Gender Representation in Children’s EFL Textbooks: A Comparison between Private Primary Schools and Language Centers in Fes

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the social and cultural values of societies are always ingrained in their educational systems, particularly in teaching and learning materials. Textbooks are one of the materials in which gender stereotypes have been documented worldwide. In the Moroccan context, children's EFL (English as a foreign language) textbooks used in primary schools may transmit typical patterns and discriminatory images about gender, which perpetuate more gender disparities. To this end, this research aims to determine the way gender is depicted in four EFL textbooks for the 4th grade published between 2012 and 2020 in Morocco. It also tends to exhibit the major differences between EFL textbooks used at language centers (Super Minds 4 and Let’s Go 4) and private primary schools (English Pass Pack 4 and Passport to English 4). The research is conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results of this study show that there are equal gender representations in EFL textbooks used at language centers compared to textbooks used at primary schools in terms of nouns and proper names, pronouns, non-human character representations, and roles associated with males and females.