions relating to the study of textbooks generally, the volume also covers a broad spectrum of Middle Eastern states and societies, with contributions from Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Cyprus,Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdistan, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Israel and Palestine. It will be essential reading for researchers and students working in the fields of Education, Sociology and History, particularly those with an interest in national identities in the MENA region.