Abstract:

In this paper, we present a project on gender perspective in secondary education that we are currently developing at Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona (Spain). Our project analyzes the most popular textbooks on Language and Literature –used in secondary education in Spain— with three different objectives: firstly, to determine the presence of the gender perspective in textbooks and in the curriculum; secondly, to detect problems related to the introduction of the gender perspective; and, thirdly, to propose a protocol of good practices for the inclusion of the gender perspective in secondary education.

In this work, we present results about how women are represented in the textbooks that students have to use in secondary education. In line with many gender studies, we perform a quantitative and qualitative analisys of the presence of women (how many and in which conditions they appear) in Spanish language textbooks.

We have analyzed more than 6,000 pages in 20 different books with the aim of determining to what extent the gender perspective is included in the competences, contents, bibliography, examples, exercises, etc. and in order to identify problems related to linguistic uses and sexist discourse.

The obtained results show that there is a large number of books that continue perpetuating gender roles while others simply ignore females and they are not present at all in the examples and the exercises. In the literature part of the textbooks, women are located in irrelevant places or mentioned separately, with little or no consideration. Fortunately, we have also been able to identify some books that introduce the gender perspective and that can be proposed as good practices in this topic.

Despite the significant increase in gender studies and although the legislation advocates both to include and to promote at all educational levels the gender perspective, secondary education –through textbooks— shows that there is not an offer proportional to the amount of research developed and according to existing legal requirements. This is why we believe that projects such as the one we are developing are necessary.

To tackle the issue of gender perspective in secondary education allows us to deeply analyze the different aspects that make up this essential topic and to propose techniques to avoid gender discrimination in textbooks by providing a guideline for ensuring the visibility of women.

Keywords:

Gender perspective, Spanish Language and Literature, Women, Secondary Education.