How is culture created? How is it transmitted in educational settings? Can students be exposed to a culture-neutral curriculum? What role do textbooks have in shaping one’s cultural views and attitudes?

These questions arise while reading the article “Textbooks around the world. It ain’t necessarily so”, published in The Economist on 13th October 2012. Textbooks are an essential tool in education and what is taught often spurs controversy, because it may challenge or confirm our accounts of national history, of our culture and the cultures of our neighbors.

An international reference in textbook research is the Georg Eckert Institute, which has collected textbooks from over 160 countries and analyzed their content, maps, images, etc., and has found significant reason to be concerned about this topic. The most controversial areas are history and geography, but opinions also differ around the content of religion and science. Language is a critical area too, especially with regard to which foreign languages are chosen to teach and learn in the general curriculum. The choice of a language may or may not represent the language and the culture that a community speaks. Children and communities expected to learn in a language that is not their first or native language receive subtle messages that their language is not as good, as precise or developed to transmit knowledge and educate. Because language is so rooted in culture, by extension they also sense a devaluing of culture.

Governments and communities all over the world have used textbooks as tools to influence and modify national culture and attitudes, and continue to do so. Sometimes these policies are used to depict the neighbor as undesirable and dangerous. While textbooks can be used to spread knowledge and tolerance, it is important to be mindful of the knowledge limitations and intolerance which can also be built as a result of incomplete or biased information.

We must explore the ideologies printed in educational texts around the world and remain mindful that this is part of our work as global educators in AFS with a mission to build knowledge, skills and understanding that create a more just and peaceful world. As facilitators of intercultural learning, global professionals and emerging global citizens it is critical that we are aware of the messages being sent by our community’s educational institutions. We can reflect on these and ask ourselves how messages are rooted in cultural norms. How do these messages solidify or contradict our values and our understanding of what is right and wrong?