Treatment of Minorities in Texas Government Textbooks

Transcription

1 Treatment of in Texas Government Textbooks Debra P. Avara, Amarillo College John David Raush, jr, West Texas A&M University abstrat: The authors ompare Texas Government textbooks publishes between two periods: 97 to 98 and 99 to for their disussion about the ontributions made by women and raial minorities to the state. Results show books published in the seond time frame provide more details. Exept for a detailed disussion about late Governor, these books fous provide a less-than-average overage on either topi. Introdution have been an integral part of Texas government in some form or fashion sine before the formation of the state. Blaks were initially slaves brought in to work plantations, and eventually beame part of the reason for the Civil War. For enturies, they fought for rights and privileges that were ommon and natural for the white male population. During this time, blaks suffered severely at the hands of whites that wanted to keep them in a position of subjugation. Eventually, the state of Texas had to give them their rights due to a federal government mandate. Mexians beame instant minorities when % of Mexio was eded to the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. If the Mexian nationals hose to stay in their homes, now part of the United States, then after one year they were allowed to beome itizens. The treaty was intended to protet the ivil rights of these nationals, and allow them to ontinue to live as they had prior to the enatment of the treaty. The United States Senate revised the treaty after signing, and Mexians beame targets of disrimination., too, had been kept down and in their plae, whih at that time was onsidered in the home. Throughout the United States, with Texas being no exeption, women also had to fight for their rights. were (and still are) disriminated against in many areas inluding job status and pay equity, and espeially in the politial arena. When women fought and won the right to vote, men still expeted their wives to vote how they were told. When women hoose to speak up and be heard, they too beame an integral part of the politial system. All states have a onnetion between their government and their history. Texas is no exeption. For students of Texas Government to appreiate the role that minorities played in shaping the Texas politial system, they must understand what role the minorities took in history. Textbooks often are the most ommon soure of information for most students. It is appropriate then to ask if Texas Government textbooks have provided a lear understanding of minorities, and their role in shaping Texas government. In addition, to fully understand the hanging onepts of minorities, it is appropriate to see how minorities were treated over the past three and one half deades in Texas government texts. Methodology Two sets of textbooks were seleted for analysis. All textbooks were regarded as ollege level textbooks. Major publishing firms published all of the texts with the first set being published between 97 and 98 (see Table ). More reent texts were published between 99 and (see Table ). In order to analyze the hanges over the years several of the texts are from the same authors but are different editions. To measure overage of minorities, eah text was subjet to the same analysis. Using the index for referene, eah page listed in the index for eah minority was researhed and the number of times the minority was listed was ounted. This ount inluded all text, subtext or headings to pitures, tables or graphs, and referenes as endnotes. If, in the ount of one minority, another minority was listed, it was also ounted, even if that page was not listed for that minority in the index. In addition, in some indexes the minority would be listed with the referene See. (i.e., Blak: see ). In that ase, minorities would be referred to for the pages regarding that rae. Oy the pages listed in the vol. no. PB&J 7

2 Treatment of in Texas Government Textbooks Table. List of Analyzed Texas Government Textbooks (97 98) Anderson, J., Murray, R. & Farley, E. (97). Texas Politis: An Introdution. NY: Harper and Row. Kraemer, R. H., & Newell, C. (979). Texas Politis. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing. Kraemer, R. H., & Newell, C. (98). Texas Politis. nd ed. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing. MaCorkley, S., Smith, D., & May. J. C. (97). Texas Government. 7th ed. NY: MGraw Hill. Nimmo, D., & Oden, W. (97). The Texas Politial System. NJ: Prentie Hall. index under eah minority were researhed. Hene, if a minority was listed on a page not listed in the index or in ombination with another minority, it was not ounted. The number of paragraphs and pages were also ounted when mostly dediated to that minority. Paragraphs for Blaks and Mexians were diffiult beause in many texts, when one minority was listed, so was the other. In many ases, however, just based on the ount of the minority word used, that paragraph would be given to the minority with the larger word ount. Total pages are an approximation based on an aumulation of paragraph sizes. The total pages mentioned in the index for eah minority were also ounted along with the minorities referene. Terminology for minorities was different for most of the textbooks aording to the published dates. When ounting for blak, the terms Negro, Colored, Blak, Blak Texan and were ounted. For Mexian, the terms, Spanish Amerian, Mexian, Hispani, Latino, Chiano and brown were ounted. For women, women and female were ounted. In the seond set of texts, those dated 99 through, in addition to the minorities being ounted, Tony Sanhez,, Kay Bailey Huthison, Carole Keeton Strayhorn (formerly Rylander) were also ounted. These persons are, or were, in our opinion, relevant minority figures in Texas politis. This same proess for ounting was applied to these people. Pitures regarding the minorities were ounted separately. All pitures, whether real, artoon, or editorial, were ounted. Pitures for women may have been ounted twie in order to satisfy the rae-gender fator. Pitures for s also proved to be diffiult due to several fators. Some of the pitures were too small to be able to distinguish between white and Hispani, and in some ases, uess a name was attahed to the piture that was learly of Hispani origin, differentiation was not possible. Analysis Content analysis of the seleted texts indiates an uneven treatment of minorities over the deades. In the early texts, Table, exept for MaCorkel, Smith and May, women seem to be mentioned as an after thought (though Texas had already had a female governor Mariam Ma Ferguson in 9). When omparing the early texts to the newer texts, Table, women are still underrepresented in most texts, with the exeption of, who reeives signifiant mention in many of the texts. When omparing minority word ount to paragraph or page ounts, in many texts the numbers are vastly swayed. In these texts, this indiated that the majority of words ounted were oy as a statisti regarding either demographis or geographial loations. and Hispani ounts ranged from no overage (aording to the index) in the Cole man, Calvi and Marsh text, to extensive index overage with the Tannahill text listing s times, and Latinos times. The Kraemer, Newell and Prindle, 8th edition, listed s times, Mexian Amerians 8 times, Hispani nine times, and Latino four times. The Gibson and Robinson text referened Afrian Amerians times, and Hispani 8 times in the index. Though Tannahill had the greatest number of mentions in the index for s (), they did not have the greatest number of word, paragraph, or page totals. In fat, Tannahill had the least total paragraphs and pages ompared to the other two texts for both minorities. Haig, Peebles and Keith, with just 7 mentions in the index, had the same number of paragraphs and a greater page ount than the Tannahill text. This again ould be an indiation of statistial usage for the minority, or ould indiate the amount of substantive overage provided by the author. In 8 of the books analyzed, the word ount differene between and Hispanis was 7 mentions or less. The three Maxwell and Crain texts had 8 PB&J vol. no.

3 Debra P. Avara and John David Raush, Jr. Table. List of Analyzed Texas Government Textbooks (99 ) Coleman, S., Calvi, J. V. & Marsh, F. L. (99). Texas Government. New Jersey: Prentie-Hall. Crain, E., & Perkins, J. (). Introdution To Texas Politis. th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson-Wadsworth. Gibson Jr., L. T., & Robison, C. (). Government and Politis in The Lone Star State, Theory and Pratie. th ed. New Jersey: Pearson-Prentie-Hall. Haag, S. D., Peebles, R. C. & Keith, G. A. (997). Texas Politis and Government Ideas, Institutions and Poliies. NY: Longman. Kraemer, R. H., Charldean, N., & Prindle, D. F. (). Texas Politis. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Kraemer, R. H., Charldean, N., & Prindle, D. F. (). Texas Politis. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Maxwell, W. E., & Crain, E. (with Davis, E. S., Flores, E. N., Ignagni, J., Opheim, O. & Wlezien, C. B.). (). Texas Politis Today. 9th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Maxwell, W. E., & Crain, E. (with Davis, E. S., Flores, E. N., Ignagni, J., Opheim, O. & Wlezien, C. B.). (). Texas Politis Today. th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Maxwell, W. E., & Crain, E. (with Davis, E. S., Flores, E. N., Ignagni, J., Opheim, O. & Wlezien, C. B.). (). Texas Politis Today. th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth-Thomson Learning. Tannahill, N. (). Texas Government, Poliy and Politis. 8th ed. NY: Pearson Longman. a signifiant spread between minority ounts due to eah text ontaining essays regarding s in Politis. As the tables show, the total word ount is not the deiding fator when looking for overage. Oy of the texts analyzed have a word ount for or Blak over, and 7 of the texts have the terms for listed over times. However, the total pages for for these five texts range from /8 pages to none of the texts having more than ½ total pages. For s, the total pages for these seven texts range from two pages to 9 ½ pages due to the politial essays inluded in the text. Analysis of the piture ounts held the same theory. If a text lists one piture, it may be less than / of a page, or a full-page piture. The Maxwell, Crain, et al., 9th and th editions show pitures of women for eah text, yet the total pages dediated to the pitures was pages for the 9th edition, and / pages for the th edition. Conlusion The amount of information that a student an reeive from these texts onerning minorities in the Texas government ranges from zero or no overage to some overage. The Gibson and Robinson text, in my opinion, had the best overage for all three of the disussed minorities when ompared to the other texts. The Haig, Peebles and Keith text had good overage for the s and Hispanis, but fell short with less than adequate overage for the women. As indiated by the analysis, the greater index mention was not indiative of the most, or even the best, overage. Nor is the size of the book. The oy way to deide who has the best overage, therefore, is to read the text. The three Maxwell, Crain, et al. texts had essays regarding s in Politis. These essays did indeed ontribute to the overage, both historially and urrent, of Mexians to the politial arena. Without these essays however, the overage for s was sparse. Most surprisingly in analysis of the pitures was the Kraemer, Newell nd edition, published in 98. This text ontained five pitures of s and eah of these pitures were in omi or editorial form. In eah of the pitures the women were dressed in a fashion assoiated with historial times. The women had on large aprons, turbines on their heads, and in the omi form, extremely large lips and very blak faes. Some of the same pitures were still in the 8th edition, published in. Texas has a very long history of slavery, as well as raial and minority disrimination. Ten of the texts had less than three pages of overage for s, six texts had less than three pages for Mexian Amerians, and all fifteen texts had three or less pages for women (without ). Whih means that for most of the authors, whether published between vol. no. PB&J 9

4 Treatment of in Texas Government Textbooks Table. Content Analysis of in Texas Government Textbooks, 99 Text Coleman, Calvi, Marsh Crain, Perkins Gibson, Robinson (th ed.) Haig, Peebles, Keith Kraemer,Newell, Prindle (8th ed.) Kraemer, Newell, Prindle (9th ed.) Total Text Pages Total Word Count From Index Referene Minority Carole Strayhorn Page/ Citation * Paragraph Pages Pitures Other / / / /7 7/ /8 / 8/ 7/7 / / / / / /- / 8/8 7/ /9 /8 7/ / /- 7/ /7 / /8 7/9 / / /- /9 / / / 8/7 / 9/ /- / /9 / / /7 / / ½ ½ ¼ ⅛ ⅜ ½ ½ ⅜ 7 ½ 8 a a b PB&J vol. no.

5 Debra P. Avara and John David Raush, Jr. Table. Continued Text Maxwell, Crain, et al. (9th ed.) Maxwell, Crain, et al. (th ed.) Maxwell, Crain, et al. (th ed.) Tannahill (8th ed.) Total Text Pages Minority Carole Strayhorn Page/ Citation * Paragraph Pages Pitures Other 9/ 7/ / /9 9/7 8/ / /- sm/9 sm/7 / /9 / /7 / 9/- 7/ /77 / /7 9/ 7/7 / / / /8 /7 7/ / / ⅜ 9 ½ ½ ½ ⅛ ⅜ ¼ ⅜ 7 7 ¾ ¼ 8 7 d, d e f g * Page/Citations ategory is the total number of pages mentioned in the index/total word ount of the minority from those pages. = ategory was not listed in the index. sm = Referened See. Page totals are an estimate on the part of the authors. Pitures ounted for women inlude all minorities and may be ounted twie to satisfy rae and gender. a. s listed as Hispani. b. Authors listed Latinos,, and Hispanis separately in index.. Inlude essay s regarding Hispanis in politis. d. and Hispani referened See minorities. e. Index listed Blaks, see. f. Author uses olored and blak along with. g. Author uses Latino and Hispani. vol. no. PB&J

6 Treatment of in Texas Government Textbooks Table. Content Analysis of In Texas Government Textbooks Text Anderson, Murray, Farley Kraemer, Newell (st ed.) Kraemer, Newell (nd ed.) MaCorkle, Smith, May (7th ed.) Nimmo, Oden Total Text Pages Total Word Count From Index Referene Minority Blak (Negroes) Blak Blak Blak Blak Texan Page/ Citation * Paragraph Pages Pitures Other / / / 7/- / /88 / 7/- / / / /9 7/9 / /8 9/ / * Page/Citations ategory is the total number of pages mentioned in the index/total word ount of the minority from those pages. = ategory was not listed in the index. Page totals are an estimate on the part of the authors and does not inlude pitures. Pitures ounted for women inlude all minorities and may be ounted twie to satisfy rae and gender. a. Totals inlude one three-page essay regarding Chianos and politis. b. All pitures involving blak were in omi or editorial form oy.. This text had no pitures in the textbook. d. Authors use Spanish Amerian in tables. e. Blaks listed in index as Blak Texans. 9 8 ⅛ 7 ¼ ¾ ¾ ½ 8 a b, d, e 97 and 98 or between 99 and, the amount of overage did not signifiantly hange. The texts averaged 8 pages. Three pages of overage is less than one perent of overage for minorities. s, s and all have a plae and a voie in the politial arena. As time passes, their partiipation in politis is growing and they have beome target voters for politiians to fous on. I would enourage future authors to look at how minorities have been overed in previous textbooks, and to modify the overage to oinide with the important roles that they have played in the forming of and the urrent diretion of Texas Government. debra p. avara is a government instrutor. john david raush, jr is an assoiate professor of politial siene. PB&J vol. no.

7 Debra P. Avara and John David Raush, Jr. Referene Eksterowiz, A. J., & Cline, P. C. (99). Ratifiation of the Constitution: The great debate as portrayed in Amerian Government textbooks. PS: Politial Siene & Politis. June,. vol. no. PB&J