Still Missing? History Chapters in Introductory Early Childhood Education Textbooks From the 1990s to the 2010s

This article compares history chapters in recent introductory early childhood education textbooks with those from an earlier study, reviewing history chapters on four dimensions: the rationale for the study of history, the dominant story of the history, the facts of the history, and the image of the history. Ten textbooks are reviewed, including six from the original study that are still in publication. Foundation textbooks are described as important sources of knowledge for beginning students. In the earlier study, the dominant story was derived mainly from the contributions of "giant thinkers" in psychology, education, and philosophy. A notable current trend is identified, that textbooks have improved their attention to international and non-Western developments. Nevertheless, while there is some evidence of a change in the presentation of history in the textbooks in the current survey, the article concludes by identifying some missing pieces, as in the original survey.