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1996, pp. 8-9). Luke further discusses the power discourses operating in texts which are
positioned as containing these naturalised ‘truths’, within a CDA context, by writing:
…discourse in institutional life can be viewed as a means for the naturalization and
disguise of power relations that are tied to inequalities in the social production and
distribution of symbolic and material resources. This means that dominant discourses
in contemporary cultures tend to represent those social formations and power
relations that are the products of history, social formation, and culture (e.g.
…patterns of school achievement by minority groups…) as if they were the product
of organic, biological, and essential necessity. By this account, critical discourse
analysis is a political act itself, an intervention…that attempts to “interrupt” everyday
common sense. (1995-1996, p. 12)
The de-basing of power discourses and investigating how, through content, textbooks
naturalise representations of groups through language (textual and visual) use is achieved by
tracking changes of textbooks through syllabuses (as reflections of sociopolitical discourses),
and identifying the perspectives, events and other activities attributed to British heritages and
Indigenous representations, that are both privileged and/or marginalised in any given era.
This tracking of changes enables attention to variation to take place, meaning that the
investigation of the same categories, and the subsequent discourses that emerge, across texts
in different time periods assists to “identify features of construction” (Potter and Wetherell,
1994, p. 55). This can provide deeper understandings of the perspectives of the authors of
school texts in previous eras.
2.6 Resistant discourses.
Whilst it is far too broad reaching and inaccurate to claim that all dominant discourses are
negative uses of power by those who have access to informing the curriculum and that this
power is used irresponsibly to the detriment of a rigorous education, it is important to
consider resistant discourses which have operated in different eras as alternatives to the
official school curriculum. The methodological approach taken in this project enables and
encourages data gathering and analysis which present resistant views. By considering
alternatives, this does not mean that all curriculum content is necessarily troubled. In writing
of dominant and resistance discourses, van Dijk explains that this “…does not mean that we
see power and dominance merely as unilaterally ‘imposed’ on others” (2001b, p. 300). This
is, however, argued by some as being the case, such as Manuel who writes “we see literature,
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