Research on the use of the Social Sciences, Geography and History textbook in Spain: a systematic review

Abstract

The textbook or school manual represents a central resource for classroom practice and has generated an extraordinary field of study that has resulted in a large amount of academic and scientific production. Within these investigations, it is interesting to highlight those carried out in specific fields of knowledge, such as Didactics of Social Sciences, Geography-History Education, referred to the analysis of textual elements and didactic resources. Therefore, it is also essential to address the contexts of transmission and reception of textbooks, as a essential aspect to understand the effective use made of these resources.

For a better understanding of this aspects, a systematic review of the literature (SLR) based on the principles of the PRISMA declaration has been carried out; from an initial base of 1841 works we select 24 references published in the Spanish field. These studies, extracted from WOS, Scopus, Dialnet, Theseus and ERIC databases, were analyzed considering their ethnographic or empirical nature, excluding theoretical studies.

The main results point to an increase in studies on the use of textbooks, although restricted to the paper format without considering digital textbooks and limited in a geographical scale (regional studies) and stage (secondary education and baccalaureate). This can be explained by the limitations of access, the training of the researchers and the complexity in the analysis of a central school material for educational practice.