ABSTRACT
This article seeks to analyze theoretical and methodological paths taken by the Centro de Investigación en Manuales Escolares, in Spain. To this end, it emphasises the two perspectives that have been the base of investigations throughout its twenty years of existence: one about "issuers" and another about "receptors" of the messages from textbooks. For the first one, are emphasized the studies related to the analysis of textual and iconographic content of textbooks, the so called "ideological research tradition". For the second one - the receptors -, are highlighted in this article the incursions of the centre's research on the "contextual spin", referring to both, the textbook production context and the context of its use. Also of note, the use of intertextuality methodology, based on the combined study of the book with different sources from the reception contexts, which has contributed to the disemboweling of the most difficult issues of manualistic practice: the methodology of using books in the classroom and the consequent approach to the history of school culture.
KEYWORDS
textbooks; "contextual turn"; intertextuality; school culture