The invisible reality: English teaching materials and the formation of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes (with a focus on primary education)

Asín Abad, Alicia
Pellicer Ortín, Silvia (dir.)

Universidad de Zaragoza, FEDU, 2016
Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana, Área de Filología Inglesa

Graduado en Magisterio en Educación Primaria

Resumen: Gender stereotypes can be defined as those structured sets of beliefs about personal attributes of women and men (Basow, 1992, p.3). They have a great influence over self perspective, the way we interact with each other, and the organization and values of our society. However their effects are usually invisible for people, so a great effort should be made to develop awareness of their influence in the population. The origin of gender stereotypes is rooted in the gender-based division of labour and they arise from a socialization process to which people are exposed since childhood. Thus, school has an essential role to teach gender and sexual equality through the curricula, in all subjects and using teaching materials that are free of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes. The main aim of this study is to examine the influence of English teaching materials in the formation of gender and sexually oriented stereotypes in the context of the Spanish Primary School, mainly focusing on the last stage of Primary Education. This dissertation carries out qualitative and quantitative analysis of three English text books and, the students‟ and teachers‟ perceptions of the stereotypes thanks to an elaboration of a review of key concepts such as gender awareness, stereotypes, sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as, the presentation of various tools to evaluate the sexist content in the textbooks and offer some guide lines to avoid them in the English classroom.

Tipo de Trabajo Académico: Trabajo Fin de Grado