Textbooks according to the sociology of knowledge: a theoretical-methodological approach

Abstract: This article presents an approach to textbook analysis inspired on the configurational sociology and also the sociology of knowledge. Such approach is limited to an investigative inquiry about consolidation of school subjects and to an empirical series of textbooks. Its presentation required, firstly, the definition of different procedures to understand the establishment and development of school subjects that we have thus named systematization, institutionalization and routinization. Next, we have identified levels of analysis to delineate a series of books that are simultaneously products and producers: a) processes of articulation between the agents of production and circulation, b) formalization of contents, c) temporality and significance of knowledge. With this measure we hope to confirm the heuristic value of textbooks to comprehend an important dimension of the intellectual life in society.

Keywords:
textbooks; sociology of knowledge; school knowledge; social configurations