2-2013: Social Science Textbooks in Higher Education

Journal of Social Science Education:
Volume 11, Number 2, © JSSE 2012, ISSN 1618-5293

Social Science Textbooks in Higher Education

Call for papers

Journal of Social Science Education (JSSE)

Issue 2/2013

What is the role of social science textbooks in times of e-learning and portfolio assessment? Are they a key factor in shaping the education of the next generation of social scientists and social science teachers at universities? Or do they lead a more or less shadowy existence, for example, textbooks for school subjects like Politics in some European countries?

Thomas Kuhn’s famous book about the “Structure of scientific revolutions” pointed out the role of textbooks in establishing a paradigm and a “true” scientific discipline. Kuhn’s thesis about the role of scientific revolutions and normal science was intensely discussed since then. But Kuhn’s concept always was restricted to (natural) science. What is about the role of academic textbooks in humanities and social sciences?

 Up to now little attention has been paid to the role and impact of textbooks in social sciences and especially in social science education at universities. For this reason, the editors of the Journal of Social Science Education decided to dedicate a thematic issue to research on social science textbooks, its concepts, impacts, achievements, shortcomings, institutional and individual forms of use and cultural practices.

 Contributions are welcome from the broad field of social sciences including disciplines like

- political science

- sociology

- law

- economics.

 Of course, papers dealing with textbooks introducing students aiming at becoming teachers into the discipline of social science teaching at school (citizenship education, economic education, social education) or into subject matter lesson planning may also be submitted for this issue of the JSSE.

 Some further aspects deserve researchers’ attention and papers dealing with them are very welcome:

 A number of national social science associations are giving awards to best practice textbooks. However, what do we know about criteria, the selection processes and potentially normative impacts on the respective discipline?

 Particular attention could be given to the rhetoric and the style of leading social science textbooks, metaphors used, core narratives or founding myths of a discipline.

 Social science textbooks are directed to an academic audience (textbook) or to a more general public (nonfiction bestseller). The boundaries are fluid between these two, and both text genres are of interest for this issue of the JSSE.

Any core lecture course with titles such as “Introduction into sociology, politics/political science” is a kind of “living” textbook. Whereas the use of printed textbooks may be obsolete, video demonstrations and video lectures will become more common. Contributions dealing with these aspects are appreciated as well.

 The JSSE is interested in a broad methodological variety of textbook analyses including historical methods and documentary as well as interpretative study.

 For instance, studies might include a significant proportion of documentary parts from best practice textbooks. Therefore, interpretative methods or deeper analysis of the textbooks’ concepts are highly welcome.

 In general, the JSSE wants to start a discussion on the underestimated field of subject matter didactics of social sciences in the academic field of teacher training.

Editor: N.N., Tilman Grammes, Hamburg

If you are interested to make a contribution, please send a short e-mail notice to: tilman.grammes@uni-hamburg.de.

We kindly ask all authors to follow the editorial guidelines of JSSE:

http://www.jsse.org/info/authors-reviewers/author-instructions