Cultural Dissemination: A Case Study of English Text Books at Primary Level in Pakistan
Abstract
Textbooks act as an embodiment of education policy and carry great significance in classroom teaching. The content of these discourses reflects the existing cultural, religious or social norms of a country and acts as a means to exercise power of the dominant groups. The present investigation focuses to unmask prevalent cultural and social ideologies in the literary discourses of Pakistani English primary textbooks of the four provinces (Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The analysis pertains to two levels: content analysis to quantify cultural themes and discourse analysis to validate the results and gain insight into the data by using three-dimensional Critical Discourse Analysis framework by Norman Fairclough. The findings of the study highlight significant disproportion of cultural representations in the data. The results reflect embodiment of dominant provincial ideologies and advocate a revision of curriculum and education policy for serving wider educational needs in the local and international context.
Keywords: Cultural messages, Ideology, English Textbooks, Primary Education
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