TEXTBOOK DIVERSITY

In November of 2020, Cheetahs for Change led a research project into cultural diversity in the textbooks used in Nova Scotia high schools. We hoped to show quantitatively the lack of diverse representation in our textbooks. For this study, we looked at Art, Biology, Chemistry, French, Math and Music. Our methodology was to analyse the cultural roots of names in questions and examples. In addition to this, we attempted to analyse the ratios of people of Caucasian/European descent to people of colour, as well as males to females.

 

Our research found that the level of cultural diversity varies quite substantially from textbook to textbook. The most equally culturally diverse textbook that we looked at was chemistry, though this was largely due to the lack of cultural references throughout. The Mathematics textbook makes an effort to be inclusive, especially to mi'kmaq and first nations culture. Though it is still significantly overwhelmed by European culture. In the biology textbook, many important and substantial biologists have been overshadowed by the works of white male scientists. This is an injustice to their works and efforts and our school textbooks do not reflect that. Despite this, the worst subjects for cultural diversity through our study were French, music and art. These subjects demonstrate an absolute concentration on white male musicians, artists and stories. We believe that  this lack of diversity could be fixed in a revision of the textbook with conscious effort to be more inclusive.