There is Many a Slip Betwixt Cup and Lip. An Inquiry to Dig Out Hurdles Faced by the Stakeholders in Gender Representation in English Textbooks of Pakistan

Abstract

Gender is an important aspect of life noticeably revealed through visuals in textbooks with a deep impression on recipients. School textbooks are made compulsory for the students to read and later on they develop some perceptions and ideals about a society based on these read texts. These textbooks are a combination of text and images through which different concepts are taught.  This study aimed to assess the awareness about the sensitization level of visual representation of gender created through textbooks in the provincial curriculum of the English language of Pakistan. The study's objective is to find out issues involved on the side of the stakeholders in bookmaking and publishing regarding gender representation. A qualitative research design was used to collect data from four chairpersons of textbook boards and two authors of textbooks from each province of Pakistan. Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted through a semi-structured interview guideline. Findings showed an apparent unawareness of all stakeholders regarding gender and their social, political, and economic representation. It was found that some of the stakeholders even did not know the true concept of gender and thought that gender equality means only the equal number of visual representations of males and females without bothering that how are they being presented. They ignore that it is more important to see how both sexes are embodied rather than how many times.  Text is not in the domain of this study; only the perspective of the stakeholders about the visual’s representation is discussed here. The study brought issues into the limelight that must be resolved to make visuals complement the text and present latent meaning independently with a positive impact. This study will reveal how much is this important to make the stakeholders gender sensitized for the better and more positive gender representation.

Keywords: Gender, Visuals, Semiotic, Textbooks, Stakeholders, Qualitative research

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/13-25-04

Publication date:September 30^th 2022