Slovene Textbooks as an Agent of Ethnocentric and Racist Socialization: the Case of Elementary School Geography Textbooks

The article demonstrates the main findings of critical discourse analysis of the sixteen elementary school geography textbooks regarding the discourse on the West and Europe, on the individual continents and the relations between them. The author states that a great majority of the textbooks discussed include linguistic strategies, content, mental schemas and illustrative material which lead to stereotypic, simplified, Eurocentric and racist conclusions about the non-European world and its inhabitants, migrants etc. The author states that several of the textbooks on the market for this subject do not assure the plurality of discourses and contents as a tool to achieve defined standards of knowledge.

KEYWORDS: elementary school textbooks, geography, Eurocentrism, racism, stereotypes

SUMMARY

SLOVENE TEXTBOOKS AS AN AGENT OF ETHNOCENTRIC AND RACIST SOCIALIZATION: THE CASE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY TEXTBOOKS

Ksenija ŠABEC

The aim of this article is to determine how contemporary Slovene educational discourse acts as an important generator of stereotypical, negative as well as discriminatory and racist representations of non-Europeans as the European “significant other”. The author applies critical discourse analysis to examine the discourse, contents, linguistic strategies, mental schemas and illustrative material in sixteen Slovene geography textbooks for elementary schools. On the basis of theoretical considerations that geography and history textbooks in particular often enable the defining of potentially possible and plausible situations, which leads to negative, Eurocentric and racist conclusions about non-Europeans and migrants, five sets of findings are summarized: a Eurocentric and stereotypical perspective of world history and the contemporary world, a hierarchical concept of culture, “race” and racist discourse, the legitimization and rationalization of European colonialism, exploitation, and racism, and finally, ahistorical causes of the asymmetric configuration of the modern world and uncritical treatment of Western humanitarianism.