Student-Centeredness in Social Science Textbooks, 1970-2008: A Cross-National Study*
Patricia Bromley, John W. Meyer, and Francisco O. Ramirez
School of Education/Department of Sociology, Stanford University
* Work on this paper was funded by a grant from the Spencer Foundation (200600003) to Francisco
Ramirez and John Meyer. The study was possible only because of the impressive textbook collection of
the George Eckert Institute, in Braunschweig, and the extraordinarily helpful assistance Brigitte Depner
and her staff gave us.
Correspondence should be directed to the attention of: Patricia Bromley, Stanford University, Stanford,
CA 94305: email triciam@stanford.edu
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Student-Centeredness in Social Science Textbooks, 1970-2008: A Cross-National Study
Abstract
A striking feature of modern societies is the extent to which individual persons are culturally validated as
equal and empowered actors. The expansion of a wide range of rights in recent decades, given
prominence in current discussions of world society, supports an expanded conception of the individual.
We examine the extent to which broad global changes promoting human empowerment are associated
with expanded ideas of the status and capacities of students. We hypothesize that there are substantial
increases in student-centered educational foci in countries around the world. First, the rights of students
as children are directly asserted. Second, an emphasis on empowered human agency supports forms of
socialization that promote active participation, and the capacities and interests of the student. Examining
a unique data set of 533 secondary school social science textbooks from 74 countries for the period since
1970, we find that textbooks have indeed become more student-centered, and that this shift is associated
with the rising status of individuals and children in global human rights treaties and organizations.
Student-centered texts are more common in countries with greater individualism embodied in political
and socioeconomic institutions and ideologies, and with more links to world society. The study
contributes to both political and educational sociology, examining how global changes lead to increased
emphases on empowered individual agency in intended curricula.
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Many social changes, operating on a global scale over several centuries, have led to the cultural validation
of individual persons as key actors in human societies (Lie 2004; Carrithers et al. 1985). This worldwide
development intensified after World War II, and in the recent period, in response to actual and perceived
global interdependence in economic, political, and social arenas. It reflects an ideology of development
and modernization that emphasizes the capabilities of individuals (as in human capital notions or more
recent emphases on innovation and entrepreneurship), and thus the socialization of children toward
agentic social participation (Meyer and Jepperson 2000). The rise and expansion of mass schooling is an
important long-term institutional manifestation of this ideology: State after state established compulsory
school laws, created national educational ministries, and joined in a world educational revolution
expanding enrollments and escalating expectations of education as a “silver bullet” for the production of
social and economic progress (Baker and LeTendre 2005). This vision of progress is evolving from its
roots in national citizenship toward a globally celebrated personhood in a world society (Ramirez 2006;
Meyer et al. 1997). The right to an elementary education is now heralded as a universal human right
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, Article 26), no longer linked to social contracts between
national states and citizens.
As children are to become active sources of national and world social and economic progress, schools are
increasingly expected to provide students with opportunities for self-expression and development. The
ideal student is envisioned as an active and engaged learner, not a disciplined subordinate (Arum 2003).
The extraordinary agency imputed to adults in much theory and ideology is now extended to youth.
Sociologists from Durkheim to Goffman have reflected on the construction of the agentic (even deified)
individual. The extension of this dynamic perspective to young learners adds up to a vision of progress in
which the student is central, as in phrases like “active learning,” “learning to learn,” “lifelong learning,”
the “right to learn,” and the “learning society.” This educational repertoire is known worldwide and
resonates with the agendas of many domestic and international organizations, from Save the Children to
the World Bank (Jakobi 2009).
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The vision of the expanded rights and upgraded capabilities of students has obvious implications for what
and how students are taught about their societies. Both the content and the format of intended curricula
may evolve to make the active student central. Concretely, we should observe more user-friendly and
active-learning emphases in textbooks. And, if this changing vision is global, we should see global
change toward greater student-centeredness. The broad vision of social and economic progress as rooted
in an expanded and agentic individual has attracted much interest across a broad spectrum, from those
who celebrate individual freedom to those who fear its excesses. But in political and cultural sociology,
debates have not mainly focused on schooling, much less the curriculum. The issues arise, but only
indirectly, in the sociological study of the “hidden curriculum” (Bowles and Gintis 1976; Dreeben 1968).
We study empirically this core issue – the rise of student-centered education – by examining many social
science textbooks from many countries over recent decades. Most lines of argument, like those stressed
here, emphasize the enhanced individualism built into modern and post-modern economy, society, and
culture, with their conceptions of social and economic progress as rooted in individual enterprise. A few
critical lines of thought emphasize the extensive social controls involved – the “colonization of the life-
world” theme (Habermas 1987), compulsory education (Goodman 1960; classically Illich 1971), or
notions of education as disciplining the lower or laboring classes (Bowles and Gintis 1976). Even
conservative analyses stress the expansive individualism and student-centrism of the modern system
(Bloom 1987; Ravich 1987). More recent discussions of the impact of capitalism and its requirements
shift from foci on labor control to celebrations of the importance of individual enterprise (contrast Spring
1980 with the recent literature).
We conduct a direct investigation, looking comparatively and longitudinally textbooks from countries
around the world. Textbooks, commonly developed by world-certified professionals, and approved at
national or intra-national regional levels, reflect intended curricula, and thus institutionalized notions of
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social reality. Indeed, the curriculum is a key site where what counts as knowledge is established and
transmitted, and changes in it, whatever their socializing effects, are indicators of basic cultural changes.
We address the issue of the expansion and empowerment of students, worldwide, by focusing on a unique
and extensive collection of 533 junior and senior secondary social science textbooks from 74 countries.
In related work we analyze the global rise of human rights education and of environmentalism (Meyer et
al 2010; Bromley et al 2011). In this paper we focus on student-centrism and its association with broad
global cultural changes emphasizing human empowerment.
We investigate three interrelated questions relevant both to the sociology of education and the study of
modern culture. First, does increased student-centrism follow changed world emphases? The worldwide
testing regime, one could imagine, might emphasize narrow curricular content instead of student centrism.
Or, perhaps we should expect to find sharp differences across countries. However, if the status of the
child and student has been upgraded worldwide, we may find a worldwide trend in favor of student-
centric textbooks.
Second, is student-centrism especially reflective of liberalism in political culture and economic ideology?
Or, is national heritage less relevant given the rapid diffusion of westernizing educational blueprints?
Finally, is student-centrism especially evident in books from countries closely integrated with a world
society that validates student empowerment, and makes it a crucial source of all sorts of progress? Recent
studies recognize that intended national curricula are more open to regional and global influences than in
past eras (e.g. Benavot and Braslavsky 2006.)
In what follows we first clarify our motivating theoretical perspective. Next we describe our textbook data
and indicate how we measure textbook levels of student centeredness and the independent variables that
