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so inter or multi disciplinary, that it does not privilege one form of discipline, methodology or
view of the world over another, writing “any discipline that refuses to move outside its
borders privileges its own narratives and regimes of truth. Research emerging from such a
disciplinary context produces one-dimensional knowledge about multi-dimensional
phenomena” (2004, p. 41). They also go on to write of bricolage, “…the complexity…is like
a marriage of modern research with research in the postmodern where conflicting discourses
remain but where no one area becomes restrained by conceptual borders and where no one
area becomes dominant over another” (2004, p. 106, emphasis added). This project however
is clear about privileging CDA as the lead methodology and draws from it components
appropriate for this research. Historical methodology is also used, with the lynchpin between
the two methodologies being the historical-discursive approach that Wodak uses (see for
example, Wodak, 2004; Wodak et al., 1999). This is not considered to be in conflict with
bricolage, as a variety of approaches are brought together, combined and constructed to form
one, coherent, theoretically aligned methodology, which investigates the relationship between
historical contexts and official knowledge of the school curriculum, as manifested in
textbooks. Regarding incorporating different approaches within CDA, although van Dijk does
not specifically endorse a bricolage methodology, he does state, “…good scholarship, and
especially good CDA, should integrate the best work of many people…from different
disciplines, countries, cultures and directions of research. In other words, CDA should be
essentially diverse and multidisciplinary” (2001a, p. 96).
In taking the view that bricolage is an extension of multi-method research and triangulation,
this research draws partly on the work of Denzin and Lincoln (2005) and partly on the work
of Kincheloe (2005). Denzin and Lincoln explain that “qualitative research is inherently
multimethod in focus….The combination of multiple methods, empirical materials,
perspectives and observers in a single study is best understood, then, as a strategy that adds
rigor, breadth, and depth to any investigation” (2005, p. 2). In the case of this research, the
rigor, breadth and depth that is mentioned by Denzin and Lincoln is achieved through a
bricolage approach that creates links between the various methodological approaches adapted
for this research, enabling a “…focusing on webs of relationships instead of simply things-inthemselves”
(Kincheloe, 2005, p. 323). The focus on connections between methodologies is
evident through the five dimensions of bricolage. These five dimensions, conceptualised by
Denzin and Lincoln (2000) are used by Berry (2006) and Kincheloe (2005) who extend and
more finely articulate them. The five dimensions, “methodological bricolage, theoretical
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