IARTEM e-journal

Editorial, vol 15-1

Georges-Louis Baron — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Editorial for volume 15, issue 1

Representation of Culture and National Identity in Pakistani ESL Textbooks

Sajid Hussain, Shanti C. Sandaran, Abdul Saeed — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0200

The present study examined the spectrum of cultures, specifically the representation of source culture in relation to Pakistan’s national identity construction in English textbooks. Six locally developed textbooks in Pakistan were analysed qualitatively. Moreover, Cortazzi’s & Jin’s categorisation of culture plus Kachru’s (1992) Concentric circles and Shahsani’s taxonomy of culture categorisation were employed as an analytical framework to look at the contents of the textbooks. The contents of each unit/lesson were thoroughly examined to expose the representation of cultures that help form the students' national identity. Resultantly, the study's findings divulge the disproportionate representation of source, target, and international cultures; however, the representation of source culture outweighs the other two cultures. It further reveals the incorporation of source cultural values, norms, and roles that disseminate information about Pakistan, its history, geography, national heroes, Islam; Islamic teaching, beliefs, traditions, manners, ethics, morality, gender’s roles, and national cultural heritage that contribute to the construction of Islamic based national identity of Pakistan. To sum up, the writers of the textbooks construct students’ national identity by representing source culture materials in the English textbooks that also pave the way to the formation of Pakistani English.

How well do materials evaluation schemes empower users to detect problematic social group portrayals within ELT materials?

Charles Brown — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This research sought to determine how well schemes for evaluating English language teaching (ELT) materials provide guidance in detecting problematic social group portrayals. I collected 107 frameworks for ELT materials evaluation, assessing the guidance provided for detecting social group portrayals problematic in ELT materials. Specifically, I considered how well these frameworks instructed users in detecting ableism, ageism, lookism, racial bias, religious bias, cultural bias, undue UK/US focus, undue English native speaker focus, gender bias, heteronormativity, and urbanormativity. While results revealed some attention to these social group issues, this attention was limited and guidance to users was poor, especially when compared with more traditional areas of ELT materials evaluation such as that afforded to assessing presentations of grammar and vocabulary. This suggests a troubling blind spot in materials evaluation, one that could allow ELT pedagogy to promote social injustice given that problematic social group portrayals can form a potent hidden curriculum.