What is Worth Teaching?: Analytically Looking at Textbooks

This paper discusses the dominance of textbooks within classroom teaching in India. In the history of Indian education in the post-independence period, since as early as 1952, various education commissions and policy frameworks have expressed concern over textbook dominance within Indian classrooms. But the education system still relies heavily on textbooks for ‘educating’ its students. National Curriculum Framework 2005 establishes the need to make learning meaningful for children by actively engaging them within the classroom. But with consistent domination of textbook reading as the only method of classroom teaching, actively engaging children remains a challenge. The paper discusses how choosing textbooks that create opportunities for actively engaging students can be a step towards developing a link between textbooks and active participation of children within classroom processes. It further suggests certain parameters for looking at texts in an analytical manner and also provides an example by analyzing a text on the parameters that are suggested.