Mathematics textbook investigations: an analysis of your research questions

Abstract

Textbooks and materials produced by Departments of Education has provided research object of study and gained importance in discussion of mathematics curriculum. However, how to setup the problems of research on textbooks of Mathematics? What conceptual framework can guide research on these materials in mathematics education? These issues motived us to realize a research, trough the mapping of 59 dissertations and theses, about the state of knowledge perspective. From the theories of Postlethwaite (2005) and Fan (2013), the analysis of the problems of these investigations revealed that a considerable number had the purpose to identify and describe characteristics of these materials; a few had as problem identification and understanding of relationships between books, or characteristic aspects of them, and other variables; another few leaned in to study the causal relationship between certain factors and textbooks. Therefore, it is necessary to decentralize research a conceptual framework that takes the materials as intermediate variables, and focus the research on conceptual frameworks that qualify and consider factors that affect these materials or that are affected by them.

Keywords: Textbooks. Curriculum Materials. Education Mathematics.