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Gender representation in Chinese senior high school EFL coursebooks
Author
Zhou, Xuewei
Supervisor
Weninger, Csilla
Abstract
Gender equality in education has long been an interest to many researchers and educators. Numerous researchers investigated gender bias and stereotypes in EFL coursebooks conducted in diverse contexts and regions such as Finland, Sweden, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong. However, few researchers have examined this topic in mainland China, which is a traditionally patriarchal society and undergoing great social changes to promote gender equality.
Therefore, in light of this gap, the objectives of this dissertation were to explore gender representations in an English as Foreign Language coursebooks series (2019) and to find out to what extent gender inequality in EFL coursebooks is still an issue. The series is published by the People Education Press under the Chinese Ministry of Education for senior high students aged from 16 to 18 years. The data of the current study include texts in 32 reading sections and 109 illustrations in the three core English coursebooks from the 2019 series, namely coursebook 1, coursebook 2, coursebook 3. The data were analyzed by using a quantitative content analytic approach with some qualitative examples, examining three main facets of gender representations, namely visibility, gender stereotyping and male firstness.
Despite the great progress in the status of Chinese women in many social domains, the key findings confirm the prevalence of gender inequality in this EFL coursebooks series as indicated from following key results: 1) despite even visual representation of both genders, dominance of male visibility in texts especially in famous characters was observed; 2) males still covered a wider range of occupational roles and activities than females. Although females were depicted in some counter-stereotyped occupations, no counter-stereotyped jobs given to males were found; 3) although domestic work was shared by both genders, females were still portrayed with stereotypical domestic tasks such as taking care of children; 4) males were still engaged more in sports while females were more associated with festival celebration; 5) male firstness was still prevalent though largely due to conventional uses in linguistic expressions.
The study makes contributions to literature of gender representation in EFL coursebooks in Chinese context and beyond. This study also has implications for education authorities, authors, publishers and teachers and provides suggestions for future research.
Therefore, in light of this gap, the objectives of this dissertation were to explore gender representations in an English as Foreign Language coursebooks series (2019) and to find out to what extent gender inequality in EFL coursebooks is still an issue. The series is published by the People Education Press under the Chinese Ministry of Education for senior high students aged from 16 to 18 years. The data of the current study include texts in 32 reading sections and 109 illustrations in the three core English coursebooks from the 2019 series, namely coursebook 1, coursebook 2, coursebook 3. The data were analyzed by using a quantitative content analytic approach with some qualitative examples, examining three main facets of gender representations, namely visibility, gender stereotyping and male firstness.
Despite the great progress in the status of Chinese women in many social domains, the key findings confirm the prevalence of gender inequality in this EFL coursebooks series as indicated from following key results: 1) despite even visual representation of both genders, dominance of male visibility in texts especially in famous characters was observed; 2) males still covered a wider range of occupational roles and activities than females. Although females were depicted in some counter-stereotyped occupations, no counter-stereotyped jobs given to males were found; 3) although domestic work was shared by both genders, females were still portrayed with stereotypical domestic tasks such as taking care of children; 4) males were still engaged more in sports while females were more associated with festival celebration; 5) male firstness was still prevalent though largely due to conventional uses in linguistic expressions.
The study makes contributions to literature of gender representation in EFL coursebooks in Chinese context and beyond. This study also has implications for education authorities, authors, publishers and teachers and provides suggestions for future research.
Date Issued
2021
Call Number
PE1130.C4 Zho