Decoding Ideology in Textbooks: Teaching Culture in the German Integration Course

ABSTRACT This article explores how ideology is embedded in the cultural content of textbooks used in Germany's integration courses for migrants. Using critical multimodal discourse analysis, I analyze two dimensions of meaning in linguistic and visual (multimodal) texts: meaning as representation and meaning as inter/action. I analyze how social actors are visually and linguistically represented and how their sociological agency is distributed. I also scrutinize the interactional functions of texts and corresponding pedagogical tasks by exploring how learners are (dis)invited to engage with the content. Findings show that social actors have both positive and negative sociological agency in various social contexts, with instances of othering as well as elements of tokenization and erasure among minoritized racial and religious social actors. These insights are relevant for educators and curriculum developers interested in critically assessing and redesigning language and culture teaching materials.