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Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks

Author

Listed:
  • Anjali Adukia
  • Emileigh Harrison

Abstract

Curricula impart knowledge, instill values, and shape collective memory. Despite growing public funding for religious schools through U.S. school choice programs, little is known about what they teach. We examine textbooks from public schools, religious private schools, and home schools, applying computational methods -- including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools -- to measure the presence and portrayal of people, topics, and values over time. Despite narratives of political polarization, our findings reveal few meaningful differences between public school textbooks from Texas and California. However, religious school textbooks have less female representation, feature lighter-skinned individuals, and portray topics like evolution and religion differently. Over one-third of pages in each collection convey character values, with a higher proportion in religious school textbooks. Important similarities also emerge: all textbook collections rarely include LGBTQIA+ discussion, portray females in more positive but less active or powerful contexts than males, and depict the U.S. founding era and slavery in similar contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Anjali Adukia & Emileigh Harrison, 2025. "Separation of Church and State Curricula? Examining Public and Religious Private School Textbooks," CESifo Working Paper Series 11965, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11965
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    curricula; education policy; religious education; public school education; diversity and inclusion in education; artificial intelligence tools; computational social science; content analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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