Representation of gender in the two books "Mina 1" and "attarigh ilal Arabia"Books

It is important to pay attention to the relationship between language and gender and the key role of language education books in gender equality education. The present study deals with the representation and analysis of family and occupational roles in Persian and Arabic books. Initially, two books from the collection of Persian and Arabic language teaching books were selected: Mina1 and Attariq ila l-Arabiat. Then all the texts and pictures of these two books were studied line by line and all the pictures were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Then, the results were quantified using frequency and percentage in the form of tables and graphs. The results were then quantified using frequency and percentage in the form of charts and graphs. In Attariq ila l-Arabiat book, the frequency and amount of gender representation in all three indices were greater than in Mina1. In Attariq ila l-Arabiat book, the job roles, and even the family roles of men, were given greater prominence in both pictures and texts. The job roles of women and the images used for them were not mentioned in the books, or in the representation of some of the roles. But the results in general showed that in both books the frequency of the studied components is associated with imbalance.
Extended Abstract:
Educational books and especially language education books, that include the cultural aspects of different nations, transmit cultural and social values and attitudes to learners. The effects of books are sometimes directly and, in many ways, indirectly through topics, concepts and even images in the form of natural facts. These seemingly natural facts gradually make the necessary changes in the learners' attitudes and behaviors. Second language teaching books can act as a very important tool in the transmission of beliefs, values and cultures such as the issue of gender. Therefore, the representation of gender and both sexes in a fair way in educational books is very important and should be taken into consideration by the authors. The way gender is presented in textbooks can influence students' beliefs about their goals in the future. It is expected that educational books represent the language and culture of the target society according to the facts in the society and also away from any gender bias. It is also expected that educational materials reflect a kind of gender and social balance about both genders and use neutral language instead of denigrating one gender.
The present research studies the representation of family and career roles of men and women in Persian and Arabic books. First, two books were selected from among the Persian and Arabic language teaching books, named "Mina 1" and "Attariq ilal Arabiat". Then, all reading texts and pictures in these books were examined to analyze the representation of gender in them with both quantitative and qualitative methods.
In order to achieve this goal, the present study tries to answer the question of how the family and career roles of men and women have been represented in the two books "Mina 1" and "Attariq ilal Arabiat".
This research has used the method of content analysis based on two quantitative and qualitative models. A quantitative method has been used to collect and analyze explicit and direct themes, and a qualitative method has been used for implicit themes. Data collection was done using quantitative and qualitative methods. All images and texts of both books were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. In the quantitative section, data was collected using coding, then the percentages were determined and the results were shown in tables and graphs.
After analyzing these two books, we saw gender discrimination and inequality in the representation and presence of women in images and jobs. In other words, the results of this research show many examples of gender bias and stereotyping of the female gender, while the main focus in both books is on the male gender. We did not observe fair behavior between men and women. As the quantitative and qualitative analysis showed, women were less visible or in some cases invisible and excluded.
In the pictures section, the presence of men was more than women. Also, the results of this research indicate that men have appeared in various jobs such as: police, employee, manager, doctor, professor, engineer, etc., but the presence of women in both books is less frequent. If women are present in jobs outside the home, they are introduced only in a few unique and special jobs, jobs that are stereotyped and less important compared to male jobs; for example: teacher, nurse, housekeeper, secretary, etc. Therefore, in general, it can be said that the jobs introduced for the women are not very consistent with the current reality of the modern society of Iran and even Qatar. It was also seen that almost in both books, females were discussed in terms of doing household chores and in terms of playing the role of mother and wife, while they could show men doing some household chores too.
In addition, the present research shows that the two books "Mina 1" and "Attariq ilal Arabiat" not only suffer from gender imbalance, but men have been shown with a wider range of activities such as exercising, singing, acting, cycling and men's hobbies are reading, traveling or sports but women's hobbies are limited to shopping or cleaning the house.
The authors' suggestion for all Persian and Arabic language teachers is that although the current books may contain gender stereotypes, teachers can make critical remarks in their classes in addition to imparting knowledge and skills. Teachers can discuss gender in these books in order to give students a true and fair understanding of gender representation and to enhance their critical thinking skills.