Gender representation in the secondary school english language book from the perspective of the components of an unequal and discriminatory view of women

Abstract

Background: Textbooks have been the main and official source of transmitting the values of society to students and a very powerful force in the process of forming gender roles of children and adolescents. In this study, gender representation and identification of gender relationship in the English language textbook of the second year of high school in Iran is considered. Aims: Identifying the basic components of gender discourse in Persian and English literature and social science textbooks in the second year of high school Methods: Quantitative and qualitative content analysis is a combination. Qualitative content analysis of the text of lessons and pictures has been selected, in which the quality of representations has been examined. Quantitative content analysis method is also used to quantitatively compare the number of images, feminine and masculine nouns and pronouns. The statistical population of this research was the whole English language textbook of the second year of high school and the results of the research were examined using the mean, f and t test. Results: Content analysis of books has also shown a traditional and clichéd approach and disproportion and balance, especially in expressing emotional feelings of attention to both genders. Conclusion: Ignoring the educational reality of female students and not reflecting it in textbooks does not seem very logical. Also, in order to improve the situation, a cultural background must first be provided. This research showed that the reproduction of sexist discriminatory stereotypes is done covertly and sometimes openly in educational books through images and literary texts

Keywords

• gender representation
• critical discourse analysis
• context
• background
• textbooks