The Analysis of Ethnic Factor As Represented in Grade 10 History Textbook in Sri Lanka

The Analysis of Ethnic Factor as Represented in Grade 10 History Textbook in Sri Lanka

Nirosha Dias Dissanayake Abstract Representation patterns of ethnicity are a globally accepted research area. The aim of this qualitative content analysis was to identify the representation patterns of ethnic groups in the purposively selected grade 10 History textbook in Sri Lanka. The data collection instrument was the codebook that emphasized the representation of ethnicity. Code book was constructed based on the content of 10 chapters of the textbook. Interviews with a curriculum developer and a professor of History were used to triangulate findings of the content analysis. Grade 10 History textbook presents information on the three ethnic groups of Sri Lanka. In the task of enlightening the students through literary and archaeological sources, the information has been provided with illustrations that depict ethnic groups. When compared with the literary sources on Sinhala and Tamil ethnicities, information about Muslims is scant. According to the representation pattern in the History book, three ethnic groups followed their religions with devotion without any differences. There was higher level of religious coexistence and harmony among the ancient ethnic groups. The research suggests importance of including more facts on Muslims based on the sources if available to improve the peace-building process.

Key words: History, Textbook, Ethnicity, Content Analysis, Sri Lanka,

Introduction

Textbooks which include specific information about the syllabus play a dominant role in shaping classroom instruction and curriculum re

16 contextualization in Zimbabwe (Crawford, 2003; Holmes, 1988, as cited in Maposa & Wassermann, 2014; Marino, 2011). Textbooks are one of the key tools for students’ learning and a basic tool in the teaching process. In Sri Lanka, textbooks are developed by the government and it has considered the multi-faceted patterns of ethnicity in developing textbooks. As a result, textbooks for schools (Grades 1-11) are developed by the Educational Publications Department of the Ministry of Education using the policy guidelines given by the National Education Commission (NEC), that emphasizes ethnic harmony, and curriculum guidelines prepared by the National Institute of Education. The research was focused on the newly developed grade 10 History textbook in 2015.

Sri Lankan population consists of three major ethno religious groups (Sinhalese:74%; Tamils:18.2%; Muslims:7.4%). In this regard, History textbooks in Sri Lanka have to be developed considering all ethnic groups. One national educational objective in Sri Lanka is to honour a human being while recognising multi-faceted ethnic, religious and cultural features (NEC, 2003). Hence, the role of the curriculum and textbooks should be to enhance and establish a society which honors diversity while recognizing the national integrity (NEC, 2009).

Sri Lankan people have faced 30 years of civil war that emerged due to ethnic conflicts. Curriculum developers have taken this reality into consideration when developing textbooks knowing that ethnicity is one of the controversial issues in the Sri Lankan society. Continuous peace and harmony in the future could be achieved through school textbooks that are a delivery technique of the curriculum. However, historical developments in Sri Lanka and development patterns according to ethnicity should be assessed objectively to represent different ethnic groups proportionately in the content of textbooks. In this

17 regard, attention should be given to relative contribution of each ethnic group to the historical developments of Sri Lanka.

As History textbooks help students to develop national and civic identities (An and Suh, 2013), researchers have treated history textbooks as significant objects of analysis to see how societies shape students’ views of their respective countries. Based on this premise, grade10 new History textbook, the only textbook developed in 2015 for the Senior Secondary grades in Sri Lanka, was analyzed to see its representativeness regarding Sri Lankan ethnic groups.

Although there are a number of researches on the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka (Jayawardhana, 1987; Gaul, 2014), History textbooks have not been the subject of evaluation of ethnic biasedness. In Sri Lanka, according to the curriculum policy, the curriculum is changed every eight years and the first step of new curriculum reform in 2015 was for grades 6 (to represent Junior Secondary Grades) and 10 (To represent senior secondary grades). In 2016, 2017, and 2018 a new History curriculum will be applied for grade 7, grade 11, grade 8 and grade 9 respectively. On this basis, the newly developed textbook for Grade 10 in 2015 was selected for the research with the objectives of identifying and comparing the patterns of representation of ethnicity, as the findings will be helpful for the development of History textbooks for other grades in the coming years. Furthermore, the Sri Lankan school practices based on the textbooks on intercultural education will be highlighted throughout the research.

Literature Review

Educational policy framework in Sri Lanka A critical analysis of textbooks can find out the development of racial and ethnic damages such as “unnecessary cultural, social and political barriers to personal dignity” (Giroux &Purple, 1983, p. 279). Hence, examining the

18 content of textbooks on history can ensure a balanced, fair and equal depiction of people in different ethnic groups in the future.

The rationale for the analysis of the content of textbooks for ethnicity is to eliminate biases in ethnic representation in the textbooks used by school children. In this regard, it is necessary to determine the representation patterns of the Sri Lankan ethnicity. Based on this argument, the grade 10 history textbook in Sri Lankan educational system was analyzed.

The NEC (1992; 2003) has specified national cohesion, national integrity, and national unity as the first goal out of the nine concerning educational planning. The priority was because of thirty years of war that affected Sri Lanka during 1980-2010. Therefore, it is an imperative to rely on the various traditional cultures and promote the values and attitudes of a variety of religious faiths in Sri Lanka. Based on the NEC emphasis on harmony, the content of History textbooks needs to be analyzed. The present research on Grade 10 textbook will be the starting point for this objective.

Research on ethnic conflict in global and Sri Lankan perspective

Out of 25 armed conflicts in 1997, 24 were internal ‘ethnic' conflicts due to differences of people living within countries (Bush & Saltarelli, 2000). Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka too belong to this category.

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multicultural and multi-faith country consisting of three major ethnic groups i.e., Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims along with other small minority groups such as Malays and Burghers. By religion, the majority of Sinhalese are Buddhists while a smaller percentage of the community are Hindu, Catholic, Christian and Muslim. The relations between Tamils and Sinhalese had not always or consistently been antagonistic. The root causes for the recent conflict between the Sinhalese and the Tamils seem to be based on

19 the historical experiences which was flavoured with ethnic politics and language issues related to the ethnic conflict,and other factors such as employment and land (Shafi and Rashid, 2013, Jayawardhana, 1987 & World Bank, 2008).The depiction of these issues in textbooks need to be analysed.

Methods of developing history textbooks

Morgan and Henning (2013) designed a tool for analysing history textbooks and developed the five-dimensional tool based on six principles. Maposa and Wassermann (2014) identified the purpose of school history in Zimbabwe via analysing History textbooks and concluded that “textbooks promote a historical literacy dominated by knowledge at the expense of the other benchmarks” (p. 254).

Ketcham (1982) analysed eight textbooks from 8 countries using a quantitative comparative content analysis method. Leshkovska & Davchev (2013) analysed 44 textbooks in Macedonia to determine the quality of content that addresses intercultural education.

Kim, Moon, and Joo (2013) investigated three Korean high school world History textbooks using four analytical criteria and suggested “the need to pluralize historical consciousness, reflect the contributions of the east to world history, and rethink curriculum and teaching practices” (p. 213).

The present research uses the qualitative content analysis technique as the research method as the so far mentioned literature too has used the technique.

Research on History textbook analysis

History textbook researchers have focused their analysis on race, racism, and ethnicity. Hughes (2007) analyzed American History textbooks to determine whiteness and the social construction of race and concluded that these textbooks revealed “the nexus of racial identity, and white privilege” (p. 201). This conclusion is supported by Cho and Park (2014) who, observing the multicultural content covered in the Korean textbooks, state that “multicultural

20 content has contradictory structure and Korean ethnicity-centered perspectives” (p. 1). Cheah (2003) evaluated ethnicity, politics and history textbook controversies in Malaysia concluding that “history textbooks display a strong Malay bias” (page 1). Supporting this position, through a content analysis approach, Shocker and Woyshner (2013) found that black women were not fully represented in the U.S. history textbooks.

Al‐Haj (2005) investigated national ethos, multicultural education, and the new History textbooks in Israel and found typical Jewish narratives and Zionist values. There is no place for Palestinian narratives in these textbooks.

Morgan (2010) identified racism in the textbooks in South Africa. Kim et al. (2013) have focused on the way of reproducing Eurocentric colonial hegemony. Marino (2011) looks at how the world history is organized and presented in European textbooks. He concluded that these texts are extremely Eurocentric and the majority covered only European history. An and Suh (2013) examine how U.S. history is represented in South Korean history textbooks and what images and ideas from the United States are encouraged for South Koreans to learn or to act upon. They conclude that significant historical events and figures are missing in the textbook. By contrast, Leshkovska, & Davchev (2013) analysed forty-four textbooks including history to find “one of the good aspects of the textbooks is the fact that they do not contain disrespect and discrimination of different cultures, ethnicities or religious groups” (p. 6). Shadowwalker (2012) analysed the American History textbooks using discourse analytical method and found that textbooks introduce students to reliable content to get to gain knowledge on the national history to build up their national identity and ideology. Gaul (2014) has analysed the Sri Lankan History textbooks to determine the representation of different communities before the end of the war in 2009. Conclusion of this study was the lack of and negative representation of minority communities and “instead of fostering social cohesion, these textbooks may deepen

21 ethnic divides and stereotypes, and, therefore, thwart reconciliation and long-term peace” (p. ɪ). Similar to the findings of Gaul (2014), a research on the newly developed textbook is necessary to identify post-war ethnic representation in History textbooks in Sri Lanka. The present research focuses on that issue.

Methodology

To achieve the objectives of the research, qualitative content analysis method (Krippendorff, 2013; Hsieh & Shannon 2005 cited by DeWitt et al., 2013) was used in eight steps (Schreier, 2014; Lillejord, 2013, p. 73) (Figure 1).

Steps 1 Deciding research questions

Steps 2 Selecting materials

Steps 3 Building a coding frame

nalysis a Dividing the material into units of Steps 4 coding trying out coding

ontent Frame/Segmenting

Steps 5 Trying out the coding frame

of c Process Steps 6 Evaluating and modifying the coding frame

Steps 7 Main analysis

Steps 8 Interpreting and presenting findings frame Figure: 1 Process of content analysis

As the first step, research questions i.e., what are the patterns of representation of ethnicity? and what are the differences between representations of ethnicity

22 in grade 10 History textbook in Sri Lanka? were specified. As the second step, Grade 10 textbook were selected as the material for analysis. The content, including maps, figures and illustrations of the 10 chapters within the range of 138 pages in the purposively selected sample of grade 10 textbook served as the sample. As the third step, a coding book was constructed (Babbie, 2010, P. 338) based on the main categories, subcategories, and themes of the textbook emphasising the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups focusing possible answers to the two research objectives. In the fourth step of analysis, while reading the Grade 10 History textbook line by line, and chapter by chapter, main categories, subcategories and themes (Table 1) included in the content were identified according to the research objectives. In the fifth step, identified sub categories were ranked to assess the relative emphasis given to each ethnic group. In the last step, i.e., interpreting and presenting the findings, based on the identified main categories, subcategories, and themes on different ethnic groups, interviews were conducted for validating and triangulation of the analysed data and further clarifications on issues of grade 10 History textbook with a school curriculum developer and a Professor Emeritus of History (PEH). Further historical books and documents (Ex: Mahavansa) were used to triangulate the findings. The analysed data were presented using tables, and figures. Further quoted pictures and content were used (Lillejord, 2013).

Results Written content of the grade 10 History textbook Based on the analysis, eight main categories, twenty-one subcategories and five themes (sources of studying history, religion, ethnic co-existence, architecture and state administration) were identified (Table 1).

Table: 1 Categories, subcategories, and themes S.No Main Categories Subcategories Themes 1 Literary sources for the study of 1.Sinhala ethnicity history represented through literary sources

2.Tamil ethnicity Sources for the represented study of history through literary

sources

3.Muslim ethnicity

represented through literary sources 2 Archaeological sources for the 4.Sinhala ethnicity study of History represented through archaeological sources 5.Tamil ethnicity represented Sources for through the archaeological study of sources history 6.Muslim ethnicity represented through archaeological sources

S.No Main Categories Subcategories Themes

3 Royal patronage for religion Establishment of religion 8. Restoration of sacred places Religion 9. Offering of caves,

donation of lands, donation of money

4 Religious coexistence 10. The Sinhala ethnic group and religious co- existence

11. The Tamil ethnic group and Religion religious co- existence

12. The Sinhala ethnic group and religious co- existence

5 Religious rituals 13. Buddhist rituals

14. Hindu rituals Religion

15. Islamic rituals

S.No Main Categories Subcategories Themes

6 Co-existence 16.Inter-ethnic marriage relations Ethnic co-existence 17.Inter-ethnic friendship relations

18.Inter-ethnic trade relations

7 Architecture 19.Buddhist construction Architecture 20. Other

architectural creations

8 State administration 21.Selecting the other State administrators administration

Theme 1: Sources for the study of history The sources for the study of history were analysed under the main category as literary sources and archaeological sources in the textbook. In educating students, literary sources have been discussed along with examples so as to represent all ethnic groups. Nevertheless, while six examples have been

26 provided regarding Tamil sources, only four examples had been given on Sinhala and Muslim ethnicities. Hence, Muslim and Sinhala ethnicities were represented comparatively lower than the Tamils. Historical documents of the History of Sri Lanka point out that Muslims have been identified as an ethnic group in Sri Lanka only from around 7th century. This is a point corroborated by PEH (interviewed on 06.07.2015).Based on this, adequate information covering all ethnic groups has been provided in the textbook. In total, information on literary sources required to study all the ethnic groups in the historical period covered by the textbook has been provided. In the analysis of the representation of ethnicity in archeological sources of epigraphy, coins, ruins, drawings, sculptures, and antiquities it was found that the textbook contained ten instances of information representing Sinhala ethnicity. There were six archaeological citations about Tamil culture or religion. Thus, Tamil ethnicity was less represented than Sinhala ethnicity. There was no archaeological information on Muslims. In summary, facts on Sinhala ethnicity and Buddhism are more represented than other ethnicity. Based on the political power at relevant periods and the major ethnic group represented under that power, it can be decided that representation of different ethnic groups in archaeological sources vary.

Theme 2: Religion Religion was identified as a main theme. In Sri Lanka, ethnicity is identified mainly by religion and language, and not by skin color or biological factors (Gaul, 2014).Based on that premise, data were analyzed under the three most important categories of religion and royal patronage for religion, religious coexistence, and religious rituals. Under the category of royal patronage for religion, data were analysed under the subcategories of the establishment of the

27 religion, restoration of sacred places and the offering of the cave, donation of land, and donation of money. The royal patronage had been extensively provided for Buddhism. Royal patronage has been provided for Hinduism through the constructions of Devalayas, Kovilas, and donation of lands for devalayas. In comparison to Buddhism, the information regarding royal patronage to Hinduism is low. There is only one statement about a place of religious worship for Muslims as Islam had been introduced to this country later in history. Accordingly, when compared to Buddhism and Hinduism, Islam had received less royal patronage. The history of the country is built upon a Sinhala-Buddhist cultural base (PEH, interview on 6.7.2015; Mahawansa). Accordingly, ancient historical documents record that the king necessarily had to safeguard Buddhism and take action to ensure its continued existence. Analysis of data on that basis discloses the fact that the authors of the grade 10 textbook had endeavoured to present the real history of Sri Lanka to students rather than highlighting Sinhala ethnicity. Data on religious coexistence have been analysed under the three subcategories corresponding to the three major ethnic groups. Under the Sinhala ethnic group and religious co-existence, it was revealed that the Sinhala Buddhist ethnic group had taken action to co-exist with other religions. In the analysis of data from the Tamil ethnic group and religious co-existence, it was disclosed that the Tamil ethnic group co-existed peacefully at that time with other religious groups. Among examples in support of the statement is the instance of the existence of an inscription regarding a Tamil Bhikkhu (Bhikkhu is a Buddhist monk) as well as the existence of not only trade relations between India and Sri Lanka, but also an exchange of Hindu religious ideas between the two countries. In the analysis of data on the Muslim ethnic group and religious co- existence, it was reminded that Muslims also venerated the Adam's Peak (Sri Pada), a location of Sinhala Buddhist veneration.

Accordingly, under the subcategory of religious coexistence and the main theme of Religion, it was revealed that the three ethnic groups took steps to honour and respect other religions. Just as much as the Buddhists held Buddhism in reverence, the Tamils held Hinduism in reverence and the Muslims held Islam in reverence. The inquiry was made to identify the representation of ethnicity through religious rituals. It was revealed that the Buddhist ritual was predominant as it was stated six times. Hindu religious rituals occurred on two occasions. Not a single piece of information on Islamic rituals was mentioned however.

Theme 3: Ethnic co-existence Analysis was done to discover how ethnicity was represented under three subcategories related to inter-ethnic marriage relations, inter-ethnic friendship relations and inter-ethnic trade relations. Analysis revealed that the grade 10 History textbook presented information along with examples, to the effect that Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups-existed cordially (Table 2). Under the subcategory inter-ethnic marriage relations, the existence of inter- ethnic marriages and co-existence was highlighted. Hence, it can be concluded that representation of inter-ethnic marriages in textbooks is fair for both Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups. The representation in this way aims to promote coexistence. However, no examples have been cited in the textbook about inter- ethnic marriages between Sinhalese and Muslims or Tamils and Muslims. Although no such citations are there, Muslim traders have married Sinhala women when travelling for trade (interview with the curriculum developer, 02.07.2015). As a result, today there are Sri Lankan Muslims with Sinhala surnames (e.g.Mudiyanselage Marikkar). When analysing the sub-category of interethnic friendly relations, it was revealed that the three ethnic groups are portrayed as having maintained friendly relations. The statement “there was a street in Anuradhapura where

29 some Tamil families resided” shows that there was cordial co-existence between Sinhala and Tamil ethnic groups. Similarly, there is a mention of the recruitment of members of the Tamil community into the army (Table 2). Furthermore, the textbook mentions the maintenance of interethnic relations between Sinhala and Muslim ethnic groups. When inquiring into ethnic co- existence under the sub-category of interethnic trade relations, there was a mention of the steps necessary for the implementation of commerce by Muslims. Accordingly there was a high tendency for Muslims to carry out trade activities in Sri Lanka. Similarly, the expansion of the Muslim population of Sri Lanka from the seventh century onwards had been based on business activities. While involved in trade activities, the Muslims of that period married Sinhala women and co-existed with the Sinhala ethnic group (curriculum developer, interview, 2.7.2015). On the whole, when compared with the subcategory of inter-ethnic friendship relations, the subcategory of inter-ethnic marriage relations and inter-ethnic trade relations are less represented in the History textbook. There are eleven citations of inter-ethnic friendship relations in the textbook, but only three citations were found regarding inter-ethnic marriage relations. There is only one citation on inter-ethnic trade relationships. However, as a whole, under the main theme of ethnic co-existence,it was found that there were no divisions rising from ethnic membership in Sri Lanka: the three major communities had marriage relationships, trade relationships and also friendship relations.

Table: 2 Representation of ethnicity through ethnic co-existence Subcategory Category Inter-ethnic Inter-ethnic Inter-ethnic trade marriage friendship relations relations relations Ethnic co-  Sri Lanka had  After the 10th century  The Arabic existence marital - AD., our kings historian Al relations with established mutual Bhalasuri, who neighbouring relationship with lived in the 9th countries. Arabian countries. century A.D., has (p. 47) (p. 47) mentioned that the Sri Lankan rulers  King  The king of 'Ruby had taken proper Vijayabahu I Island' (Sri Lanka was measures to married a called by this name) manage the Kalinga had exchanged gifts international trade princess named with the Islamic king. affairs. (p. 58) Thilokasundari, (p. 47) and the king's sister Princess  Several Tamil families Miththa had lived in a street in married a Anuradhapura. (p. 60) Pandya prince. (p. 47)  There lived a considerable number  An ancient of Tamil people close inscription to the main harbours of found in this country. (p. 57) Ampara  Among this Tamil mentions about community, most of a Tamil man them were soldiers

who was who served as married to a mercenary soldiers in Sinhalese the army of our woman. country. The oldest (p. 60) kings who sought the assistance of the South Indian mercenary soldierwere Ilanaga and KingAbhayanaga. (p. 60)  There was a mutual relation between Sri Lanka and the Arab world from ancient times. It was a relation which went beyond mere trade relations. (p. 57)  Our citizens used to work amicably not only with the Tamil but also with the Arabs, who were Muslims. (p. 61)  We should always remember that way.

Theme 4: Architecture In analysing the theme of architecture, two subcategories were identified: Buddhist constructions (stupes, pilimageval, alms halls, devala and meditating cells) and other architectural creations (Hindu devalayas and urban parks). The

32 findings show that there is more information about Buddhist constructions than any other architectural creations. As a result, due to the greater portrayal of Buddhist constructions in the grade 10 textbook, Buddhist representation is more prominent with regard to architecture.

Table: 3 Representation of ethnicity through architecture Category Subcategory Other architectural Buddhist construction creations Architecture  Many architectural  There was an advanced creations such as Buddhist knowledge of constructing buildings and designing parks construction stupas, in our ancient society. The bodhigharas, pilimageval, best example that can be shrines, monasteries, alms given for this is the city plan of Sigiriya and its park halls, meditating cells, complex. (p. 69) palaces, fortresses found during Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa eras could be seen. (p. 68)  When Ruwanweli Seya was built the engineers who built it, did not forget to fix a lightning conductor. (p. 68)  Especially, a vivid and a descriptive explanation has- been given in the historical sources about how the foundation of this great stupa was made. (p. 68)

 There were seven lavatories built in proximity to the buildings at the Alahana Monastery (Pirivena). (p. 70)  Dedigama Suthighara bronze elephant oil lamp is an obvious example to substantiate the knowledge that the ancient Sri Lankan engineers had on fundamentals of complex physics (p. 75).

Theme 5: State administration The participation of different ethnic groups in state administration or maintain government day-to-day activities was analysed to answer the research question “How have ethnic groups been represented in the textbook?”. The theme was analysed based on the subcategory of selecting of administrators to govern the country. It was revealed that state has not given priority to any ethnicity in selecting persons for the administrators (Table 4). In the selection, only the wealth and possessions of the administrators were concerned. “A chief, to represent a village was selected among the householders. In the selection, the priority may have been given to the wealth and the possessions of the householders” (p.33) is an example.

Table: 4 Representation of ethnicity through State Administration

Subcategory Category Selecting the other administrators State  In the selection, the priority may have been given to Administration the wealth and the possessions of the householders. (p. 33)  Gamikas were rich enough even to help others. (p. 33)  There was no one definite ruler to rule in this country during the pre-state period. Instead, a group of wealthy chieftains dominated their power over small areas. (p. 31)  To control a group properly, the person who has won the common trust of that group should provide the leadership to it. (p. 33)  Our ancient villagers had acted to appoint the richest and the most powerful person as the Chief of the village. (p. 33)

Pictures of the grade 10 History textbook Illustrations in the History textbook too were analyzed to elicit answers to the research question concerning “identification of illustrations representing Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim ethnicity relevant to the subject content of the grade 10 History textbook and the differences in the representation.” Are symbols and sites representative of each ethnic group presented through the illustrations? Moreover, have illustrations of humans indicative of ethnicity been presented? It was found that out of the seventy-seven pictures, ten pictures represented

Sinhala ethnicity. They were Buddhist symbols such as the Bhikkhus staying in the cave monasteries (Figure 2), sculpture located in the Buddhist temple (Figure 3), stupa and vihara along with the statues and pictures of Sinhala kings and things and money offered by them to the temple.

Figure: 2 The Bhikhus staying in the cave monasteries

Figure: 3 The sculpture of man and the head of a horse in Isurumuni temple in Anuradapura

There are specific pictures situated in the Buddhist temples. For example, Thuparama Stupa is a Buddhist symbol depicting Buddhist culture and religion. Thus, it can be suggested that (Figure 4) is representing Sinhala ethnicity.

Figure: 4 Thuparama Stupa in a ruined and overgrown state

One picture represents Tamil ethnicity and one picture represents Muslim ethnicity out of the seventy-seven pictures. The pictures were those of Shivadevala in Polonnaruwa (Figure 5) and an Arabic inscription, respectively (Figure 6).

Figure: 5 Shivadevala in Polonnaruwa

Figure: 6 An Arabic inscription

Regarding pictures, more pictures represent Sinhala ethnicity than the Tamil and Muslim ethnicities. However, the majority of pictures do not represent any specific ethnicity group. Hence, no ethnic bias is evident in sixty-five pictures of the seventy-seven pictures (Table5).For instance, Figure 7 portrays medieval golden coins (p. 6) and does not portray any ethnic symbol or identity.

Figure: 7 Medieval golden coins

Hence, it can be concluded that the writers’ objective of the pictures in the textbook was to give a deeper and thorough understanding of the lesson for the students to learn their ancient history. Also, the textbook has not tried to portray any ethnic group as dominant through the pictures.

Discussion and Conclusion

Since only few researches on ethnicity representation on textbooks was available in Sri Lanka, the findings shed new light on the subject and provide novel suggestions for peace-building process through school curriculum and teacher role at classrooms.

Content of written text

The textbook, through literary sources, has presented the information concerning the three ethnicities with illustrations. When compared with the literary sources in Sinhala and Tamil ethnicities, there is a dearth of information about Muslims as they joined the Sri Lankan history after 7th century. This finding is similar to the finding of Al‐Haj (2005) in Israel, but in the Sri Lankan context the reason for misrepresentation is the lack of sources rather than intentional negligence. The facts representing ethnicities are included in the textbook, relying on archaeological sources. Ten illustrations portray the Sinhalese ethnicity in the textbook. This number is six for the Tamil ethnicity. The paucity of information about the Muslim ethnicity is a shortcoming. Different governments in different periods have had their influence on data on archaeological sources, giving their priority to the leading ethnic groups in respective times. Based on the political power at the relevant period and the major ethnic group represented under that power, representation of different ethnic groups in archaeological sources vary. Similar findings were cited by Gaul (2014) in Sri Lanka and Cheah (2003) in Malaysia. The matter of weaker representation in History textbooks can be considered in developing new textbook in Sri Lanka. Buddhism has been the main religion since the beginning of Sri Lanka’s history and as a result, culture and history of the country is based on the Sinhala Buddhist culture. Accordingly, ancient historical documents record that the king necessarily had to safeguard Buddhism and take action to ensure its continued existence. Ross, and Savada (1991) suggest similar findings pointing out that most Sinhalese were Buddhists (93%). Buddhism, however, encourages the peaceful living of Sinhalese with other ethnic groups. The three ethnicities were following their religions with much devotion and also

39 respecting the other religions too. The evidence proves that there was a higher level religious coexistence among ethnic groups in ancient Sri Lanka However; findings are not similar to the Leshkovska and Davchey (2013) study in Macedonia which shows less ethnic/religious harmony. This positive findings in Sri Lanka has to be highlighted more in the Sri Lankan school textbooks Buddhism had received more patronage from the government. Comparatively, this was less for Hinduism. Regarding Islamic devotees, the book has only mentioned that there was a religious place for them. The textbook has given much weight to constructions related to Buddhism and fewer citations on the constructions related to Hinduism. Further, there is less information on constructions related to the Islamic religion. There is information in history textbooks about the rituals of Buddhists and Hindus. However, compared to the Buddhist rituals, only a few information on Hindu rites were cited. It is significant that there is no information on Islamic rituals. The textbook provided evidence for a harmonious living of Sinhalese, Tamils, and Muslims. They further state the friendly interactions among them. There is less information about matrimonial affairs among different ethnic groups.

The picture analysis

Out of 77 pictures, the majority (10) represents the Sinhalese ethnicity and the minority represents the Tamils (1) and Muslims (1). The finding validates the research by Shocker and Woyshner (2013) who examined the U.S. History textbooks to identify how African American women were represented through the illustration in the textbook. Their study concludes that black women are not represented sufficiently. However, 65 pictures of the Grade 10 textbook in Sri Lanka represent none of the ethnicities. Hence, the textbook has chosen the priority to make the students understand Sri Lankan history and its heritage

40 rather than highlighting the ethnicity. This notion is compatible with the findings of LaBelle (2010) who concluded that the representation of various ethnicities in a textbook in a country should be appropriate for the level of students. Hence in Sri Lanka too, the main objective of the textbook was to enlighten the students in depth on accurate facts about the history of Sri Lanka by illustrating facts on its historical grandeur than focusing on the ethnicity. This pattern can be a lesson for other countries too. Based on the findings, new History books for school curriculum can be developed to enhance ethnic harmony further and to enlighten the society and teachers on the positive features of textbook on developing ethnic harmony in Sri Lanka.

References

AL‐HAJ, M. A. J. I. D. (2005). National ethos, multicultural education, and the new history textbooks in Israel. Curriculum Inquiry, 35(1), 47-71. An, S., & Suh, Y. (2013). Simple yet complicated: US history represented in South Korean history textbooks. The Social Studies, 104(2), 57-66. Babbie, E. (2010). The practice of social research. Twelfth Edition. Cengage Learning Customer& Sales Support. USA (p. 338). Bush, K. D., & Saltarello, D. (2000). The two faces of education in ethnic conflict: Towards a peacebuilding education for children (No. innins00/7). UNICEF Innocent Research Centre. Cheah, B. K. (2003). Ethnicity, politics, and history textbook controversies in Malaysia. American Asian Review, 21(4), 229. Cho, Y., & Park, Y. (2014). “Textbook as a contradictory melting-pot”: An analysis of multicultural content in Korean textbooks. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, (ahead-of-print), 1-20. De Silva, K. M. (1981). A history of Sri Lanka. University of California Press. Gaul, A. (2014). Where are the minorities? The elusiveness of multiculturalism and positive recognition in Sri Lankan history textbooks. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 6(2), 87-105. Giroux, H. A., & Purple, D. E., (1983). The hidden curriculum and moral education: deception or discovery? United States, Berkeley, Calif.: McCutchan Pub. Corp. Hsieh, H.F., & Shannon, S.E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288. Hughes, R. L. (2007). A hint of whiteness: History textbooks and social construction of race in the wake of the sixties. The Social Studies, 98(5), 201-208. Jayawardena, K. (1987). Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and regional security. Asia: Militarization and regional conflict, 144. Ketcham, A. (1982). World War II events as represented in secondary school textbooks of former allied and axis nations. Kim, Y.C., Moon, S., & Joo, J. (2013). Elusive images of the other: A postcolonial analysis of South Korean world History textbooks. Educational Studies, 49(3), 213-246. Krippendorff, K. (2013). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks. CA: Sage. LaBelle, J. (2010). Selecting ELL textbooks: A content analysis of ethnicity depicted in illustrations and writing. Journal of Multiculturalism in Education. Leshkovska, E. A., & Davchev, V. (2013). Intercultural education: Analysis of the primary school textbooks in the Republic of Macedonia. International Journal of Cognitive Research in Science, Engineering and Education (IJCRSEE), 1(2), 51- 56.

Lillejord, J. S. (2013). Christopher Columbus, Hernando Cortes, and Francisco Pizzaro: A qualitative content analysis examining cultural bias in world history textbooks. Seattle Pacific University. Maposa, M. T., & Wassermann, J. (2014). Historical literacy in a context of patriotic history: An analysis of Zimbabwean history textbooks. Africa Education Review, 11(2), 254-274. Marino, M. P. (2011). High school world history textbooks: An analysis of content focus and chronological approaches. The History Teacher, 421-446. Morgan, K. E., & Henning, E. (2012, November). Designing a tool for history textbook analysis. In Forum Qualitative Sozialfrschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research ,14 (1). Morgan, K. (2010). Reflexive grappling with theory and methods of text analysis: Race and racism represented in history textbooks. South African Historical Journal, 62 (4), 753-770. National Education Commission (1992). Envisioning education for human development: Proposals for a national policy framework on general education in Sri Lanka. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Author. National Education Commission (2003).Envisioning education for human development: Proposals for a national policy framework on general education in Sri Lanka (pp. 172- 173). Colombo, Sri Lanka: Author. National Education Commission (2009).New proposals for a general educational policy in Sri Lanka. Context, issues, and suggestions (pp. 104-105). Colombo, Sri Lanka: Author. Ross, R. R., & Savada, A. M. (1991). Sri Lanka: A country study in Sri Lanka: Current issues and historical background. Washington DC. Schreier, M. (2014). Qualitative content analysis. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis, 170-183. Schocker, J. B., & Woyshner, C. (2013).Representing African American women in US history textbooks. The Social Studies, 104(1), 23-31. Shadowwalker, D. M. (2012). Where have all the Indians gone? American Indian representation in secondary history textbooks. Shafi, A. A., & Harun-or-Rashid, M. D. (2013) Ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: a critical analysis. World Bank, (2008). Root causes of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. http://www. tamilguardian.com/ article.asp?articleid=1609. Retrieved on 2016. 5.30