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Medellín, ColoMbia, Vol. 27 issue 3 (septeMber-deCeMber, 2022), pp. 702-724, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
Astrid Núñez Pardo
Full Professor and associate
researcher, Universidad Externado de
Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia.
astrid.nunez@uexternado.edu.co
https://orcid.
org/0000-0001-6176-4520
A
e use of Colombian-authored textbooks as subalternation instruments, the
instrumentalization of grammar and foreign methodologies, and the imperialism
of a prot-driven publishing industry perpetuate colonial links. is article re-
ports a critical content analysis of six Colombian-authored textbooks from
local and foreign publishers. It was framed within a sociocritical paradigm, which
included interviews with four authors, six teachers, and two editors. Findings
reveal three triads of decolonial criteria: (a) e triad of ontological criteria unset-
tles the reproduction of foreign beliefs, behaviours, values, and ideologies; (b)the
triad of epistemological criteria subverts North and West dominant knowledge
and culture, and (c) the triad of power criteria withstands globalised and neolib-
eral discourses imposed through teaching methods, curricula, materials, testing,
training, and standardised English varieties. e ndings also indicate that there
are still colonial traces in the representation of gender, races, sexual orientations,
capacities, and social classes. us, developing materials from a decolonial
perspective contests the commercial, standardised, and colonised textbooks
to build contextualised and decolonised materials otherwise that are sensi-
tive to cultural diversity. is academic endeavour exhorts teachers to assume a
critical stance towards materials content, learning activities and strategies,
underpinning language pedagogies, iconography, language policy, and assessment
practices, and to exert their agency to contest hegemony and recreate situated
pedagogical practices.
Keywords: coloniality; critical interculturality; decoloniality; materials oth-
erwise; textbooks.
I C E
D C-A
T: A C C A
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Received: 2022-03-08 / Accepted: 2022-06-29 / Published: 2022-09-15
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v27n3a07
Editors: Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia; Clarissa
Menezes Jordão, Universidade Federal de Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil; Gabriela Veronelli, Center for Global Studies and the
Humanities, Binghamton University, New York, United States.
Copyright, Universidad de Antioquia, 2022. is is an open access article, distributed in compliance with the terms of the
Creative Commons license -- 4.0 International.
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R
La explotación de los libros de texto de inglés de autores colombianos como instru-
mentos de subalternización, la instrumentalización de la gramática y los métodos
foráneos, y el imperialismo de una industria editorial reg ida por intereses comerciales
perpetúan las relaciones coloniales. Este artículo presenta un análisis de contenido
crítico de seis libros de texto de de autoría colombiana para editoriales locales
y extranjeras. Se enmarcó en un paradigma sociocrítico e incluyó entrevistas con
cuatro autores, seis profesores y dos editores. Los resultados revelan tres triadas de
criterios decoloniales: a) la triada de criterios ontológicos desafía la reproducción
de creencias, comportamientos, valores e ideologías foráneas; b) la triada de cri-
terios epistemológicos subvierte los saberes y culturas dominantes del Norte y de
Occidente, y c) la triada del poder resiste el discurso global y neoliberal impuesto
mediante los métodos, el currículo, los materiales, las pruebas estandarizadas, las
capacitaciones y las variedades estandarizadas de inglés. Los resultados también
muestran la persistencia de huellas coloniales en las representaciones del género, las
razas, las orientaciones sexuales, las capacidades y las clases sociales. La creación de
materiales de desde una perspectiva crítica confronta los libros de texto comer-
ciales, estandarizados y, por lo tanto, colonizados, para construir materiales de
contextualizados y descolonizados otros que sean sensibles a la diversidad cultural.
Esta empresa académica exhorta a maestros y a estudiantes a asumir una postura
crítica frente a los materiales de inglés, su contenido, sus actividades y estrategias de
aprendizaje, sus metodologías subyacentes, su iconografía, la política lingüística y las
prácticas de evaluación, y a que ejerzan su agencia a n de desaar la hegemonía y de
recrear prácticas pedagógicas situadas de .
Palabras clave: colonialidad; interculturalidad crítica ; decolonialidad; materiales
didácticos de otros; manuales de .
R
O uso de livros escolares em inglês por autores colombianos como instrumentos
de subalternização, a instrumentalização da gramática e dos métodos estrangeiros
e o imperialismo de uma indústria editorial de orientação comercial perpetuam as
relações coloniais. Este artigo apresenta uma análise crítica de conteúdo de seis li-
vros-texto de inglês língua estrangeira de autoria colombiana para editoras locais e
estrangeiras. Foi enquadrado dentro de um paradigma sócio-crítico e incluiu entre-
vistas com quatro autores, seis professores e duas editoras. Os resultados revelam
três tríades de critérios decoloniais: a)a tríade de critérios ontológicos desaa a re-
produção de crenças, comportamentos, valores e ideologias estrangeiras; b)a tríade
de critérios epistemológicos subverte os conhecimentos e culturas dominantes do
Norte e do Ocidente; e c)a tríade de poder resiste ao discurso global e neoliberal
imposto através de métodos, currículo, materiais, testes padronizados, treinamen-
to e variedades padronizadas de inglês. A análise também mostra a persistência de
traços coloniais nas representações de gênero, raça, orientação sexual, habilidade e
classe. A criação de materiais de inglês língua estrangeira a partir de uma perspectiva
crítica confronta livros de texto comerciais, padronizados e, portanto, colonizados, a
m de construir materiais de ensino do inglês contextualizados e decolonizados que
sejam sensíveis à diversidade cultural. Este empreendimento acadêmico insta pro-
fessores e alunos a tomarem uma posição crítica em relação aos materiais em inglês,
seu conteúdo, atividades e estratégias de aprendizagem, metodologias subjacentes,
iconograa, política linguística e práticas de avaliação, e a exercer sua agência a m
de desaar a hegemonia e recriar práticas pedagógicas situadas no ensino do inglês.
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Palavras-chave: colonialidade; interculturalidade crítica; decolonialidade; mate-
riais didáticos de otherwise; livros didáticos de ensino de inglês.
R
L'utilisation des manuels d'anglais par les auteurs colombiens en tant qu'instru-
ments de subalternisation, l'instrumentalisation de la grammaire et des méthodes
étrangères, et l'impérialisme d'une industrie de l'édition à vocation commerciale
perpétuent les relations coloniales. Cet article présente une analyse critique du
contenu de six manuels d'anglais langue étrangère () écrits par des Colom-
biens pour des éditeurs locaux et étrangers. Elle s'inscrit dans un paradigme
socio-critique et comprend des entretiens avec quatre auteurs, six enseignants et
deux éditeurs. Les résultats révèlent trois triades de critères décoloniaux : a) la
triade des critères ontologiques remet en question la reproduction des croyances,
des comportements, des valeurs et des idéologies étrangers; b)la triade des cri-
tères épistémologiques subvertit les connaissances et les cultures dominantes du
Nord et de l'Ouest; et c)la triade du pouvoir résiste au discours global et néoli-
béral imposé par les méthodes, les programmes d'études, les matériaux, les tests
standardisés, la formation et les variétés standardisées d'anglais. L'analyse montre
également la persistance de traces coloniales dans les représentations du genre, de
la race, de l'orientation sexuelle, des capacités et de la classe. La création de maté-
riels d'apprentissage d' dans une perspective critique confronte les manuels
commerciaux, standardisés et donc colonisés, an de construire des matériels
d'apprentissage contextualisés et décolonisés, sensibles à la diversité culturelle.
Cette entreprise académique incite les enseignants et les étudiants à adopter une
position critique à l'égard des matériels d'anglais, de leur contenu, des activités et
stratégies d'apprentissage, des méthodologies sous-jacentes, de l'iconographie, de
la politique linguistique et des pratiques d'évaluation, et a exercer leur pouvoir
an de remettre en question l'hégémonie et de recréer des pratiques pédagogiques
d' situées.
Mots-clefs: colonialité; interculturalité critique ; décolonialité; materiaux di-
dactiques d otherwise; manuels d.
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Introduction
It is well known that commercial textbook s have
prevailed as the main resource for English teaching
and learning. However, these resources have over-
looked the changing and diverse complexity of
historic, socio-cultural, political, economic, educa-
tional, and aesthetic realities and concerns of local
contexts. For instance, their potential to promote
comprehension of cultural diversity is arguable.
In this framework, this study analyses instrumen-
tal, homogenised, decontextualised, and colonised
textbooks regarding the dimensions of being,
knowledge, and power, with the supremacy of
global culture. In this sense, it embraces desirable,
contextualised, and decolonised materials oth-
erwise sensitive to cultural diversity.
The decolonial turn proposes a thought other-
wise (un pensamiento otro) also known as a border
thought (pensamiento fronterizo). This oppositional
thought is not simply based on recognition or
inclusion, but rather centred on a socio-historical
structural transformation. For the context of this
paper, this also implies teachers otherwise, students
otherwise, and materials otherwise. These lat-
ter are conceived from a reflective, critical, and
emancipating stance to respond to diverse social
dynamics and cultural patterns of local contexts
where these resources are used to teach and learn
English. They also relate to other cultural experi-
ences of the world.
By the same token, curriculum, materials, assess-
ment, language policy, and teaching and practices
oriented by critical interculturality are vital for
and teaching and learning. Thence, it is cru-
cial to reassess them as “socio-cultural, pedagogical,
didactic, and cognitive mediations that facilitate
linguistic and cultural interactions” (Núñez-Pardo,
2020a, p.114). These mediations have the poten-
tial to educate critical and interculturally aware
citizens and nurture disruptive mindsets able
to transform complex realities. In this vein, this
article attempts to encourage English teachers
to challenge the belief that they are consumers
of knowledge; instead, they should be seen as
critical, political, knowledgeable, and transfor-
mative subjects (Freire, 1971; Giroux et al., 1988;
uiceno, 2003) who can add to the construction
of knowledge. Said knowledge should respond
to daily local community experiences and con-
cerns. Contextualization allows us to rethink
materials from alternative ways of conceiving and
representing the world vis-a-vis the dimensions
of being, knowledge, and power. In this train of
thought, the study unveils criteria inspired by the
decolonial turn and grounded on critical intercul-
turality as an alternative to guide the development
of materials otherwise. These criteria defy the
pervasive decontextualization of standardised
materials, allow English teachers to resist
mainstream materials development, and endorse
teachers’ agency for knowledge construction.
The origins of this research trace back to sev-
eral studies. Current research on textbooks
proves latent tensions and tendencies in national
and international scenarios. A review of related
studies (Núñez-Pardo, 2018a) revealed that text-
books present asymmetrical and hierarchised
cultures with the predominance of Anglo-Saxon
ones and the absence of experiential culture
(Nguyen,2015). Textbooks also show the preva-
lence of superficial culture at the expense of deep
culture (Gómez, 2015), Eurocentric knowledge in
detriment of local one (Aicega, 2007), stereotyped
gender representations (Lee, 2014), and children
as passive subjects without titularity of their rights
(Herrera, 2012). Finally, literacy is regarded as a
localised socio-cultural practice (Zhang, 2017).
Nonetheless, research analysing textbooks
from a critical interculturality perspective is scarce
and continues to incite tensions and controversy.
The current study also emerged from the author’s
experience as a materials developer and teacher
educator and researcher. As an materials devel-
oper working for the local publishing industry for
more than a decade, she has contributed to the
production of commercial and standardised
textbooks. As a teacher educator and researcher,
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she has oriented in-service teachers in their
postgraduate studies; she has also contributed to
the development of otherwise institutional mate-
rials that respond to the local realities of their
contexts of use and production.
This study problematised the coloniality of being,
coloniality of knowledge, and coloniality of power
in textbooks. Coloniality of being denotes
the construction or image of the cultural Other
(Maldonado-Torres, 2008; uijano, 2000;
Walsh, 2010). Coloniality of knowledge regards
European epistemes as the absolute origin of
knowledge, disregarding and marginalising other
forms of knowledges (Restrepo-Rojas 2010;
Walsh, 2010). Coloniality of power is rooted in
capitalist globalisation and materialised in multi-
national organisations (uijano,2014; uijano&
Wallerstein, 1992) that subordinate the individ-
uals of the periphery (Castro-Gómez, 2007).
Then, how do these sorts of coloniality permeate
the textbooks in question?
First, textbooks are sub-alternation instru-
ments with the preponderance of the hegemonic
ideology of the native speaker (Faez, 2011;
Kumaravadivelu, 2014; Viáfara, 2016). It shows
teachers as consumers of knowledge without
voice and action, thus indicating coloniality of
being. Second, textbooks promote language
instrumentalisation, decontextualised cultural
content, and uncritical use of foreign method-
ologies (Canagarajah, 2005; Kumaravadivelu,
2014; Núñez-Pardo, 2020a; Phillipson, 2008).
As ratified by Soto-Molina and Méndez’s (2020)
documentary analysis, the content of textbooks
deals with “high levels of alienation burden,
superficial cultural components and instrumen-
tation to the submissive person who favours the
dominant culture of English and does not offer
possibilities to embrace interculturality in ELF
teaching contexts” (p. 11). This converts teachers
into technicians and reproducers of Eurocentric
knowledge, demonstrating coloniality of knowl-
edge. Third, the imperialism of a commercially
oriented publishing industry is supported by a
bilingual policy that associates English with work,
productivity, globalisation, and neoliberalism
(González, 2012; Guerrero-Nieto & uintero-
Polo, 2021; Miranda & Valencia-Giraldo, 2019;
Usma, 2009a). This condition makes teach-
ers competitive and oppressed actors, suggesting
coloniality of power. In short, the content of
textbooks replicates and perpetuates ways of
being, knowing, and exerting power that conceal,
subdue, or misrepresent the plurality of socio-
cultural realities of local contexts. Hence,
textbooks play a key role in disseminating colo-
nialist and neoliberal agendas that omit or distort
societal differences.
This documentary research was guided by the
main research question: What ontological, episte-
mological, and power criteria grounded on critical
interculturality as a decolonial alternative orient
the development of the English textbook to over-
come its decontextualisation from the voices of
local authors, teachers, and editors? The analy-
sis was also led by the following three subsidiary
research questions: (a) What traces of coloniality
are observed in the content of readings, their ico-
nography, and learning activities proposed in the
most utilised English textbooks in the Colombian
context during the period 2004-2016? (b) What
possible transformations have been experienced
by the content of readings, their iconography, and
learning activities proposed in the most utilised
English textbooks in the Colombian context dur-
ing the period 2004-2016?
Theoretical Foundations
School textbooks have played a central role in lan-
guage teaching and learning throughout history.
These also have offered a prolific field for analysing
their philosophical dimension (Grupo Eleuterio
uintanilla, 1996). In this light, textbooks deserve
critical examination to challenge their industrial
development and thus encourage teachers and stu-
dents to fight globally distributed biases. In doing
so, research on textbooks comprises their evalua-
tion and analysis. The former focuses on accurately
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determining whether a set of parameters is fulfilled
or not in textbooks to recommend alternatives for
their improvement (Littlejohn, 2012). This process
can be done before, during, or after their use. In turn,
analysis of textbooks centres on recognising latent
messages present in their content to make inductive
inferences (Krippendorff, 2004), within a socio-cul-
tural, geographic, and historic context. This study
opted for the critical content analysis of textbooks
to uncover their decontextualisation and propose
disruptive ways of developing materials.
Concerning the theoretical foundations of the study,
school textbooks conceived as geographically, his-
torically, culturally, and politically situated artefacts
(Choppin, 2001; Escolano, 2012) were explored.
Second, textbooks were also viewed as ideological
resources that create stereotypes and disseminate
North and Western cultures (Apple, 1992). Third,
textbooks were understood as tools for curricular
support (Moya, 2008). Fourth, they were consid-
ered commercial and profitable products (Martínez,
2008). All in all, these views substantiate the fact
that textbooks are fruitful objects of study prone to
be further explored to contest their decontextualisa-
tion, uniformity, and marketisation.
textbooks, which were born in the 1830s
(Borre, 1996), have been conceptualised in four
main categories. These are indispensable arte-
facts for the teaching of English (Davcheva &
Sercu, 2005). Moreover, they are also socio-cul-
tural mediators shaped by the changes in zeitgeist
(Littlejohn, 2012; Rico, 2012). Furthermore,
textbooks are propagators of racial, gender, and
class colonial bias and knowledge-based ideolo-
gies (Granda, 2004; Gray, 2013; Núñez-Pardo,
2018a). Finally, they are mediations whose socio-
cultural, pedagogical, didactic, and cognitive nature
fosters both teaching and learning processes and
teachers’ and students’ critical social and political
awareness and transformation. The foregoing cat-
egories offer a look at the range of connotations
textbooks encompass and inform this study
regarding their adaptability, complexity, and bias.
Likewise, they ratify the need to critically analyse
these artefacts in search of their contextualisation
and, thus, their decolonisation. Having discussed
textbooks as the first theoretical foundation
of this research, their relation to critical intercul-
turality is argued next.
Critical interculturality is a decolonial alterna-
tive that contributes to negotiating socio-cultural
diversity and the conciliation of the difference
between the local and the foreign (Walsh, 2010;
Tubino, 2005). It aims at tracing European colo-
nialism to stop perpetuating and naturalising
subordinated socio-cultural relations. In this
vein, critical interculturality contests Eurocentric
visions of knowledge and the imperialism of the
commercial publishing industry of textbooks
since they conceal and misrepresent the multiplic-
ity of socio-cultural realities of local contexts. The
decolonial turn, as a shift in knowledge construc-
tion (Maldonado-Torres, 2008) implying epistemic
diversity (Grosfoguel, 2007), impels “emancipating
critical thinking, reducing Eurocentric-knowledge
dependence, and resisting the supremacy of political
and socio-ec onomic agendas that legitimate the inter-
ests of the dominant social order” (Núñez-Pardo,
2018b, p. 3). Accordingly, critical interculturality
and the decolonial turns advocate for more sym-
metric and diverse sociocultural representations and
relationships in materials, enabling individuals’
critical socio-cultural and political awareness, trans-
formation, and construction of local knowledge.
Method
This documentary research comprehended
textbooks as objects of study and aimed to criti-
cally scrutinise them based on their socio-cultural
context through the qualitative content analy-
sis method. This is because such content analysis
seeks to understand the hidden messages present
in written texts (Krippendorff, 2004). Likewise,
this choice was made since, in this avant-garde
framework of empirical approximation, quan-
tification is not a definite criterion to analyse
content (Krippendorff, 2004). All in all, the crit-
ical content analysis proposed departed from the
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qualitative nature of texts and privileged verbal
and descriptive procedures that separate it from a
quantifying perspective.
By the same token, the study was framed within the
qualitative approach as it fostered the emergence
of alternative epistemologies from subaltern sub-
jects and loci. It also rescued subjectivity to make
sense of complex human phenomena in social
interaction (Sandoval, 1996). Furthermore, the
socio-critical paradigm informed this research.
This paradigm reclaims subjectivities understood
as individuals’ perceptions, opinions, arguments,
and discourses, which in interaction with oth-
ers, lead the researcher to acknowledge the social
construction of knowledge. In this vein, this par-
adigm paved the path for this study to advocate
interpretation and emancipation to make sense of
reality (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005).
Regarding methodological strategies, the unit
of analysis was English textbooks. Six text-
books made up the sampling unit; the paragraph
was the recording unit; 86 passages and their
reading comprehension activities and accompany-
ing iconography constituted the unit of context.
Additionally, comprehension matrices for inter-
pretation and critical analysis of the content of
readings were designed.
Besides, since qualitative content analysts contem-
plate the voices of readers, critics, and users of the texts
(Krippendorff, 2004), the perceptions of Colombian
English teachers, authors, and editors were
brought up to enrich the analysis. Thus, they used
these textbooks in their English classes in sec-
ondary state-funded schools, authored them, or
performed the role of editors in both a local and a
foreign publishing house. Their insights were gath-
ered through a focus group with six Colombian
English teachers and in-depth interviews with
four Colombian authors and two editors; all of
them signed the informed consent to participate
in the study. For the focus group, the partici-
pant teachers expressed themselves freely without
much intervention from the moderator since the
interest was to collect as much information as pos-
sible. Likewise, the qualitative and dialogic nature
of in-depth interviews allowed for building the
experience of the participants authors and editors
in a horizontal relationship (Robles, 2011). These
genuine encounters granted a conjoint construc-
tion of the meaning participants attributed to
the cultural content of readings, comprehension
activities, and accompanying iconography, in tan-
dem with the researcher’s interpretation. Finally,
theory triangulation was employed, confronting
the emergent categories with existing theory.
Findings
The findings below are presented in relation to
the research questions posed. The first question
addressed the formulation of a set of criteria to dis-
rupt the coloniality found in the textbooks.
The critical analysis revealed three triads of deco-
lonial criteria that respond the main research
question of this study (see the Introduction).
They stemmed from the perspective of critical
interculturality as a pedagogical alternative to
unsettle the current representations in text-
books that were found during the process of
analysing their content. The subsidiary questions
aimed at identifying those current representations
in textbooks that are still engaged in colonial
views, and also to observe whether there were ele-
ments of decoloniality in the textbooks analysed.
Therefore, the categories of indelible colonial-
ity traces and emergent decoloniality signs in
textbooks answered these questions (Table 1).
The three triads of decolonial criteria emerged from
the researcher’s interpretation and analysis of the
meaning that Colombian teachers, authors, and edi-
tors attribute to the dimensions of being, knowledge,
and power present in the textbooks they use, write,
or edit. Thus, the nine criteria derived from the data
obtained from the voices of the participants and
the author’s experience as a materials developer and
teacher educator who mentors in-service teach-
ers’ pedagogical interventions for their studies.
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Research question Research objectives Categories Subcategories Criteria
What ontological, epistemological,
and power criteria grounded on critical
interculturality as a decolonial
alternative orient
the development of the English
textbook to overcome
its decontextualization from the
voices of
local authors, teachers, and editors?
To unveil some ontological,
epistemological, and
power criteria, based on
critical interculturality, as
a decolonial alternative,
that guide the development
of the English textbook
otherwise to overcome its
decontextualization based
on the voices of Colombian
authors and editors.
Decolonial criteria
Ontological dimension
Students’ life experiences regarding deep culture of human beings constitute the
content of contextualised materials otherwise in dialogue with other experiences
of the pluricultural universe, which can be presented in multimodal texts of
diverse genres.
Students’ life projects as unique subjects within their context, with capacities
and particular ways of being, feeling, dreaming, doing, acting, and inhabiting
construct shared visions to generate other possible worlds.
The iconography of subjects, the school context, and communities in their local
setting allows for inclusion, recognition, identity, cohesion, and generation of
bonds.
Epistemological
dimension
Empowerment of teachers and students fosters decision-making about curricular
and contextualised materials otherwise.
Learning activities involve interpreting, comparing, contrasting, discerning,
reflecting, discussing, and transforming human realities and require the conscious
use of learning strategies and technological resources.
The generation of context-sensitive methodologies rooted in critical pedagogies
responds to local realities where English is taught and learnt with contextualised
materials otherwise and with the Others to foster reflective, meaningful, and
constructive learning settings.
Power dimension
Collective action favours an educational policy that is agreed with the subjects
directly involved in the processes of teaching and learning (teachers and
students).
The creation contextualised materials otherwise by teachers and students as
citizens with social and political awareness contributes to the struggle for a
critical and democratic and freedom-based education.
The institutionalisation of contextualised EFL materials otherwise supports
teachers’ and students’ sense of belonging, commitment, and personal and
professional growth.
Table1 Research Categories
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Research question Research objectives Categories Subcategories Criteria
What
traces of coloniality
are observed in the content of
readings, their iconography,
and learning activities proposed in the
most utilised English textbooks in the
Colombian
context during the period 2004-2016?
To characterize the contents
in the reading passages,
comprehension activities
and the iconography of the
most utilised textbooks in the
Colombian context during the
period 2004-2016 to identify
traces of coloniality.
Indelible
coloniality traces
Coloniality of being
Uneven gender representation.
Colonial vision of gender and sexual diversity.
Ethnic hierarchy.
Supremacy of discriminating and oppressing ableism.
Social class at the core of marginalisation, inequality, submission, and underestimation
of the human being from the Epistemological South.
Coloniality of
knowledge
Perpetuation of cultural detachment and bias, invisibility of diverse local cultural content,
and dissemination of Anglo-Saxon values and ideologies.
Construction of the reader as an object focused on bare decoding and literal reading
of predetermined knowledge, not as a subject of critical multiliteracy and multimodal
processes.
Coloniality of power Adopting the bilingual global policy and discourse.
Global features of textbooks.
What
possible transformations
have been
experienced
by the content of readings, their
iconography, and
learning activities proposed in the
most utilised
English textbooks in the Colombian
context during
the period 2004-2016?
To identify the transformations
in the reading passages,
comprehension activities and
iconography of the books of
English texts most utilised in
the Colombian context during
the period 2004-2016 to
determine aspects related to
decoloniality.
Emergent
coloniality signs
Relational
interculturality
Teaching English for citizens’ academic quality, professional development, and economic
success.
Colombian authored English textbooks under the consulting services of a foreign
publishing house.
Table1 Research Categories (Cont.)
* These criteria were the result of a study entitled "Decolonizar el libro de texto de inglés: una apuesta desde la interculturalidad crítica" (Núñez-Pardo, 2020b), carried out
wihtin the doctoral programme in Sciences of Education at Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC).
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Decolonial Criteria
The ontological criteria challenge the hegemonic
reproduction of beliefs, behaviours, values, and
ideologies. In doing so, there exist three possi-
bilities. First, there is a need for developing
materials that advocate for an ethical, political,
and community project of social transformation
in vulnerable local contexts in which English is
learnt and taught with these socio-cultural medi-
ations. This entails ridding them off the idealised
aspirational context commonly shown in global
textbooks. Second, generating reflection spaces
for the construction of students’ life projects could
boost assertive decision-making related to their
future positioning in society and contributes to
emancipatory education. Third, it is important
to provide materials as mediations that regard
iconographic representation of subjects in their
local context through constant dialogue with the
pluricultural universe. This is because iconography
in materials takes part in the visual and spa-
tial design of texts, supporting their attributes of
being coherent, understandable, and correspond-
ing (Levin & Mayer, 1993).
The epistemological criteria disrupt futile content
and hegemonic cultural representations of a peace-
ful world, fostering the construction of knowledge
from and out of our vulnerable local communi-
ties. Three procedures could be implemented.
The first one is to cast doubt on decontextualisa-
tion of knowledge. This is because it restrains the
recovery of ancestral knowledge and obstructs the
construction of local knowledge (Canagarajah,
2002; Giroux et al., 1988; Kumaravadivelu, 2014;
Núñez-Pardo, 2020a, 2021), widening the gap
between school, home, and community. In this
vein, teachers need to articulate students’ knowl-
edge of their context in school curricula, materials,
and pedagogical practices. Thus, reclaiming and
positioning teachers and students as curricu-
lum and materials producers generate discerning,
meaningful, and transformative learning environ-
ments. Second, to unsettle the uncritical tradition
that prevents students to think critically (Giroux,
2014), materials need to include thought-pro-
voking activities that cultivate students’ critical
thinking (Facione, 2011) and lead to alternatives
that solve community problems. Third, hege-
monic knowledge ought to be overcome through
historic, geographic, political, and socio-cultural
thought of the voiceless in periphery countries.
For instance, critical pedagogies, which are ema-
nated from social radical thinking and students’
and teachers’ experiential culture, challenge bank-
ing and oppressive education and disturb the
reproduction and naturalisation of hegemonic
materials and methodologies. Thereby, materi-
als development should be based on context-bound
pedagogies (Apple, 2004; Kumaravadivelu, 2014;
Núñez-Pardo, 2020a, 2020b; Núñez-Pardo &
Téllez-Téllez, 2021), fostering situated and con-
structive learning settings in search of cultural
changes in local realities.
The power criteria contest the tendency of bilin-
gualism policy to legitimise imperative global and
neoliberal circulating discourses through stan-
dardised English varieties, teaching approaches,
materials, testing , and training programmes (Block,
2017; Núñez-Pardo, 2020a; Phillipson, 2008,
2016; Usma, 2009a). In Colombia, the top-down
bilingualism policy renders disparities (Cruz-
Arcila, 2017; Usma, 2009b) and broadens the gap
between the powerful and the powerless (Guerrero,
2008). Therefore, it is crucial to take three actions.
First, educational initiatives should endorse a bot-
tom-up approach to bilingual education policy
(Levinson et al., 2009) that relies on the exper-
tise of local teachers (Shohamy, 2009) and fosters
the appropriation of a context-responsive pol-
icy. Second, emancipatory education ought to ask
teachers and students to critically ponder, inter-
pret, and interrogate their multifaceted individual
subjectivities and the world around them. Third,
to institutionalise contextualised and decolonised
materials otherwise, they should be culturally
situated. At its core, contextualisation “destabi-
lises mainstream ways of developing standardised,
homogenised, decontextualised and mean-
ingless materials” (Núñez-Pardo, 2019, p. 19).
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Accordingly, the localisation of materials oth-
erwise fosters students’ free decision-making and
recreation of their realities in search of a dignified
and egalitarian life.
The aforementioned criteria aim to guide the con-
struction of contextualised and decolonised
materials otherwise. To defy bias in global
textbooks and avoid introducing a local one, these
decolonial criteria entail that critical intercultural-
ity seeks a dialog ical relationship between received
hegemonic knowledges and local knowledge.
The criteria draw on the cultural circuit (Du Gay et
al., 1997) that is consistent with the colonialities
of textbooks as their cultural representa-
tions shape students’ and teachers’ construction
of individual and collective identity. These rep-
resentations are incorporated into the industrial
production of global textbooks since, as claimed by
Phillipson (2008), this production serves a world-
wide linguistic market of a dominant language.
Thence, textbooks become consumption
goods with exchange and use values related to an
instrumental and heg emonic operationalisation of
the ministerial regulation, encouraging economic
interests of the editorial industry (Usma,2009).
This consumption is backed by ideological agen-
das of governments whose goal is to increase the
dissemination of ideas (Gray, 2013) and consol-
idate education as a profitable market. The
criteria also build on Kumaravadivelu’s (2003)
post-method parameters of particularity (being
sensitive to students and teachers’ socio-cultural
context), practicality (building theory through
practice), and possibility (recognising students’
and teachers’ subjectivities).
This unsettling endeavour stems from a local initia-
tive that deems English teachers as critical political
subjects of knowledge and culture. In other words,
teachers can use their voice and agency to transform
their harsh realities in search of democratic edu-
cation (Freire, 1971; Núñez-Pardo, 2020a). This
initiative also conceives materials development as
a reflective, theoretical, culturally and politically
situated, and transformative undertaking car-
ried out by teachers otherwise1 who produce their
materials in association with students otherwise
in local contexts. The outcomes of such a defiant
process are contextualised, desirable, decolonised
materials otherwise aimed at educating polit-
ical subjects who are critically aware of their own
culture and others’ and develop an understanding
of cultura l diversity. This implies a critical approach
to developing materials that considers the par-
ticularities of the rural and urban school, home, and
community contexts, as spaces for the social con-
struction of knowledge.
Having discussed the criteria, the next section
presents the remaining categories of analysis that
respond the subsidiary research questions.
Indelible Coloniality Traces
This category analyses the coloniality traces found
in the textbooks, as posed in the first subsidiary
research question. It encompasses three subcate-
gories coloniality of being, coloniality of knowledge,
and coloniality of power that are addressed respec-
tively as follows. The first subcategory is evident
in traditional representations of identity mark-
ers in content and iconography. It stereotypes and
discriminates homogenising and concealing indi-
vidual differences and maintaining asymmetry in
human relations. Within it, five recurrent patterns
were identified.
The first pattern comprises uneven gender repre-
sentations with the predominance of male images
(Guijarro, 2005; Porreca, 1984) as observed in the
iconography and content of readings. However,
regarding the iconographic aspect, teachers, authors,
and editors asserted there is gender balance. Besides
repeatedly referring to graphic gender evenness, they
also mentioned the Williams sisters as female repre-
sentations of leadership, which could result alien to
1 is expression refers to local teachers that defy con-
ventional textbooks, make curricular decisions, and
develop their materials for their pedagogical settings.
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the local users of these textbooks as they do not con-
sider women from local contexts. This incongruent
aspect is shown in the excerpts below.2
There is gender balance, the use of iconography shows
people of ages, including children, adult women and
men and mostly students (FG – T3).
There is a news report that describes the entire sports
career of the Williams sisters who are professional ten-
nis players and who are also of colour; they are black
American (FG – A2).
We try to keep a graphic gender balance; we search
for a balance of female and male genders […] For ins-
tance, the Williams sisters appeared in one of the
books (II – E1)
As opposed to what the participants expressed, the
iconographic representation of readings mostly
includes males of all ages as exemplified in the illus-
trations in Figure 1.
The second pattern shows the prevalence of a colo-
nial binary vision of gender and sexual diversity that
imposes heteronormativity. No procreative sex is
stigmatised; emotions and human bodies are regu-
lated, naturalising the colonial sexual difference that
hides and condemns the diversity of sexual prac-
tices and orientations as they are deemed abject
(Domínguez, 2016). This perpetuates the stigma
of sexuality. The Other is condemned because they
2 e excerpts were selected from the focus group (FG)
conducted with teachers (T) as well as from in-depth
interviews (II) held with authors (A) and the editors
(E). All the excerpts were translated from Spanish into
English by the author.
do not fit reductionist binary standards, as though
there was not a considerable + community
in our local context and our country in general.
Teachers, authors, and editors corroborated that
non-traditional sexual orientation is regarded as
taboo. Thus, textbooks examined evade these
topics since they also target religious schools, where
these themes generate resistance, according to what
one of the editors expresses in the in-depth inter-
view. This reductionist vision of gender and sexual
orientation can be seen in these extracts:
The books do not show contemporary families made up of
two men or two women as a parental nucleus (FG – T4).
In one of the readings, a homosexuality issue is presen-
ted in a superficial way. (FG – T2).
Sexual orientations are taboo, so we avoid them […]
Editors sustained that these textbooks are addressed
to religious schools where these themes are not well
received (FG – A4).
Authors included themes on sexual diversity; however,
officials from the asked us to withdraw content on
sexual diversity because it could generate some sort of
resistance from users [school communities that use the
textbooks]. Including it would be like taking our own
product off the market ourselves (II – E1).
In addition, the pictographic representation in
readings maintains heterosexuality as the photo-
graphs in Figure 2 demonstrate.
The third pattern indicates the dominance of White
population and ethnic hierarchy based on pheno-
type that governs the identity construction of those
without European standards (Fanon, 1986; Marín,
2003; Mbembe, 2017). This supremacy exists
Figure 1 Uneven Gender Representation
Source: Teenagers New Generation 9 (pp.31, 87).
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because race is a socio-cultural construct result-
ing from naturalising and perpetuating historic,
religious, and biological discriminating discourses
that stigmatise and make ethnic diversity invisible.
Since human beings share a common origin, bio-
logical races do not exist; then, they belong to the
same genetic repertoire. Nonetheless, the analysed
textbooks promote a racial construction of identity
in which white ethnicity is ideal and thus, it is not
questioned. Teachers, authors, and editors ratified
the inclusion of people that fit the White American
or European dominant cultural standards. Authors
and editors also mentioned that publishing houses
resort to stereotyped iconography offered by expen-
sive image banks that present a hierarchy of models
with an idealised physical appearance of White peo-
ple for diverse societies. The excerpts below describe
this:
There is no reference to the indigenous race. Instead,
we see people with the standard of European countries
or from the United States that are far away from our
students’ reality (FG – T2).
There is not a single image of Colombian people (FG
– T1).
Almost everything in this textbook is American or
British. It is quite linked to the editorial directions based
on an available bank of images (FG – A2).
In general, images are very expensive; we use an American
bank of images that are already stereotyped and hierarchi-
sed based on models of ideal aspect (II – E1).
The Black people included are famous, wealthy,
successful, or emblematic figures; for instance,
Will Smith and the Williams sisters, Martin
Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and the like. The
iconography displays people of privilege who do
not experience the same racialisation as others
may, as observed in Figure3.
The fourth pattern entails the supremacy of discrim-
inating and oppressing ableism that conceals people
with disabilities, maintaining the binary category
abled-disabled (Asch, 2001; Bogart & Dunn,
2019; Hahn, 1988). It is imperative to understand
that context is what handicaps people, not the
Source: English, Please,1, module3 (pp.84, 102).
Figure 2 Colonial Vision of Gender and Sexual Diversity
Figure 3 Ethnic Hierarchy
Source: (Left) Teenagers New Generation10 (p.59). (Right) Viewpoints10 (pp.14, 15, 40, 41).
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Figure 4 Supremacy of Ableism
Source: (Left) Teenagers New Generation10 (p.30). (Right) Teenagers New Generation11 (p.73).
physical, cognitive, or mental variation they expe-
rience. Teachers, authors, and editors affirmed
that the representation of diverse capacities is
completely absent in the readings of the text-
books they use. They also admitted that people
with diverse capacities and their realities should be
included. Ableism predominance can be observed
in the following fragments:
ese types of aspects are not represented in any of
the book units (FG – T5).
In this book, one would not nd people using crutch-
es or a wheelchair; honestly, this population should be
included, but they are not in these books (FG – A2).
Here we try to make it appear, although it does not
really appear to the extent to which we would have
liked (II – E2).
Likewise, the graphic representation of the read-
ings maintains the binary category abled-disabled.
The photographs show abled-bodied people that
are healthy and strong like football players or
cyclists, as portrayed in Figure 4.
The fifth pattern reveals that social class constitutes
the core of marginalisation, inequality, submission,
and underestimation of the human being from
the Epistemological South (Santos, 2014; Fanon,
1986; Van Dijk, 1994). Teachers, authors, and
editors contended that there are no explicit refer-
ences to social class in the textbooks. Instead, they
said that these show well-off people practicing
sophisticated sports that are not compatible with
the experiences of the text users in the Colombian
school communities. They also asserted that the
content of these materials alludes to people with
economic means to afford luxuries, which is quite
distant from the purchasing power of local users in
Colombia’s state-funded schools. These extracts
account for this situation:
Exceptionally, this book presents the prototype of an
African, but that person is not a common individual;
on the contrary, the character represents someone suc-
cessful and wealthy (FG – T1).
In general, they show people of auent social classes
(FG – T3).
In this textbook, you will never see a poor person,
or someone begging or asking for help in the streets.
Instead, you will see people practicing horse riding,
skiing, surng, or rock climbing, which are not con-
gruent with the students’ realities (FG – A2).
Social classes are not usually dealt with in images (II – E2).
Additionally, the iconography of the readings
portrays this incongruent feature (see Figure5).
The second subcategory (coloniality of knowledge)
involves the persistence of intellectual, cognitive,
and cultural European colonialism, cultural hege-
mony, and replication of Western and Northern
predominant knowledge. This colonialism favours
an aspirational view of a visible, admiring, and
uniform culture. Three recurring patterns were
recognised.
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The first pattern refers to the perpetuation of cul-
tural detachment and bia s, the invisibility of diverse
local cultural content, and the dissemination of
Anglo-Saxon values and ideologies (Dussel, 2007;
Fanon, 1986; Granados-Beltrán, 2016; Núñez-
Pardo, 2020b; Said, 1993; Phillipson, 2016). This
means that cultural content and competence are
based on hegemonic Western and Northern coun-
tries and their model of acculturation through the
reproduction of Eurocentric knowledge as the
unique source. As a result, ancestral knowledge
like círculos de palabra [circles of words], arrul-
los [rocking babies], alabaos [dead praising], and
partear [birthing] from the Colombian Pacific
region seem unknown, exotic, and even magical to
our population despite sharing the same territory.
While teachers and authors remarked on topics
from the North American, British, and Canadian
stereotypical cultures, editors highlighted topics
about Peru, Mexico, and Brazil due to their market
impact. A salient feature is the absence of references
to Colombia in both the readings and iconography.
The subsequent excerpts depict biased cultural
representations:
ere are themes of the North American culture and
some of the British (FG – T1).
Most of the topics are about foreign cultures: e Cana-
dian, English, and North American cultures (FG – T3).
e Colombian culture is not represented in this text-
book (GF– T5).
Besides the North American and British cultures, the
Canadian culture is also represented (FG – A1).
Cultural content is an issue subject to the conditions
and orientations that we, as authors, receive from the
publishing house (FG –A2).
English teachers ask for textbooks that show students
other world visions; for this reason, the local begins
to prevail with content related to Peru, Mexico, and
Brazil. It also responds to a market share (II – E2).
Decontextualised cultural content is mirrored in
the iconography in Figure 6.
The second pattern encompasses the construction
of the reader as an object (i.e., someone focused
on bare decoding and literal reading of prede-
termined knowledge), not as a subject of critical
multiliteracy and multimodal processes. Uncritical
reading results from privileging descriptive or nar-
rative texts that promote literal and intensive reading
that leads to grammatical work. Plain decoding
also derives from the reproduction of bottom-up
and top-down reading comprehension approaches
used in isolation and the omission of critical think-
ing-oriented activities, which hinders the possibility
to develop high-order thinking skills (Apple, 2004;
Canagarajah, 2002; Giroux et al., 1988; Gray, 2013;
Kumaravadivelu, 2014; Rico, 2012). On the contrary,
critical literacy processes should centre on textuality
(attributes that make a text coherent and cohesive),
intertextuality (the relationship with other texts pro-
duced previously), and sub-textuality (reading below
the surface of words to recognise latent or hidden
messages of the text) (Pennycook, 2001). These pro-
cesses also raise critical multiliterate and multimodal
readers that assume a critical stance on the text and
Figure 5 Representation of Upper Social Classes
Source: (Left) Teenagers New Generation10 (p.30). (Right): Teenagers New Generation11 (pp.65, 70).
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value the multiple cultural differences (Álvarez-
Valencia, 2016; Cassany & Castellà, 2010; Freire &
Macedo, 1987; New London Group, 1996).
The textbooks analysed do not promote criti-
cal literacy practices or draw on multiliterate and
multimodal texts since they do not transcend
word comprehension in narrative texts. Teachers,
authors, and editors sustained that these materials
privilege narrative texts that neither foster contro-
versy nor promote an association with students’
experiences to generate debate or construction
of arguments. The fragments below evince that
reading comprehension activities proposed in the
textbooks do not promote critical reading:
Texts are rather descriptive and expositive; they do
not generate controversial situations (FG –T1).
Texts promote literal reading comprehension
(FG– T2).
Comprehension activities are literal so the answers are
there; activities that generate debate are absent. Read-
ing comprehension does not promote interpretation
nor critical reading (FG – T3).
Most activities are to ll in gaps, conjugate a verb, or
associate grammatical patterns (FG – T2).
Very rarely we invite students to reect or to go be-
yond the text. Reading comprehension activities
are linked to textual content. Readings do not oer
students the possibility to connect with their own
experience or to assume a critical stance on the text
(FG – A2).
ese activities foster intensive reading and grammat-
ical work (FG – A3).
Reading comprehension activities aim at recycling,
reviewing, or reinforcing linguistic contents. The
grammatical component is very strong because the
marketing department informed us that teachers
want to have more grammar in the textbooks […]
Unfortunately, narrative and descriptive texts prevail,
and critical thinking is hardly present (II – E2).
Figure 6 Dissemination of Anglo-Saxon Values and Ideologies
Source: Teenagers New Generation9 (pp.58, 59)
Figure 7 Literacy Focused on Bare Decoding and Literal Reading
Source: (Left) Teenagers New Generation10 (p.44). (Right) Viewpoints5 (p.15).
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Similar reading comprehension activities boost
literal reading as observed in the samples shown
in Figure 7.
The third subcategory (coloniality of power)
contains modern Eurocentrism i.e., world power
controls the human life experience in all its dimen-
sions of civilization (Walsh, 2007) and enslaves
human beings to consumerism at a global level
(Bauman, 2007; Giddens, 2018;). Two interre-
lated patterns were recognised. The first pattern
comprises adopting a bilingual global policy and
discourse that focuses only on the learning of
English for the sake of economic competitive-
ness, neglecting other languages (González, 2009;
Guerrero, 2008; Usma, 2015), which perpetuates
the knowledge-based economy (Fairclough,2006).
The second pattern tackles the global text fea-
tures and promotes individualistic productivity,
entrepreneurial skills, and economic success as
the pillars of pervasive phenomena such as cap-
italism, globalisation, and neoliberalism. These
conditions enslave human beings to consumerism
on a global scale, precluding cultural, social, and
pedagogical values, and regularising misery and
injustice (Bauman, 2007; Block, 2017; Kubota
& Lin, 2006; Ulum & Köksal, 2019). Teachers
and authors manifested that references to North
American celebrities, the ideal family, and success-
ful young people constitute not only an untrue
dream for our students in their local contexts but
also a detached referent that associates the learn-
ing of English to wealthiness, affordability and
luxury. Editors acknowledged that the profitable
interest of publishing houses responds to globalisa-
tion, the hegemony of the Northern and Western
cultures, obstructions imposed by publishing con-
glomerates, the users of the textbooks, the bank of
images, and the editor. The next excerpts illustrate
the previous aspects:
e book includes a reading about Shakira as an in-
ternational celebrity and as a model to follow. It also
includes famous personalities like Jennifer Lopez, Ni-
cole Kidman, and Brad Pitt (FG – T2).
Readings about celebrated personages engender unat-
tainable dreams for our students (FG – T1).
In this textbook, the perfect family, the happy person,
successful young people prevail, far from the local
reality […] e topics include tourism, technology,
ctional literature (FG – A2).
Topics like planning a holiday involve selecting the
country, requirements to full before travelling, and
the budget (FG – A4).
Editorial production is subject to a market logic and it
responds to the global market. Unfortunately, the he-
gemony of the North American culture […] We look
for global referents (II – E1).
ere are obstacles imposed by the company, the pub-
lic, the banks of images, and the editors (II – E2).
The samples in Figure 8 corroborate the previ-
ously mentioned conditions.
Figure 8 Adopting the Bilingual Global Policy, Discourse, and Textbooks Features
Source: English, Please!11, module2, unit3, lesson7 (pp.74-75)
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Emergent Decoloniality Signs
Emergent decoloniality signs in textbooks con-
stitute the second category that responds to the
second subsidiary question. This question concerns
possible transformations of textbooks con-
tent and holds a sole subcategory labelled relational
interculturality. It is important to note that this sort
of interculturality has remained in a basic form of
exchange among cultures in conditions of inequal-
ity, without referring to its causes or the purposes
of social struggle for equal rights and opportunities
(Tubino, 2005; Walsh, 2010). The analysis revealed
two associated decoloniality patterns. First, the
regulation pattern since one of the textbooks anal-
ysed responds to the country’s bilingual policy of
teaching English for citizens’ academic quality and
professional development oriented towards produc-
tivity, profitability, globalisation, and neoliberalism.
Second, the pattern of having Colombian-authored
English textbooks is evident, it is reliant on consult-
ing services from a foreign publishing house, though.
Despite being locally developed, decoloniality
is recognised in the topics included in these text-
books. Out of 86 readings, only six passages address
adolescents’ emotions and concerns regarding
engagement, future careers, a gay couple, bully-
ing, school sexism, child labour, and environmental
care. Although the readings indicate changes vis-a-
vis traditional content, all of them are descriptive
texts followed by literal comprehension activities
that preclude reflection, debate, and critical think-
ing as displayed in the next extracts:
e-his textbook, students read part of a story and then,
they should create the end (II – E2).
In addition to narrative texts that unsettle con-
ventional content but normalise mere decoding,
iconography and reading passages evidence
the foregoing emergent change in textbooks
(Figure9).
The former results offer tangible possibilities for
teachers to contest colonialised textbooks and
take counter-hegemonic actions, which demands
critical socio-cultural and political conscious-
ness and discourse in both students and teachers.
It also endorses actions in favour of democratic
transformation of curricula, materials, teach-
ing, language policy, and assessment practices.
After arguing the findings, the next section pres-
ents the conclusions drawn from the study.
Conclusions
This qualitative documentary research unveiled
three triads of decolonial criteria: a triad of onto-
logical criteria, a triad of epistemological criteria
and a triad of power criteria. They emerged to
orient the creation of desirable materials oth-
erwise, as summarised in Table 1. The critical
Figure 9 Teaching English for citizens’ academic quality, professional development, and economic success
Source: English, Please!11, module3, unit1, lesson1 (p.91)
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Medellín, ColoMbia, Vol. 27 issue 3 (septeMber-deCeMber, 2022), pp. 702-724, issn 0123-3432
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analysis also revealed colonial representations of
gender, races, sexual orientations, capacities, and
social classes in textbooks, as well as refer-
ences to an essentialist and static vision of culture.
Also, emerging signs of decoloniality were evinced
in response to the Colombian bilingual policy of
teaching English for citizens’ academic excellence
and professional growth.
Research on materials needs to reach beyond
traditional evaluation, analysing their content crit-
ically. This article argued against textbooks’
ontological, epistemological, and power hege-
mony. It also questioned the adoption of a global
policy and discourse in textbooks that relates
English to individualistic efficiency, entrepreneur-
ial skills, and economic progress. These power
forces control curricula, materials, cultural con-
tent, standardised English varieties, and teaching
and assessment practices replicated and naturalised
in global textbooks, which makes it tough to
defy them. Although globalised and neoliberal dis-
courses circulate the ideals of freedom and growth,
these practices reduce teachers and students to con-
suming knowledge instead of producing it.
The results of the critical analysis of textbooks’
content reported here uncovered the need for
rethinking materials from a critical inter-
culturality stance. It is then, time to resist and
disrupt a series of colonial binaries (e.g., White-
Non-White) that imply a so-called biological
superiority among human beings, ranking them
from savages to Europeans. Critical intercul-
turality also demands unsettling the colonial
sexual difference that perpetuates and naturalises
Eurocentric Judeo-Christian categories on sex and
gender, maintaining heteronormativity. Likewise,
it urges to challenge the abled-disabled binary that
has been made up by a medicalised notion of the
normal body and supported by a pattern of norma-
tive beauty, paving the way for the reproduction of
capitalist values. Similarly, Western and Northern
dominant knowledge and homogeneous culture
should be withstood. This is because they nurture
an essentialist view of a static culture that conceals
evolving cultural practices, hindering the possibility
to build cultural and critical intercultural aware-
ness. Finally, adopting the globalised discourse in
language policy and textbooks reduces the
human experience to rampant consumption, pre-
serving asymmetrical relations between hegemonic
and periphery communities.
Creating materials from a decolonial perspec-
tive compels teachers to become more critica l of
materials content, learning activities and strategies,
underpinning language pedagogies, iconography,
language policy, and assessment practices. This
reflective, localised, theoretical, and applicable
endeavour allows them to ponder, question, re-sig-
nify, and transform their pedagogical praxis as they
exert agency to contest hegemony in materials.
As a result, teachers empower themselves to recre-
ate situated education practices.
Some limitations of this research comprised: an
analysis centred on the content of the reading les-
sons, not on complete textbooks; not all the authors
and editors agreed to participate in the study; and
some of them insisted on answering the questions
regarding the whole textbook.
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How to cite this article: Núñez-Pardo, A. (2022). Indelible coloniality and emergent decoloniality in
Colombian-authored textbooks: A critical content analysis. Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura,
27(3), 702–724. http://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ikala.v27n3a07
