The representation of revolution in the school textbook: Being and becoming in history

Authors

  • Diana Ávila UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE
  • Norma Barletta UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE
  • Diana Chamorro UNIVERSIDAD DEL NORTE

Keywords:

Systemic-functional linguistics, relational processes, views of history, teaching and learning, textbooks

Abstract

This paper analyzes how the grammar of school textbooks, more specifically the choice of the verbs ‘be’ and ‘have’ – known as relational processes in the systemic-functional framework – may make it more difficult for learners to understand historical events and presents a biased view of these events. We present an analysis of relational processes and their use based on a chapter on the Industrial Revolution from an eighth-grade Social Science textbook and discuss their implications for the teaching and learning of history. The analysis shows that the recurrent use of relational processes promotes a view of history in which most things simply ‘are’ or ‘become’ without human intervention. Pedagogical practices which disregard this feature of textbooks play a part in maintaining inequalities between students with respect to dealing with the non- everyday discourses which provide access to scientific knowledge and the contexts in which it is used. 

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Published

2017-09-06

How to Cite

Ávila, D., Barletta, N., & Chamorro, D. (2017). The representation of revolution in the school textbook: Being and becoming in history. Revista Signos. Estudios De Lingüística, 50(94). Retrieved from https://revistasignos.cl/index.php/signos/article/view/110

Issue

Vol. 50 No. 94 (2017): August

Section

Articles

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