Gender voices in Afghanistan primary and secondary school English textbooks

Abstract

Textbooks are one of the areas in which gender inequality is institutionalized effortlessly. The study investigated the representation of gender in primary and secondary English textbooks. A total of 14 categories of underrepresentation and misrepresentation were used to examine gender portrayal. The results show that women are significantly underrepresented whilst men are overrepresented in text and illustrations. Female names account for only 30.4% of names in textbooks. Male characters precede female characters in most coordinated phrases, and most of the dialogues are initiated by men. Masculine generic forms are used to refer to women and men including in the English translation of the Afghanistan National Anthem. Men are more frequently portrayed in a myriad of social roles than women are.Surprisingly, this pattern also holds true for domestic roles. Furthermore, little space is dedicated to female famous persons (e.g., scientists), and women constitute a tiny fraction of the main characters of articles and stories, most of which were about trivial matters (e.g., cooking). They are portrayed in a small number of activities, almost a quarter of which are houserelated tasks.

Gender Equality in the Foreign Language Textbooks of Indonesian Junior High Schools

“…The findings of this study shows the consistency of the findings with the previous studies that equality is not addressed properly in the textbook contents. It is indicated by the male domination as founded in the previous studies (Orfan, 2023;Vu & Pham, 2023;Dewi, Rizki Yuliatin, & Eka, 2022).…”

“…Globally, the research on gender equality has been conducted in many areas. For example, male domination in then textbooks of Afghanistan (Orfan, 2023), male domination in Vietnamese textbook contexts (Vu & Pham, 2023), gender roles in high school textbooks (Dewi, Rizki Yuliatin, & Eka 2022), gender and bilingual instruction (Abduh, 2018), gender equality in senior European citizens (Sánchez-García, Gil-Lacruz, & Gil-Lacruz, 2022) and gender equality in oceanography (Legg, Wang, Kappel, & Thompson, 2023). These studies shows that the gender equality in global contexts has been dominated by male domination.…”

A Social Semiotic Analysis of Gender Representations in Biology Textbooks for Upper Secondary Schools in China

“…Many studies on gender representations in textbooks have been conducted in China, primarily focusing on gender disparities in particular subjects such as English, history and mathematics at specific education levels. In the Chinese mainland, the most impactful research on gender representations in textbooks was supported by the Ford Foundation in the early 2000s (Yuan 2013). In 2001, the Ford Education Fund organised over 20 researchers in China to help eliminate gender bias in textbooks and conducted a comprehensive survey of gender stereotypes in textbooks used throughout the country (Shi and Ross 2002).…”

Instructors’ perceptions and use of first language in EFL classes in Afghanistan

“…English has been an important course at schools and universities for years in Afghanistan [ 41 , 42 ]. English learning was banned during the Taliban regime that barred girls and women from going to school and universities [ 43 ].…”