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all literature, as a means of enmeshing children in repressive ideology…children’s literature
is best understood as a means by which adults claim power over children and force them to
accept our repressive versions of who they really are” (2009, p. 99). Added to this is the
understanding that some assertions of power, in the case below relating to a racist discourse,
are not always conscious of operating within a negative framework. Hall explains,
If the media function in a systematically racist manner, it is not because they are run
and organized exclusively by active racists; this is a category mistake. This would be
equivalent to saying that you could change the character of the capitalist state by
replacing its personnel. Whereas the media, like the state, have a structure, a set of
practices which are not reducible to the individuals...What is significant is not that
they produce a racist ideology, from some single-minded and unified conception of
the world, but that they are so powerfully constrained – ‘spoken by’ – a particular set
of ideological discourses. (2006, p. 405)
Whilst a minimum of one resistant text (where available) will be analysed for each historical
era, the main focus will be on the dominant sociopolitical discourses operating within school
curriculum, with van Dijk supporting the concentration of attention on dominant discourses,
by writing,
Thus, although an analysis of strategies of resistance and challenge is crucial for our
understanding of actual power and dominance relations in society, and although such
an analysis needs to be included in a broader theory of power, counter-power and
discourse, our critical approach prefers to focus on the elites and their discursive
strategies for the maintenance of inequality. (2001b, p. 300)
Although there may not be an intentional or cynical attempt to subjugate or marginalize
certain groups, through inclusion or omission of particular curriculum content, it is likely (in
view of current and past curriculum structures) that a subordinate group is created, and from
the perspectives of that group, the content could legitimately be seen as a negative operation
of power. This is the case, even if the group being subjugated is unaware of this, or has
adopted the perspectives of the dominant group through the acculturation of messages
received about themselves from both dominant sociopolitical discourses in society and the
school curriculum. Tyrwhitt-Drake (1999) explains this as dominant groups being able to
garner the general consent of otherwise subordinate groups to enact their will. Furthermore,
regarding exercising power, van Dijk writes “…when present as participants, members of less
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