Gender Representation in Foreign Language Textbooks: A Case Study of Textbooks of Russian

Abstract

This article presents findings from a study that (a) established a series of criteria for assessing the equity of gender representation in foreign language (FL) textbooks, (b) applied the criteria to a number of Russian-language textbooks in order to compare them on this basis as a case study, and (c) considered the criteria as a basis for the examination of gender representation in FL textbooks in general. The study hypothesized that (a) a series of sound criteria would yield information concerning the equity of gender representation of textbooks examined and demonstrate that recent textbooks were more equitable than textbooks published 10 or 20 years ago, and that (b) textbooks written by women or by a team of authors including at least one woman would be more equitable in terms of gender representation than textbooks written only by men. The analysis identifies areas of greatest inequity in gender representation by examining the data for each criterion across all the textbooks examined.

Materials in the classroom ecology

“…(For examples of content analyses, see e.g. Crossley et al, ; Jeffries, ; Wong, [English]; Etienne & Sax, ; Herschensohn, ; McCool, ; O'Connor di Vito, [French]; Tschirner, [German]; Aski, [Italian]; Glisan & Drescher, ; Ramirez & Hall, ; Wieczorek, [Spanish]; Azimova & Johnston, ; Rifkin, ; Shardakova & Pavlenko, [Russian]. )…”

Categorization of writing tasks in Iranian senior high school English textbooks

“…Naghdipour, ). Previous literature both in Iran and outside has given attention to analysing textbook materials in various aspects such as functional analysis of the gender representation (Rifkin, ), the place of culture (Aliakbari, ), the nature of grammar exercises (Aski, ), inconsistencies in teaching writing (Gates, ), learning objectives (Riazi & Mosallanejad, ), language activities (Guilloteaux, ), authenticity (Clavel‐Arroitia & Fuster‐Márquez, ) and text difficulty development (Tsai, ; Chen, ). Despite these attempts, little research, if any, has reported investigation of different aspects of writing tasks in Iranian senior high school ELT textbooks developed under the auspices of Iran's Ministry of Education since 1979 (marking the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran) and whether these aspects reflect universal SLA principles.…”

The representation of gender in English textbooks in Uganda

“…Gender representation in English-language textbooks has been equally widely researched (Johansson and Malmsjo 2009;Lee and Collins 2008;Pihlaja 2007;Porecca 1984;Hellinger 1980;Rifkin 1998) albeit from a European and Asian perspective (Australia: Lee and Collins 2008;UK: Jones, Kitetu, and Sunderland 1997;Japan: Pihlaja 2007;Sweden: Skolvertket 2006;Russia: Rifkin 1998). Textbooks published for use in developing countries, however, appear to have received far less attention in spite of the teaching of English being widespread and gender and educational opportunities much debated (Sunderland 2000).…”