El periodo de desastre entre los años 2013-2016

A textbook development study that is responsive to the four objectives in Section 1.5 ought to encompass at least four interlocking and interacting dimensions. These are the ideas that informed the textbook arising from policy documents, their

reinterpretation and realization as textbooks, an examination of the product as a teaching and learning resource, and its reception by users and reinterpretation in the classroom.

These dimensions involve different groups of people, who are all linked to each other, and to the textbook. Syllabus designers operationalize the curriculum as a series of planned steps in the syllabus document. This regulates textbook content since authors’ and publishers’ knowledge and creativity generally works within these boundaries to result in a product that will be evaluated by the KIE. Finally, teachers and learners reinterpret the textbook content in actual classroom practice, develop opinions about it, and ways of using the product. These dimensions inform the life story of a textbook.

I have conceptualized this textbook study using three concentric circles (Fig.4). The outer circle represents the wider educational and publishing contexts within which the materials exist (Section 1.2). This context permeates right through to the middle circle where policy is made and policy documents are produced. In this case, the 1998 national textbook policy and the 2002 secondary school English syllabus are important innovative components. The placement of the syllabus indicates my view of it as a bridge into the core components of my study. It also signifies its importance in linking the ideas of policy makers to those of materials producers and consumers. The curriculum development body is external to the main functions of either group, but also inextricably linked to them for purposes of concept clarification, syllabus development, dissemination and implementation of the curriculum. The core circle will enable me to examine the textbook via the components in the circuit of culture,

as I have reviewed them in Section 2.3 – 2.5. This conceptualization is subject to revision following engagement with participants.

Fig 4: Provisional Conceptual Framework for Developing a Textbook Biography EDUCATIONAL AND PUBLISHING CONTEXT CURRICULUM ENGLISH SYLLABUS TEXTBOOK POLICY Representation/Identity Consumption Production/ Regulation

2.7 Summary

I have adopted a ‘conceptualization to the classroom’ view of textbook development in order to present a more holistic view of this process than has previously been done. In this study, I adopt the ‘circuit of culture’ framework to textbooks in a local educational-publishing TESEP context whereas previously it had been applied to the global coursebook (Gray 2007, 2010).

My application of the circuit of culture differs with that of Gray on several counts. Given the dominant ELT debates within this TESEP context (Section 1.2), I have predominantly adopted a view of the textbook as a curriculum artefact (within a broad, umbrella conception of the textbook as ‘cultural artefact’). This informs my choice of content for analysis, and I adopt Littlejohn’s framework for materials analysis, which provides a view of the textbook as a pedagogical tool (Section 2.3.1). In so doing, I delink the representation/identity moment(s) from an examination of cultural contents, as first applied by Gray (2007), and focus rather on the meaning of the textbook as a teaching and learning resource through an examination of its tasks. The process of making meaning of the textbook continues round the circuit. I expect that participant commentary will not only reshape perceptions of the textbook, but also shed light on practices in each moment, textbook experiences and perceptions, and interrelationships with other stakeholders within the circuit.

In the regulation/production moment, Gray (2007) studies author guidelines, interviews publishers, examines the globalized social context of the materials, and explains their nature as promotional commodities. In this Kenyan TESEP study, regulation begins with an examination of the syllabus to which textbooks are

expected to conform for MoE approval. Market liberalization led to increased separation of roles of participants in the regulation/production moment(s) than had previously been the case. I draw primarily on Breen’s (1987a) organizing principles in my description, and I am further informed by the literature on the curriculum, course planning and the syllabus (Section 2.4.1). In the production moment, this study also differs from Gray’s by including author input. I am informed by various studies that have included author research, whose main concerns I have thematized (Section 2.4.2.1). Like Gray (2007), I also include publisher interviews relevant to the context. In explicating this moment, I am informed by studies on textbook production, which indicate that core activities include planning, drafting, evaluation, piloting, production and post production.

Finally, in the consumption moment, like Gray (2007), I include teachers; however, Gray’s consumer-teacher participants are drawn from Barcelona-based teachers in language institutions (hence providing an instrumental orientation). Unlike Gray, I also include learners and I am primarily influenced by McGrath’s (2006) use of imagery in explicating learner perceptions (Section 2.5.2.2). In consideration of the cyclic nature of the circuit, and the calls in several studies for the inclusion of classroom research (Section 2.5.3), I include a “materials-in-action” perspective within the consumption moment, drawing from the orientation of this study.

2.8 Conclusion

The circuit of culture presents a route to exploring a textbook biography from conceptualization to the classroom, and thereby pulling together strands of textbook research that have previously been examined in relative isolation. In addition, this

study departs from the original application of the circuit of culture to cultural contents in textbooks. I propose to explore the application of the circuit of culture to the textbook, primarily as a curriculum artefact. In so doing, I relate this framework to some of the mainstream issues in ELT research where the textbook has been viewed as a pedagogical resource. Disparate components of the textbook story have yet to be examined concurrently, and in relation to one another, in order to achieve a cohesive whole.

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

In this chapter, I begin by presenting my research questions, which arise from a review of the educational-publishing context (Chapter 1), the literature (Chapter 2), and my choice of the circuit of culture as a framework with which to structure and explicate this textbook biography. In Section 3.3, I explain my paradigmatic position, which, together with my research questions determines the approach that I adopt (Section 3.4), and the data generation methods that I use (Section 3.5). I explain my field experiences, and the ethical considerations that have guided my work. Finally, in Section 3.6, I outline the data analysis procedures that I have applied in the proceeding chapters.

3.2 Research Questions

By interrogating and linking the main strands within textbook research, which have previously tended to be considered separately, this study addresses a need in textbook research to present a less compartmentalized and more holistic understanding of materials. As a way of filling this gap, I aim to adopt the circuit of culture framework to construct a textbook biography through an examination of the textbook from conceptualization to the classroom. This leads to my main research question, which also grounds this as a textbook study in the House of TESEP, a broad research context from which comparatively few textbook studies have emanated.

 What does a ‘conceptualization to the classroom’ research perspective reveal about textbook development in a TESEP context?

Three research questions arise from this, in light of the background and literature review (Chapters 1 & 2). I examine each briefly, in order to explicate the structure of my findings chapters (Chapters 5-8), which each end in a cumulative and interpretive sub-section titled ‘Towards the Discussion’. These sub-sections contribute a gradual build-up towards my final discussion (Chapter 9), and arise from a sequential view of my research questions.

(i) What does each process (moment) in the circuit of culture contribute to the textbook biography?

I answer this question through a series of seven sub-questions relating to different moments:

In response to these questions, I generate data from content analysis of the textbook and from interaction with its producers and users. Each moment in each of my findings chapters (5-8) is a stopover on my ‘journey’. The moments are inextricably linked to each other as suggested by the bi-directional arrows in the circuit of culture (Fig. 3). Thus, as I explicate each moment in response to my first research question, the nature of the interrelationships that exist between participants and across various

Representation/Identity

 What can be inferred about the textbook as a teaching and learning resource from its contents?

Regulation/Production

 What principles informed the development of the 2002 secondary school English syllabus?

 How do publisher experiences contribute to the textbook biography?

 How do author experiences contribute to the textbook biography? Consumption

 How do teachers’ consumption experiences contribute to the textbook biography?

 How is the coursebook used in the classroom as a teaching and learning resource?

moments provides the input to respond to my second research question, and further gradual impetus towards my overall discussion (Chapter 9).

(ii) What interrelationships are revealed among participants in various moments as the biography unfolds?

These first two research questions relate to the inner circle in my conceptual framework (Fig. 4) in which I house the circuit of culture. The core contextual issue that relates to the middle and outer circles arises from the existence of the textbook in an educational and publishing environment in transition, following the implementation of the national textbook policy (1998) and curriculum review (2002). This educational-publishing context of the textbook leads to my third research question.

(iii) How does change in this educational publishing context contribute to the textbook biography?

As I proceed along the moments in the circuit of culture, I develop the textbook biography, identify interrelationships that exist within and across moments, and

relate the responses to the educational-publishing context in transition. In my final discussion, I shall link these strands together in order to present a view of how the circuit of culture works in this TESEP context, and how my study has contributed to ‘circuit research’.

3.3 Paradigm

My work is aligned to the constructivist paradigm. My position is that while an objective reality may exist, it is not directly accessible to us, and people construe and construct it in various ways. Reality may exist independent of human thought, but meaning or knowledge is a human construction. Meanings are developed interpretively as research proceeds (Richards, 2003). In bringing these interpretations

to light and querying them, we construct knowledge. In this study, I view the textbook as a product to be understood by examining some of the multiple perspectives and interpretations accessible to me. I have selected strategies of inquiry that are compatible with my worldview, and responsive to my research questions (Denzin & Lincoln, 1998; LeCompte & Preissle, 1993).

I begin by drawing inferences about the textbook from certain aspects of its contents; however, like Littlejohn (1992) and Gray (2007, 2010), I am cognizant that the textbook does not exist in a vacuum, and that content analysis can provide only partial insights into materials. Regulators, producers and users, who have a stake in the textbook, contribute a great deal to making meaning of it. Interpretation arises not only from examining the product, but also from exploring the perceptions of a variety of people linked to it. While the textbook can be analysed and so ‘speak for itself’ to some extent, the meanings that can be ascribed to it are forged in the processes it undergoes, which involve people and circumstances.

In this study, I build the life story of a textbook and make meaning of it as a product that arises from human interpretation of the syllabus (as a regulatory force), mediated by the individual experiences of its production and use. An approach that affords different individuals in the textbook process an opportunity to express their views and to see ideas, problems and solutions from each other’s perspectives is crucial to achieving a ‘conceptualization to the classroom’ textbook study. Interpretations arising from various groups not only characterize the textbook, but also loop back to create an understanding of the regulatory, production and teaching/learning contexts in which the materials are created and used, and the

people who participate in these processes. A case study approach affords me some flexibility in my choice of methods in a study that involves a particular artefact (the textbook, Head Start) as well as the human agents who contribute to making meaning of it (authors, publishers, teachers and learners).