Gender Representations in the Greek Primary School Language Textbooks: Synthesizing Content with Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

School textbooks are media of communicating a large amount of knowledge and teachers rely their teaching practices and schedule their instructions upon them. Except for knowledge on school subjects, textbooks also promote various ideological messages, including gender representations. This study explores gender representations in the Greek primary school language textbook addressed to the first grade, which is currently being taught. For this purpose, Content Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis are employed in synergy, as Content Analysis on its own is insufficient to fully explore gender representations and the ideologies of school textbook discourse. The results showed clearly that traditional gender representations are reproduced in the particular textbook, by presenting men dominating in the public sphere, and leading women’s lives and their families.