Muslims in Catalonian Textbooks

Abstract

Textbooks are basic elements that shape the school curriculum. Despite the democratization and decentralization of the Spanish educational system, a certain ideological inertia and bias with respect to their contents and focus persists. The study presented here is based on an empirical analysis of the contents of 264 books used at the primary (6-11), secondary (12-14 years) and baccalaureate (15-16) levels. The results point to the existence of an “unstated” curriculum, where only brief mention of Islam, Arabs and Muslims, and their presence in Spain predominate. These are usually accompanied by images – for cognitive support – that serve to maintain an exotic, anti-modern, anti-Western and, in other words, an “Orientalist” image of this group.