What do pupils and textbooks do with each other?: Methodological problems of research on socialization through educational media

School textbooks are assumed to be important socializers. However, because of the complexity and methodological stumbling blocks involved in the subject matter, the impact of specific textbooks and the interaction between pupils and textbooks have seldom been studied. I discuss the methodological problems in explorations of the role of school textbooks as agents of socialization, and suggest methods for exploring and understanding the dynamic interaction between textbooks and their readers. Notes Veronika Kalmus is a research fellow in the Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu, 18 Ülikooli St., 50090 Tartu, Estonia; e‐mail: vkalmus@ut.ee. Her research interests centre on the school textbook as an agent of socialization, the 'hidden curriculum' of educational media, and the emerging media society in Estonia. She has published in Trames: A Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences and Discourse & Society. By 'educational media' I mean school textbooks in particular, but also the whole range of possible texts, pictorial illustrations, films, computer programs, etc., produced for educational purposes, i.e. to inform and convince the reader/viewer/listener that the presented information and perspectives are correct (Selander Citation1995a). Some of the areas I mention (e.g. reception analysis and discourse studies) are themselves undergoing interdisciplinary development (Jensen Citation1991, van Dijk Citation1997a). The 'combination of methods' means the use of different methods in one and the same study, i.e. the different methods are used for the analysis of the different aspects of the phenomenon being studied. 'Triangulation' means the comparison of results on the basis of different data (e.g. qualitative and quantitative) and using different methods (Titscher et al. Citation2000). Drawing on cognitive science, Wodak and her associates view the discourse‐historical method, as hermeneutic and interpretative, to be part of the research background to sociolinguistics and text linguistics (Titscher et al. Citation2000). A strategy I have used to motivate pupils to write substantial political essays is to give 'pluses' or 'small marks' (which are summed into real marks at the end of the term by the teacher) for the length and quality of argumentation, regardless of the content and direction of statements. The strategy justified itself: I received several solid essays representing a wide variety of opinions on sensitive political issues. The 'effect of answering for mark A' in terms of the expressed attitudes was seen in only a few cases. No one, however, can say with any certainty this effect would not have been there, if no motivating stimuli had been used. Additional informationNotes on contributorsVERONIKA KALMUS Footnote Veronika Kalmus is a research fellow in the Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Tartu, 18 Ülikooli St., 50090 Tartu, Estonia; e‐mail: vkalmus@ut.ee. Her research interests centre on the school textbook as an agent of socialization, the 'hidden curriculum' of educational media, and the emerging media society in Estonia. She has published in Trames: A Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences and Discourse & Society.