Cultural Values in a High School EFL Textbook in the Indonesian Context

Abstract

Although considerable amount of research on culture and ideology in textbooks has appeared previously in the literature, less attention has been paid to cultural values and gender ideology in EFL textbooks in the Indonesian context. They are inseparable from education goals that can form learners' characters in the context of national education system. Therefore, this study was aimed at explaining cultural values and identifying gender ideology contained in one of EFL textbooks in Indonesia. This study was conducted through a descriptive qualitative approach in which the data were collected from an EFL textbook through a systematic procedure of document analysis involving skimming, reading (thorough examination), and interpretation. The results indicate that the high school EFL textbook under investigation contains cultural values and gender ideology. Females are more prominent in terms of intellectual portrayals compared to males. However, females are still attached to a more sensitive and caring image about humanity. In terms of personality, both females and males have an intellectual personality trait, a thinker. However, being domestic work-oriented, parenting, and caring for family are traits and occupational roles attributed to females. In addition, females are represented as weak beings (victims), while males are positioned as a strong and brave character. Seen from ideological point of view, gender ideology is found in the form of women's wider emancipation in the public sphere, but the stereotype of women as weak and domestic work-oriented beings and the prominent role of men as