Teaching Introduction to American Government/Politics: What We Learn from the Visual Images in Textbooks

Portraits of Religion in Introductory American Government Textbooks: Images of Tolerance or Intolerance

“…Wilcox 1947), which means the material presented in the textbook will be the only formal opportunity to learn about American government. The images surrounding religion in those textbooks are presented to students as authoritative, objective, and factual representations; furthermore, students expect that their course material is truthful, factual, unbiased, and without stereotypical depictions (Allen and Wallace 2010;Clawson and Kegler 2000). Therefore, this particular form of educational media is an important area of inquiry as students are likely to believe that how religion and religious individuals are portrayed in textbooks are accurate depictions of religion in society.…”

“…Not only is the medium important-as attested to by the number of important studies that have specifically focused on American government textbooks (including but not limited to Allen and Wallace 2010;Carey 1982;Cigler and Neiswender 1991;Clawson and Kegler 2000;Novkov and Gossett 2007;Wallace and Allen 2008)-but visual images are a unique means of communicating information and core assumptions about contemporary society. Indeed, a number of important studies have focused solely on racial depictions in textbooks; Allen and Wallace (2010) did a broad study of pictures of African Americans in American government textbooks while 90 M. A. Eisenstein and A. K. Clark Clawson and Kegler (2000) and Clawson (2003) studied African American pictures of poverty in American government and economic textbooks, respectively.…”

Teaching with Tocqueville: Assessing the Utility of Using “Democracy” in the American Government Classroom to Achieve Student-Learning Outcomes

“…This research ranges from how a professor should lecture and what instruments to use (Kinga and Brosig 2008;Souva 2007;Ulbig, 2009), to what students actually learn from their textbooks (Allen and Wallace 2010;Apple and Christian-Smith 1991;Ferree and Hall 1996;Frank and Johnson-Bagby 2005;Novkov and Gosset 2007;Stroup and Garriott 1997;and Wallace and Allen 2008), to how to conduct debates and discussions, and to increase student engagement in the classroom (Bernstein 2008;Bole and Gordon 2009;Damron and Mott 2005;Hildreth 2006;Marks 2008;Oros 2007;Reinke 2003;Sands and Shelton 2010;Strachan 2008). The present research asks how to increase students' civic engagement and civic virtue through teaching ''The Great Tradition.''…”

Marginalization and Invisibility of Women of Color

“…They familiarize students with the scope of the discipline, help define which topics are ''worthy'' of study, provide a vocabulary, and familiarize students with basic concepts (Allen & Wallace, 2010;Apple & Christian-Smith, 1991;Kuhn, 1996;Sleeter & Grant, 1991). As such, they provide important insight into the social construction of knowledge.…”

“…Historically, most texts did not include pictures, at least until about 50 years ago, and when used they were largely confined to a handful of black and white photos that were usually taken from newspapers (Burns & Katovich, 2006). Currently, photographs are the most prevalent forms of images in texts (Allen & Wallace, 2010). Most authors select images from an existing archive that belongs to their publishers.…”