Critical Essay on Textbook "Electricity"

Introduction

The collected data from the textbook "Electricity" is comprised of various frameworks to be used in the analysis. They are as follows: picture count, Language analysis, storyline (Popham 2012).

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Picture Analysis

The pictures in the textbook can be divided into the following categories: ontological, arbitrary and analogical. The representation pictures are done in camera showing the actual number of people depicted therein. There are also pictures that are downloaded from the website showing people from the Far East (Brent 1988). This is used in the design of the analogical pictures of the textbook. The pictures in the science textbook contains unnamed individuals depicted to be carrying out certain scientific duties. There are instances of race stereotypes where there is the use of non-African individual throughout the textbook. The pictures depict only people from the Arabian nations with the exception of the rest of the world. From the textbook pictures, the males are mainly used throughout and are seen to perform hard tasks. There is no a single record of female in any of the pictures found in the textbook. Some textbook pages show a group of people perceived to join hands in a common task presented to them. The picture shows a group of electricians doing wire laying works. As it is the norm in the textbook, no female is represented in the group picture. Moreover, the picture presents men from the Arabian nationality only. The electricians can be considered to be effective professionals hence having a good background from their positions. The total number of individuals depicted in the textbook are twenty three having three group scenes.

FIGURE 4.1 Picture Tally

Total number of individuals depicted: 23

Total number of group scenes depicted: 3

Language Analysis

The textbook does refer to a sexist language where the male names and pronouns dominate the literature. For instance, there is the use of Fazul, Abdi and Salah among other Arabic names depicting the male in the Arabian society. The people involved in the work are described to be hardworking and efficient in carrying out their duties. The textbook outlines the rate at which they can complete the task before them to be fast. In the event of repairs to be done, the electricians respond fast enough to mitigate the problem. The statement without a doubt depicts the workers to be efficient, hardworking and fast. The work done by the electricians can be considered to be progressive and the term progress is often used to describe their actions. The textbook outlines multiple times the progress made in laying the electric wires to reach the remotest of the places. Moreover, the electricians are considered to have achieved success as most of the areas they have reached now have access to electricity. The author of the textbook has frequently used the term challenges, limitations and problems faced by electricians at work in conducting their duties. There has been the problem of facing hostiles from the environment such as robbery as the author rightly puts it. The local community is solely blamed by the author for the hostility towards the electricians in their work environment. In the course book, there are instances of massive use of the Arabian language. The author used this to portray ethnic stereotyping in the material (Qadeer 2013)

Compiling the Findings

The following data shows picture count as used in the electricity textbook. The pictures do not depict any other ethnicity or race in the electricity textbook. As a result, there is 100 percent depiction of the Arab ethnicity in the book. There is no other ethnic affiliation apart from the Arabs depicted; they are therefore seen to be at the forefront in all the activities portrayed by the author. The people represented are from different regions of the Saudi Arabia nationality and comprised of the following: Northern part 62 percent, Southern part 25 percent, Eastern part 7 percent, and Western part 6 percent. Regarding the social standing, they are seen to be a part because they are all professionals.

Students can, therefore, be prompted to draw pictures depicting the electricians in their work. However, it is disappointing as only ten percent of the students were able to draw images supported by their text.

Assessment Bias

There is the bias of the use of only one gender in the textbook. The male if the only gender depicted, as a result, the female students might not be able to relate to the text entirely (Robbins 2015). This is advantageous to the male students who will be much familiar with the textbook. Moreover, the book only involves the Arabian people with instances of the use of Arabic.

Education system all other the world is multicultural, hence, the textbook is seen to facilitate ethnic stereotyping that culminates into profiling.

As a curriculum developer, I may ask the author to revise their content coming up with a more conventional text depicting the multicultural nature observed around the world. This will facilitate fairness in the education system.

References

Brent, M. (1988). Secondary textbook review. Sacramento: California State Dept. of Education.

Popham, W. (2012). Assessment bias. Boston [Mass.]: Pearson.

Qadeer, A. (2013). An analysis of grade six textbook on electricity through content analysis and student writing responses. Toronto: York University.

Robbins, L. (2015). Assessment Bias: How to Banish it.