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October
24, 2007
U.S. Pre-K-12
instructional materials publishing market to surpass $10 billion
by 2010
Fueled by
improvement in the textbook adoption cycle and continued
initiatives by schools to improve instruction and student
achievement, the outlook for the PreK-12 instructional materials
publishing industry in the U.S. is for compound annual growth
of more than 6 percent, reaching $10.22 billion by 2010, according to
new research from media industry forecast and analysis firm Simba Information.
Simba's latest
strategic report, Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2007-
2008, examines the dynamic school market and analyzes the changing needs
and opportunities for publishers.
"Publishers
are rethinking their business models and strategies as they confront
changing market forces," said Kathy Mickey, senior analyst/managing
editor of Simba's Education group. "One of the most significant
market forces is customization of learning solutions to fit various
learning needs and styles. Another strong force publishers are grappling
with is how to harness the power of social networking and collaboration
from blogs to wikis."
As
the line is blurring in both the school market and the publishing industry
between what is purely a print product and those that are electronic
only, Simba decided it was imperative to examine the industry
as a whole, so Publishing for the PreK-12 Market, 2007-2008
is the first annual edition that examines the totality of the
industry, while delineating its most important segments.
Among the
fastest-growing segments are video and classroom assessment, each
of which Simba projects will grow about 10% in 2007. Publishing
for the PreK-12 Market, 2007-2008, also contains segment forecast
figures; rankings of leading textbook, supplemental and instructional
software publishers; and comprehensive profiles of 19 leading publishers.
Additional information can be found at http://www.simbainformation.com/pub/1513017.html
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Form a
scholarly writing support group on your campus
The University
of Alabama at Birmingham's School of Education recently launched
a pilot project for the formation of a scholarly writing support
group called S.N.A.P. (Support Network for Assistant/Associate
Professors) to assist the School's assistant and associate professors
in advancing their writing skills as they work toward tenure and
promotion.
The project
is a multidisciplinary and collaborative proposal from the three
departments in the School of Education (Human Studies; Curriculum
and Instruction; and Leadership, Special Education, Foundations,
and Technology). Currently, 18 faculty in these departments are
in tenure track positions, but have not yet been tenured. A small
amount of funding was designated by the School of Education Dean.
"It takes
time to develop the skills to write in the scholarly manner required
for promotion and tenure at the university level, even when one
is employed in academia," said Linda Searby, the project's principal
investigator, in her proposal for funding. "As faculty transition
to tenure track positions, learning to write for scholarly journals
and initiate worthy research projects to enhance one's effectiveness
as an individual faculty member can present professional and personal
challenges. New faculty members often feel isolated from one another.
Support is needed to make these faculty believe they are part
of the professional community and have the skills needed to perform
successfully."
Searby said
that forming the group was for her a matter of priorities and
survival: "I have a strong need to be connected to others and
I do not find that the isolation in academia is something that
we have to live with. I wanted to do something concrete and tangible
to offer support for non-tenured faculty, as I, myself, was one
who felt this need for support."
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The
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Education's
S.N.A.P. group has five goals:
1)
To establish a professional learning community for non-tenured
professors in the School of Education for the purpose of
providing support for scholarly writing.
2)
To provide non-tenured professors in the School of Education
with multiple opportunities to develop their skills in scholarly
writing, submitting manuscripts for publication, and constructing/initiating
manuscripts through interactions with faculty mentors, journal
editors, and each other.
3)
To provide non-tenured professors in the School of Education
with materials and tools that will assist them with scholarly
writing.
4)
To provide at least one retreat for structured times of
reflection, immersion in writing, collaboration, learning
from guest speaker, and related professional learning in
order to undertake new efforts that will result in greater
scholarly productivity.
5)
To provide non-tenured faculty the opportunity to increase
the number of submitted manuscripts per calendar year.
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S.N.A.P. participants
will meet once a month for nine months, from September 1, 2007
to August 14, 2008. They will be presented with a variety of opportunities
to develop their writing skills, through collaboration with each
other, with senior faculty mentors, and with experts in scholarly
writing and publication. Activities will include peer mentoring,
guest speakers (including tenured faculty with specific expertise
both within and outside the School of Education. Tara Gray, presenter
of the TAA-sponsored workshop "Publish and Flourish: Become A
Prolific Scholar" will present her workshop on December 7.), structured
reflection groups, writing workshops, mentoring sessions with
tenured faculty, and access to resources for writing and publishing
(e.g., APA Manual of Style, and The Work of Writing.) They will
also participate in two off-campus writing retreats in January
and April.
Dr. Nataliya
Ivankova, and Dr. Melanie Shores, both from the School of Education's
Department of Human Studies, are serving as co-investigators on
the project. Together with Searby, they will be evaluating the
project and reporting the results to the School of Education's
Dean with the hope that they will be allowed to continue the S.N.A.P.
group beyond the nine month pilot project. At the beginning of
the project, they will conduct a Needs Assessment with participants,
using open-ended interviews, to determine the specific support
participants need. The data will be analyzed to develop a specific
plan for the group's activities. Each activity will also be evaluated
using a brief questionnaire that will provide immediate feedback
to the investigators about that activity's effectiveness toward
participants' goals.
Following
the pilot project, investigators hope to continue S.N.A.P.'s monthly
meetings, extending coaching and mentoring beyond the project
year; expand the collaboration among the School Education's group
participants across disciplines and across the UAB campus; encourage
co-authoring projects among participants; share the results of
the project with the professional community at large through regional
and national conferences and international presentations; and
form a second group of faculty members to participate in S.N.A.P.
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International
textbook research conference provides opportunity for collaboration
between countries
TAA Associate
Executive Director Kim Pawlak (center), with 2007 IARTEM conference
organizers Susanne V. Knudsen (left), and Bente Aamotsbakken
(right). Pawlak attended IARTEM's Ninth International Conference
on Textbooks and Educational Media in Tonsberg, Norway, September
5-8. |
Forty-three
presenters from 27 different countries shared their textbook research
with an audience of 90 participants from 40 different countries
at the International Association for Research on Textbooks and
Educational Media's Ninth International Conference on Textbooks
and Educational Media in Tonsberg, Norway, September 5-8, 2007.
The presenters,
from Norway, Western Balkan and Slovenia, Iceland, Lithuania,
Australia, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Pretoria, India, Madagascar,
Palestine, Japan, Turkey, Hungary, Serbia, Korea, Great Britain,
Scotland, Israel, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Sweden, Austria,
and Kenya, shared a variety of research articles on topics such
as issues of gender equality in textbooks; the textbook selection
and evaluation process in Western Balkan and Slovenia, South Africa,
Norway, Hungary, and Serbia; ageism in textbooks; the importance
of illustrations in learning; whether print or electronic materials
were more effective in teaching; and the process of textbook production;
all based around the theme of "Peace, democratization and reconciliation
in textbooks and educational media."
(To view
the conference program, click
here)
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International
organizations that are interested in, or participate in,
textbook research:
European
Educational Publishers Group (EEPG)
Visit web
site
TREAT,
Teaching Resources and Textbook Research Unit, University
of Sydney, Faculty of Education
Visit
web site
United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO)
Visit
web site
Download
a UNESCO brochure
University
of Utrecht, the Netherlands, Centre of Curriculum Studies
CLU
Dr. Arno Reints, CLU Director
A.Reints@clu.nl
International
Association of Research on Textbooks and Educational Media
(IARTEM)
Visit web
site
Japan
Textbook Research Center
Visit
web site
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The 43 conference
sessions were organized into four workshops: 1) The Balance Between
Textbooks and Educational Media; 2) The Use of Textbooks and Educational
Media; 3) Approval, Selection and Language Policy in Textbooks
and Educational Media; and 4) Learning from Texts and Images in
Textbooks and Educational Media.
In his opening
address, Petter Aasen, head master of Vestfold University College,
which hosted the conference, said that contact across international
borders in the area of organizational research into pedagogical
texts was important to the advancement of academic scholarship.
The purpose
of the conference, he said, was to get a better idea of the textbook
policies of other countries and the different forms of funding
high quality research, with the hope that the conference could
provide initiatives and play a part in international collaboration
and collaboration at the institutional level.
Many of the
countries represented at the conference do not have any government
or state guidelines for textbook content, approval or selection.
During a publisher's panel presentation on Thursday, September
6, James McCall, deputy director of the Stirling International
Publishing Unit, a center for publishing studies within Stirling
University (Scotland), said that the content of the country's
curriculum is what drives publishers and editors in what they
will instruct their textbook authors to write. State standards,
he said, play no role in publishing: "State standards for books
are created by individuals who believe that the books will sell
at the right time to the right reader. We believe that the best
kind of book combines the worldview of the author, teacher, publisher
and reader. The textbook is only as good as the teacher in whose
hand it is placed. Publishers will continue to create textbooks
based on that type of syllabus and according to social norms."
McCall also serves on the IARTEM board.
Mike Horsley,
senior lecturer in the School of Professional Studies at the University
of Sydney, Australia, said in his country, publishers sell books
they think will sell, and schools openly purchase textbooks with
no government control or adoption system. "Curriculum drives most
publishing decisions in the open market," said Horsley. "Publishing
decisions are state-based, not national." Pedagogy is based on
a national project, "Discovering Democracy," he said, which is
about empowering people to be responsible and participate. Horsley
is also vice president of the IARTEM board.
A presentation
by Zusana Sikorova from the University of Ostrava (Czech Republic)
on "Textbook-Based Activities in the Classroom," shared the results
of a survey of four primary and lower secondary schools and three
higher secondary schools that was conducted to determine how often
textbook materials were used in the classroom. She found that
textbook materials were used in 75 percent of lessons, and students
spent 25 percent of their total classroom time engaged in textbook
based activities.
A presentation
by Mu'men Al-Badarin, assistant professor of Arabic Studies at
Bethlehem University (Palestine), and Eva Maagero (Norway) shared
the results of a comparative analysis of Palestinian and Norwegian
textbooks. The Arabic textbooks used the pronoun "we" and had
mainly masculine representations. The Norwegian textbooks used
the pronoun "you" to personalize the text and create a more personal
relationship between the textbook and the reader. Gender representations
were much more balanced in the Norwegian textbook in both the
representations of girls and boys and the choice of authors and
pictures, and different minority groups. The Norwegian textbooks,
said Maagero, allow boys and girls to identify with the textbook,
showing that both can do the same activities. However, the minority
boys and girls depicted in the textbook were shown in a Norwegian
context.
Per Jarle
Sætre from Sogn og Fjordane University College (Norway),
shared the temporary results of his research of gender representations
in illustrations in geography textbooks in Norway, Sweden, Denmark,
and Finland, which found that most of them were gender biased.
His research included a content analysis of photos in seven series
of geography textbooks for lower secondary schools (13-16-year-olds).
"In the seven textbook series there are a total of 3,683 illustrations,
1,995 of which are photos, and 833 of those are photos of people,"
he said. "Of the 833 photos of people, in 687 of them I can see
men, women, or men and women (the rest are unidentifiable). I
divided the people into six categories, work being the most important
category." Sætre found that men dominate the pictures, and
that most series write about women's contribution to subsidence
agriculture in developing countries, and few series write about
women's contribution to agriculture in industrial countries. Women
are depicted as producing goods at the production line while men
do trades and more self-reliant work. Photos of women at leisure
and at home are more frequent, he found, and most of are of women
doing domestic work.
"The use
of motive and gender on photos in the textbooks can bias the represented
content," says Sætre. "Most of the authors focused on motive
not on gender. Just one book, the Norwegian Undervegs,
seems to have a reflected use of gender on the photos, and that
may be because it was written by one man and one woman. Feminist
geographers claim geography excludes women as producers of knowledge
and women's issues as objects of knowledge. My study can indicate
such a description could also be applied to geography textbooks."
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New Authors
Asking Q&A: Loss to Used Books
Read the answers
to Ginny Borden Maier's question on the TAA Listserv about what
percentage of sales are lost to the used book market over the
life of an edition, in Authors Asking: Click
here (members only)
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TAA welcomes
new members
Brenda Berube,
Donald Boerth, Barbara Clouse, Sara Dalton, Shari Evans, Laura
Franz, Michael Geiger, Bobbie Green, Kellyann Kowalski, Raj Kumar,
Devon Lynch, Mary McCurry, Cristina Mehrtens, Isabel Rodrigues,
K. Shrinagesh, and Haihong Wang.
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TAA
thanks contributing member
Martin S.
Roden
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