A Closer Look at Language Politics

Abstract

This chapter presents a two-stage qualitative analysis of the political messages in Quebec’s cultural narrative conveyed through text and image in French textbooks across the five decades. The first stage analyzes textbook images with political content, including flags, a symbol of cultural remembrance, ‘je me souviens,’ historical and political figures, political demonstrations and cultural meetings, and maps showing cultural or linguistic areas. On the basis of the image analysis and consideration of the political content of the texts, one textbook from each decade is selected for a case study of political content within textbooks. A summary shows the aspects of political cultural narrative that appear in each case across the five decades. Results reveal that political content can be included in beginning-level textbooks and that examples of how such content can be included appear in existing textbooks.