Early childhood schoolbooks designed to teach children to read, have been shown not only to shape gendered identities in a limiting, binary format, but to lend the written word the appearance of unquestionable, and restrictive truth about the way the world is. Texts written for adults, too, may similarly limit what can be known, reining in the…

This cross-national European comparison examined gender representation and stereotypes in mathematics and language textbooks from Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Romania. The results showed that female characters were numerically underrepresented. Female characters were also less often a main character or individually portrayed…

The aim of the study was to analyze the narratives of the Solidarity movement in upper-secondary level history textbooks, published between 1991 and 2018. Quantitative methods were used to measure different categories of historical figures in terms of their frequency and textual space, as well as any changes in representation over time. To explore…

Background: Undergirding the dominant research focus on gender representation in textbooks is the assumption that making texts progressive in their construction of gender is a panacea for equality in the classroom. As this study demonstrates, however, textbooks containing traditional representations of gender can be used to challenge biases, while…

Recent studies describe Jordan as a context where the encounter between modernity and tradition in the framework of neo-liberal transformations in the labour market have brought about paradoxes affecting women's lives. Despite several policies to implement gender equality introduced by the government, the rapid reduction of the gender gap in…

This study examines one of the most important social concepts and perspectives in mathematics textbooks from first grade to 12th grade in Palestine, which is gender bias. To achieve the goal of this study, the researcher conducted a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of an interval sample of these textbooks. Content analysis is…

In an era of rapid and sustainable alterations, Saudi Arabia are now going through transformation in gender roles and opportunities. The current study aimed to investigate the gender roles in the two major English language textbooks widely used by Saudi female high school students, namely "Traveller 1" and "Traveller 2," which…

Informed by a feminist post-structural framework, this study departs from the overriding emphasis on explicit constructions of women in textbooks. It focuses on culturally implicit knowledge and/or gendered discourses that have informed the construction of gender in Ugandan secondary school textbooks. Findings illuminate the construction of women…

This study explores gender representation in an international English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbook that has been specifically adapted for the Saudi Arabian context. It aims to investigate gender frequencies in conversations in three dimensions: gender relations, subject positions, and contents. The quantitative data were analysed using…

This paper examines gender biases in school textbooks after a decade long effort by the ministry of education (MoE) Pakistan and international organisation (IOs) to eliminate all forms of gender inequality in education. The intention underpinning these initiatives was to nurture a view of gender equality based consciousness through the…

The discourse around development is full of buzzwords, including gender and a myriad of variants that underscore the importance of development policies addressing gender imbalances. Despite their prevalence in development policy and research, terminology related to gender is often used broadly, inappropriately, and without nuance. For…

Teaching heritage to a nation is important. The Israeli Arab curriculum on Druse heritage helps students connect religion with modern society. The textbooks that are still used were written in the end of the 1970s and do not reflect the changing reality of Druse women. This research shows that women must be portrayed in more diverse roles in…

We address issues related to gender and cultural equity in a history of mathematics course. We first look at the preponderance of male European mathematicians represented in textbooks of mathematics and history or mathematics. Then we discuss ways to highlight the presence of female and non-European mathematicians in the history of mathematics.…

"Education and Gendered Citizenship in Pakistan" challenges the uncritical use of the long held dictum of the development discourse that education empowers women. Situated in the post-structuralist feminist position, it argues that in its current state the educational discourse in Pakistan actually disempowers women. Through a systematic…

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…