The Textbook as a Reading that Conditions Educational Practice in Primary Education

The textbook, and more the Spanish language textbook, has been for some time mandatory reading in Primary Education. It is also evident that the resources chosen to develop the educational practice condition the teaching styles of teachers and the commitment to innovation in teaching. A study carried out in the schools of Badajoz, Spain, through data collection cards and teacher interviews, confirms the widespread use of the textbook in this instrumental area. The results, analysed with Microsoft Windows Excel, confirm the teachers' commitment to this resource, and how its omnipresence in the classroom conditions the teaching-learning processes and academic performance, and shapes the type of teacher who interprets, almost dogmatically, the contents, approaches and proposals included in these manuals, which translates into an excessively traditional teaching practice. Any educational change requires the combination of new resources and curricular materials, and new actions, both by teachers and administrations, without forgetting that any study of textbooks confronts us with the analysis of reading competency and the development of other language skills.