This article explores the construction of gendered ethnicity in some

of the characters portrayed in readers used in the lower classes of

the Swedish comprehensive school. The purpose is to show how

what I call “critical intersectional discourse analysis” can be used on

textbook content. The analysis sheds light on underlying ideals and

values in hegemonic discourses, and the very complex ways these

values combine intersectionally, to construct the characters in the

analysed texts. Text and illustrations

are seen as interacting parts of

a whole and as part of a greater societal context. At the same time,

the analysis demonstrates how historical and contemporary

discourses influence text content. These discourses create contradictory

meanings and identities, as well as certain power relations,

within the text as well as in relation to different readers. The

preferred reading inevitably transforms the majority’s ways of

behaving into a generalised norm. The configuration of characters

presented in the textbooks thereby stereotypes and marginalizes

characters who differ from majority norms, creating a coding of

the world into “us and them”. The focus in this study is on the way

certain children presented in the readers are constructed as

deviations, who are implicitly contrasted to an unarticulated

heteronormative adult Western norm, and therefore inevitably

positioned as subordinated in relation to that norm.

The article explores how norms and ideals linked to generation, gender and ethnicity are expressed in school readers used in Swedish schools since 1962, the year of the first national curriculum of the compulsory school. More than 60 readers have been examined. The adopted perspective combines a genealogical and a critical multimodal discourse analytical approach with an intersectional perspective. This means that the readers’ texts and illustrations are viewed as a whole and as social constructions in the historical context of their periods. Accordingly, the way changes in the late modern society, regarding childhood and family, are depicted in the readers are made visible, as well as the inclusion and exclusion of certain social subjects. Although the contemporary readers appear to advocate diversity and equal opportunities the analysis shows that a colonial white Western, as well as a heteronormative, discourse remains comparatively unchanged throughout the period. The most noticeable finding is the reversed generation hierarchies that characterize the late books. A striking point here is that the old nuclear family has been replaced by an ideal of young heterosexual twosomeness.

Än i dag förekommer rasistiska stereotyper i skolböckerna. Förr handlade det om primitiva raser, i dag är det snarare fråga om primitiva kulturer. Allt oftare finns dock mörkhyade barn på bilderna – fast de får sällan komma till tals.

I artikeln analyseras det diskursiva innehållet i en läsebok med syfte att visa hur man kan granska läromedelstexter för interkulturella undervisningskontexter. Med utgångspunkt i kritisk diskursanalys, postkolonial teori och ett genusperspektiv dekonstrueras texten för att belysa hur implicita ideal och värderingar tillsammans konstruerar genus och etnicitet. Den analyserade läseboken skildrar den mångkulturella och jämställda svenska skolvardagen. Huvudpersonerna, en flicka och en pojke, gestaltas i interaktion med barn av olika etnisk och social bakgrund. Kontrasterande samtida och historiska diskurser gör dock budskapen motsägelsefulla. I princip tillåts pojkar vara individuella och barnsliga medan flickor uppmuntras anpassa sig till ett västerländskt kvinnligt ideal och »normalbeteende». Motstånd förekommer i bokens »pojkflicka» och den kvinnliga huvudpersonens försök att vara självständig, men eftersom båda blir symboliskt kuvade sänds också signaler om vad som anses vara normalt »flickbeteende». Samtidigt gör ett par tydliga traditionella invandrarstereotyper, i kombination med ett implicit artikulerat svenskhetsideal, att det ytliga men sannolikt välmenande mångfaldsbudskapet blir tvetydigt.

This chapter starts with a textbook evaluation that was originally carried out by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate in 2010, focusing on fundamental values in chemistry textbooks used in 14 primary schools (students aged 10–11 years). The aim is to discuss the results of this analysis in relation to national values and a national (Swedish) self-image, with respect to certain patterns and perceptions that were discernible in the textbook material, showing some cultural identities and discourses. In addition, parts of the material that were not included in the official report are presented in this chapter. The method used is eclectically used discourse analysis carried out within the fields of critical race and whiteness studies, as well as in relation to worldwide social changes, sometimes referred to as the crisis of multiculturalism, or the end of patriarchy. The first image to be identified in the textbook material, that was the foundation of the evaluation, is a so called reverse gender hierarchy, where men tend to be subordinated, whereas the second image is an imbedded white structure in the textbooks.

The aim of the thesis has been to explore representations of gender, ethnicity and generation in school readers used in the Swedish compulsory school since 1962, to find which ’discourses’, linked to equal opportunities, integration/diversity and childhood, underlie these constructions, and in which ways they may have contributed to the (re)production of different gendered, ethnified and generation-specific subjects. The thesis was written within the frame of a Swedish national research project that explored late modern processes of changing sex- and gender orders in schools and education, particularly in multiethnic environments, which is why, the study is not limited exclusively to sex/gender. These aspects were instead considered in an intersectional perspective, in their interplay with dimensions such as ethnicity and generation. The adopted perspective combines a historical and a discourse analytical approach. This means that the reader texts have been viewed as social constructions in the historical context of their periods, shaped by norms, ideals and values prevailing at the time. One of the ambitions of the thesis has been to bring these texts to life, using a broad and varied theoretical frame, and also to let the texts speak for themselves as far as possible. The theoretical framework was therefore developed in the course of the analysis, in interaction with the analysed texts. The analysis incorporates structural and post-structural theoretical influences and concepts, including feminist and postcolonial notions. The basis is formed by critical multi-modal applied discourse analysis. By using discourse analysis, theory and method are considered as the same. The approach does not aim to produce a homogenous or general picture, but rather strives to highlight the heterogeneity of the texts and to make discursive changes visible. The mutual relationships and correspondence between the texts and their historical contexts has made this possible. More than 60 readers were examined. The process of reading involved two stages: an initial reading, searching for structures, followed by a deconstructive reading. The results are presented in five chapters, contextually linked to the corresponding national curriculum periods. The long period of time examined has meant that several shifts in discourses within the discourse orders in question could be described and elucidated. The thesis also clearly shows that the reader texts have become more heterogeneous and ambiguous over time, and how their subject constructions are characterized by a succession of older as well as more recent discursive fragments. Yet the most noticeable finding of the analysis is that the ’colonial white Western’ discourse remains comparatively unchanged throughout the period. It can be seen as the most stable and unchanging discourse order exhibited in the material, although a certain shift can be perceived in the most recent readers. The earliest readers set out in upper middle-class environments. As the policy of recognition and identities develops, the perspective turns towards solidarity, equal opportunities, and working-class views, in the 1970s and 1980s. By the turn of the millenium, the readers again depict what could be considered as a new middle-class perspective, developed through the emergence of discourses, and characterized by reversed generation hierarchies. The second very prominent discourse observed in the material is a ’hetero-normative discourse of difference’, that paradoxically has evolved within the discourse order of equal opportunities. On the one hand, contemporary readers appear to advocate equal opportunities. Girls and women are frequently positioned as strong individualists, compared to apparently softer boys and men. Nevertheless, a tendency of positioning the otherwise independent girl as a partner to the actual protagonist, the reader boy, can be noticed in the millennium readers. This is basically a question of a traditional hierarchy, where women are subordinated to men. The striking point is that the old nuclear family ideal has progressively been replaced by another ideal of heterosexual twosomeness. Subordination is therefore today a question of a more or less sexist Western discourse, highly influenced by a massmedial discourse. Possibly it could be argued that the displacement is partly also a matter of a reversed generation perspective. The earlier white middle-aged bourgeois patriarchal perspective is thus replaced by a white Western new middle-class teenage ideal, tracing its roots back to an originally masculine youth culture. In the couple relationship – by contrast to the family – contemporary, more individualized ideals are expressed.

I dagens mediebrus verkar uttryck för populism, faktaresistens och antidemokratiska ideologier bli allt vanligare. En viktig uppgift för skola och högre utbildning är därför att förse elever, studenter och lärare med kritiska analysverktyg så att de kan sovra i informationsflödet. Diskursanalys är ett sådant verktyg som förmår synliggöra hur språk och texter av olika slag, såväl tryckta som digitala, rymmer ideologier och makt. Diskursanalys uppfattas inte sällan som onödigt komplicerad och svårtillgänglig.

Den här boken vill ändra på den uppfattningen. I boken medverkar tio forskare från olika akademiska discipliner. Samtliga har erfarenhet av diskursanalys från både undervisning och forskning. Bokens syfte är att visa hur diskursanalys konkret kan tillämpas på texter som knyter an till det utbildningsvetenskapliga området - lärobokstexter, läroplanstexter, digitala resurser och diskussionsgrupper samt medietexter - och hur detta kan utnyttjas i klassrummet.

Boken riktar sig främst till studenter och lärare vid högskolor och universitet med intresse för diskursanalys med ett utbildningsvetenskapligt och didaktiskt perspektiv.