Research On Gender Consciousness In Chinese Textbooks For Primary Schools

With the reform and the pluralistic opening up of education,gender equity has become one of the major issues in education reform at home and abroad.The gender consciousness conveyed by textbooks has an important impact on the formation of children’s gender socialization and their self-identity.Although China’s basic education has undergone many years of reform and has made progress and development in many aspects,the traditional gender stereotypes still exist in textbooks,and the gender imbalance in textbooks has not been given enough attention.China is currently in a new round of textbook reform.Ministry-edited textbooks are being used nationwide.At present,there is a lack of systematic research on gender awareness in the mini-edits.Therefore,it is necessary to research and interpret the gender awareness in the textbooks.This article is divided into four parts:The introduction introduces the purpose and significance of the topic,the research status of textbook gender consciousness and the main research methods.The first chapter is "Frequency Analysis of Gender Awareness in Chinese Textbooks for Primary Schools".By using the frequency analysis method to analyze the gender of textbook title characters,text characters,and illustration characters,the frequency difference between the genders is compared.The study found that more male characters appear in textbook titles,texts,and illustrations than female characters,and the main characters are mostly males and females are supporting characters.The second chapter is "Analysis of Gender Awareness in Chinese Textbooks for Primary Schools".The research mainly uses the content analysis method to analyze the social roles and qualities of characters in textbooks.The gender ideology of textbooks is analyzed by comparing the differences between the gender professional roles,family roles,and character qualities.The results of the study found that gender stereotypes exist in the social roles of textbooks.The idea of“male outside,female inside”influences the choice of social roles in textbooks.Men are active in public life and women are active in private households field.The characterization of men and women in the text reflects the traditional mindset.The third chapter is "Conclusions and Recommendations".The third chapter is the concluding part of the research.After combing and analyzing the results of the previous two chapters,the conclusions are drawn: first,the number of gender figures in the textbooks increases gradually with the increase in grade;second,men dominate.Third,there are gender stereotypes in social division of labor,character,and behavior.The cause of this phenomenon is mainly affected by social history and editors’ weak gender awareness.It is suggested that the gender equality awareness of textbooks can be enhanced,the characterization of gender roles can be avoided,and the gender awareness of teachers can be improved.