Analyzes discourse roles and gender fairness in dialogs within three recent textbooks for the teaching of English as a foreign language. Results show fairness was achieved through gender balance in social and occupational roles. Negative implications of gender-imbalanced dialogs for female students plus language practice opportunities are…

To determine whether the distribution of male and female main character roles (sex dominance) differed significantly in the 1976-1978 editions of basal readers and supplementary textbooks from that found in the 1974-1976 editions examined by Gwyneth E. Britton and Margaret C. Lumpkin, an analysis of more than 3,700 stories was undertaken. The sex…

Between 1972 and 1975, textbook publishers have issued position papers and guidelines for authors which both identify the areas of bias (sex, race, and career) hidden in public school textbooks and suggest alternative measures for authors and editors to consider in order to avoid these biases. This study was begun in 1972 to determine whether…

A content analysis of a 1976 series of primary reading textbooks was conducted to analyze salient factors affecting female role socialization. Examined in its entirety, the series was designed for grades one through six and contained 573 entries and 4,831 illustrations. In each of the textbooks, regardless of grade level, twice as many males as…

This study examined the portrayal of women in current U.S. history textbooks which are used in the classroom. Among the questions explored were the following: who among outstanding women is or is not noted, what topics are covered or omitted, how are average women of selected eras treated, and how are women who fought for currently controversial…

To determine whether elementary reading textbooks from a socialist country contained less sex-role stereotyping than previously-studied United States readers, an analysis of 374 books from the German Democratic Republic (G.D.R.) was undertaken. A sex bias index was calculated for both the G.D.R. and the U.S. books by finding the average difference…

A group of six feminists undertook this study because they felt it important that people learn about racial and sexual discrimination in textbooks used in Baltimore City and other U.S. schools. The task force chose five series of basal readers widely used in Baltimore. These series are used in most, if not all, Elementary Secondary Education Act…

The textbook is a predominant feature of most classrooms in the United States. Because the textbook is an important aspect of the educational experience, it is essential that the content of the texts be carefully scrutinized. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the visual portrayal of racial, ethnic, and gender groups in…