Having fun? Problematizing neutrality and neoliberal ideology in an English textbook
Keywords:
English textbooks, Neoliberalism, Critical language educationAbstract
Based on the assumption presented by Holborow (2014) that neoliberal ideology has permeated all spheres of human life since its emergence in the late 1970s, including English teaching materials (BLOCK, 2017), this article aims to identify and problematize neoliberal aspects present in two sections of a unit in the book Hello! Teens: Stage 8 (MORINO; DE FARIA, 2019). In order to achieve such goal, I rely on academic praxiologies that question the neutrality of English textbooks and problematize the exacerbated presence of neoliberal ideology. The analyzed data suggest that neoliberal ideology contributes to the construction of an idealized and homogeneous view of society, positioning learners as consumerist subjects who practice self-care (BLOCK, 2017). Methodologically, this study is understood as a qualitative documentary research (FLICK, 2009) with an interpretivist approach (WILLIG, 2014).
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