Introduction -- Part A: History, Theory and Methods of Textbook Research -- 1. History of the School Textbook -- 2. History of Textbook Research -- 3. Theories and Methods of Textbook Studies -- Part B: Textbooks in their Contexts -- 4. Educational Publishers and Educational Publishing -- 5. Textbook Authors, Authorship and Author Function -- 6. Textbooks and Education -- 7. Educational Media, Reproduction and Technology – Towards a critical Political Economy of Educational Media -- 8. Ideas and Concepts for Using Textbooks in the Context of Teaching and Learning in the Social Sciences and Humanities -- 9. Ideas and Concepts on Teaching Science and Geography -- 10. Textbook Quality Criteria and Evaluation -- 11. Materiality and Mediality of Textbooks -- Part C: Textbooks and their Contents -- 12. The Nation, Nationhood and Nationalism in Textbook Research from 1951 to 2017 -- 13. Transnational Identities and Values in Textbooks and Curricula -- 14. Regions -- 15. Representations of Class, Race and Gender in Textbooks -- 16. On Normativity and Absence: Representation of Lgbti* in Textbook Research -- 17. Religion as a Subject of Textbook Analysis: An exemplary overview -- 18. Research into Textbook Portrayals of National Socialism and the Holocaust -- 19. Colonialism -- 20. Concepts of the Past: Socialism -- 21. History Textbooks and the Construction of Dictatorship -- 22. War in Textbooks -- 23. How diverse are our textbooks? Research findings in international perspective -- 24. Human Rights as Cultural Globalisation: The Rise of Human Rights in Textbooks, 1890–2013 -- 25. The Environment -- Part D: Textbook Use, Effects and Practices -- 26. Textbook Use -- 27. Textbook Effects and Efficacy -- 28. Textbook practices: reading texts, touching books -- 29. New Directions.

This volume examines the present status and future trends of textbook studies. Cutting-edge essays by leading experts and emerging scholars explore the field’s theories, methodologies, and topics with the goal of generating debate and providing new perspectives. The Georg Eckert Institute’s unique transdisciplinary focus on international textbook research has shaped this handbook, which explores the history of the discipline, the production processes and contexts that influence textbooks, the concepts they incorporate, how this medium itself is received and future trends. The book maps and discusses approaches based in cultural studies as well as in the social and educational sciences in addition to contemporary methodologies used in the field. The book aims to become the central interdisciplinary reference for textbook researchers, students, and educational practitioners.