Introduction

Being sustained by a body of knowledge considered essential, by the political power and civil society, for the youngest to learn, textbooks are one of the most identifiable and defining objects of the teaching-learning process (Sherman et al., 2016; Hadar, 2017). Despite the technological advances that marked our times, and during the pedagogically challenging moments of the pandemic, this medium has remained the reference for teaching. Indeed, following the historical course of political regimes, their economic and social transformations, and their cultural and mental visions, against a backdrop marked by dominant ideologies, textbooks have shaped and sought to reshape educational contexts.

That is why the textbook has long been an object of study. In recent years there has even been a proliferation of analyses carried out and of studies focusing on comparative national and transnational approaches, looking at social representations (woman, man, child, society, the other, etc.) and the construction of multiple identities (social, political, cultural).

Textbooks, especially of History and Geography, are a vehicle for the massive dissemination of the officially approved 'discourses' and 'images'. At the same time, they reflect social controversies on sensitive issues (Klerides 2010; Macgilchrist 2015). They mix and match myriad of discursive threads that connect them to the wider social environment (Binnenkade, 2015). Situated at the interface of politics, history, pedagogy, and didactics, they reflect curricular requirements as well as scientific and pedagogical standards. They respond to societal demands and political debates (Christophe, 2019).

Currently, national, and international governmental bodies, NGOs, and academic and pedagogical institutions are involved in projects that observe practices of inculcating and perpetuating memory through these analytical lenses, keeping in mind the issue of Eurocentrism and the need to decolonise.