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The Middle East in American High School Curricula a Kansas Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2016

Michael W. Suleiman
Michael W. Suleiman*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science Kansas State University
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Extract

This report summarizes the results of a survey of Kansas high school teachers of World History conducted in the Spring of 1972. Though the data were gathered in the state of Kansas, the textbooks used in the World History course are “national” in the sense that (1) the authors are not local or even regional and (2) the books are widely used in various parts of the country.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , 31 May 1974 , pp. 8 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 1974

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References

Footnotes

1. A questionnaire was sent to all the 425 high schools in Kansas in April 1972. 171 (40.2%) responded, but of those 16 did not fill out the questionnaire since the school did not offer a course on World History.

2. A rural area or village was defined as having up to 2,500 people.

3. Of the courses taken, 25% were in History, 11% in Geography and 10% in Political Science.

4. The six most widely used were: Rogers, Lester B. et. al., Story of Nations (New York: Holt & Rinehart, 1968)Google Scholar; Boak, Arthur E., et. al., The History of Our World (Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Mifflin, 1969)Google Scholar; and Wallbank, T. Walter and Schrier, Arnold, Living World History, (Chicago, Illinois: Scott, Foresman, 1969)Google Scholar – each of which was used by about 12% of the respondents; Mazour, Anatole G. and Peoples, John M., Men and Nations : A World History (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1968)Google Scholar (10%); and Habberton, William et al., World History and Cultures: Story of Man’s Achievements (River Forest III. : Laidlaw, 1966)Google Scholar; and Roehm, A. Wesley et al., The Record of Mankind (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1970)Google Scholar – each used by about 8% of the respondents.

5. These were Stavrianos, Leften L.et al., A Global History of Man (Boston, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon, 1970)Google Scholar; and Welty, Paul Thomas, Man’s Cultural Heritage: A World History (Philadelphia, Pa.: Lippincott, 1969)Google Scholar, as cited in Ziadeh, Farhat J., “Report of the Middle East Image in Secondary Schools Committee, 6th Annual Meeting, Middle East Studies Association, November 2, 1972,” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Feb., 1973), p. 53.Google Scholar

6. Most World History texts appear to devote about 8–10% of their space to the Middle East, much of it related to ancient civilizations.

7. The others complained about insufficient information or over-generalization.

8. Needless to say, since the question was open-ended, the various characteristics mentioned were later organized into these seven categories by the author.

9. Examples of positive characteristics are “mild,” “meek,” “extremely good fighters,” and “oppressed but determined;” examples of characteristics conveying sympathy are “starvation,” “war,” and “unlucky.” Characteristics categorized as negative are exemplified by the following: “fanatical,” “unrealistic,” “living in past glories,” and “overpopulation.” Examples of neutral or ambiguous characteristics are “mysterious,” “desert,” “desert dwellers,” “refugee camps,” and “free of responsibilities.”

10. The selection was not random. Since the schools were listed in alphabetical order, the first half on the list were sent “Brady questionnaires,” the second half were mailed “Suleiman questionnaires.”

11. A difference is generally considered statistically significant if the likelihood of its occurring by chance is 5% or less. In Tables 10 and 11 the probability of the differences being merely by chance is less than 1 %.

12. The statistics were (1) 35% to 21 % to 11%. The various categories provided as choices were: Ancient; Islamic religion; History of early Arab-Islamic empire; Early Ottoman Empire; 19th century; 1914–1939 period; 1945 to present; and “Other.”