This activity is designed to help you detect the extent to which materials are biased in terms of ethnicity. It has been estimated that 90% of all science teachers use textbooks, and that the textbook is what school districts use---by-and-large---to determine the science curriculum. For the student, the textbook is their contact with science. The image it portrays of science will have a powerful impact on them.

Materials

science textbooks

Multicultural Textbook Evaluation Checklist (Figure 1)

Procedures

1. Work with a team (or individually) to evaluate the images of science and people as portrayed in more than one secondary science textbook. You might want to compare a contemporary book in a field with one published 20 to 30 years ago.

2. Use the checklist in Figure 1 to determine the multicultural character of the books.

Minds On Strategies

1. How valid are the images that are portrayed in the books?

2. What affect do you think the images portrayed will have on secondary students?

3. If you were assigned one of these books to use as the text for a course, how could you compensate for an deficiencies in the materials?

4. Investigate other checklists and evaluation forms for the content of textbooks. Examples include:

a. Ethnic Authenticity Checklist: Fred Rodriguez, Mainstreaming a Multicultural Concept into Teacher Education, Saratoga, CA: R & Publishers, 1983.

b. Sexism in Textbooks: Sue V. Rosser, Female-Friendly Science, New York: Pergamon Press, 1990, pp. 73-91.

Section A. The Image of Science

1. Is the application of science illustrated with examples from all over the world? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

2. Is up-to-date technology only illustrated by Western examples? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

3. Is science set in a context which relates to people? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

4. Does the way in which the material is presented suggest that only Western ways are valid? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

Section B. Images of People

5. Are the people featured in the material from more than one cultural background? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

6. Does the material present a positive view of people from different cultural backgrounds? For example are they illustrated performing tasks of equal esteem? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

7. Are the negative images confined only to people from a particular cultural background? Yes _____ No _____

Comments

8. Are people who are considered eminent scientists from different parts of the world represented?

Yes _____ No _____

Comments

9. Does the material present equal images of women and men? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

Section C. General

10. Is the material presented in such a way as to eliminate damaging feelings of superiortiy, based on race, in the European person? Yes _____ No _____

Comments:

11. Are the customs, life styles, and scientific traditions of people presented in a way that helps to explain the value meaning and role of customs in their lives? Yes _____ No _____

Comments: