Gender stereotypes and biases in Iranian EFL textbooks / Amir Biglarbeigi Ghajarieh

Ghajarieh, Amir Biglarbeigi (2013) Gender stereotypes and biases in Iranian EFL textbooks / Amir Biglarbeigi Ghajarieh. PhD thesis, University of Malaya.

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Abstract

Gender biases and ideologies are manifested through many avenues, including the representations of gendered social actors in school textbooks (Lee & Collins, 2008; Blumberg, 2008). This study examines the representations of male and female social actors within gendered discourses in Iranian EFL textbooks. These prescribed English textbooks, which enjoy a nation-wide audience, cater for the needs of Iranian EFL students at the secondary level, high school, and pre-university levels and serve as the students‘ initial introduction to the English Language and culture. The theoretical background of this study is grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). To examine the depictions of male and female social actors within the identified gendered discourses in these textbooks, this study fused van Leeuwen‘s (2003) ‗Social Actor Network Model‘ and Sunderland‘s (2004) ‗Gendered Discourses Model‘. I studied a focus group of students who use Iranian EFL textbooks at different educational levels to triangulate my data. This study employed Sunderland‘s (2006) framework together with Hall‘s (1980) idea of text readers‘ interpretations; i.e., hegemonic, oppositional and negotiated readings, to analyse the focus group‘s readings of sample gendered texts in Iranian EFL textbooks. The conservative gendered discourses provisionally identified in this study were supported to a great extend through the representations of male and female social actors in the texts and images closely related to the texts of Iranian EFL textbooks at different educational levels. Conversely, the subversive gendered discourses were resisted through such representations to a great extent. Grounded on CDA, one can argue that, the support for conservative gendered discourses and the resistance against subversive gendered discourses in Iranian EFL textbooks underpin gender norms and religious ideologies existing in Iran. This could serve the interests of powerful groups in Iran, maintain the status quo and ensure the dominance of powerful groups‘ ideologies on gender (Fairclough, 1992a, 1995, 2001, 2003; Fairclough & Wodak, 1997; van Dijk, 1993a, 1998, 2008, Wodak, 1995, 1997, 2005, 2012). With regard to interview results one can argue that, the existence of hegemonic readings in the focus group of this study indicates that the hegemonic messages disseminated through Iranian EFL textbooks could produce the intended reaction in some audiences of such textbooks (Hall, 1990). The existence of oppositional readings indicates that some audiences of Iranian EFL textbooks constructed themselves different from the representations of male and female social actors depicted by their textbooks. According to van Leeuwen (2003), one can assert that these social actors were excluded from the representations of male and female social actors in Iranian EFL textbooks. Such exclusions could obscure the reality regarding the existence of such gender identities (van Leeuwen, 2003; Sunderland, 2004). The findings suggest that a truly balanced treatment of gender equality has yet to be achieved in the analysed textbooks. CDA could underlie the existence of hegemonic ideologies in educational materials and the results of studies such as the one at hand should be shared with both the academia and men and women in society at large.

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