Gender bias in hidden curricula an investigation of the content of algerian english textbooks from a gender equity perspective
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Date
2017
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Publisher
university of Oum- El- Bouaghi
Abstract
The momentousness of evaluating instructional materials has widely been recognized by applied linguists. Nevertheless, very meager inquiry was devoted to the analysis of the hidden aspects that might escort the formal curriculum, chiefly, gender bias that proved to have negative impacts on learners' perception of gender roles. Therefore, the present study was an attempt to satisfy two main aspirations. Foremost, it aims to analyze the visual and linguistic contents of the middle and secondary school textbooks, "Spotlight on English" and "Getting through" successively, from a gender equity perspective. The second objective has to do with gauging middle school teachers' awareness about gender biased patterns in Spotlight on English- Book Two. The evaluation is led through Porreca's adopted model as regards the linguistic aspects and an adapted framework elaborated particularly for the analysis of the visual content. Besides, a mixed method is followed wherein a quantitative analysis is carried out using the chi-square test to find out whether there is a statistical significant difference between woman and man in terms of the investigated categories. The qualitative analysis, however, is applied to data that are not applicable to statistical computation. In order to bring to completion the second objective, a questionnaire is addressed to middle school teachers of English at the level of the province of Oum El Bouaghi. The results obtained from the textbooks' analysis disclose that the examined textbooks represent a lopsided content in respect to gender perspective. Thus, the alternative hypothesis that states that middle and secondary school textbooks would represent both genders impartially by being male oriented was confirmed. As long as the questionnaire is concerned, teachers' responses unveil that there is a lack of consciousness about the unfair representation of woman and man in English textbooks. Eventually, these findings substantiate the second research hypothesis in a sense that middle school teachers would not be sufficiently aware of gender biased patterns in textbooks. Based on the research findings, the National ministry of education is highly recommended to improve both the quality of English textbooks and teachers' training programmes as regards gender issues.
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Keywords
Textbook : évaluation, Spotlight on english