This paper reports the results of a comparative content analysis of three evolutionary biology and three vertebrate zoology textbooks, widely adopted in higher education biology courses in many universities of Latin and Anglo-Saxon countries. Using techniques of content analysis, we performed a quali-quantitative documentary analysis of the textbooks, aiming at investigating the treatment and recontextualization of contents related to evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo) and process pluralism. Our findings indicate that the recontextualization of contents associated with process pluralism is still in an initial phase in textbooks of both disciplines, even though in a more advanced stage in evolutionary biology textbooks. Regarding evo-devo contents, recontextualization has already taken place in a more extensive manner, particularly in vertebrate zoology textbooks. These results show differences in the construction of pedagogical discourse related to the structure of academic knowledge and the research targets in these disciplines.
Evolution teaching; Higher education; Textbooks; Process pluralism; Evo-devo.