Building Spiritual Capital through Language Teaching: Analysis of State-Mandated Elementary Language Textbooks in Pakistan

Abstract

Pakistan has constantly been in the news since the September 9, 2001, attack in New York, USA, and its education system and curriculum have seen a lot of interest from academics, researchers, and civil society organizations, both locally and globally. These researchers explored many aspects such as the concept of Jihad and its connection with violence against religious minorities, the construction of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’, the national, religious, and cultural identity but the development, promotion, and preservation of spiritual capital (SC) remained unexplored. This study was undertaken to take stock of the SC considered worthwhile to be preserved and promoted through language textbooks prepared for elementary school children by the Government of Pakistan. The study used a qualitative interpretive/constructivist research paradigm and chose qualitative content analysis as the data analysis method. The data for this study was taken from language textbooks (12 English and 12 Urdu) and semi-structured interview data, collected using a focus group discussion data collection strategy. This study found a very strong link between pupils’ SC and the stories presented to them in the language textbooks showing the rootedness of pupils' SC in Islam, its teachings, and history. The study also showed pupils struggling to modify and expand their SC by including the global SC perspective in their already constructed set of SC. This study recommends that the textbook authorities should make the language textbooks' content inclusive and add global stories emphasizing universal SC.