Textbooks Re-Visited: Theoretical and Methodological Implications of ...

From a social constructionist perspective, gender and sexuality are constructed, (re-)produced, performed and emergent in discursive practices (Sunderland and Litosseliti 2008). The omnipresence and relevance of these social constructs also affects educational institutions, which tend to play a decisive role in the socialisation process and in the naturalisation of gender and sexual norms via a hidden curriculum (Eckert 2014; Navarro Hernández et al. 2013). While the foreign language classroom provides unique opportunities for adolescents to construct their identities, discourses drawn on are often based on gender binaries and heteronormativity. Since textbooks are the basic means of instruction, gendered discourses (re-)produced in them receive an authoritative status. The verbal, visual and multimodal representations of gender and sexuality influence both teachers and students in their discursive practices and interactions (Pakuła, Pawelczyk and Sunderland 2015; Curdt-Christiansen and Weninger 2015; Motschenbacher 2016). Though considered an important epistemological research site (Sunderland 2004), the need for critical linguistic textbook research is not reflected in the research agenda. In-depth linguistic and discourse analyses of textbooks are sparse, an applicable methodology – drawing on constructivist theories of gender and sexual identity – is missing. Thus, the current research project set out to combine micro- and macro-analyses, differentiating between descriptive and interpretative stages in a bottom-up, multi-perspectival research design. This talk discusses the theoretical and methodological challenges, the advantages and disadvantages of bottom-up and top-down approaches in such a design. It addresses the definition and identification of discourse(s), the relations between linguistic traces and larger constituents and the criticism regarding researcher subjectivity, a lack of transparency, systematicity or replicability (Taylor 2001; Weninger and Kiss 2015). By reflecting on larger research paradigms, the Post-structuralist framework and the operationalisation of discourse in bottom-up approaches, it aims to contribute to an ongoing discussion about the incompatibility or possible reconciliation of bottom-up vs. top-down perspectives.