Blog Post 6

I really enjoyed this week’s readings again, including the sections from the book which discussed refugees and the concept of social construction. I recently finished a project in which I had to find twnty-five texts related to immigration and was able to discuss and analyze a text about Hmong refugees. While I found these sections very interesting my reflection really focuses on the article, Construction of Racial Stereotypes in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Textbooks which discusses the images in EFL textbooks. As the article says, students consciously or unconsciously use, absorb and interpret the social, economic and racial realities present in the photographs, cartoons or pictures found in the images in their textbooks (page 65). I’ve never considered looking at how images are used to represent English culture(s) in EFL textbooks which is actually a really interesting topic. Learning Spanish, I know that images in these textbooks can reflect a culture weather it is true or not.

Taylor-Mendes believes that images in EFL textbooks should be questioned and discussed. Students and teachers should question race, class and gender imbalances of power as Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire suggested in the 1960’s. While there was not much of this in my high school, in many of my college courses we discuss unequal power relations found in our everyday lives and are encouraged to take action. In many of my classes including my American Diversity course I took last year I have been pushed to examine who benefits from the existing power structures, who are the disadvantaged and to explore these unequal power relationships. This process has made me more aware of this issue inside and outside of the classroom. I think it is important for teachers to address this issue whenever it is applicable. I agree that looking at images in EFL textbooks is a great opportunity to discuss this issue.

Giaschi stated on page 67 that images in EFL texts that are produced in or by one culture and in context specific conditions are often used and absorbed in sometimes radically different contexts with different sociopolitical cultural realities. He examined images used in texts and made a connection with how physical positioning, body language and clothing suggested that men were more powerful than women. While I cannot connect this with EFL texts, I did write a research paper my freshman year of college examining ads in magazines and how they reflect gender stereotypes. It was actually very disturbing to see how many times a woman is depicted as vulnerable and weak. Even in ads for purses or shoes geared towards female consumers, a woman sometimes looks like she is lifeless or even beaten. Men are often muscular, standing tall and above women.  

Giaschi claims that teachers and students “passively accept and absorb “the images presented to them in their texts and seemed to suggest students cannot challenge these images. I like Taylor-Mendes, don’t necessarily agree with this statement. Just because a person is exposed to something does not mean they are incapable of critical discourse. While I had been exposed to these images of men and women in ads throughout my life, I was readily able to discuss and explore power relations in these images. While looking at ads closely made me conscious of what was actually happening , I was able to challenge these ideas on my own and did not accept these messages as true statements about society.

The study itself was really fascinating.  I thought it was interesting how the author discussed the personal factors that went into the students feeling comfortable speaking with him. I know in one of last week’s readings, the researchers were really concerned about not being able to connect with a culture outside their own. Taylor-Mendes also recognizes this boundary between himself and his Brazilian participants. However he believed he had more of a connection with his students because he spoke fluent Portuguese, married a Brazilian, believed he had started acting more “Brazilian” , met with the participants individually etc. What concerns would you have while conducting a study involving culturally diverse participants?  

In the study, he asked students what they saw in the images in textbooks they provided.  A second interview allowed him to discuss critical analysis questions and the third interview was intended to serve as a follow up.  Taylor-Mendes stated that he found three common themes in his research-that the U.S. is a land of the white elite, blacks are consistently seen as poor or powerless while whites are seen as wealthy and powerful and lastly, that race is divided by continent.

Pictures depicted American culture as economic or social success. These images included Americans on their cell phones, on vacation, shaking hands or making business deals. Participants also found that only whites represent power and that blacks represented the powerless.  I thought it was interesting how Roberto Carlos pointed out the picture of an African American woman using a computer. The caption of the image simplified this action as just “using a mouse”. Her body language made her look defeated, slumped over and bored unlike the images of powerful white business men smiling and standing straight.

I also thought the idea that race is divided by continent very interesting. I didn’t know what Taylor-Mendes meant by this at first but when he stated that many of the images reinforced the limiting stereotype in which the images implied that whites live in “North America, Asians live in Asia, Arabs live in Middle East and blacks live in Africa”. These images ignore migration, immigration, colonization or intermixing of race and identity.  I connected this to something that happened to me the other day while watching a show from the U.K. with two of my friends. One of my friends had never seen the show before and when a black character was introduced she commented on how strange it was to hear a black man with a British accent. She told me how “strange” this was. I think this idea is what Taylor-Mendes is speaking about in his article. Often times, even as educated college students we may stereotype by race and continent. I think these images and the images my friend has seen of the U.K. before the shows are really a disadvantage and can be hurtful. I also thought the image representing South America or Latin America was really shocking as Taylor-Mendes said there was only one image found among the textbooks. Not only was there a lack of images in the EFL textbooks but the image was highly stereotypical.  The image depicted South Americans as dark-skinned, tribal men and women wearing grass skits. I think a description was needed for this image. Last year I heard about a student my professor worked with who did not know there were modern day Native Americans, she believed Native Americans were solely historical figures found in our textbooks.  More of a description would be needed to avoid misconceptions like these with individuals from South America. While it’s great to incorporate these groups of people in the text book I agree that more information would be needed.  

As Taylor-Mendes states in EFL texts Americans look like wealthy, white, powerful, isolated members within their own race, free of problems. That is a very strong statement to make and something being represented in images found in textbooks used in educational systems. The article states that while textbook publishers seem to be trying to neutralize EFL textbook images, the participants in the study found the images were not accurate representations of culture but instead reinforced “made-in-Hollywood” version of culture that does not exist. While we are aware of these stereotypes we need to consider them.

I found this article very helpful for my future as an educator. I have never considered the images used in textbooks before and now realize what kind of messages these images can send about culture, race, power etc. While we cannot choose a text book by the images used in the book, or we may not have the power to choose textbooks used in the classroom- the important thing we must do is recognize these stereotypes in the images of these English-language textbooks and address them in classroom discussions.