Stereotypes about China in Dutch Primary Schools:: The Role of Textbooks and Teachers in Perpetuating a Prejudiced Discourse on China

Primary school textbooks are filled with images and text that provide information about other countries, even if the intention of those books is not to teach about world orientation, but how to read and write. This thesis studied Dutch “Lijn 3” reading and writing books of Malmberg through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), which encompasses both textual Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Discourse Analysis (VDA), and found that there is a significant amount of information on China within them. This information is often stereotypical, and corresponds to existing prejudice and humour on China and the Chinese ethnic minority in the Netherlands. Furthermore, interviews with teachers showed that they are aware of harmful effects of stereotypes and prejudice, but they are reluctant to intervene when they encounter stereotypes in books. They prefer to ignore stereotypes because they argue that children do not see them. This incorrect observation, that children are...Show morePrimary school textbooks are filled with images and text that provide information about other countries, even if the intention of those books is not to teach about world orientation, but how to read and write. This thesis studied Dutch “Lijn 3” reading and writing books of Malmberg through Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), which encompasses both textual Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Visual Discourse Analysis (VDA), and found that there is a significant amount of information on China within them. This information is often stereotypical, and corresponds to existing prejudice and humour on China and the Chinese ethnic minority in the Netherlands. Furthermore, interviews with teachers showed that they are aware of harmful effects of stereotypes and prejudice, but they are reluctant to intervene when they encounter stereotypes in books. They prefer to ignore stereotypes because they argue that children do not see them. This incorrect observation, that children are unable to see and understand stereotypes, creates a non-critical environment for children and teachers, in which stereotypes and prejudice teach children a power hierarchy. In this hierarchy, the Caucasian Dutch are dominant, and the rest is subordinate. This thesis suggests that stereotypes in textbooks need to be acknowledged by teachers, and communicated to children, or illustrators and authors need to eliminate stereotypes out of books, in order to change this problematic power hierarchy.Show less

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Stereotypes about China in Dutch Primary Schools: The Role of Textbooks and Teachers in Perpetuating a Prejudiced Discourse on China