Textbooks in Periods of Political Transition after the Second World War. Introduction

Textbooks and Political Transitionhis. This special issue examines textbooks in countries undergoing political transition, change, and convulsion. The articles consider textbooks from countries shifting from one political regime to another, “at different speeds and with different priorities,”1 in the second half of the twentieth century. The articles raise a number of questions. What happens to textbooks during the intervals between one form of government and another? How does the information contained in textbooks change during these intervals of instability and uncertainty, and during the phases of the construction and consolidation of a new political regime? Contributors to this issue examine textbooks from four countries that are struggling to leave authoritarian regimes behind while endeavoring to build and consolidate democratic systems and societies. In their recent study of education in Central Asia, Pinar Akçali and Cennet Engin-Demir state that the curriculum challenges facing all societies in transition (including Kyrgyzstan) fall into three categories: “the challenge of pedagogy, the challenge of introducing the new subject matter and the challenge of teaching civics, social studies and history.”2 In keeping with this notion, we present in this volume a variety of textual genres with a focus on their didactical characteristics or on the teaching of particular topics, and an exposition of how these and other challenges are met. We thereby attempt to throw light on the impact of political transition on textbooks, and to interpret the roles assigned to educational texts in this particular context.