Assessment of references to agriculture in a middle grade science textbook

Abstract

The central purpose of this study was to assess the degree of bias toward agriculture within a middle grade science textbook. Literary formats used to reference agriculture within the text were also assessed. A content analysis was used to identify all references to agriculture within the textbook. All references were categorized according to the agricultural literacy areas as defined by Frick, Birkenholz, and Machtmes (1995). Text references were coded as reports, inferences, judgments, and others and were assigned a numerical score based on the assigned code. This allowed an overall bias score of the textbook, in regards to text references to agriculture, to be established. A total of 265 references to agriculture were found within the textbook. An overall bias score of 1.13 was determined.