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which the learner is subject, but that the key mechanism which reproduces the
ontological and epistemological assumptions of the discipline, the curriculum and
state educational policy, is the textbook. (2004, p. 688)
It is very unusual for a textbook to declare its ideological or theoretical base, especially one
published for a school audience, where the contestation of knowledge does not feature
explicitly. Indeed, this is identified in textbooks analysed for this research, with no authors of
the school textbooks selected for analysis openly declaring their ideological perspectives or
being open about disclosures, apart from simplistic facts such as employment affiliation.
CDA plays an important role, then, in deconstructing the power relations that exist in
textbooks maintaining ideological dominance through content including both written text and
visual images. Although covered in greater depth in Chapter 3: Methodology, Research
Design and Conduct, the following quote provides a succinct explanation of the links
between the power that texts have in maintaining this dominance, sometimes referred to as
‘common sense’ by those who resist any change, as Fairclough and Wodak describe:
Since discourse is so socially influential, it gives rise to important issues of power.
Discourse practice may have major ideological effects: that is, they can help produce
and reproduce unequal power relations between (for instance) social classes, women
and men, and ethnic/cultural majorities and minorities through the ways in which
they represent things and position people. So discourse may, for example, be racist,
or sexist, and try to pass off assumptions (often falsifying ones) about any aspect of
social life as mere common sense. Both the ideological loading of particular ways of
using language and the relations of power which underlie them are often unclear to
people. CDA aims to make more visible these opaque aspects of discourse. (1997, p.
258)
There are many mediums and systems which work to maintain ideological dominance. The
textbook is only one of many “…apparatuses which generate and circulate ideologies” (Hall,
2006, p. 398). However, as it is the textbook that is of primary concern in this project, this
will form the focus of relating ideological dominance to a specific curriculum context. The
notion of textbooks replicating dominant socio-political discourses is not uncommon. In a
textbook aimed at pre-service teachers, Marsh asserts that “school materials, especially
textbooks can exhibit cultural bias” (2008, p. 226). Teachers are then advised to intercept this
information in order to “…help students identify bias and to seek information from a wide
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