Controversial topics and their didactic use: analysis of the activities included in Italian and Spanish textbooks

157 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Controversial Topics and Their Didactic Use: Analysis of the Activities Included in Italian and Spanish Textbooks Mario Ferreras-Listán1, José Antonio Pineda-Alfonso2, Coral Ivy Hunt-Gómez3, Pablo Baisotti4 1 University of Seville, Department of Experimental and Social Sciences Teaching, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Seville, Spain, [email protected] 2 University of Seville, Department of Experimental and Social Sciences Teaching, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Seville, Spain, [email protected] 3 University of Seville, Department of Language and Teaching, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Seville, Spain [email protected] 4 University of Costa Rica, Department of History of Costa Rica and Latin America, C/San Pedro de Montes de Oca, San José, Costa Rica, [email protected] Abstract. This paper explores the didactic treatment of Franco’s dictatorship and Mussoli- ni’s Fascism in History textbooks at a Secondary Education level. Using a mixed methodology, 278activities were analysed and a typology was established. Despite that, the studied literature clearly advocates for the use of controversial topics due to their high educational potential, results show that controversial topics are avoided in the analysed textbooks, as they provide teachers an „aseptic recipe“ to deal with them. Keywords: textbook, citizenship education, history and culture teaching, secondary education. History, Citizenship and Controversial Topics A panoramic revision of the ERIC database from the last five years provides 293studies on Social Sciences textbooks1. Books were edited between 2005 and 2015. Only 5 of them refer to didactic aspects. To cover this gap, the present study explores the didactic 1 The Institute of Education Sciences database (ERIC database) is a high impact international database that is generally used for bibliographical and systematic literature revisions in the field of education. ISSN 1392-0340 (Print) ISSN 2029-0551 (Online) https://doi.org/10.15823/p.2020.139.8 Pedagogika / Pedagogy 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3, p. 157–174 / Vol. 139, No. 3, pp. 157–174, 2020 158 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 scope and treatment that a specific historical time is given. The time studied is Franco’s dictatorship in Spain (1939–1975) and fascism in Italy (1922–1945). Both periods of time are potentially controversial, not only from a historiographical perspective but also regarding the pedagogical treatment received (Díez Gutiérrez, 2011). As will be examined at the methodology section, the studied periods allow to generate argumentative and discussion processes. In this way, syllabus becomes more flexible and allows the inclusion of problems, hypothesis and information gathering that will help students generating conclusions. In the following paragraphs, we will examine several studies explore the way textbooks act as the main tool to foster the traditional transmission didactic model, based on the teacher’s explanation, as well as in the performance of mechanical tasks and students’ memorization. Contrary to that, there are many examples in scientific international literature that corroborate that dealing with controversial topics in the classroom develops many skills and competences of great educational value. From this perspective, it’s obvious that historical training in compulsory education levels should foster the development of student’s abilities to be familiarized with and being able to manage information sources linked to History building. Therefore, teaching this subject exclusively using a traditional textbook transmission-based approach seems not to be an adequate manner if we aim to educate critical citizens (Gómez, Cózar, & Miralles, 2014). Students should be initiated in the understanding of History as an interpretative science, as are the rest of Social Sciences. A science that intends to rebuild and interpret the humans’ past constitutes an excellent way to help students develop critical thinking, which is essential to succeed in participative and open societies. This matter is especially relevant in the case of History, because, from its very origins, it has been used to model (or, at least, try to model) subjects and citizens according to the interests of a particular time (Rodríguez-Pérez, Simón-García, & Molina-Puche, 2017). A way to connect History teaching and students’ interest can be the use of current controversial topics (Hicks, Holden, 2007; Hand, & Levinson, 2012; Jerome, & Elwick, 2020) Research shows that controversial topics, approached through controversial questions, increase students’ interest and involvement, help them to better acquire and comprehend knowledge, and foster their intellectual independence (Stradlong, Noctor, & Baines, 1984). In this line, there are many studies that advocate for the incorporation of controversial questions to the educative syllabus (Wellington, 1986). Some researchers have even stated that any school or educational institution that intentionally avoids the use of controversial questions should be accused of negligence or malpractice (Stradling, Noctor, & Baines, 1984; Oulton, Dillon, & Marcus, 2004). One of the underlying problems associated with controversial topics treatment is the role of discrepancy in debates, that is, conflict management when debating. Research 159 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 suggests that teachers’ training for these kinds of activities is especially difficult in contexts with deep social divisions (Parker & Hess, 2001; Schuitema, Radstake, Van de Pol, & Veugelers, 2018; Aivelo, & Uitto, 2019). In the Anglo-Saxon moral education sphere, the terms ‘loyal disagreement’ or ‘reasonable heresy’ were included as an attempt to overcome the binary concepts of loyalty and rebellion (McDonough, 2010). From those worried about the maintenance of the social order perspective, disagreement is interpreted as something destructive. However, for those that are worried about educating for democratic citizenship, and, particularly, worried about the introduction of democracy in education, the concept of ‘loyal disagreement’ is paramount. Besides, many authors state that, if according to legal norms and it is clear educational value, the analysis of current social problems in the classroom is recommended, why are there reservations to normalise them in the educational syllabus? One possible explanation is that the nature of polemic makes teachers feel insecure and uncomfortable in their classrooms when working with socially conflictive problems. In this line of thinking, many studies reflect that teachers are well aware of the impact their opinions have on students, and that puts them at risk of indoctrination (Cotton, 2006). It should be noted that, even if the intellectual conflict could lead to potentially constructive results, it also could lead to potentially destructive ones (Johnson, & Johnson, 2009). One possible way of resolving this dilemma is the use of textbooks, because it keeps teachers apart from the conflicts caused by entering into controversial matters in the classroom. There is a strong consensus among researchers regarding how teaching exclusively following the coursebook implies static and invariable contents that are questioned neither by the teachers nor by the students (Martínez Bonafé, 2008). Thus, in practice, many textbooks represent the professional habitus, specifically at the Secondary Education level (Martínez, Valls, & Pineda, 2009). For History textbooks, several studies conclude that it continues to be the nearly unique resource used in some educational levels (Martínez, Valls, & Pineda, 2009). Some specialists associate this majoritarian use of the History textbook with the prevalence of a specific didactic model and a traditional discourse, informative and encyclopaedic. This implies a proposal for repetitive and superficial activities based on memorisation and reproduction, without any other problem-based approach to historical phenomena, Therefore, they do not contribute to the development of basic educational aims (Sáiz, 2013). In this way, the contents and activities suggested are not fostering students’ argumentation and reflexive skills, which are competences, linked to historical thinking, and that are included in the educational aims of the teaching of History in Secondary Education (Valls, 2008). 160 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Methodology The methodology can be catalogued as a “mixed method” (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013). An interpretative discourse analysis is performed, however, instruments from a rationalist paradigm are also used -such as the establishment of a category system or the quantitative analysis when considered useful for the research-. Research problems concern the way controversial topics are pedagogically dealt with in the analysed textbooks. 1. How are potentially controversial topics dealt with from a pedagogical perspective in the analysed textbooks? 2. What types of activities are suggested and how is the didactic sequence defined? 3. What types of contents are suggested to work with in these activities? 4. Is the same didactic treatment applied in medium and higher educational levels? 5. Are there any differences in the didactic treatment in the Italian and Spanish textbooks? After revising several History textbooks from different publishing houses for the levels of Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, it was concluded that Fascism and the Franco regime were mainly included in the 4th year of Secondary Education and the 2nd year of Baccalaureate in Spain. In the case of Italy, these contents were included in the 1st and 2nd years of Secondary Education. Once the years in which the specified content was usually worked were located, a sample was built composed of two textbooks per academic year were selected. There were a total of eight textbooks, four Spanish (two for the Secondary Education stage and two for Baccalaureate) and four Italian textbooks (two for the 1st year of Secondary Education and two for the 2nd). The publishing houses chosen were those that had great diffusion and those were frequently used in each country. They were Pearson, DeAgostini, Mondadori, and Rizzoli for the Italian textbooks; and Oxford, Anaya, Algaida, and Santillana for the Spanish textbooks (Table 1). 161 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Table 1 Research Sample Textbook title /authors / publishing house/ year Year (Secondary Education or post compulsory education) Age of the student Code ITALY Epoche. Alberto De Bernardi y Scipione Guarracino. PEARSON. 2012 3rd year Secondary Education First Degree 13–14 IM1 Scoprire la Storia. L’Età contemporanea. Gianfranco Bresich y Cinzia Fiorio. DEAGOSTINI. 2010 3rd year Secondary Education First Degree 13–14 IM2 Parlate di Storia 3. Il Novecento e il Mondo. Contemporáneo Marco Fossati, Giorgio Luppi y Emilio Zanette, PEARSON MONDADORI. 2009 3rd year Secondary Education Second Degree 16–17 IS1 Nel segno dei tempi. Il Novecento e il Duemila, La Nuova Italia. Valerio Castronovo. RIZZOLI. 2015 3rd year Secondary Education Second Degree 16–17 IS2 SPAIN Historia. Proyecto Ánfora (edición Andalucía). Manuel Díaz Rubianos y otros. OXFORD. 2008 4th year Secondary Education 15–16 EM1 Historia. Ciencias Sociales. M. Burgos y M.C Muñoz Delgado. ANAYA. 2008 4th year Secondary Education 15–16 EM2 Historia de España. Manuel Burgos (Coord.). ALGAIDA. 2012 2nd year Baccalaureate 17–18 ES1 Historia de España, 2º de Bachillerato. J. Manuel Fernández Ros y otros. SANTILLANA. 2015 2nd year Baccalaureate 17–18 ES2 Taking into consideration the previous research that has been analysed in the theoretical framework, a category system was established (Table 2). That system deals with the “Didactic Consideration of the Activities” according to the aims of the study. The system was created using a revision and adaptation of different clarifications and protocols covered by Travé, Pozuelos, Cañal, & De las Heras (2013). There were three different categories: ‘Types of contents’ (which are suggested in the activities), ‘Didactic sequence’ (the order in which the activities are placed) and, ‘Types of activities’ (according to their characteristics and didactic function). Each category has been defined using indicators and descriptors that have allowed a degree of systematisation and the codification of the discursive fragments used in textbooks. A total of 278activities that were included in the 8 textbooks conforming to the sample were analysed. 162 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Table 2 Category System Category Indicators Descriptors Didactic Consideration of the Activities 1. Types of contents Factual To complete the activity it is necessary to master data or factual information, dates, figures, name of characters or institutions, etc. Conceptual To complete the activity it is necessary to master specific or general concepts of Social Sciences. Procedural To complete the activity it is necessary to perform a research, information treatment, and communication process personally made. Attitudinal To complete the activity it is necessary to acquire a positioning or to issue an axiological value, linked to principles and norms. 2. Didactic sequence Introductory Introductory activities at the beginning of the unit. Development Activities to develop the topic. Closing Activities that appear at the end of the unit. 3. Types of activities Mechanical exercises Repetitive activities that do not require the comprehension of contents, generally the correct answer lies within the enclosed text. Comprehensive activities Activities that need a certain degree of elaboration and a complex intellectual. Quasi-investi- gative activities Activities that imply some tasks linked to school research, even if the complete process is not followed. It assimilates research to information gathering. Participatory activities Activities that imply, not only, intellectual exercise but also some active conducts and decision-making (role-playing, teamwork, debates, etc.). Research-based activities Activities aimed at the development of complex intellectual activities, such as, elaborating hypothesis, looking for causal relations, and contrasting pieces of information or extracting conclusions among others. The established categories system is as descriptive as possible and far from any interpretative bias. Therefore, indicators and descriptors are not a priori strictly organised according to the hypothesis of a progression. Nonetheless, they are expected to provide valuable information intended to establish a textbook typology. This order is expected to follow a grading system that goes from a less complex close to the traditional transmissive didactic model to a more complex one, coherent with the prescribed educational aims of the History teaching and learning process. 163 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Data analysis Quantitative analysis According to the established category system, some series of figures with perceptual data of the three aspects analysed are explained. In the section devoted to the type of contents, the most frequent are the conceptual ones followed by the factual contents, both of them with results on between 70% and 95% in all the analysed books. The minimal presence of procedural contents has to be highlighted as well as the nearly complete lack of attitudinal ones (Figure 1). Figure 1. Percentage Values of the Types of Contents Analysed The analysis reveals that, in textbooks from both countries, factual contents present a higher presence in medium educational levels. On the contrary, procedural and attitudinal contents are more frequent at higher levels. Conceptual contents present similar percentages in medium and higher levels. Regarding the materialisation of didactic sequences, it seems that introductory activities are not always present. In fact, there were only three introductory activities in three of the four Spanish books analysed and none at all in the Italian ones. Besides, when comparing them to the rest of the activities, they present the lower representation, and if they are represented, and they show the lowest percentage (Figure 2). 164 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Figure 2. Percentage Values of the Activities Included in the Didactic Sequences The analysis performed corroborated a higher number of mechanical activities in the textbooks of both countries. In medium levels as well as higher levels, this was more significant in the case of Spanish textbooks (Figure 3). Besides, in both countries, the percentage of mechanical activities in medium levels is higher than in the most advanced ones. Comprehensive activities present a higher percentage in more advanced levels. As quasi-investigative, participative and research-based activities are closer to a didactic model that aims for school-research, they have been grouped in one item. The case of Italian textbooks should be highlighted, as these types of activities are only present in higher educational levels. In Spanish textbooks, the proportion seems to be more balanced. Figure 3. Percentage of the Types of Activities 165 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Qualitative analysis First category: ‘Types of content’ Some factual content activities, in which students need to manage historical data, using a chronological axis or a closed question, have been detected. In the book with code IS1, section ‘Punti Fermi’, page 116, a date is the expected answer to the question: When does fascism appear? Other activities suggest making lists, synoptic schemes, or tables placing different factual contents, names of historical characters, institutions, dates, etc. An example of this can be found in the textbook with code ES1, page 321, in which students have to establish links between the elements provided, which were only facts -INI, Hendaya, Infante Juan of Spain, 1947, among others. Also, activities to work on a map were found, even if they do not require a conceptual creation, but only pointing into places or territories (IM2, page 183). It must be bear in mind that working with images can be misleading because when asking to identify a concept through images, the meaning management is avoided and only a visual representation is used (EM2, page 202). Conceptual contents are included in the activities under the headings of ‘analyse, explain, define, compare, etc.’ and imply the management of a great variety of concepts. Some of the concepts were directly related to the topic such as ‘National-Catholicism’ or ‘totalitarian logic’ and other was of general historic character such as ‘ideology’, ‘international context’ or ‘political regime’. Procedural contents appear in the activities under the instruction ‘find information’ or ‘research’ and require to locate information that is presented in documents included in the same textbook or that the student should look for on-line or in different archives and formats (audio, video, texts, etc.). An example of that can be found in the book ES2, page 331, in an activity that asks the student to write a report on the external policy of the Franco regime, using the texts and documents included in the textbook. In the EM1 textbook, in a section called ‘Oral History’ appears a procedural activity that implies a working technique based on selecting a topic, elaborating a questionnaire, interviewing selected persons, and finally, creating a report and elaborating conclusions. Textbook IM1 provides activities with procedural contents that imply working with primary sources (sources 44–50 included in pages 536–553) with the same format. When using these sources, students will have to compare and classify arguments and ideas of different authors to place themselves in a final position and write a text to justify it. 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London: Basil Blackwell. 174 Pedagogika / 2020, t. 139, Nr. 3 Prieštaringai vertinamos temos ir jų didaktinis pritaikymas: mokomųjų veiklų analizė Italijos bei Ispanijos vidurinio ugdymo istorijos vadovėliuose Mario Ferreras-Listán1, José Antonio Pineda-Alfonso2, Coral Ivy Hunt-Gómez3, Pablo Baisotti4 1 Sevilijos universitetas, Eksperimentinių ir socialinių mokslų katedra, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Sevilija, Ispanija, [email protected] 2 Sevilijos universitetas, Eksperimentinių ir socialinių mokslų katedra, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Sevilija, Ispanija, [email protected] 3 Sevilijos universitetas, Kalbos ir mokymo katedra, C/Pirotecnia, s/n, ES-41013, Sevilija, Ispanija, [email protected] 4 Kosta Rikos universitetas, Kosta Rikos ir Lotynų Amerikos istorijos katedra, C/San Pedro de Montes de Oca, San Chosė, Kosta Rika, [email protected] Santrauka Šiame straipsnyje pateikiama panoraminė apžvalga, kurioje didaktiniu požiūriu nagrinėjami Franko diktatūros Ispanijoje (1939–1975) ir Musolinio fašizmo Italijoje (1922–1945) režimai, aprašomi vidurinio ugdymo istorijos vadovėliuose. Taikant aiškinamąją diskurso analizę drauge su kitais racionalistinės paradigmos instrumentais buvo išanalizuotos 278 mokomosios veiklos bei nustatytas jų didaktinis nuoseklumas, turinys ir tipologija. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo, kad tiek italų, tiek ispanų vadovėliuose mechaninio mokymosi užduočių skaičius yra akivaizdžiai didesnis, palyginti su kitų rūšių veiklomis. Be to, nustatyta, kad vidurinio ugdymo lygmens vadovėliuose mechaninio mokymosi veiklų procentas yra didesnis. Nagrinėjant turinį pagal jo tipą, pastebimas konceptualus turinio dominavimas, nors pateikiama nemažai ir faktinės informacijos. Nerasta jokių veiklų, susijusių su mokinių pasaulėžiūrą formuojančiu turiniu, t. y. nesudaromos sąlygos, kad mokiniai galėtų susikurti vertinimo kriterijus. Mokiniams tiesiog pateikiama vadovėlio informacija, nesuteikiant galimybės diskutuoti ginčytinomis temomis, todėl mokiniai praranda aukštesnes išsilavinimo kompetencijas. Knygoms trūksta epistemiologinės ir pedagoginės perspektyvos. Ir nors nagrinėjamoje literatūroje akivaizdžiai pasisakoma už prieštaringai vertinamų temų nagrinėjimą, vis dėlto gauti rezultatai rodo, kad vengiama nepatogių temų, jos pateikiamos neutraliai. Be to, vadovėliai siūlo mokytojams „sterilų receptą“, kaip nagrinėti tokias temas. Esminiai žodžiai: vadovėlis, pilietiškumo ugdymas, istorijos ir kultūros mokymas, vidurinis ugdymas. Gauta 2020 05 20 / Received 20 05 2020 Priimta 2020 09 09 / Accepted 09 09 2020