From Print to Pupil: How Representation in Schoolbooks Reaches the Classroom

The twenty-first century is the century of displacement. An unprecedented 110 million people are displaced worldwide, 40 million of them internationally. Most seek asylum in urban areas. However, in cities, internationally displaced migrants are confronted with unaffordable housing markets and growing levels of homelessnessSchoolbooks are not only essential tools for transmitting knowledge and skills but also have a symbolic function in shaping views about the social world. Yet, numerous studies show that women, people with darker skin tones, individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and persons with disabilities remain underrepresented or stereotypically portrayed in schoolbooks. While these studies illustrate patterns of stereotyping and underrepresentation, they often treat representation as a fixed feature of schoolbooks, overlooking the institutional and social processes through which it is produced and interpreted. Little is known about how these representations are produced, mediated, and received within the educational system. This project introduces an innovative, multi-level, and intersectional framework to trace how representations of social identity move from print to pupil across three interconnected stages: production (publishers’ decision-making), mediation (teachers’ use and adaptation of materials), and interpretation (pupils’ perceptions). For the first time, this study conceptualizes representation as a dynamic social process shaped by institutional structures and everyday classroom interactions. Using a multi-method design that brings together insights from publishers, teachers, and pupils, this study traces how representations and stereotypes move from print to pupil. In doing so, it identifies critical moments in this process where stereotypes can be challenged.. In this project, I analyze the extent to which international migrants’ experiences of displacement are continued and multiplied in cities of arrival, and the ways international processes and experiences of displacement intersect and overlap with those of unhoused populations. Applying comparative and qualitative social research, I first study the housing trajectories of internationally displaced and unhoused populations. This includes their strategies, geographies, and determinants relevant for (not) finding housing and “making” home. Second, I examine the housing market structures and policies for displaced populations, including their rationale, implementation, and spatial arrangements. Conceptualizing cities as sites that both receive displaced populations, and that produce displacement, my research furthers our understanding of this “displacement urbanism.” This encompasses the creation of systematic knowledge about the way displacement shapes urban processes and its relationship to global-urban housing regimes and governance, as well as the wider structures of racial exclusion and marginalization in cities.