textbooks and curricula

[Ron Kuzar]

I would like to thank all those who answered my query, mostly privately.
Your responses will be useful, though having had a second meeting with
the student I realized that by the time I got home after the first
meeting and got to writing my query to you I got things mixed up, so I
would like to clarify the mistake.
There is, in fact, only one English program in the whole country for
both the Jewish and the Arab sectors. My student claims that being
geared to mainly middle and upper-middle class Jews, the program
discriminates against the lower class population and against minorities,
and since most Arabs are of the lowest socio-economic class in Israel,
they are doubly discriminated against, which shows up in their
performance in tests.
To exemplify a socioeconomic factor, the curriculum contains topics for
discussion such as the use of the internet in the classroom and at home.
My student teaches in a village in which only 15% of the families have
computers, and in which the school only has one computer room which will
not be connected to the internet this year for lack of funds. Bringing
up issues of internet among pupils who have never experienced it is
useless, and if they are asked about it later in the test, they won't be
able to answer. Another example: the program is geared towards becoming
acquainted with the English speaking world, with chapters on the US,
England, Australia, etc. Again, in an underprivileged setup, it's hard
to imagine the importance of this kind of knowledge, compared to an
upper-middle class family which travels abroad quite often and is
familiar with American and European cultures.
To be honest, I am not sure I am the right person for this kind of
research, and I am not sure yet that I would want to take the
responsibility of supervising it, in terms of my own qualifications as a
linguist and discourse researcher. I am not even sure that the MA
committee of my department will approve this topic as relevant to the
English department. In the usual academic division of labor this would
be a topic for the dept. of education.
I suggested to her to have a look at the curricula in Jordan and Egypt
(and the Palestinian Authority, but I think they use the Jordanian
program). A comparative analysis of the discourse of programs of English
in different (and relevant) countries may make it a more appropriate
topic for me and for the department.
I will be glad to hear your input to these questions and hesitations.
I am not sure if the responses I received were addressed to me only
because this is what writers intended, or if it is a result of the setup
of the listserv. So, if you want to post to the list, make sure you have
the list address, discours at listserv.linguistlist.org in the "to:" field,
not mine.
Best wishes
Ron Kuzar
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                             Dr. Ron Kuzar
Address:           Department of English Language and Literature
                         University of Haifa
                          IL-31905 Haifa, Israel
Office:               +972-4-824-9826, Fax: +972-4-824-9711
Home:               +972-2-641-4780, Mobile: +972-54-819-676
Email:                kuzar at research.haifa.ac.il
Homepage:       http://research.haifa.ac.il/~kuzar
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