Race and Social Class in Moroccan Elt Textbooks

Abstract

This paper investigates the representation of race and social class in three second year Baccalaureate ELT textbooks currently used in Moroccan public high school. The study hopes to draw the attention of teachers, textbook designers and educational policy makers to the viability of textbook evaluation in improving the quality of Moroccan ELT textbooks. It aims to identify the extent to which Gateway to English 2, Insights into English 2 and Tickets to English 2 provide an authentic representation of race and social class through examining the frequency of appearance of, the visibility of, the space allotted to and the firstness of characters belonging to different races and social classes in texts, dialogues, images and exercises. The study is informed by the theoretical framework of the Standards-Based Approach and adopts content analysis as a mixed research methods that allows for quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data. The findings reveal an undisputable discrepancy marked by the dominance of the Caucasian race and the marginalization of the lower class. Finally, this paper suggests practical ways in which future textbooks could avoid or at least reduce the effect of these discrepancies.

Representation of (In)equality in English for Today (Class-VIII)

“…There are inequalities, biases, stereotyping, under-representation or misrepresentation of social classes, ages, races, religions, gender and professions in ELT books from different contexts (Arikan, 2005;Bose, 2008;Bouzid, 2016;Gibatdinov, 2011;Guseynova, 2008;Lee, 2011;Mustapha, 2014;Saleem & Thomas, 2011). Cunningsworth (1995) asserts that textbooks practice exclusion of social classes and allocate asymmetrical spaces to different classes (cited in Bouzid, 2016, p. 115).…”

Promoting Values of Religious Tolerance through Moroccan ELT Textbooks

“…Therefore, several problems related to gender, age, social class, grammar, vocabulary, functions, gradation, recycling, appropriateness and suitability have been investigated and ways in which they could be overcome have been suggested. There is also evidence that the practice of textbook evaluation gears teachers professional development as it requires using a set of reflective thinking strategies that allow teachers to reflect upon the content of the textbooks to determine the extent to which it is authentic, appropriate and effective (see Ait Bouzid, 2016, Cisar, 2000Cunningsworth, 1996;Hutchinson & Torres, 1994;Jibreel, 2015;Klein, 1985;Litz, 2005;Lu & Lin, 2014;McDonough & Shaw, 2003). Neverthless, textbook evaluation is not merely an intuitive day-to-day passive activity which individual teachers use to superficially skim over the textbook to determine which activities to use and which ones to discard; textbook evaluation benefits both teachers and textbooks if it is employed as a systematic, collaborative and reflective longitudinal practice that seeks to uncover the hidden curriculum that is often obscured by structures, texts and images.…”