Volume: 5 Issue 9 [September 2022]

Article:Neoliberal ideology in O-levels English language textbooks in Pakistan

Author: Asma Nizamani, Shoukat Ali Lohar, Nuzhat Baladi

Volume: Vol 5, Issue 9; September 2022

DOI: North American Academic Research, 5(9) 78-87 September 2022, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7121255

Abstract: The current study explored the neoliberal ideology in O-levels English textbooks, published by Oxford University Press, taught in elite schools of Pakistan. Using Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (1989, 2002, 2015) as a theoretical and analytical framework, neoliberal themes in two the textbooks were analyzed. The results show that both the textbooks were rife with neoliberal ideological themes of marketiza-tion, self-entrepreneurship, celebrity and popular culture, competition, and individualism. These market-based themes promote a culture of excessive competition and turn every act into transaction. There is a need to explore this area of research further in Pakistani context and teachers need to be more critical of the messages ingrained in these imported textbooks being transmitted to the students.

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