Gender Bias In Textbooks Research Articles

Inclusive education in the language classroom: an investigation into the portrait of gender in language textbooks

ABSTRACT This research aims to investigate gender representation in China’s most popular English language textbooks used in secondary schools. The study examines potential gender biases and stereotypes presented in the materials and investigates their impact on students’ gender identity formation, particularly how they affect female under-representation or sexism in the classroom. To accomplish this, we conducted content analysis of the top ten versions of English language textbooks used in Chinese secondary schools. Our analysis focused on various aspects such as titles, family relationships, physical surroundings, appearance, professions, social engagements, and order of mention. We created a Textbook Gender Bias Index (TGBI) to assess the presence and severity of gender bias in these areas. Our findings reveal that potential gender bias in textbooks correlates significantly with the economic status of the area using that version. Based on our results, we recommend ensuring fair gender representation in educational materials and instructional approaches to prevent biassed gender portrayal, which is crucial for promoting inclusive education in the language classroom. This study provides valuable insights into how gender representation in language textbooks can influence gender identity formation and offers practical recommendations for educators and textbook publishers to make language learning more inclusive.

GENDER REPRESENTATION IN HIGHER SECONDARY ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA AND FBISE

Curriculum plays a foundational role in shaping opinions, beliefs, and worldviews given its grounding in sociocultural ideologies. Therefore, gender representation in school curricula has been the subject of research across the world since the 1970s. Although a handful of studies have been conducted in Pakistan, they have consistently reconfirmed deep-seated gender bias in textbooks despite governmental pledge to gender equality in education through administrative and financial investment over the past few decades. While previous studies have focused on primary- and secondarylevel textbooks from individual provinces, the current study reviews most recent higher-secondary English textbooks taught in schools and colleges affiliated with 8 KP boards as well as FBISE hence their impact on a large number of young men and women about to embark on professional journeys. Broadly informed by the theory of Anti-Oppressive Education (Kumashiro, 2000), this qualitative research has used directed content analysis to explore gender representation in the selected textbooks to conclude that despite governmental commitment to empower women through education, these Grade XI and XII textbooks launched in 2020 and 2021 respectively, fail to eliminate gender inequality from the curriculum. The article concludes by providing recommendations for systematic elimination of gender bias from the curriculum.

Prediction of Gender-Biased Perceptions of Learners and Teachers Using Machine Learning

Computers have enabled diverse and precise data processing and analysis for decades. Researchers of humanities and social sciences are increasingly adopting computational tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyse human behaviour in society by identifying patterns within data. In this regard, this paper presents the modelling of teachers and students’ perceptions regarding gender bias in text books through AI. The data was collected from 470 respondents through a questionnaire using five different themes. The data was analysed with support vector machines (SVM), decision trees (DT), random forest (RF) and artificial neural networks (ANN). The experimental results show that the prediction of perceptions regarding gender varies according to the theme and leads to the different performances of the AI techniques. However, it is observed that when data from all the themes are combined, the best results are obtained. The experimental results show that ANN, on average, demonstrates the best performance by achieving an accuracy of 87.2%, followed by RF and SVM, which demonstrate an accuracy of 84% and 80%, respectively. This paper is significant in modelling human behaviour in society through AI, which is a significant contribution to the field.

Construction of Gender in Linguistic Signs in Selected Kenyan Secondary School English Textbooks

In countries such as Kenya, where textbooks are a core component of classroom experience, the materials have the potential to shape socially enacted identities. Gender representation via linguistic signs in textbooks can have a substantial impact on how students perceive men and women in society. In order to achieve equity in education, which is a key mandate of both the Education for All (EFA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), gender bias in textbooks must be addressed. The National Policy on Gender and Development (NPGAD) in Kenya sought to enhance equal participation among men, women, girls and boys in education and other thematic areas. This paper contributes to the discourse on gender representation in textbooks by examining gender portrayal in linguistic signs found in selected English secondary school textbooks using Halliday’s (1985, 2014) systemic functional grammar approach. The study applied the explanatory sequential research design (Creswell Plano Clark, 2011). A document analysis guide derived from the model for analyzing linguistic signs by Halliday (1985, 2014) was employed in the analysis of quantitative data from the linguistic signs in four English textbooks. Results showed that in the selected textbooks, masculine representations were more prevalent than those of females. The study also revealed that males were more involved in all the three mood types namely; declarative, interrogative and imperative. Again, more males than females appeared as theme and rheme of clauses. Additionally, it emerged that males engaged more in verbal processes than females did. The study concludes that men are either implicitly or explicitly portrayed as being superior to women in the linguistic signs in the analysed textbooks. The study recommends that Ministry of Education in Kenya initiates measures to alleviate gender disparity by focusing on the issue of gender representation in textbooks. On the other hand, the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) may find these results useful in improving the textbooks evaluation based on gender equality prototypes. Improved evaluation, could be used as a basis to revise textbooks currently in use and guide in the development of new ones.

Gender Representation in Education: Critical Discourse Analysis of Urdu Textbooks used in Primary Government Schools in Punjab

This research aims to explore the gender equality or lack thereof in the Urdu textbooks taught in Punjab, Pakistan. Gender bias in textbooks is an important but invisible and overlooked problem. Five Urdu textbooks taught in primary government schools in Punjab were selected for critical discourse analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. The number of female and male characters, portrayal of domestic and professional roles by both genders, and cosmetic bias was taken into account.

Analysis of Arabic Textbook Lisānul Jāmi’ah: Gender Perspective

In the preparation of textbooks, it is necessary to pay attention to the content of the material so that it is in accordance with socio-cultural elements without causing multiple interpretations and an imbalance. The issue of gender is one of the social elements that can be influenced by the educational environment. This includes the learning process and Arabic language textbooks. While Arabic is one of the foreign languages whose language system is very gender biased. So in the preparation of Arabic textbooks, you must be more careful in order to minimize the existence of gender bias in textbooks. This also applies to the Arabic language textbook Lisanul Jami’ah I. This research is entitled Analysis of the Lisānul Jāmiʻah I Textbook Gender Perspective with the formulation of the problem how to analyze the gender perspective in the Lisānul Jāmiʻah I Arabic textbook and how the content of gender bias in the Lisānul Jāmiʻah I Arabic textbook I. The purpose of this research is to find out the analysis of the Arabic language textbook Lisānul Jāmiʻah I from a gender perspective to determine the content of gender bias. The purpose of this research is to provide contributions, references, considerations and insights related to gender in textbooks. This type of research is library research with data sources taken from primary and secondary data sources. Sources of data collected by documentary and interview techniques. While the data analysis using content analysis techniques. The results of this study indicate that most of the contents of the Lisānul Jāmiʻah I textbooks have shown to be gender sensitive. However, the content of gender bias is also quite a lot, although not as much as the content of gender sensitive. In this textbook, gender-neutral content of the textbook is also found.

Is gender-bias in textbooks spilled over from schools to universities? Evidence from Ethiopian university English language course textbooks

Is gender-bias in textbooks spilled over from schools to universities? Evidence from Ethiopian university English language course textbooks

AN ANALYSIS OF GRADE-VIII ENGLISH TEXTBOOK WITH GENDER DISPARITY PERSPECTIVES IN THE CURRICULUM OF KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA

This research was aimed to study the curriculum of English Textbook Grade-VIII in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. A qualitative approach was adopted to study the textbook with gender perspectives. Gender presentation in school textbooks is a newly emerging field of study in academia. The ministry of education clearly states that "efforts will be made to eliminate gender bias in textbooks and curriculum" (Ministry of Education 2003b, 22). There is still a lack of practical application for gender equity in schooling tackling the obstacles in the way of such goals (Khalid and Khan 2006; Khan 2007). This study used the two main themes 1. Nature of narrations and 2. Sensitivity of illustrations. Nine steps were taken in this research process. All the themes and sub-themes have a male dominancy though the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan has claimed to remove the gender disparities. , it is clear that schools textbooks promote the gender biased approach because men are shown in powerful, prestigious, well reputed and respectable jobs and women are shown in less visible and less valued positions. It was suggested that to improve feminine visibility, the government, the textbooks boards, and the directorate of the curriculum should assure the equal distribution of contents between the genders in Pakistan.

Gender Representation in Education: Critical Discourse Analysis of Urdu Textbooks used in Primary Government Schools in Punjab

AbstractThis research aims to explore the gender equality or lack thereof in the Urdu textbooks taught in Punjab, Pakistan. Gender bias in textbooks is an important but almost invisible and overlooked problem. Five Urdu textbooks taught in primary government schools in Punjab were selected for critical discourse analysis. Both qualitative as well quantitative research methods were adopted. The number of female and male characters, portrayal of domestic and professional roles by both genders, and cosmetic bias was taken into account. In all five books analyzed, 28% characters were women whereas remaining were male characters. Female characters were mostly found in domestic situations with insignificant roles in the stories who did not have a name or an identity except being mothers. The text was highly biased towards the male characters associating valor and strength with men only. Since textbooks play a crucial role in the development of the children, it is important to remove the concealed gender bias in textbooks and acknowledge the changing roles of women in the Pakistani society in order to create a society that treats men and women equally.

A case study investigation of student perceptions of women as seen in the Cambridge Latin Course in a selective girls grammar school

‘In 1986 we should no longer settle for books that present women as almost invisible entities.’(Charlayne Allan, 1986, p.6).Charlayne Allan's conclusion in her 1986 work, ‘Images of Women’ calls for a transformation in the inclusion and presentation of women in Classics educational materials. However, 33 years later, the presentation of women in educational textbooks remains a prevalent issue in many countries today with slow progress being made (BBC, 2017). The discipline of Classics has been criticised for being particularly slow in addressing the issue of gender bias in textbooks, both ensuring that there is a female voice in educational materials and also responding to female scholarship (Churchill, 2006, p.86). There has been some criticism of the popular and widely-used Cambridge Latin Course with the suggestion that ancient women are not equally or fairly represented through the characters and storylines used in the textbooks (Churchill, 2006; Upchurch, 2013). The course was first written in the 1970s and so, perhaps understandably, lacks strong female characters which might suit the engagement of students of the modern world. One solution which has been proposed by the critics mentioned above is the re-designing of the course with a more equal gender balance. However, I am unsure as to whether this is the best way forward. The re-designing of an entire textbook course (and all its online resources, etc.) is a complex undertaking, especially as the CLC has been carefully constructed around a continuous storyline. The creation of female characters, who would have a real significance to students’ learning and understanding of the Roman world, cannot simply be added into the stories without significantly changing the course (Joffe, 2019). Moreover, the way in which women are depicted in the CLC should not merely be a numerical matter. Consideration of how best to accurately present and teach students about the experiences of women in the Roman world, bearing in mind the Roman patriarchal way of thinking, could be endangered to achieve a mathematical solution for gender balance. The success of the CLC is largely down to its popular storylines and characters and so, for the purposes of my research, I will focus on the balance between the importance of an engaging storyline and at the same time, ensuring that the lives of ancient women are accurately presented through the female characters.

EVALUASI MATERI PENDIDIKAN ISLAM PERSPEKTIF GENDER (Evaluasi Terhadap Materi Buku Ajar Agama Islam)

Education is a tool for transferring the norms of society, knowledge and human capabilities, as well as a tool to assess and convey ideas and new values, including the values and norms of gender. It is known that many gender inequality occurred in society are assumed to arise because there is a gender bias in education, including religious education. As an example of gender bias in the curriculum of Islam among the materials about the origin of human events, the obligation to pray in congregation, the provisions of polygamy, spousal function in marriage. In an effort to realize the religious understanding of the nature of gender, then it should be required revisions to matters of gender bias in textbooks of the Islamic religion. It should be stressed also awareness about the value of education gender perspective to all parties, especially the author and editor of books on the fact that the curriculum is not gender neutral. Meanwhile, for the religious teachers are required to be more critical and sensitive in identifying and examine all matters relating to gender inequality in the learning process that takes place in their daily work.

The Eastern Asian Research on Gender Bias in Secondary School Textbooks

Students might take much time to learn from textbooks to develop their gender roles at school, the proper textbooks which attained the objectives of gender equality were needed. To take the cultural context into consideration, the EFL studies on gender bias in textbooks (GBIT) of secondary schools in the regions of eastern Asia, including China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, were chosen to reviewed and discussed in this article. This review might contribute to understand the development of research on GBIT in eastern Asia. Those reseach on GBIT not only helped the positive development of gender equity pertaining to textbooks but also informed secondary school teachers and students of the need to take heed of those gender-biased contents in textbooks.

Uncovering Cultural Bias in EFL Textbooks

This study lays the foundation for reasons and ways to investigate the biased treatment of non-native characters in model dialogues in current English as a Foreign/Second Language textbooks. The literature review shows that although a plethora of studies have been conducted on gender bias in textbooks, speaker bias, or labeled nativism here, has been largely ignored. This research addresses this neglect by systematically applying parts of two frameworks previously used in analyzing textbooks for gender bias to four current EFL textbooks. The resulting data is quantitative in nature with some necessary description and qualification and shows that only one text avoids bias against non-native speakers. In the other texts, speaker bias is exhibited by non-native speakers being segregated or being only allowed to interact with a native speaker. In addition, non-native speakers are limited to non-expert roles in two texts. Based on these results, suggestions for further research are offered.

The invisible obstacle to educational equality: gender bias in textbooks

Gender bias in textbooks (GBIT) is a low-profile education issue, given the 72,000,000 children who still have no access to schooling, but this article argues that GBIT is: (1) an important, (2) near-universal, (3) remarkably uniform, (4) quite persistent but (5) virtually invisible obstacle on the road to gender equality in education—an obstacle camouflaged by taken-for-granted stereotypes about gender roles. Specifically, GBIT: (1) is important because (a) textbooks occupy ~80% of classroom time, and (b) it may contribute to lowering girls’ achievements, especially in weak schools in poor countries; (2) has been found worldwide to varying degrees (except, perhaps, Sweden in recent years); (3) involves nearly identical patterns of under-representation of females, plus stereotypes of both genders’ occupational and household roles that overwhelmingly underplay women’s rising worldly importance; (4) is decreasing very slowly, according to “second generation” re-studies; and (5) remains obscured by the “hidden-in-plain-sight” system of gender stratification and roles. Case studies from Syria, India, Romania, China and the US document these points. Other case studies from Sweden and Latin America describe government initiatives to reduce GBIT, with differing levels of success. Totally revising textbooks (and curricula) to eliminate this bias is quite unlikely, partly because it is very costly. The article concludes by presenting inexpensive alternate methods that can combat GBIT.

Gender bias in psychiatric texts.

Prior research examining gender bias in textbooks used by medical students demonstrated that male models are used significantly more often than female models, raising concerns about the messages conveyed to trainees about patient care. By using a similar paradigm, this study assessed introductory psychiatric texts for gender bias. Five texts were selected for their use by medical students and based upon the presence of illustrative case vignettes. Frequencies with which vignettes featured male or female subjects were obtained. Two earlier versions of the DSM Casebooks were also reviewed for comparison with the most recent edition, to look for longitudinal trends. Male subjects were featured in case vignettes significantly more often than female subjects in the five texts combined; significantly different gender disparities were obtained in three of the five texts examined. The number of vignettes featuring female subjects exceeded those featuring males in one text. Despite repeated revision, each of the three versions of the DSM Casebooks retained a statistically significant predominance of male subjects. The observed gender discrepancies were not an artifact of use of vignettes illustrating disorders with higher prevalence rates among men. In fact, women were featured as subjects in vignettes illustrating disorders with higher prevalence rates among women. The use of predominantly male subjects was incongruent with trends in psychiatric service utilization by men and women. The potential impact of gender bias on medical trainees is discussed.