JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Gendered Representation in Pakistani English Language Textbooks from a Multimodal Perspective

Language textbooks play a significant role in shaping students’ perspectives by promoting particular social and ideological viewpoints. This study conducts a multimodal critical discourse analysis of the latest eight secondary-level Pakistani English language textbooks to examine the visual and verbal representations of gender. Grounded in Sunderland’s (2004) framework of gendered discourses and van Leeuwen’s (2008) social semiotic inventory, this study investigates how linguistic and visual modes jointly construct gender meanings. While previous studies have primarily focused on textual gender bias, limited attention has been paid to multimodal representations in the Pakistani context. Extending a previous study, this research identifies additional gendered discourses within the same context. The findings reveal inequality in gender depictions in both texts and images, particularly regarding “educational opportunities, heterosexuality, men as breadwinners and women as caregivers, the privileging of appearance in women, and the use of masculine generics”. Females are predominantly represented in traditional and dependent roles. By systematically analysing textbooks using a multimodal framework, this study provides context-specific insights. This study supports policymakers, curriculum designers, and educators in critically evaluating gender representation in ELT materials in Pakistan.

Journal of Arts, Meaning and Public Life

Underrepresentation and Exclusion: The Hidden Curriculum in Language Textbooks of Basic Level Education in Nepal

This study delves into the portrayal of gender in Nepal's Grade 5 language textbooks: the Nepali Textbook Grade 5 (NTB5) and the English Textbook Grade 5 (ETB5) using content analysis and the concept of hidden curriculum (Apple, 1971; Chao, 2011). For this, visual illustrations, textual references, authorship patterns, and narrative motifs and results are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative inquiry reveals a persistent male predominance with 72% of illustrations and 55–59% of textual mentions attributing male. Female authorship is conspicuously absent in NTB5. Qualitative thematic analysis revealed four interconnected patterns that reinforced traditional gender roles: women's confinement to domestic domain, men's authoritative and agentic position, women's passive and controlled empowerment, and symbolic and linguistic attempt to normalize existing gender identities. These bias gender representations in the school texbook serve as hidden curriculum of deep-seated patriarchy and assists to normalize gender imbalance persisting in the society. These finding, which pose a question mark upon Nepal's policy level advocacy for gender equality, reveal the hidden curriculum, subtly socializing young learners into patriarchal norms.

Do Language Textbooks Challenge or Reinforce Cultural Stereotypes? Perspectives of Advanced Learners of Arabic

Language textbooks do more than facilitate linguistic development; they also mediate learners’ encounters with the cultural communities represented through the target language. This role becomes particularly significant in advanced foreign-language education, where learners are expected to engage critically with complex social, political, and cultural representations. This qualitative study examines how advanced learners of Arabic perceived and negotiated cultural representations in Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya, Part Three, with particular attention to whether the textbook challenged or reinforced pre-existing stereotypes about Arab cultures. The study draws on focus-group data collected from eight advanced American learners of Arabic specializing in diplomacy and politics at a language center in Rabat, Morocco. Participants had extensive experience using the textbook during their advanced Arabic studies. The focus-group discussion was audio-recorded, transcribed, anonymized, and subjected to iterative qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate a complex relationship between textbook representation and learner perception. Participants acknowledged the textbook’s contribution to introducing cultural, historical, and political issues related to the Arab world, yet they also perceived some representations as insufficiently diverse or critically contextualized. Rather than consistently disrupting pre-existing assumptions, certain representations were perceived as potentially confirming simplified understandings of Arab societies. Learners particularly emphasized the need for greater regional diversity, authentic voices, contemporary perspectives, sustained self-reflection, and opportunities for direct intercultural engagement. The findings suggest that cultural representation in advanced language textbooks should move beyond exposure to cultural information toward pedagogical practices that actively encourage learners to interrogate, reassess, and complicate their prior assumptions. The study contributes to discussions of textbook evaluation, intercultural learning, and cultural representation in Arabic-as-a-foreign-language education.

"Speaking for gender equality"

Adolescents’ aspirations are influenced by gender stereotypes, whereby girls tend to pursue careers in communal roles while boys tend to pursue STEM careers and agentic positions. Language and linguistic interventions appear to be a promising avenue. In French, a grammatical gender language, the generic use of the masculine form – although grammatically correct – leads to a male-bias in mental representations while gender-fair forms generate more gender-equal representations of occupational success, jobholders, and aspirations in children and adolescents. Building on these issues, this thesis aimed to interweave social psychology and psycholinguistics to examine the influence of gender stereotypes and gender-fair language on adolescents’ aspirations. A theoretical framework interweaving the Social Role Theory (Eagly & Wood, 2012) and language was proposed, informing the design of the conducted three studies. In all three studies, adolescents were presented with job descriptions of gender stereotyped occupations. Descriptions were manipulated, namely they contained various language and linguistic manipulations. Aspirations were measured through interest and anticipated sense of belonging. Two studies were conducted in French, while one in English. The findings indicate that the influence of gender stereotypes on adolescents’ aspirations remain strong, despite the language and linguistic manipulations attempted to mitigate them. These findings highlight the different mechanisms in girls’ and boys’ aspirations. Plus, these studies examined aspirations not only in STEM but also in HEED, a domain often overlooked in prior research. The discussion examines the potential of linguistic interventions to reduce gender stereotypes and outlines implications for equality policies and future research.

of Gender Representation Across Literary