From Authority to Resource to Carrier: Textbook Positioning in Chinese Policy Discourse

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 11:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Moving Beyond Textbook Authority

Abstract

This study examines how textbooks are discursively positioned in China’s national curriculum policies from 1978 to 2022. Drawing on policy genre analysis and positioning theory, we analyzed 6 key policy documents to trace the evolution of textbook identity. The findings identify three distinct phases: textbooks as Knowledge Authority (1978–2001), emphasizing centralized control; as Pedagogical Resource (2001–2011), prioritizing teacher autonomy and professional flexibility; and as Cultural Carrier (2011–2022), reasserting ideological and civic functions. These positioning types are systematically distributed across rhetorical moves, with Knowledge Authority concentrated in implementation directives and Cultural Carrier in vision statements. The study shows that textbook positioning reflects shifts in governance logic and illustrates how policy discourse constructs textbook roles over time.

Authors

• yulin ma, East China Normal University

• Hao Lei, East China Normal University