Ruth Firer: "The Narrative of the Israeli Palestinian conflict in textbooks of both nations"

Please note that the next IARTEM-conference in Caen, France, from 26th to 29th of October 2005 will have the following topics: 1. Semiotics and the construction of meaning. Theoretical approaches to textbooks and educational media 2. Changing identities in the field of textbooks and educational media 3. Use of textbooks and educational media 4. Quality of textbooks and educational media A call for papers will follow this autumn, about one year ahead of the conference.

Past News:

Asia Pacific Symposium  and Conference Teaching Resources and Textbook Research Unit (TREAT) Faculty of Education University of Sydney August 26 – 27 2004. Further information

The Bratislava conference IARTEM’s seventh international conference on learning and educational media took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on the 24th to the 27th of September, 2003. The theme of the conference was ‘Has Past Passed? Textbooks and Educational Media for the 21st Century’. About 60 participants took part in an interesting program and a number of paper sessions.

IARTEM General Assembly The IARTEM General Assembly took place in Bratislava, Slovakia, on September 27th, 2003. The general assembly elected the new IARTEM board and decided on future activities of IARTEM. You can find the minutes of the assembly here.

The Centre for Pedagogical Texts and Learning Processes at Vestfold College has been heavily involved in two projects, financed by Norwegian authorities, that have to do with the evaluation of textbooks and educational media. Both projects, ‘Selection, Evaluation and Quality Development of Textbooks and Other Educational Media’ and ‘The Multicultural Perspective in Textbooks and Educational Media’, have recently been brought to their conclusion.

The project ‘Selection, Evaluation and Quality Development of Textbooks and Other Educational Media’ has been a three year project (2000-2003) which has involved approximately twenty people. 17 reports and 19 articles have been published by Vestfold College, and results from the project have also been made known through conference papers and other media. The project was presented at a two day conference with approximately 150 participants.

‘The Multicultural Perspective in Textbooks and Educational Media’ has been a two year project (2002-2003) that has investigated the ways in which textbooks and educational media reflect a multicultural society. Two reports have been made about mathematics textbooks and web based materials for social studies. There are also several articles that deal with textbooks and other educational media in English, Norwegian, Norwegian as a foreign language, religious studies and physical education.

At http://www-lu.hive.no/tekstar/ you can find further information about the projects, as well as full text versions of the reports and articles (in Norwegian).

Two new projects have been initiated to follow up the previous ones. These projects are also funded by Norwegian authorities and will be completed by the end of 2004: -       A survey of textbooks and educational media and the ways in which they are used in Norwegian primary and secondary schools -       An evaluation of textbooks and educational media in terms of linguistic accessibility for a culturally diverse student population.

Publication The third IARTEM publication is now available. Check out the table of contents and ordering information here.

IARTEM board meeting in Sydney. (21.10.02) The IARTEM board had a meeting at the University of Sydney, Sept.16 - 19, 2002, in connection with the mini conference there. The upcoming conference in Bratislava (fall 2003) was the main point on the agenda. The main theme for the conference will be Has Past Passed? Textbooks and Educational Media for the 21. Century. Various keynote speakers were suggested. The first call for papers will be sent out shortly. The board also discussed plans for international research projects, a yearbook, and a journal. It was decided that IARTEM and TREAT in cooperation will publish a net-based journal once a year. The journal will be located at IARTEM's web-site and it will be edited by the IARTEM board. The next IARTEM board meeting will be in Utrecht, the Netherlands, in March 2003.

Mini conference in Sydney (21.10.02) A mini conference was held in September 2002 in Sydney, with representatives from Edge Hill University in England, the George-Eckert-Institute für Schulbuchvorschung (Germany), members of the IARTEM board and representatives from TREAT (Teaching Resources and Textbook Research Unit), University of Sydney. Discussion of international research projects on textbooks and educational media was the main focus of the conference. Reports indicate that it was a very fruitful and enjoyable conference, not least thanks to the organizer, Mike Horsley from TREAT. The board would like to invite IARTEM-members to contribute with ideas and suggestions for these projects. Please contact mailto:M.Horsley@%20edfac.usyd.edu

Research references (16.05.02) We are working to establish a database in which the research references announced in the IARTEM newsletters can be incorporated.

Ragnhild Lund, Vestfold University College, Norway, is the new editor of the IARTEM web site. She can be contacted here. The conference report from the sixth IARTEM conference in Utrecht, Netherlands, is now being distributed to IARTEM members by mail. The text will also be available here shortly, as will the report from the Tartu conference. A discussion forum is under development at this site, and will be presented shortly. The Sixth IARTEM International conference in Tartu, Estonia The sixth IARTEM conference that was held in Tartu can be considered as a success. The organizing committee, Julia Policarpus, Hasso Kukamelk and prof. Jaan Mikk, had done a very good job. Even the weather was nice. Looking from a northern European perspective the developing Estonian country gave a dynamic frame to the many different and interesting papers presented. On the behalf of the participants I thank the organizing committee for their efforts. (Tom Wikman, editor of the newsletter, [email protected]) What a great conference! Had a great time with a great bunch of people. One of the pieces of research that really excited me was the research of Vassilchenko, who has been studying students perceptions of information sources longitudinally for a very long term. Since my own research is about information needs and provision I was wondering if Vassilchenko's idea and data collection method could form the basis of an international research project comparing information sources for a number of countries. Let me know if other people would be interested in developing this idea further. (Mike Horsley, [email protected]) TREAT has produced a research monograph for a Research Colloquium at the Frankfurt Book Fair called The Future of Textbooks: Insights from Emergent Research. The Monograph also has a web site at the following address http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/LocalResource/TREAT/ics01/. There is a short summary of the papers and a special box for responding to the ideas in the papers. I hope that you or some of your students could respond. I hope that you like the monograph. The research monograph is designed to develop a debate about international investments in school books, classroom research on textbook research in classrooms, the European dimension in textbooks and the role of information sources in online classroom environments. Copies of the research monograph can be obtained from Mike Horsley. Please respond to the ideas on the monograph's website. It is now possible to order an IARTEM-brochure for distribution from Dagrun Skjelbred ([email protected]).