NAMING PRESTIGE IDEOLOGY: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF ELITE IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN PAKISTANI PRIVATE SCHOOL BRANDING

Abstract

Pakistan education market is hyper-polarized and the high profile privates form a significant portion of the market. Applying the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, particularly the three-dimensional model of text, practice, and context by Fairclough, I am interested in how the very choice of the name of the school in Pakistan is perpetuating and spreads the elite values. Names are not merely names; they are brass rings that signify exclusivity, modernity, a global edge, they are frequently oiled up with English terms such as Beaconhouse or International. The paper, based on excavations into some of the Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad and various well-known names of private schools, demonstrates that such names create a class hierarchy, whereby English- medium, profit-making education becomes seen as the gold standard of cultural capital and how the Urdu- medium public schools are lessened to the periphery. The diachronic application of colonial-echoing words continues to place English on the center-stage and emphasize class differences, which makes schools a marketable product as a gatekeeper of power. The results put these findings in context of the larger discussions of inequality in education in postcolonial contexts, and are indicative of the necessity of decolonizing the branding of schools in order to create a more inclusive and equitable process of learning.