The Four Dimensions of Western-centric Ideologies in Upper Secondary English Textbooks in Sweden : An ideological square analysis of Blueprint A 3.0 & Solid Gold 1

Sammanfattning: Swedish upper secondary schools are assigned the responsibility to promote cultural diversity and foster democratic global citizens according to Läroplanen för gymnasieskolan (Skolverket, 2022). Naturally, as English textbooks try to incorporate this, the potentially problematic outcome arises of the depictions of the Westerner and the non-Westerner. The present research examines to what extent and how the four dimensions of Western-centric ideologies through the analytical lens of Van Dijk’s ideological square are manifested in Blueprint A 3.0 (2017) and Solid Gold 1 (2014) for English 5 upper secondary schools. How the Western-centric ideologies are manifested is discussed through the theory of Orientalism (Said, 2003) and its complementary linguistic theories problematizing Native-speakerism (Holliday, 2006) and Euro-English (Philipson, 2003). The findings of the present study highlight how the majority of the texts placed in the ideological square are about the Western “Us” and that the West is portrayed as superior through depictions of being developed and progressive while the non-West “Them” is depicted as undeveloped, oppressed as well as stagnant and timeless. Thus, the findings are in accordance with the theories of the literature and previous research where the implied superiority of the West is found. Based on these findings, it can perhaps be argued that the textbooks Blueprint A 3.0 (2017) and Solid Gold 1 (2014) do not fulfill the expectations of Läroplanen för gymnasieskolan (Skolverket, 2022), leading to the pedagogical implications of this present study where teachers are encouraged to create complementary material or address the Western-centric ideologies of the respective textbooks.