Analysis of Multicultural Values in Primary ELT Textbook of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a South Asian nation holding more than 54 indigenous communities. The significance of multicultural education has become evident in its education system. The study aims to analyze the reflection of multicultural values in the primary class five English language teaching (ELT) textbook of Bangladesh. The textbook named ‘English for Today’ has been analyzed as a document using the content analysis approach guided by Banks' (2000) five-dimensional model of multicultural education. This study explored and analyzed ten chapters of the ELT textbook that contained elements of multicultural education. The results revealed that the chapters emphasize cross-cultural friendship, multiple religions, sports, and social inclusion through the use of written text and pictures on various topics. The textbook has successfully integrated elements of equality, harmony, and common nationality. Still, it lacks proper representation of indigenous cultures, religious diversity, ethnic minorities, rural cultures and traditions. Furthermore, this study also finds that content integration and knowledge construction are explicitly articulated. However, the equity pedagogy and prejudice reduction are indirectly developed, and the textbook lacks guidance on empowering school culture through various cultural activities. This study offers implications for policymakers, curriculum developers, and textbook writers to develop policies, curricula, and textbooks with a multicultural fabric, as well as for English subject teachers to incorporate cultural variation through practice activities, revealing the scope for incorporating cultural variation to better align with multicultural education.