State adoption policies, publishing practices, and authorship: The production of Middle East chapters in world history textbooks

The thesis is based on an analysis of textbooks' approaches to the Middle East, and seeks to trace the evolution of those approaches through an investigation of state education policies, publishing practices, and the nature of textbook authorship. The thesis is thus concerned with the two issues of process and conceptualization in textbook production.;The thesis challenges the popular view that the "textbook adoption states" dictate the publisher's agenda in the development of world history texts. It argues that state adoption policies face problems of enforcement at the local level, which diminishes their influence upon publishers; that social studies and world history curricula across adoption and non-adoption states share real or perceived commonalities which permit the publisher's development of nationally oriented world history texts; and that the publisher's attention in planning the world history text is focused as much upon competing textbooks as it is upon state requirements. While the institution of adoption has some influence upon publishers, it remains one among a number of factors in world history textbook development. Equally significant factors are the corporate status of textbook publishing companies and approaches to authorship which contribute to the realization of textbooks which meet perceived market requirements.;The thesis further maintains that textbook treatment of the Middle East, like that of other "non-Western" studies, emerges out of a common philosophy in which democratic citizenship education is the first purpose of social studies. This philosophy establishes a conceptual setting for the study of world history in which emphasis is given to the formation of democratic systems and to the teaching of what state curricula call "American values." The debate which surrounds the interpretation of citizenship education and its application to world historical study is largely expressed in the context of discussions about the study of religion and the concept of "globalism" in world history--issues which challenge conventional approaches to teaching about America's European roots and the quest in public education for cultural homogeneity. Previous studies of textbook treatment of the Middle East have failed to take into account the conceptual contexts of world history and social studies and have therefore been unable to identify the structures which inform such treatment.