Abstract
ChildrenГўВҖВҷs books are an early source of gender role stereotypes. Gender displays in such books can be read or interpreted as a social problem in any education system. The study aimed at identifying common gender displays in 40 children picture books used as supplementary English texts for classes 1 to 3 in Kenya published between 2005 and 2010. Five forms of gender display were evaluated based on Ervin GoffmanГўВҖВҷs model of decoding gender displays and visual sexism. Through content analysis, mean stereotyping scores for each behavioural category were computed and the overall score for each year determined. Findings indicate that the behaviour of females is significantly different from that of males in the selected books. Both positive and negative images about females have been given although the pattern changes from year to year. Suggestions for practice and further research are given.
Highlights
When a child is born, one of the first questions mothers encounter is whether it is a boy or a girl
We review various theoretical perspectives on gender development, effects of books on gender development, co mmon mot ifs of gender portrayal in literature, gender stereotypes in children’s literature and report on a study evaluating gender displays in children books used in Kenya
The results showed that female characters are still underrepresented in children’s picture books
Summary
When a child is born, one of the first questions mothers encounter is whether it is a boy or a girl. Different people even behave differently to a newborn depending on its gender. From infancy we are exposed to community portrayals of how one should behave with other people. It is, not surprising that roles associated with gender are among the first ones that children learn in life. Gender development co mprises a crit ical part of learning experiences of young children. Since books contribute greatly to the learning experiences of young people, they contribute to their gender identity development. We review various theoretical perspectives on gender development, effects of books on gender development, co mmon mot ifs of gender portrayal in literature, gender stereotypes in children’s literature and report on a study evaluating gender displays in children books used in Kenya
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