Namala Tilakaratna: Teaching the Nation: Recontextualized National Identity in Sri Lankan English Language Textbooks

This study uses the discourse-analytical framework of iconography to explore how national identity is created in pedagogical texts. The paper presents a detailed analysis of a single text from the Year 11 Sri Lankan English language textbook produced by the National Institute of Education. In so doing, it will show how the application of a rigorous analytical framework, with reference to sociopolitical and historical research, can uncover the means by which texts perpetuate particular understandings of national identity. The text explored in this study generates a concept of Sri Lankan national identity on the basis of the majoritarian ethno-religious Sinhala Buddhist identity, with little acknowledgement of the ethnic and religious diversity that characterises Sri Lanka.

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