Textbooks, students and teachers talk around gender: A new materialist approach to children's agency

Journal article


Kostas, M. 2023. Textbooks, students and teachers talk around gender: A new materialist approach to children's agency. Teaching and Teacher Education. 125, p. 104052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104052
AuthorsKostas, M.
Abstract

Theoretically anchored in Butlerian and Baradian approaches to gender performativity, this study scrutinized Athenian elementary pupils' understanding of gender-normative discourses in textbook illustrations and their teachers' capacity to identify such discourses. The findings revealed that educators were unaware of the prevalence of gendered discourses in textbooks and did not make substantive efforts to diminish their harmful effects on pupils’ perceptions of gender. Children, however, are agentic subjects who negotiate gender discourses idiosyncratically. This study argues that introducing non-sexist curricula is not sufficient for combating sexism in education; textbook revisions need to be accompanied by in-service gender-training courses for educators.

KeywordsGender discourse; Teachers; Textbooks; Greece; Post-human performativity; Children
Year2023
JournalTeaching and Teacher Education
Journal citation125, p. 104052
PublisherElsevier
ISSN0742-051X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104052
Official URLhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X23000409
Publication dates
Print06 Feb 2023
Publication process dates
Accepted30 Jan 2023
Deposited08 Feb 2023
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
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https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/93wq0/textbooks-students-and-teachers-talk-around-gender-a-new-materialist-approach-to-children-s-agency

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