Deconstruction of Cultural, Racial and Gender Dominance in Iranian Senior High School EFL Textbooks
محورهای موضوعی : Research PaperAhmad Goodarzi 1 , Hiwa Weisi 2
1 - Faculty of Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
2 - English department, razi university, kermanshah, iran
کلید واژه: gender, culture, English textbooks, racial dominance,
چکیده مقاله :
Course books play a crucial role in educational process and are believed to be the pivotal ingredient of language teaching. Every new textbook needs to be analyzed in order to reach its best. Hence this study aims to analyze three Iranian English course books to reveal how various cultures are shown via the course books characters’ race, nationality, gender, and intercultural communications. The inspection of the course books revealed unequal cultural representations with the dominance of white and male characters. Furthermore, regarding the intercultural interactions, most examples included conversations among Iranians in a superficial level of cultural engagement. It was also found that males’ roles are more highlighted throughout the series. Hence, in some cases, the leading ideology floating in this series is prototyping the Iranian-Islamic culture and values by means of English. Overall, this series seemed to suffer from biased embedded ideologies in terms of presenting cultures, races and genders. The findings of this study are of great help for language teachers, language learners, textbook developers, and curriculum developers to adopt an international position toward education.
Alavimoghadam, B., Kheirabadi, R., Rahimi, M., Davari, H. (2016). Vision 1. Planning and Research Organization of the Ministry of Education. Iran School Books Publication Company.
Alavimoghadam, B., Kheirabadi, R., Rahimi, M., Davari, H. (2017). Vision 2. Planning and Research Organization of the Ministry of Education. Iran School Books Publication Company.
Alavimoghadam, B., Kheirabadi, R., Rahimi, M., Davari, H. (2018). Vision 3. Planning and Research Organization of the Ministry of Education. Iran School Books Publication Company.
Aliakbari, M., & Jamalvandi, B. (2012). Realization of culture in English textbooks in Chinese high school level. Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 16(2), 89-10.
Aliakbari, M. (2004, August). The place of culture in the Iranian ELT textbooks in high school level. In 9th Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Namseoul University, Korea. Retrieved (Vol. 21, No. 09, p. 2008).
Amerian, M., & Esmaili, F. (2015). Language and gender: A critical discourse analysis on gender representation in a series of international ELT textbooks. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 4(2), 3-12.
Ansary, H, Babaii, E. (2002). Universal characteristics of EFL/ESL textbooks: A step towards systematic textbook evaluation. The Internet TESL Journal, 8(2), 1-9.
Apple, M. W. (2001). Comparing neo-liberal projects and inequality in education. Comparative education, 37(4), 409-423.
Babaii, E., & Sheikhi, M. (2018). Traces of neoliberalism in English teaching materials: a critical discourse analysis. Critical Discourse Studies, 15(3), 247-264.
Bahman, M., & Rahimi, A. (2010). Gender representation in EFL materials: an analysis of English textbooks of Iranian high schools. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 273-277.
Baleghizadeh, S., & Jamali Motahed, M. (2012). An analysis of the ideological content of internationally-developed British and American ELT textbooks. Journal of Teaching Language Skills, 29(2), 1-27.
Block, D., and D. Cameron, eds. (2002). Globalization and Language Teaching. Routledge.
Bruton, A. (1997). In what ways do we want EFL course books to differ? In Arikan, A. (2005). Age, Gender and Social Class in ELT Course books: A Critical Study. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Egitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 28, 29-38.
Carlson, M., & Kanci, T. (2017). The nationalised and gendered citizen in a global world–Examples from textbooks, policy and steering documents in Turkey and Sweden. Gender and Education, 29(3), 313-331.
Cortazzi, M., & Jin, L. (1999). Cultural mirrors materials and methods in the EFL classroom. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Culture in second language teaching and learning. Cambridge University Press.
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Course Book. Heinemann.
Fairclough, N. (2015). Language and power. Longman.
Farhady, H. (2000). Evaluating students’ language achievement at junior high schools in Iran. Research report delivered to the Ministry of Education of Iran.
Gouvias, D., & Alexopoulos, C. (2018). Sexist stereotypes in the language textbooks of the Greek primary school: a multidimensional approach. Gender and Education, 30(5), 642-662.
Gray, J. 2002. The Global Coursebook in English Language Teaching. In Globalization and Language Teaching, edited by D. Block and D. Cameron, 151–167. Routledge.
Hutchinson, T. & Torrres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315-328.
Iran’s Ministry of Education (2011). The National Curriculum. Publication center of Iran’s Ministry of Education.
Iran’s Ministry of Education (2018). Fundamental evolution document of education and pedagogy. Publication center of Iran’s Ministry of Education.
Kachru, B. B. (1992). World Englishes: Approaches, Issues and Resources. Language Teaching, 25 (1): 1–14.
Kalia, N. N. (1980). Images of men and women in Indian textbooks. Comparative Education Review, 24(2): 209-223.
Kereszty, O. (2009). Gender in textbooks. Practice and Theory in Systems of Education, 4(2), 1-7.
Kilickaya, F. (2004). Authentic materials and cultural content in EFL classrooms. The Internet TESL Journal, 10(7), 1-5.
Landis, D., Bennett, J., & Bennett, M. (2003). Handbook of intercultural training. Sage Publications.
Lee, I. (2009). Situated Globalization and Racism: An Analysis of Korean High School EFL Textbooks. Language and Literacy, 11 (1): 1–14.
Lee, J. F. K., & Collins, (2008). Australian English language textbooks: The gender issues. Gender and Education, 21(4), 353-370.
Lee, J. F. K., & Mahmoudi‑Gahrouei, V. (2020). Gender Representation in Instructional Materials: A Study of Iranian English Language Textbooks and Teachers’ Voices. Sexuality and Culture.
Lee, K. Y. (2009). Treating Culture: What 11 High School EFL Conversation Textbooks in South Korea Do. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 8(1): 76–96.
McDonough, J., Shaw, C., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Materials and Method in ELT; A Teacher’s Guide. Blackwell Publishing
McGrath, I. (2013). Teaching materials and the roles of EFL/ESL teachers: Practice and theory. Continuum.
Rahimi, M. (1996). The study of English Language Instruction at the Secondary Schools of the Isfahan Province. [Unpublished Master Thesis]. Shiraz University.
Rashidi, N. (1995). Teaching and learning English in Guidance and High School in Kordestan: Problems and suggested solutions. [Unpublished Master Thesis], University of Shiraz.
Razmjoo, S. A., & Riazi, A. M. (2006). Do High Schools or Private Institutes Practice Communicative Language Teaching? A Case Study of Shiraz Teachers in High Schools and Institutes. Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal, 6(3).
Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Sadeghi, K., & Richards, J. C. (2015). Teaching spoken English in Iran’s private language schools: issues and options. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 14(2), 210-234.
Sheldon, L.E. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246.
Sherman, J. E. (2010). Uncovering cultural bias in EFL textbooks. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 27-53.
Shin, J., Z. R. Eslami, and W. C. Chen. (2011). Presentation of Local and International Culture in Current International English-Language Teaching Textbooks. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 24 (3): 253–268.
Skelton, A. (1997). Studying hidden curricula: Developing a perspective in the light of postmodern insights. Curriculum Studies, 5, 177- 93.
Song, H. (2013). Deconstruction of cultural dominance in Korean EFL textbooks. Intercultural Education, 24(4), 382-390.
Taylor-Mendes, C. (2009). Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Textbooks: Images as Discourse. In Race, Culture, and Identities in Second Language Education, edited by R. Kubota and A. Lin, 64–80. Routledge.
Tomlinson, B. (2001). Materials development. In R. Carter, & D. Nunan (Ed.), The Cambridge guide to teaching English to speakers of other languages (pp. 66-71). Cambridge University Press.
Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language teaching, 45(2), 143-179.
Tomlinson, B., & Masuhara, H. (2017). The complete guide to the theory and practice of materials development for language learning. John Wiley & Sons.
Ur, P. (1997). A Course in Language Teaching. Practice and Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Yarmohammadi, L. (2000). Reflections on the Treatment and Contextualization of Pronunciation Practices and Language Functions in the Pre-university textbooks in Iran. Journal of Teaching Languages, 1(3), 1-21.
Zarrinabadi, N., & Mahmoudi-Gahrouei, V. (2018). English in contemporary Iran. Asian Englishes, 20(1), 81-94.
