Teaching Introduction to American Government/Politics: What We Learn from the Visual Images in Textbooks

Political science students learn the fundamental principles and values about the American political system from American government/politics textbooks. Most of the major textbooks used in these courses utilize the traditional institutional and behavioral approaches to the study of American government and politics, which examines institutions and processes from a hegemonic perspective with emphasis being placed on the political actors who dominate these institutions. As a result, the struggles of nondominant groups are not treated as integral in American historical development or political experience. Situated in a literature review of similar studies, we use content analysis to examine visualizations of African Americans in 27 circulating introductory American Government/Politics textbooks to ascertain whether these illustrations reinforce or argue against traditional, hegemonic coverage of politics. To test our hypotheses, we sampled 27 circulating introductory American Government/Politics textbooks published from 2004 to 2007. Our findings support previous studies to indicate continued hegemonic coverage of politics, but with lessening concentration.