Inclusion/Exclusion and Role Allocation in Marketized EFL Syllabus: Gender from CDA Perspective

Abstract

Power relations are discursively constructed, de/reconstructed, and negotiated through discourse. CDA in its commitment to accounting for the underlying elements and dimensions of power can typically concentrate on syllabuses as tokens of power in the institutionalized discourse of education. Employing the notion of ‘social practice’, the present study focused on ‘ Four Corners ’ series as conversational English books in Iranian EFL situation. This study usedInclusion/Exclusion and Role Allocation binary notion from among many dichotomous notions in van Leeuwen’s social actor network (2008). Additionally, a 20-item questionnaire was designed and made reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.79) for female and male teachers’ reaction. Results indicated that the ‘ Four Corners ’ series did not treat male and female characters differently regarding Inclusion/Exclusion; however, with Role Allocation the differences were significant. The series allocated a more active role for men than for women. The information from the questionnaire indicated different response patterns from male and female teachers in descriptive terms which might account for a various classroom discourse around gender enacted depending on the gender of the teacher. Implications of the study are discussed.