Methodological aspects in the analysis of school text books: a relational perspective

Abstract: The article presents a methodology for analyzing text books from a relational perspective, based on the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Firstly, we discuss the different nomenclatures about the school text books, addressing the development of the field of research called manualística, and then we high light three methodological elements: a) school text books respond to external demands, since they are pedagogical products designed by different agents of the educational field that have different representations of the social world; b) have an internal logic, since they are part of the school culture to which they are directed, received and resignified; and c) require for their analysis a plurality of methods, content and documentary analysis being insufficient for the sociological understanding of this object.

Keywords:
school manuals; methodology; sociology; textbook research