English Language Educational Policy in Saudi Arabia Post 21st Century: Enacted Curriculum, Identity, and Modernisation: A Critical Discourse Analysis Approach

Abstract There has been limited research focusing on the place of culture and resulting teaching and learning identities in EFL and how these issues impact on EFL policy, curriculum and enacted curriculum, especially textbooks. Even less research has focussed on these issues in the Gulf context. Some international research has explored the role of culture and geopolitical factors affecting EFL policies in the world. Some other studies (several in the Gulf context) have explored global historical and political developments and how they have affected cultures and hence EFL curricula within those cultures. A few studies have explored the enacted curriculum (specifically in relation to textbooks) in Gulf countries and its relationship to the local culture(s) and discourses. This paper is the first in the KSA context to examine the full range of documents including policy, curriculum and textbooks (as representative of enacted curriculum) and to explore how these documents arise out of cultural identities and in turn may have a range of effects on teacher and learner identities.