Nation, alterity and competing discourses: Rethinking textbooks as ideological apparatuses

Abstract

Schools worldwide rely heavily on textbooks to disseminate knowledge and guide pedagogical choices. In critical discourse studies, textbooks have been shown to function as national policy instruments, carry a hidden curriculum, and enact a global agenda. The existing literature, however, pays a little attention to the fact that textbooks also represent competing discourses rather than merely being ideological apparatuses. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by examining national subjecthood, alterity, and the way textbooks engender competing discourses and make them accessible to learners. Based on critical and post-structuralist discourse traditions, 12 English language textbooks were analyzed in one province of Pakistan. National subjecthood appears to have been constituted through various discursive indexes, including religion, gendered subjectivity, languages, literature, and patriotic sentiments among others. The Other is constituted in textbooks both as internals (religious minorities) and externals (e.g., India). Additionally, textbooks offer learners competing discourses with a possibility to negotiate their subject positions.