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School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study
Bibliography: pages 140-157.
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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School of Education
2016
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| _version_ | 1867613718600220672 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Reynolds, Mary Jane |
| author2 | Esterhuyse, Jan |
| author_browse | Esterhuyse, Jan Reynolds, Mary Jane |
| author_facet | Esterhuyse, Jan Reynolds, Mary Jane |
| author_sort | Reynolds, Mary Jane |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Bibliography: pages 140-157. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17551 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:40:36.397Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publishDateRange | 2016 |
| publishDateSort | 2016 |
| publisher | School of Education |
| publisherStr | School of Education |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/17551 School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study Reynolds, Mary Jane Esterhuyse, Jan Language and Literature Education Textbooks - South Africa - Evaluation Bibliography: pages 140-157. This study provides evidence that most teachers choose their class textbooks haphazardly and without evaluating them. As a result, bad textbooks are as likely to be chosen and to succeed commercially as good ones are. One consequence of this is that many publishers and authors continue to get away with producing bad textbooks. The study begins by describing the context in which school textbooks are chosen. It gives an overview of the textbook's role, and concludes that it is an indispensable part of an effective education system, especially where other resources are lacking. The study then considers the degree to which South African textbooks fulfil their roles; it concludes that most textbooks in schools are poor, many being incomprehensible to their audiences, but attention is also drawn to some positive textbook development that has taken place. The study next considers how and why so many poor textbooks have been selected by educators: it summarises the part played by education departments and publishers, and reviews the state of textbook evaluation as a discipline. It concludes that South African educators are poorly equipped to evaluate and select textbooks. Against this background, the study describes an investigation of how teachers select textbooks for their classes. The findings are that choice is haphazard and that evaluation, in the rare instances when it takes place, is usually unsystematic and superficial. In conclusion, the study recommends that research into textbook development is done to provide a theoretical framework for effective evaluation, and that training and other support in textbook evaluation for teachers is established to improve selection practices. The study hypothesises that the resulting demand from a broad base of well-informed textbook-selectors in schools will give authors and publishers a more powerful incentive than any other pressures can to produce materials that withstand systematic, critical and wise evaluation. 2016-03-07T06:55:42Z 2016-03-07T06:55:42Z 1997 Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17551 eng application/pdf School of Education Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Language and Literature Education Textbooks - South Africa - Evaluation Reynolds, Mary Jane School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| title_full | School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| title_fullStr | School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| title_full_unstemmed | School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| title_short | School textbooks and teachers' choices : a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| title_sort | school textbooks and teachers choices a contextualizing and ethnographic study |
| topic | Language and Literature Education Textbooks - South Africa - Evaluation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17551 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT reynoldsmaryjane schooltextbooksandteacherschoicesacontextualizingandethnographicstudy |