Abstract

RAMIREZ, Tulio; GASPAR, Mike; FIGUEREDO, Víctor  and  PERALES, María.  Native cultures and illustrations in social science textbooks in Venezuela. Rev. Ped [online]. 2005, vol.26, n.75, pp.5-6. ISSN 0798-9792.

This study sought to unveil possible discriminatory messages to which the native peoples of Venezuela may be exposed via social studies textbook illustrations of this country´s elementary school. To this end, content analysis techniques were applied to images portrayed by 766 illustrations of both human and symbolic elements related to the indigenous culture in a sample of six school text books. It was found that from the perspective of the hidden curriculum the way such images are dealt with plays an important ideological role.This may reinforce a set of latent prejudices, excluding behavior and stereotypes about these native peoples.

Keywords : school textbooks; hidden curriculum; native cultures; ethnic discrimination.