NACIONALNI IDENTITET U UDžBENICIMA ENGLESKOG KAO STRANOG JEZIKA U STARIJIM RAZREDIMA OSNOVNE ŠKOLE

Abstract

With the creation of global culture, promotion of global intercultural values lacking in individual economic, cultural and national narratives, the issues connected to the European and national identity, their interrelation and compatibility became more actual. There are opinions that globalization contributes to empowerment of national feelings, but also the opposite, on the basis of the argument that globalization as a cosmopolitan phenomenon is promoted at the expense of national identities. It is difficult to sublime all studies connecting national identity with education, ow- ing to the variety of topics, approaches, age groups, research methods etc. Notwithstanding the fact that there are significant theoretic observations, as well as numerous empirical research studies aimed at investigating the influence of educational content on the national identity of children and youth, it is evident that the study of national identity at school is a neglected research field of domestic researchers, especially pedagogists and creators of educational policies. Different starting points were established when considering the func- tion and role of English language learning in the development of students’ national identity. Numerous studies point out that English language learning primarily contributes to the promotion of global identity of supranational character, which does not deny the impor- tance of countries and nations, but does not place it in the content focus (Köroğlu & Elban 2020). Some authors perceive great possibilities of English language teaching regarding the development of national identity and acceptance of universal values. However, there are opinions pointing to the ideological concept of foreign language textbooks, thus promoting dominant culture and its values; observing English language and its negative impact on the national identity of non-English speaking individuals. On the basis of the argument that foreign language teaching may represent a signifi- cant resource for introducing national symbols of others, but also an excellent educational context for identification, knowledge and promotion of learners’ own identity, the textbooks of English as a foreign language were analyzed in the paper. More precisely, the results of the research performed in 2022 are presented in the paper, with the aim of determining the contribution of EFL textbooks in formation and empowerment of Serbian national identity of upper elementary school students. Subliming different starting points, national identity was operationalised in 12 categories: religion, customs and tradition, national feelings, lan- guage, symbols and features, solidarity and togetherness, cultural heritage, important people, geography terms, history, family and general information. The research was performed through the method of theoretic analysis and the method of content analysis. The units of analysis are: a) sentences of basic text in textbooks, b) sentences of additional informa- tive content and c) image content, g) exercises and tasks. The research included English language textbooks from three different publishers, for the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade of elementary school licensed in the Republic of Serbia (N = 12). The research results indicated that textbooks do not contribute to formation and empowerment of the national identity of elementary school students, especially with re- gards to all the discussed categories of national identity. It is implied that it is necessary to empower the national identity content and incorporate it more or less in all the themes, significantly enlarging the total share of the content of national identity of the students for whom the textbook is written. It is our opinion that it is necessary to actualize the issue of national identity rep- resentation in foreign language curicullum; to plan, project and standardize the proces of formation of the notion of national identity in all the three cycles of education, so the pub- lishers would be commited to better adaptation of textbook content to the Serbian market.