Reproducing and normalizing social inequalities in curricula

• In Event: Education, Social Class and Inequality in the Middle East and North Africa

Proposal

This paper will explore and critically analyze how current Egyptian curricula – more specifically social studies textbooks – engage with questions of social class and inequity. Through a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003), it will analyze both explicit and implicit representations of social class and power structures. The paper promises to contribute to and address a clear gap through adding some helpful insights into these understudied questions. While earlier studies might have analyzed some representations of class in curricular narrations of ancient Egyptian history in contemporary textbooks (e.g., Abdou, 2017; Zervas & Abdou, 2022), or representations of class in textbooks from earlier eras of modern Egyptian history (Makar & Abdou, 2021), with its unique focus on contemporary curricular content, it promises to make a unique and important conversation to this timely and much needed conversation. In conversation with the other papers presented as part of the panel, this paper seeks to chart ways for curricula to present social class, social inequalities, and social mobility in more balanced and inclusive ways.

Author

• Ehaab D Abdou, Wilfrid Laurier University