Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are often subjected to linguistic representations across various discourses, including in educational materials used in academic institutions, with studies identifying culturally insensitive depictions of these communities. This study analysed how IPs are represented in nine educational textbooks used in the Basic Education curriculum. This utilised Halliday and Matthiessen’s Transitivity Analysis (2013) and Van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Theory (1996) in identifying the roles and experiences of IPs in narratives. The findings revealed that Indigenous People are ascribed to relational, material, mental, and existential processes with little to no representation in the verbal and behavioural processes. Furthermore, the social actor analysis revealed that Indigenous Peoples are often portrayed as cultural icons, traditional artists, inhabitants of ancestral lands, vulnerable to persuasion, and impacted by economic modernisation through passivation, collectivisation, categorisation, genericization, specification, nomination, role allocation, appraisement, and overdetermination. This suggests that the linguistic representation ascribed to IPs is primarily constructed through the states of being, concrete action, emotional engagement, and state of existence, and simultaneously employs inclusion strategies in the statements. Thus, this study contributes to the educational discourse to uphold cultural sensitivity and inclusivity within our educational institutions.

Keywords: Indigenous Peoples; discursive representations; transitivity analysis; social actor analysis; Philippines

DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2026-3202-04

Asunsion, R. (2021). The depiction of indigenous Filipinos in the novels: Po-on and Samboangan. The Cordillera Review, 11(1). https://thecordillerareview.upb.edu.ph/abstract/the-depiction-of-indigenous-filipinos-in-the-novels-po-on-and-samboangan/

Ayebare, B. D. (2024). Exploring indigenous art and its role in cultural preservation. Research Output Journal of Education, 3(2), 40–44.

Ayeni, B., & Ibileye, G. (2024). Analysis of hate rhetoric on selected social media platforms in Nigeria. IRE Journals, 7(11), 320–325. https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1706359.pdf

Barreiro, A., Ungaretti, J., Etchezahar, E., & Wainryb, C. (2020). They are not truly indigenous people: Social representations and prejudice against indigenous people in Argentina. Papers on Social Representations, 29(1), 2.1–2.27. http://psr.iscte-iul.pt/index.php/PSR/article/view/525

Beckman, L., Gover, K., & Mörkenstam, U. (2022). The popular sovereignty of indigenous peoples: A challenge in multi-people states. Citizenship Studies, 26(1), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2021.2011142

Boruah, P. B. (2022). Visibility as validation: A case study of culturally responsive materials development for TESOL. The CATESOL Journal, 33(1), 54–73. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1365711.pdf

Bustam, M. R., & SS, M. (2023). Powerful words, shifting narratives: Analyzing social actors through critical discourse analysis with Theo van Leeuwen's framework. Mega Press Nusantara. https://books.google.com.ph/books/about/Powerful_Words_Shifting_Narratives_Analy.html?id=1G_jEAAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y

Chan, J., Collins, K. A., Lee, R., Linton, J., Cherba, M., Christianson, T. D., Shawanda, A., Siden, E. G., & Wardman, M. (2025). A scoping review of published literature on the linguistic representation of indigenous peoples. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 44(3-4), 441–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X251318040

Chun, W. K., & Jamal, M. (2023). The Orang Asli in Malaysian media: An approach from transitivity perspective. Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 6(2), 16–26. https://doi.org/10.26666/rmp.jssh.2023.2.3

de Bourbon, S., Gomez, K., & San Juan, B. (2022). Is active voice enough? Community discussions on passive voice, MMIWG2S, and violence against urban indigenous women in San José, California. Genealogy, 6(2), Article 37. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy6020037

de los Reyes, E. J. (2016). Distant savages, urban agents: Discursive construction of indigenous peoples in social studies textbooks (2002–2008). The Cordillera Review, 6(2), 97–133. https://thecordillerareview.upb.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/8-TCR-VI-2-Delos-Reyes.pdf

Department of Education. (2019). Policy and guidelines on the K to 12 basic education program (DepEd Order No. 021, s. 2019). https://www.deped.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DO_s2019_021.pdf

Domogen, J. C. (2024). Lexical evolution: Media, community, and the shaping of Igorot identity. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, 19(2), 135–161. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327008X/CGP/v19i02/135-161

Drbohlav, P., & Hejkrlik, J. (2017). Indigenous peoples’ struggle for secure land tenure in the Philippines: Case study of Higaonon Tribe in Opol, Mindanao. Asian Social Science, 13(7), 38–51. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v13n7p38

Eduardo, J. P., & Gabriel, A. G. (2021). Indigenous peoples and the right to education: The Dumagat experience in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Aurora, in the Philippines. Sage Open, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211009491

Eligio, A. M. J. E. (2012). Communication imperatives for indigenous peoples’ representation in policy making: Lessons from the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act experience. Telematics and Informatics, 29(3), 324–334. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2011.10.004

Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315834382

Fryberg, S. A., Dai, J. D., & Eason, A. E. (2024). Omission as a modern form of bias against native peoples: Implications for policies and practices. Social Issues and Policy Review, 18(1), 211–241. https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12105

Gjørv, G. H., Lanteigne, M., & Sam-Aggrey, H. (2020). Routledge handbook of Arctic security. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315265797

Hall, S., Evans, J., & Nixon, S. (Eds.). (2024). Representation: Cultural representations and signifying practices (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-13213-2_94

Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2013). Halliday's introduction to functional grammar (4th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203431269

Ho, Y. R. (2021). Exposing colonial representations: Analysis of portrayals of Indigenous culture in Taiwan’s language textbooks. Race Ethnicity and Education, 24(5), 707–725. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2018.1538123

Irayanti, I., Sapriya, S., Suryadi, K., Komalasari, K., & Hastowohadi, H. (2025). A narrative inquiry of international students' experiences in Indonesia: Language appraisal and transitivity analysis. Journal of International Students, 15(1), 108–128. https://doi.org/10.32674/v6nmpj51

Ismail, H., Baharun, H., Abdullah, H., & Majid, S. N. A. (2020). Power and voices of authority in the media narrative of Malaysian natives: Combining corpus linguistics and discourse analysis approaches. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 26(2), 50–66.

http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2020-2602-05

Jamal, M., & Ganasan, M. J. (2021). Inspecting the language of exclusion: Transitivity analysis of the Orang Asli community in selected Malaysian print media. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Change, 15(4), 868–884.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350152909_Inspecting_the_Language_of_Exclusion_Transitivity_Analysis_of_the_Orang_Asli_Community_in_Selected_Malaysian_Print_Media

Jaysawal, N., & Saha, S. (2014). Marginalisation of tribal communities due to globalization. Indian Journal of Dalit and Tribal Studies, 2(2), 37–54.

Jiwani, Y. (2020). Symbolic and discursive violence in media representations. In Everyday violence in the lives of youth: Speaking out and pushing back (pp. 57–88). Fernwood Publishing.

Lawlor, T. M., & Niiler, T. (2020). Physics textbooks from 1960–2016: A history of gender and racial bias. The Physics Teacher, 58(5), 320–323. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5145525

Lennert Da Silva, A. L., & Wieberg Klausen, S. (2024). Convergence and divergence: Depictions of indigenous peoples in secondary school history textbooks from Brazil and Norway. Research in Comparative and International Education, 19(2), 241–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999231216653

Lin, F. Y. (2025). The subjectivity discourse of indigenous peoples self media in Taiwan. Emerging Media, 3(1), 125–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/27523543251316705

Magdadaro, J. M. D., & Sacramento, N. J. J. E. (2022). Community engagement in the indigenous education discourse: Unravelling policy lessons from Lumad’s alternative school in Mindanao, Philippines. Thammasat Review, 25(1), 57–81. https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tureview/article/view/240103

Mosurska, A., Clark-Ginsberg, A., Sallu, S., & Ford, J. (2023). Disasters and indigenous peoples: A critical discourse analysis of the expert news media. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 6(1), 178–201. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486221096371

Ngo, C. G. A., & Cubelo, R. R. (2024). The epistemic modality in the inaugural speeches of Philippine presidents. International Journal Corner of Educational Research, 3(2), 99–110. https://doi.org/10.54012/ijcer.v3i2.285

Numanbayraktaroğlu, S. (2020). The grammar of gender ideology: The press coverage of sexual violence in Turkey and the passive voice. European Journal of Turkish Studies, (28), Article 6359. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejts.6359

Ojong, N. (2020). Indigenous land rights: Where are we today and where should the research go in the future? Settler Colonial Studies, 10(3), 356–378. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2020.1726149

O’Keefe, V. M., Fish, J., Maudrie, T. L., Hunter, A. M., Tai Rakena, H. G., Ullrich, J. S., Clifford, C., Crawford, A., Brockie, T., Walls, M., Haroz, E. E., Cwik, M., Whitesell, N. R., & Barlow, A. (2022). Centering indigenous knowledges and worldviews: Applying the indigenist ecological systems model to youth mental health and wellness research and programs. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(10), Article 6271. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19106271

Pidada, I. B. A., & Adawiyah, B. M. (2021). The analysis of transitivity in some discourses in the Bali Times. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Language, Literature, and Arts Education (ICLLAE 2020). European Alliance for Innovation. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.25-11-2020.2306664

Pitkin, H. F. (2023). The concept of representation. University of California Press. (Original work published 1967). https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520340503

Rashidi, N., & Zolfaghari, F. (2018). Sociocultural identity in TEFL textbooks: A systemic functional analysis. Applied Research on English Language, 7(3), 293–318. https://doi.org/10.22108/are.2018.101749.1050

Sampang, J. J. C. (2022). Language bias of the grade school textbooks based on ethnicity. Proceedings of the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Sustainable Development Goals, 1(1), 18–27. https://journals.ubmg.ac.id/index.php/IICSDGs/article/view/631

Skinner, N. A., & Bromley, P. (2023). Rights, conflict, and removal: Depictions of Indigenous groups in Californian and Texan history textbooks, 1836–2019. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 55(2), 203–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2023.2177123

Supan, N. P. G., & Mendoza, N. C. R. C. (2023). Racism in the academe: An ethnographic research among Aeta (indigenous) students of a state university in the Philippines. New Trends in Qualitative Research, 16, Article e768. https://doi.org/10.36367/ntqr.16.2023.e768

Suroto, S. (2023). Elements of ethnic experiences in Nusantara proverbs: A transitivity analysis. Professional Journal of English Education, 6(6), 1154–1166.

Tanusy, J., Sujatna, E. T. S., Yuliawati, S., & Tanto, T. (2024). Voices unheard: Exploring female representation in Sundanese folk stories through transitivity and semantic code. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(1), 118–127. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v14i1.70399

Van Dijk, T. A. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In D. Tannen, H. E. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 466–485). John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118584194.ch22

Van Leeuwen, T. (1996). The representation of social actors. In C. Caldas-Coulthard & M. Coulthard (Eds.), Texts and practices: Readings in critical discourse analysis (pp. 32–70). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.184.55lee

Veñegas, S., Dacela, M. A., Mangudadatu, B. I. S., & Takata, B. K. (2023). Epistemic injustice and indigenous education in the Philippines. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 56(12), 1264–1273. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2023.2190018

Wa-Mbaleka, S. (2013). Quality education for native Filipinos: A phenomenological case study of indigenous learners. IAMURE International Journal of Social Sciences, 6(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.7718/ijss.v6i1.510

Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028020

World Bank Group. (2025). No data, no story: Indigenous people of the Philippines. World Bank. https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/baa43cc91ec55266a538e9023c528bd7-0070062024/original/No-Data-No-Story-Indigenous-Peoples-in-the-Philippines.pdf