Representation ofGender Stereotypesin the Compiled Persian Textbooks ofIranian Elementary Schools

Abstract

Education institutions are considered as the public recipients hosting a majority of new social members. In this paper, we have tried to explore gender discrimination through excavating the content of the compiled Persian textbooks of all cycles in elementary level and to offer relevant conceptualizations of the hidden phenomenon for better understanding of all. The intention of the researchers in this study was also to focus on revealing how the education system and school institutions in the country produce and infuse wrong gender stereotypes into the minds of students as the consumers of their products. Some argue that gender differences rooted in biological differences of individuals.This study attempts to explain how behavioral differences are arisen from individuals’ types of socializations.It is generally believed that more attention and value has been given to the role of men than women in most societies and men are of higher social dignity. Such a belief has been generated and reinforced as the part of a program embedded in the school textbookswhich will be perpetuated to others. Therefore, content analysis of textbooksin which wrong stereotypes of gender has been highlighted seems to be crucial. The mentioned prescribed stereotypes and wrong social norms are hard to be broken and girls are seen as the social actors of the text that is set before them. In this regard this question might be stated that: Do roles and gender identity naturally define biological diversity? Or does socialization context add to this problem?Through the analysis of the content of Persian textbooks in elementary schools, it was found that the educational system has generated, reinforced, and crystalized such wrong perspectives instead of changing the attitudes.