ABSTRACT
It was argued in the introductory chapter that textbook research has been given significantly lower priority in Britain than in mainland Europe and in North America. Attitudes in educational circles in this country towards textbooks have been more negative than in many other nations, to the extent that an anti-textbook ethos can fairly be postulated. It is important, however, not to take this generalisation too far, and to suggest that the ethos is everywhere present and that those who hold it do so equally strongly. It is probably just to surmise that it is more evident among education tutors and advisers than teachers; among primary teachers than secondary teachers; and, in the secondary sphere, among teachers in the humanities than in mathematics and the sciences. Supporting evidence is, however, more easily acquired informally, and often at an anecdotal level, than from the formal literature. Lidstone, for example, recalls that orally he was actively discouraged by university education department tutors from using textbooks during periods of teaching practice, even though experienced teachers in the schools regularly did so (1992, pp. 177-8).
