Stereotypes About China in Dutch Primary Schools: the Role of Textbooks and Teachers in Perpetuating a Prejudiced Discourse on China
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Stereotypes about China in Dutch Primary Schools: The Role of Textbooks and Teachers in Perpetuating a Prejudiced Discourse on China Figure 1 Front Page Workbook Theme 3 Lise Anne van de Kimmenade Student number: 1794523 Supervisor: Svetlana Kharchenkova Master Thesis MA Asian Studies: History, Arts and Culture of Asia January 2, 2021 Word count: 14.851 [email protected] Lise van de Kimmenade S1794523 02-01-2020 MA Thesis [email protected] Inhoud Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Keywords ............................................................................................................................................ 3 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4 2. Theoretical Framework ................................................................................................................... 6 3. Literature Review ............................................................................................................................ 7 3.1 China around the World ................................................................................................................ 7 3.2 China in the Netherlands ............................................................................................................... 9 3.3 Prejudice and Stereotypes............................................................................................................ 11 3.4 Prejudice in Textbooks ................................................................................................................ 13 4. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 16 5. Method........................................................................................................................................... 19 5.1 Selection of a Grade .................................................................................................................... 19 5.2 Selection of Books ....................................................................................................................... 19 5.3 Purpose of the Interviews ............................................................................................................ 20 5.4 Method of the Interviews ............................................................................................................ 21 5.5 Process of Finding Interviewees .................................................................................................. 21 5.6 The Interviewed ........................................................................................................................... 22 6. Textbook Results ........................................................................................................................... 23 6.1 Weirdness .................................................................................................................................... 23 6.1.1 Language .............................................................................................................................. 24 6.1.2 Food and Restaurant ............................................................................................................. 25 6.1.3 Characters ............................................................................................................................. 27 6.2 Difference .................................................................................................................................... 28 6.2.1 Appearance ........................................................................................................................... 28 6.2.2 Names ................................................................................................................................... 31 6.2.3 Capability ............................................................................................................................. 31 6.2.4 Red and Gold ........................................................................................................................ 33 7. Interviews ...................................................................................................................................... 34 7.1 To What Extent Teachers Know and Care about China .............................................................. 34 7.1.1 How Teachers Are Educated ................................................................................................ 34 7.1.2 How Teachers Care to Teach about Other Countries ........................................................... 36 7.1.3 How Teachers Teach about Other Countries ........................................................................ 36 7.2 What Teachers Do with Their Identification in Class ................................................................. 37 7.2.1 Teachers Take a “Racelessness” Position ............................................................................ 37 7.2.2 Teachers Think That Children Are Unable to See Chinese Aspects .................................... 37 1 Lise van de Kimmenade S1794523 02-01-2020 MA Thesis [email protected] 7.3 How Teachers Evaluate the Importance of Stereotyping ............................................................ 39 7.3.1 Teachers Think That Stereotypes Are Not Problematic ....................................................... 39 7.4 How Teachers Use Their Evaluation of Stereotyping in the Classroom ..................................... 40 7.4.1 How Teachers Deal with Stereotypes ................................................................................... 40 7.4.2 Teachers Think That Stereotypes Are Funny ....................................................................... 40 7.4.3 The Effects of Teaching Children Stereotypes ..................................................................... 41 8. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 42 9. Appendices .................................................................................................................................... 45 9.1 Appendix 1 List of Coding Categories ........................................................................................ 45 9.2 Appendix 2 List of Interview Questions ..................................................................................... 46 10. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 48 10.1 Literature ................................................................................................................................... 48 10.2 Interviews .................................................................................................................................. 53 10.3 Textbooks .................................................................................................................................. 53 Abstract 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 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. 2 Lise van de Kimmenade S1794523 02-01-2020 MA Thesis [email protected] Keywords Education, textbooks, teachers, prejudice, stereotypes, China, Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. 3 Lise van de Kimmenade S1794523 02-01-2020 MA Thesis [email protected] 1. Introduction Children are still learning prejudiced and stereotypical discourses on other countries in 2020 through their textbooks and teachers. This thesis explores what discourses children learn about China through their textbooks and teachers. Through textbook analysis, and interviewing teachers, it gains insights into what discourses on China are present in textbooks, and how teachers cope with these. The importance of researching