The Circuit of Culture: A Framework for Textbook Development Studies

Fullan’s (2007) model of the process of change (Section 2.6.2) includes initiation, implementation and institutionalization. This may perhaps be usefully adapted in a ‘conceptualization to the classroom’ textbook study linking planning, production and use of materials. Such an approach is, however, likely to replicate a trend of blending variable contextual features with stable and replicable features to the detriment of proposing and applying a universally applicable framework for textbook development. While particular educational publishing contexts exert influence on textbook development, there are core processes that are applicable to any textbook

development process. I explore these stable elements first, and consider contextual factors in Section 2.6.

Gray’s (2007) study has its theoretical basis in a model known as the ‘circuit of culture’ (du Gay et al, 1997). Du Gay et al. examine five “moments” (also called processes or dimensions) in the life of the Sony Walkman: representation, identity, production, consumption and regulation, which form a circuit in which each moment informs others moments. They argue that such a framework does not privilege the process of production at the expense of other processes in the creation of meaning.

Meanings are not just ‘sent’ by producers and ‘received’ passively by consumers; rather meanings are actively made in consumption, through the use to which people put these products in their everyday lives (du Gay et al., 1997, p.3).

Gray (2007) observes that du Gay et al. (1997) remind us that meaning is not absolute. They describe the analysis of the Sony Walkman as the “biography of a cultural artefact in terms of a number of distinct processes whose interaction can and does lead to variable and contingent outcomes.” An ‘articulation’ is “the process connecting disparate elements together to form a temporary unity” (du Gay et al., 1997, p.3).

Fig.2 The Circuit of Culture (du Gay et. al, 1997, p. 3)

Gray (2007, p. 31) describes the circuit of culture is a means of exploring the “key moments in the life of a cultural artefact from production through to consumption.” He describes the ELT coursebook as being both an “educational tool” and “a highly wrought cultural artefact.” Gray seeks to study the global ELT textbook in a manner that is congruent with a cultural studies perspective; in so doing, he adopts the circuit of culture and explains the five processes or “moments” as follows: Representation

refers to how meaning is inscribed in the way the artefact is represented, either visually and/or verbally. Identity refers to social identities and lifestyles associated with the artefact. Production involves how the artefact is designed, produced and marketed. Consumption refers to how the artefact is consumed and how consumers identify themselves as a group or make identity statements about themselves by consumption and use of commodities. Regulation refers to how political, economic or other factors regulate the circulation of meanings (Gray, 2007, p.62).

Noting the difficulty in disambiguating some of the processes, Gray (2007, p. 63) modifies the model by “linking those moment where overlap occurs most clearly in the case of coursebooks” and which relate to his research questions. He presents a collapsed 3-process version of the model involving, namely, representation/identity,

production/regulationandconsumption. I adopt this version in my study.

Fig. 3: Modified circuit of culture (Gray, 2007, p. 64; 2010, p. 38)

The circuit of culture is essentially a framework that seeks to explicate the meaning of cultural artefacts. Gray (2007, p.251) himself considers how cultural content “has the function of making English ‘mean’ in particular ways”. In so doing, he examines content, such as textbook artwork, that mainstream studies have hardly explored, and thereby grounds his study firmly in a cultural studies perspective. On the other hand, mainstream work has tended to examine the textbook as a curriculum artefact, with a focus on teaching, learning and the role of the textbook in relation to the “planned curriculum” (Kelly, 2009, p.11). This is a view that Gray recognizes as central to the discipline, but it is not the focus of his work. By introducing the circuit of culture into ELT and textbook studies, Gray’s work, however, raises the question of the extent to which this framework, even though it is rooted in cultural studies, might be compatible with a traditional view of the textbook as ‘curriculum artefact’ – might the circuit not serve as an effective way to link the as yet unlinked components within the textbook development chain?

representation/identity

Any textbook has several dimensions. It is concurrently a political and economic product, a regulated commodity, a cultural product and “in most cases it becomes the ‘real curriculum’ that is filtered through the lived culture of teachers and students as they go about their daily lives in the classroom” (Apple, 1989, p. 282). Dendrinos (1992, p.187) describes the textbook “both as a curriculum artifact and a cultural product,” but I would suggest that multiple dimensions may, perhaps, be subsumed under the generic umbrella term “cultural artefact”, used in a broad sense. As Raymond Williams (1983, p. 91) has suggested, the term ‘culture’ has a particularly broad and complex range of meanings, and he notes, for example, that “in archaeology and in cultural anthropology the reference to culture or a culture is primarily tomaterialproduction while in history andcultural studiesthe reference is primarily tosignifyingorsymbolicsystems” (ibid., emphases in original).

In my own exploration of the potential of the circuit of culture framework, I begin with the representation/identity moment(s), where a view of the textbook primarily as a curriculum artefact is most likely to depart from a view of it in which an examination of cultural contents takes precedence, and to which the circuit of culture is most clearly aligned. In operationalization, the interpretation here will have a domino effect on the focus and direction within other moments.

I view the circuit of culture as a way of presenting and researching the specific components in the life of a textbook, while at the same time bringing forth the interrelationships that exist among these components. I perceive congruence between the components in the circuit of culture and my ‘early visualization’ of this study (Fig.1) as follows:

Component Potential participants/content Circuit of Culture

English Textbook Tasks, texts, artwork Representation/Identity Curriculum & Syllabus Syllabus document Regulation/Production The Publishers Editors and authors

The Classroom Teachers and learners Consumption