The Role of School Texts in the Planning and Development of Basic Education in Educational Institutions of the City of Quito

General objective To determine the role played by textbooks in the planning and development of the teaching-learning process in basic education in the areas of Language, Mathematics, Social Sciences in educational institutions in the city of Quito. Justification A few years ago, the school textbook was used as a resource, among many others, that favored and contributed to the teaching task. It could be dispensed with and could even not be present in each class that the teachers developed. However, in recent years its centrality is becoming stronger and more evident. On the one hand, because for the fathers and mothers of the family, as well as for the State, it represents an expense that has to result in benefits of a curricular and didactic nature. On the other hand, the fact that all teachers follow the same sequence, address the same content, ensures to a certain extent that the curriculum determined by the State through the Ministry of Education is complied with. This centrality of the textbook in education has caused a change in its purpose: it has ceased to be a resource and has become the curriculum that each teacher must develop. This is because more and more textbooks determine the purpose of the class, select the content to be taught and learned, suggest methods or strategies to address said content, provide resources and even determine how and what to evaluate. Although there is much research that analyzes school texts from different perspectives. According to Fernández Reiris (2005), these studies can be grouped into four large groups: “more critical, historical and ideological studies about the content of school textbooks (...); formal, linguistic and psycho-pedagogical studies related to presentation and didactic adaptation (...); studies on cultural policies, editorials and the economy of school textbooks, as well as on processes of design, production, circulation and consumption (...); studies focused on the role of the textbook in the design and development of the curriculum” (pg. 25-26). In each group you can find studies for and against, all have in common the fact of placing in the center of the debate the textbook and try to explain some of its implications from a more didactic-pedagogical or more critical perspective. Even so, of the large number of studies, in Ecuador little has been discussed, investigated, discussed about school textbooks. In thesis, only eight works were found that have the school textbook as the focus of analysis. Critical studies that analyze the gender issue (Pineda, 2011). Sexist and discriminatory stereotypes (Erazo, 2009). Representations about Afro-Ecuadorians (Viveros, 2008). Representations about indigenous people and interculturality (Granda, 2000). Formal studies in relation to the curricular sequence (Garcés, 2004). On language and communication (Espinoza, 2009). Impact on the teaching-learning process (Murrillo. 2018). Analysis of the application for reading comprehension (Díaz, 2014). Only one article was found on the communication of messages in reading texts (Jalil, 1988). There are only two investigations.