A study of the sexual and racial stereotyping of elementary school mathematics textbooks

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1977

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine a sample of elementary school mathematics textbooks and determine if sexual and racial biasness was evident in the material contained in these textbooks. In order to accomplish this, the Textbook Bias Checklist was developed, validated and then used to collect the data for the study. More specifically, it was undertaken to investigate the following questions: 1. Are different racial groups treated similarly in elementary school mathematics textbooks with respect to role presentations? 2. Are different sexual groups treated similarly in elementary school mathematics textbooks with respect to role presentations? 3. Did the publishers of elementary school mathematics text-books chance significantly in their representation of the roles of racial groups in their 1960-1969 editions and parallel text-books published in 1970-1976? 4. Did the publishers of elementary school mathematics text-books change significantly in their representation of the roles of sexual groups in their 1960-1969 editions and parallel text-books published in 1970-1976? Procedures To focus on the first two questions of the study, third, fourth fifth, and sixth grade textbooks representing six (6) major publishing companies were selected. The textbooks used for these questions were published in the nineteen seventies. In order to answer the third and fourth questions, fourth, fifth and sixth grade textbooks published during 1960-1969 and parallel textbooks published during 1970-1976 were selected. The instrument used to collect the data was the Textbook Bias Checklist. Internal and external validity were established for the instrument. A reliability of .93 was found using the Kuder Richardson reliability procedure. Treatment of the data consisted of testing the Hypotheses through the use of Chi-Square and the McNemar Test for the Significance of Change, The criterion for rejection of a null hypothesis was set at .01. Major Findings Analysis of the data described above led to the following conclusions; 1. There was no significant difference in the treatment of racial groups in elementary school mathematics textbooks. 2a. There was significant difference in the treatment of sexual groups in the elementary school mathematics textbooks, with respect to professional, non-professional, proficient, and non-proficient role presentations. 2b. There was no significant difference in the treatment of sexual groups in the elementary school mathematics textbooks, with respect to active, passive, constructive, and nonconstructive role representations. 3. There was no significant change in the representation of roles of racial groups in textbooks published in the 1960's and parallel textbooks published in the 1970's. 4. There was no significant change in the representation of roles of sexual groups in textbooks published in the 1960's and parallel textbooks published in the 1970's.

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