Decolonizing EFL textbooks: Challenging the marginalization of Indigenous cultures in Chile

This study critically examines English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks in Chile from a decolonial perspective, focusing on how they transmit dominant cultural narratives and marginalize Indigenous identities. Through socio-semiotic analysis and critical visual literacy, it analyzes 12 textbooks and integrates insights from six EFL teachers. Findings from the visual analyses and teachers’ interviews reveal that Indigenous peoples are often depicted through reductive, stereotypical images that frame them as static and disconnected from modernity. These representations contribute to cultural “othering” and reinforce colonial power structures. The study calls for decolonizing EFL materials to promote more inclusive, accurate, and equitable pedagogies that reflect diverse identities and challenge Eurocentric norms.