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South -Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (SAJMS) ISSN:2349-7858:SJIF:2.246:Volume 4 Issue 4

SCHOOL TEXTBOOK AS THE AGENT OF GENDER CONSTRUCTION:

A STUDY OF THE SELECT NCERT PRIMARY TEXTBOOKS

Miss Arunima Kalita1

Introduction

Gender is the social construction created by the existing civilized society for the very purpose of

marking the differences between men and women. It is true that there are biological differences

between the two. But, whether such societal differences are necessary which in a real sense is the

cause of leading to so much of revolutions and all. Gender is already rooted in the society from

time immemorial; but in this present time of science and technology where education has a

dominant role and people have achieved the power of reasoning, it would have been eradicated

by now. In short, it can be said that, gender is actually a dirty politics that is being played all too

well by the society just to victimize the very freedom of the other sex, women.

Gender, according to Butler,

is by no means tied to material bodily facts but is

solely and completely a social construction, a fiction,

one that, therefore, is open to change and contestation:

“Because there is neither an „essence‟ that gender

expresses or externalizes nor an objective ideal to

which gender aspires; because gender is not a fact, the

various acts of gender creates the idea of gender, and

without those acts, there would be no gender at all.

Gender is, thus, a construction that regularly conceals

genesis”. That genesis is not corporeal but

performative, so that the body becomes its gender only

1 School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Cultural Studies, Tezpur University


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“through a series of acts which are renewed, revised

and consolidate through time”. (“Performative”: 273-

274)

Gender Bias, as the words suggest, means the prevailing gender gap or the existing solid

discrimination between both genders. Unlike, the term gender bias seeming as that simple

actually contains more-than-enough realize-able facts that are being now very constantly realized

by the people‟s‟ including all those very kind of debatable intellectuals. And this is playing the

enormous role of a sort of „earthquake‟, which in real is trembling up the so called male

domination, patriarchy more often. The day does not seem to be too far when everything, i.e.,

gender is going to be ultimately balanced on a such deeper level.

1.1. Social Agencies and Socialisation process.

Social agencies in general refers to the particular mediums and platforms through which all

forms of socialisation processes take place within the humans teaching the individuals to shape

up their ideological development and personality.

If we talk about social agencies especially in this context, then the very first agency influencing

gender upon kids will be the family where they are groomed up. Family provides the preliminary

environment where children are given the first discoursive lesson about gender difference.

Children get to see the existing difference for live, like in, the roles performed by their mother

and father in the private and public sphere respectively. Through this they learn to notice things

different about „man‟ and „woman‟. Kids are taught about their expected roles which are

assigned by the society through a process of socialisation and family is one of the first and

foremost social agencies which promote such ideologies. For instance, girls are supposed to play

with dolls and kitchen sets whereas boys are encouraged to play with balls, guns and toy cars.

This is where socialization process starts within them and in this way they begin to internalise

social norms and customs as individuals regarding his/her environment.

After family, it is the society which by every other means doesn‟t get tired of making the child

realize that he/she belongs to the supreme patriarchy and should always positively abide by its


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constructed rules and regulation, which are accordingly different for everyone. Here, it can be

seen that there is no discussion on the third gender is being made anywhere. They just remain in

utter darkness. So, the kids are also made to remain unaware about this third gender, due to

which, they too stay indifferent towards them when they get to be face to face with them. The

society not only teaches the kids about their difference in being a girl or a boy; they are also

taught of being very special kind of „lucky‟ different from that of the third gender; and this is

where again a different type of gender consciousness takes place amongst them.

Then, comes the religion. As we know, we have got too many religions and branches under it,

we can assume, in fact say that, there inside exists innumerable do‟s and don‟ts for both gender.

As for instance, we can take the example of Hinduism, where girls are considered impure simply

because they go through the monthly bleeding cycle, whereas boys are considered pure since

they do not have like these kind of biological problem. This is how religion symbolically teaches

kids about gender difference.

1.2. Education as an Agent for Social Construction.

After getting the required basic knowledge from one‟s own home, the child is sent to school for

the pursuance of further education. Schools are the most important institutes which tend to play

the all time active role as a social agent. Educational institutes are the exclusive places where the

child is thought to have been put in the most possible safest hands, i.e. of the teachers and is

expected the teachers to concretely shape the all round personality and development of the child.

But, the social institutes too are not free from the existing bias of the gender. These are all

included inside the square-planning of the patriarchy. And here from the very beginning itself,

children are taught about the differences among their gender roles through various stories and

activities, like of the games, leading to the permanent kind of imprint in their vulnerably-fresh

brains cum minds.

According to Blumberg “the school should actively and consciously further equal rights and

opportunities for men and women… The school has a responsibility to counteract traditional

gender roles.” (Blumberg2007in works cited-- Sweden 2006:3, in Rae Lesser)


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The evidence suggests that insufficient work is occurring in most

national educational systems to modify curriculum content,

textbooks, and teachers‟ skills and understanding of gender issues.

[Institutions such as governments and conservative religious

hierarchies] are reluctant to alter curriculum and practices [towards

gender equity]. [But] despite the weak attention to gender equity in

schooling, it may represent the strongest source of counter

messages to traditional norms learned in the family, community

and national media. (Stromquist 2007:40 cited in Blumberg)

Textbooks are the significant medium that plays an active role in educating children. They are

the main source of every information and teach them about what is tolerable, acceptable and

supported in a society. Textbooks are considered as the most reliable equipments that can in a

very smooth manner build up all the expected cum desirable attitudes and behaviours in children.

It is seen that the stuffs which are showcased in textbooks tend to affect the belief system about

certain things of children as they are nowadays most of the time kept exposed to it and these later

changes their behaviour in to the version that is considered the most appropriate one. Keeping

this in view, one can say that textbooks are the closest medium through which children learn to

conduct themselves in a particular pattern. Thus, it is important to note the ways in which men

and women are depicted in textbooks; as through this much pictured ways children will develop

themselves and their identities into man and woman in the society.

School Textbooks are considered to be one of the mediums which should do the job of

enlightening every young mind in a very active-fluent manner. But the exact whole irony lies

inside here. It is that, since all in this existing society is under the patriarchal format; textbooks

too are not the exception. That is, textbooks are not free from biases in terms of gender,

ethnicity, race etc., and therefore, it is not created innocently. So, with the job of enlightening

those „vulnerably fresh‟ minds, textbooks also do the job of imprinting gender biases cum

divisions in those young minds.


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1.3. Pedagogy and practices of pedagogical skills.

Pedagogy, a term, used to refer to the art and science of teaching-learning in total simple. It

means the skills that a teacher generally implements over the students to make them learn. This

does not end only with the classroom education, but is also involved with the all round

development of every individual student. The fact to note here is that, pedagogy should have

remained unbiased in the context of this gender thing, but could not. It is to be considered now

that, pedagogy, since being introduced, was and is continuing to practice under this gender-

dominant sphere.

It is like, these pedagogical practices by the teachers, are practiced upon the students (boys and

girls) in almost all the reverse way possible. As in, through this, the differences among the two

are imbibed swiftly in the psychic of the students from their very young stage (preparatory class).

“We are called upon to be wise. We are expected to hold truth dearly, to be

sincere and accurate… There is also, usually, an expectation that we have a good

understanding of the subjects we are consulted, and that we know something

about the way of the world. We are also likely to be approached for learning and

counsel if we are seen as people who have the ability to come to sound

judgements, and to help others to see how they should live their lives.” (Smith and

Smith 2008: 19 cited in Crawford)

A good teacher is one who could teach the students in a gender-friendly manner and ofcourse

with neutral judgements, if not in every aspect, but should certainly be in the must ones. And this

is what the “present world” is in utter need of.

This present study is to look upon at these very biases through a kind of open-wide perspective

with the thorough analysis of the selected textbooks.

1.4. Aims and Objectives.


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The present work tries to observe how gender is constructed in society and how school textbooks

can be the medium through which children can internalize different gender roles to be performed

being a member of a particular gender. This study has the following objectives :

To look at how gender is represented in school textbooks.

To look at the politics of writing school textbooks.

1.5. Review of Literature.

This essay „Demystifying Stereotypes in Textbooks and Teaching and Learning‟ some of the well

known myths and stereotypes impacting the overall status of girls and women are clearly

mentioned. Then, the discussion of education being the agent of basic change in the status of

women is done. And about how education would make women assertive and arrogant, and this

would make her defy traditions and customary practices. Then again, talks about the

representation of women in textual materials are done.

This essay ‘Gender Bias in Textbooks – A Hidden Obstacle on the Road to Gender Equality in

Education‟ by Rae Lesser Blumberg tends to talk about the Gender Biases that is there inside

the textbooks worldwide. Even some of the developing countries are included in the sighting.

The essay basically tries to catch the glimpses of the Gender Equity Goals in Education and their

very respective importances. Including ofcourse, the obstacles, that are in plain sight and

hidden. Then, eventually, discovering the Camouflaged Rock of Gender Bias in the textbooks of

countries like Syria, India and Romania along with discovering and combating the same in the

textbooks of the developed U.S. The essay also mentions some kinds of researches and certain

studies regarding this.

This essay ‘Gender and Curriculum’ by Dipta Bhog, explains about despite the explicit

commitment of policies from earlier government to provide an empowering education for

women and girls, the situation on the ground has still not improved. Traditional meanings of

the feminine and masculine are continuing to persist smoothly. She divides the article into two


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sections, the first part tends to look at how the core thrust of the National Curriculum

Framework might impact on the content of future education. Comparison of NCF done with the

19th century debates in colonial India about women’s education which reveals the new

discourse. And the second section will look at the vision and policy framework of the New

Education Policy of 1986 with regards to women education.

1.6. Method & Methodology.

The area for the present dissertation is basically the various NCERT textbooks of the primary

classes 1-4 of the subjects: English, Hindi, Mathematics and Environmental Sciences. It is based

on the textual Analysis method.

The dissertation is relying upon the basic theoretical aspects of pedagogy, in general, and school

textbooks, in particular. It is obvious that the gathered data are analysed from the feminist

perspective.

1.7. Chapterisation.

The present work has been divided into various chapters for the purpose of giving it a systematic

frame.

The first chapter is the Introduction, where a brief mention of the topic is talked about.

The second chapter is the Theoretical chapter where a broader discussion about Gender and

Social agencies of education is being made, where feminist pedagogy is discussed but the

implementation of it is not talked practically. Inside that, talking about the school textbooks as

the tool for gender construct and some facts about the NCERT is being done.

The third chapter includes the wide analysis of the NCERT primary textbooks that is collected

from the school. Here, the politics of writing and how gender is being represented in these


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textbooks will be talked about. And this is based solely on the primary data collected from the

school texts.

The fourth chapter is Conclusion, where the findings and the concluding remarks has been jotted

down.

1.8. Scope of the study.

The present study tries to observe the kind of gender roles and abouts that are there inside the

school textbooks. How all these are being taught to the students and how the students tend to

intake the teachings are put into notice. And through this, we can understand clearly that

textbooks were never aloof from the patriarchal influence and remained always active in

imparting the much gendered education to the students from over the early times. Moreover, we

also come across the gendered practice of pedagogy and the politics of writing textbooks where

once women were least involved. Then again, through all these very observances, the importance

of wiping out all these gendered practices and concepts have been felt somehow and somewhere.

Awareness is what is to be made aroused again in a more proper and possible way.

1.9. Limitation of the study

The present work even though aims at studying the gender bias that is there inside the primary

school textbooks, looking at every book of all the primary classes have had not been possible due

to the esteemed time limit. The work is carried out only with the collection of a certain limited

amount of books. Still the work tries to have the clear and understandable research within this

self made boundary.


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CHAPTER 2

GENDER AND SOCIAL AGENCIES OF EDUCATION


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CHAPTER 2

GENDER AND SOCIAL AGENCIES OF EDUCATION

2.1. Introduction.

Gender is a kind of accessible (let us say) and very widely used by us people in the society we

are rendering upon like literally. As because we are much aware of the fact that gender is nothing

but a „mere‟ social construction which has by the time immemorial succeeded in making the

people dance under its instructions. But in this present era, when the gendered question arises, it

is like we are all the time referring to the „women issues‟. To be neutral (just to say, may be)

„men issues‟ are getting in the list too very recently. If talking about gender in real, it is just the

defined definite roles that are being assigned to men and women respectively the moment they

take birth in this society. And if talking in the wider basis, gender is just the socio-cultural

division that is kind of directly or indirectly imposed upon men and women through the various

social norms to complete the confining divisions amongst them.

The main fact to be noticed here is that gender roles are totally different from the sex roles. Sex

roles are purely biological and are considered to be naturally given which can never be changed.

As for instance, it is the natural duty of the man to make the woman pregnant and it is the duty of

the woman to give birth to the baby and breastfeed. Gender roles are social and constructed to

mark the demarcation line between the two sexes and this has got the strong chances to be

changed through. As for instance, the woman should cook food for the man and do all the other

household chores all by herself along with looking after the whole house. While the man is given

the supreme right to take decisions without the consents of any other. These gender roles can

surely be changed and vary over time along with community to community.

This is actually the thing which carried over consciously or unconsciously by both teacher and

students to the classroom which expected to be gender free in nature. And school textbooks too

ought to carry the various gender elements through the images in a symbolic manner and also the

lessons which generally tend to carry more males than females in every other way which

becomes very effective in shaping up the minds of students.


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“Gender bias occurs when people make assumptions regarding behaviours,

abilities or preferences of others based upon their gender. Because there are

strong gender role stereotypes for masculinity and femininity, students who do not

match them can encounter problems with teachers and with their peers. For

example, the expectation is that boys naturally exhibit boisterous, unruly

behaviour, are academically able, rational, and socially uncommunicative,

whereas girls are quiet, polite and studious.” (Kathryn Scantlebury: Gender Bias

in Teaching)

2.2. School textbooks as the tool for gender construct.

It is usually assumed that the school textbooks are the only gender free areas by the help

of which teachers inculcate the basic „nutritional‟ education into the students. Now, with

the coming of the various gender inequality agendas, it is found that school textbooks are

nonetheless eliminated from these extracted issues.

Gender construction in school textbooks has been discussed and researched widely in quite a

serious tone in the academics by the second wave feminists in the 1970s and 1980s and now it

has come to be the point of utmost importance to be focused upon again. The second wave

feminists post-structuralists are the ones who brought out the existing gender bias that were all

the time to be precise existed in the children‟s school textbooks and even the storybooks they

tend to read. The main fact is that these textbooks intend to carry significantly more males and

females; also portraying the both in their assigned traditional gender roles. School textbooks till

date confidently carried these stereotypes in one way or the other. The following chapter will talk

about this thing a bit more clearly through the analysis of the collected data.

Gender bias in these school textbooks does matter, as it tends to provide the knowledge which is

actually the medium of power that shapes the students and they use it to form their own roles

along with individual perceptions about themselves and ofcourse the society. It is that the

textbooks do look quite very simple and easy to understand, but, if looked through the critical

eye pattern, then there from the books would pour out more than enough complexities regarding


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gender which never skips any moment to poison up the fresh vulnerable young minds. It is

obvious that the second wave feminists did the very right thing by bringing forward these points.

“It is an established fact that, along with parents, teachers, peers and television,

children‟s books contributes to how children understand what is expected of

females and males and shape how they think of their place in the social

structure.” (Hazir Ullah, Johar Ali, Arab Naz: Gender Representation in

Children‟s Books: A Critical Review of Empirical Studies)

As already stated, textbook knowledge is the powerful medium that shapes students and their

capability to think individually and if required group thinking too. These textbooks, to assume,

are the sole means that have the cultural heritage elements and gender, which, the students read

thoroughly to learn what they need to and are interested to. The books also contain well

explained texts and image illustrations that develop the students‟ thought model. Books again

make the students learn about what is good and bad, how to differentiate between them, the

beautiful and the hideous, truth and lies, what they can attain through their unique abilities

through the various moral related stories, illustrations; polishing up their behaviours and plays

the major part in constructing the gender identity.

“Bronwyn Davies argues that through [textbooks] stories, „children learn to constitute

themselves as bipolar males or females with the appropriate patterns of power and desire‟.”

(ibid)

School textbooks makes the students realize about the esteemed roles they are assigned by the

society and expected to perform in front of the society accordingly. As in the language of Judith

Butler, gender is a kind of performance inside which an individual agent acts and the society

becomes the audience.

She states that, “gender is not a radical choice… [nor is it] imposed or inscribed upon the

individual”. She further suggests that, “our concept of gender is seen as natural or innate because

the body „becomes its gender through a series of acts which are renewed, revised, and

consolidated through time‟.” She argues that, “the performance of gender itself creates gender.”

(source: Wikipedia)


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As the author of the essay named, Demystifying Stereotypes in Textbooks, Teaching and

Learning, tries to explain, women are half the population of the world and are contributing 2/3rds

of the world‟s working hours, out of where they are earning only a meager amount of 1/3rd

of the

total income and upon which owning less than 1/10th

of the world‟s resources. It is seen that

women throughout the past are always neglected and marginalized in every other domains even

though they are struggling enough hard to contribute in order to meet the existing demands. The

reason to be blamed for this is that in the 19th

and 20th

centuries, there were certain notional

beliefs, some of which till this day continue to exist. It is that educating girl child was not at all

given importance as she was least expected to be the prime bread earner of the family. Then, it is

believed that educating the girl would make her arrogant and revolutionary and this would

further definitely make her defy traditions along with the vivid customary practices of the time.

Education would cause early-sudden widowhood was a kind of strong belief. Thus, the

institutions of formal education, i.e. the pathshalas and madrassas included the curriculums that

least tends to help with the lives of girls and women. Instead the curriculum was purely meant

for the men. Education for girls and women acquired the central stage and witnessed by the post-

independent India as a positive change. The Directive Principles as contained in Article 45 of the

Constitution commenced compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14

years. Furthermore, the 1986 Policy on Education rehearsed the responsibility of the government

for making education a basic tool for women empowerment by deleting all the possible biases

and stereotypes that is affecting the overall stratum of women. The Programme of Action 1992

tried doing the same. Women are highly under-represented in the disciplines such as Social

Sciences, Science, Maths and Languages; as shown up in the studies done by Srivastava Gouri,

(2005, 2006, and 2009) Jaireth, Sushma (2001) and the Department of Women Studies, NCERT.

Even if the girls are included in the books, they are shown in household related roles such as

cleaning, cooking, washing, etc. While men are all the time showcased as brave, courageous,

outgoing, etc. For making textbooks gender inclusive, it is important to show that women are no

less than men in any context. It has become important to bring out the stories of women who are

now working as astronauts as like Kalpana Chawla, then doctors, politicians as like Indira

Gandhi, police persons as like Kiran Bedi, etc. to prove that these positions are no longer under

the male domain. Even the language used in textbooks should be made gender friendly. Before


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ensuring all these, the teaching and learning processes must be an effective medium for the

promotion of gender justice, harmony and peace; gestures should also be taken into notice.

2.3. Feminist Pedagogy.

The concept feminist pedagogy originated in the 1980s as a means to develop new teaching

models which could challenge the dominant educational approaches (Crabtree & Saap 2002:

131-140). Feminist pedagogy is a form of critical pedagogy and aligns itself with other forms of

critical pedagogy such as race, ethnicity, class, post-colonialism, and globalization. It is

grounded in the critical theories of learning and teaching, and facilitates participatory learning,

validates personal experience, encourages social understanding and activism, and develops

critical thinking and open-mindedness (Hoffmann & Stake 1998: 79-97) [cited in Sonja

Schoeman]

Feminist pedagogy is a way of thinking about teaching and learning, rather than a prescriptive

method. As such, it is used in different ways and for differing purposes within and across

disciplines and learning environments. Definitions of feminist pedagogy vary widely, but there is

common agreement on these three key tenets:

Resisting hierarchy: In the learning environment, the teacher figure and students work

against the creation of a hierarchy of authority between teacher and student; the students

also deliver „content‟ and influence the design of the class.

Using experience as a resource: As well as using traditional sources of information, such

as academic journals and books, the students‟ and teachers‟ own experiences are used as

„learning materials‟. The purpose of using experience as a resource is twofold: firstly,

experiences which have not been documented in academic work are brought into

discussion, and secondly the class participants experience transformative learning…

Transformative learning: Feminist pedagogy aims for the class participants

(students and teachers) not just to acquire new knowledge, but for their thinking to shift

in new directions. This may involve the realization that personal interpretations of

experience or of social phenomena can be re-read and validated in new, critical

ways.(source: www.genderandeducation.com/resources/pedagogies/feminist-pedagogy/)


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Author Carolyn M Shrewsbury in her article, What is Feminist Pedagogy? states about

three concepts namely Empowerment, Community and Leadership that tends to give deep

level understanding in feminist pedagogy. Their explanations -

Empowerment: By focusing on empowerment, feminist pedagogy embodies a concept of

power as energy, capacity, and potential rather than as domination. This is an image of

power as the glue holding a community together, giving the people the opportunity “to

act, to move, to change conditions, for the benefit of the whole population”. Under

traditional conceptions of power as domination, justice requires that limits be placed on

power and that a balance of power be achieved in order to mitigate the results of

domination. Under conceptions of power as capability, the goal is to increase the power

of all actors, not to limit the power of some. Thus a view of power as creative community

energy would suggest that strategies be developed to counteract unequal power

arrangements. Such strategies recognize the potentiality for changing traditional unequal

relationships. Our classroom need not always reflect an equality of power, but they must

reflect movements in that direction.

Community : Our decisions about what we image as community influence the ways in

which we construct systems of power. But to talk about community, one needs to re-

examine the gendered nature of traditional classrooms. The work of Carol Gilligan on

moral development provides insights for reconceptualising community. Gilligan

identifies differences in the moral development of boys and girls and the moral

conceptions of men and women. Women seek to build connections. They seek to

maintain connections that have been built. Relationships are more than a set of

interactions among people. They are the web of existence. For men, the importance of

separation results in the creation of rules as the web of existence. Relationships with

individual people are less important than the fabric of rules. The tragedy is that men in

power have built a society that in its public aspects reflects only the morality of rights

side of the tension. Within the classroom too, the morality of rights is dominant. By and

large, students participate in our classes as individuals, taking little responsibility for the

class as a whole. The classroom has a set of rules about fairness and equity but little

consideration of differences in need. The rights of others in the classroom are respected,


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but little compassion and care is structured into the classroom. At the core of feminist

pedagogy is a re-imaging of the classroom as a community of learners where there is both

autonomy of self and mutuality with others that is congruent with the developmental

needs of both women and men. There are many advantages to creating such a classroom.

Learning is enhanced in such environments. For too long, community has been seen as

either the polar opposite of autonomy or as the rather weak conception of an aggregate of

individuals together because of some shared formality like geographic boundaries.

Feminist pedagogy includes teaching strategies that are based on a reconceptualization of

community with a richness that includes the autonomy and individuality of members who

share a sense of relationship and connectedness with each other.

Leadership : Leadership in its liberatory aspect as an active element of praxis is the third

crucial concept in feminist pedagogy. Leadership is the embodiment of our ability and

our willingness to act on our beliefs. Feminist pedagogy focuses on the development of

leadership. For example, who take part in developmental goals and objectives for a

course learn planning and negotiating skills. They also learn how to develop an

understanding of and an ability to articulate their needs. They learn how to find

connections between their needs and needs of others. They learn about groups and about

the different leadership tasks in groups and take different leadership roles throughout the

course period. When things aren‟t working in the classroom, they learn how to analyze

the problem and how to find alternatives. And the skill of the students as leaders helps all

of this works more smoothly and effectively. Leadership is a special form of

empowerment that empowers others. The feminist teacher is above all a role model of a

leader. She/he has helped members of the class develop a community, a sense of shared

purpose, a set of skills for accomplishing that purpose, and the leadership skills so that

teachers and students may jointlyproceed on those tasks. There is a dynamic between

leadership and followership, and effective leaders under the more modern sense of

leadership are also effective followers. Between the two is a morality based upon

responsibility. Individuals are responsible for their acts within the context in which they

have freedom to act. They have responsibility arising out of the relationships they have

with those with whom they share a community. The students‟ and teacher‟s joint

responsibility for the successful conclusion of a class emphasizes the moral nature of


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leadership and followership activities. This is a very different perception of the classroom

that where teachers have responsibility for teaching and students for learning with the

implication that each is at least partially independent. It emphasizes the moral nature of

choices within a community and the necessity for agency by community members.

Leadership then is logically and intuitively connected to community and empowerment

by providing the active mechanism for achieving the empowered community and for that

community to continue to be effective within the broader world. It suggests that change

does not take place magically but by the active exercise of agency, whether directed at

ourselves or at structures.

(source: www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40003432.pdf)

2.4. About the National Council of Educational Research and Training.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training was established in New Delhi on 1st

September 1961, for providing academic support in improving the quality of school education in

India. It is the academic adviser to the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the

Government of India. It is concerned with all problems of school education in the country, and

endeavors to improve such education through developing various programmes of research,

publication, extension training. NCERT also provides technical advice to states as to how to

improve the standard of state science exhibitions and their exhibits for national science

exhibitions. The success of the NCERT depends upon the extent to which it gains the confidence

of the entire country and gets accepted by the professional groups of various states in the field of

school education. The impact of NCERT textbooks on the classroom has been tremendous.

The establishment of NCERT in 1961 was a major step taken for the development of school

education which involves teacher education also. Amongst the significant contributions of

NCERT are:

Revamping of Elementary and Secondary Teacher education curriculum.

Reorganizing of student teaching and evaluation.

Institution of All India surveys on teacher education.


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Focus on continuing education of teachers through establishments of centers of

continuing education.

Recognition to contributions to education by outstanding school teachers and teacher

educators through a scheme of national awards.

Objectives of NCERT :-

To launch, organize and strengthen research works in various aspects of education.

To ensure success of the process, a good number of curricular/learning materials have to

be brought out by the NCERT.

To arrange for pre-service and in-service training at the higher level.

To provide guidance and counseling services on large scale.

To establish a National Institute of Education and manage for the development of

research and higher training for educational administration and teachers.

To publish necessary textbooks, journals and other literature for achieving the objectives.

To organize extension centers in training institutes with the cooperation of state

governments and extend facilities pertaining to new methods and technologies among

them.

Functions of NCERT :-

Develops curriculum, instructional and exemplar materials, methods of teaching,

techniques of evaluation, teaching aids, kits and equipments, learning resources, etc.

To monitor the administration of NIE/Regional colleges of education.

To prepare and publish study material for students and related teacher‟s handbooks.

Organizes pre-service and in-service training of teachers, teacher educators and other

educational personnel;

To undertake aid, promote and coordinate research in all branches of education for

improving school education.

Conducts and promotes educational research.

To search talented students for the award of scholarship in science, technology and social

sciences.

Disseminates improved educational techniques and practices and research findings.


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To undertake functions assigned by the Ministry of Education for improving school

education.

Acts as a cleaning house for ideas and information on all matters relating to school

education and teacher education.

(source: educational-system.blogspot.in/2013/02/role-of-ncert-in-promoting-quality-of.html)

2.5. Controversies regarding NCERT textbooks.

Lately, in these recent years, NCERT seems to be in the top news for its various controversies.

Like in the history textbooks, then in the books regarding majority hinduised contents and then

regarding the politically alleged cartoons in political science textbooks.

NCERT is being accused of supportively publicizing the views of the political party (BJP) in

power. It is that the analyzing committee points out the fact of books being influenced mostly by

saffroniz-ed standpoints. Then the Medieval Indian History textbook of class 7 is criticized for

focusing upon too much Muslim viewpoints and cared too little attention upon the vast Hindu

heritage. The critics also say that through Hindutva attitude, promotion of communalizing history

textbooks has been made.

The curriculum of NCERT is often riddled with controversies. Either the great

revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh are insulted by referring to them as „terrorists‟

or a distorted history is taught. Out of the 154 pages of the history text book of 7th

standard, most of the pages have been dedicated to the information on Mughals

and other Muslim kings who had invaded Hindustan, whereas the history of

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who fought the foreign Mughal aggressors and

established Hindu state was concluded in just 4 lines. We are giving here the

examples from the textbook to make the topic clear. Not only this, the books

contains pictures of kings of 16th century like Babar, Akbar etc. but there is not a

single picture of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj who ruled in the 17th century.

(source: www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/distortion-of-history/school-

textbooks/ncert-textbook-controversy)

http://www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/distortion-of-history/school-textbooks/ncert-textbook-controversy

http://www.hindujagruti.org/hindu-issues/distortion-of-history/school-textbooks/ncert-textbook-controversy


60


The history of Assam remains always absent in the mainstream history textbooks. Even

though the mention of Sankardev is found, but ends up in four lines that says him to be a

saint of the Vaishnava cult of Assam. Then, nowhere in these books, the glorious history

of the Ahom kingdom is found. Overall, Assamese people are depicted living in the

jungles in these books. Recently there has been a news of including the major history of

the region in the textbooks in a proper described manner.

The political science textbooks of class 11 too are rocking up the recent controversies.

There are heated debates going on in the academics as well as in the political sphere

regarding a cartoon related to Bhimrao Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and the constitution

that is there in the mentioned textbook. If noticed carefully it is not creating any political

chaos instead as said by the authors of this book, it was just depicting the living

atmosphere that prevailed right after the independence. There are many cartoons spotted

in the textbook that are alleged of carrying political chaos and are presently banned.


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CHAPTER 3

SCHOOL TEXTBOOK AS GENDERED SPACE: A

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS


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CHAPTER 3

SCHOOL TEXTBOOK AS GENDERED SPACE: A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

3.1. Introduction.

As to find out the proposed objectives in the selected primary school textbooks, there needs to be

a particular proper way to do the work. So, the researcher collected certain subjects where there

is a secure possibility to establish the earlier established assumption of pointing out the biases.

Severely careful analyses of the texts have been done through the feminist eye, as like, reading of

the books thoroughly then spotting the gender content inside that. Gender content here actually

refers to the controversial representation of women in textbooks through the various exercises,

illustrations and images.

3.2. The politics of writing textbooks.

Straightaway, it is to be noted that there lies behind certain politics that is strictly followed while

writing textbooks. And these politics is found to be more of a male friendly nature. It is that the

texts tend to follow the androcentric viewpoint and masculine interests. Here, what the feminist

methodology tries to do is that, overcoming these androcentric concepts along with making it

invisible further. The concept of performativity is exclusively found in the school textbooks and

this is the sole thing that is responsible for generating the various gender understandings in those

vulnerable minds. Then, again, other than these two heterosexuals, no mention about the LGBT

is made in the textbooks and this shows how in an extreme way the „normal‟ society is

discriminating them in all possible spheres. This is 21st century and it is this time when the world

is entering the utmost level of advancement, technology, ideological wars and modernity, where

everyone is getting to step ahead in the developed phase, then how come these textbooks are

keeping the kids uninformed about the third gender despite knowing the fact that these young

minds are the ones who will take forward this newly better developed society.


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Earlier, every kind of books including textbooks were authored by men. As of men used to be the

educated cum literate ones in the society. Women were not expected to be educated and write

books, instead, they were kept indulged in household chores. Even then, there existed literate

women from the higher social strata who used to author various books but most of them

remained under hidden names (where male names were often made into use). In this context, we

can take into account the point which Virginia Woolf focused mostly in her very popular article,

A Room of One‟s Own. It is where she talked about why women do not write and are not

expected to prosper in writing by the society. After much of a discussion she came up with the

reason behind this phenomenon; which states that women are deprived of having a personal

space and no economic security of their own as they are always kept confined to the private

domain and not allowed to earn their resources by working in the public domain. To write, a

woman needs money and a free space of her own to make start of her ongoing thought process,

where at least for some time she could stay fully undisturbed by the household. It is in the 1960s

when post structuralism began leading to the utter breakage of the great canon, after which the

women writers of the educated section came out of their hidden male names and started

publishing their own write ups confidently putting their real names as the author. Now, in the

present day, we are getting to see many women authoring and contributing in all fields of

knowledge. This is indeed a very positive outlook, but, even then there tends to exist

androcentrism in some female writer‟s work which is leading to the existing bias in gender.

3.3. Figuring the Gender Content through the exercises, illustrations and informative

images.

The texts collected do contain these gender contents which are reflected mostly in the

illustrations and images. It is seen that these NCERT textbooks are going through some sort of

controversies regarding its role in promoting gender discrimination among the students via texts

in the recent years. And somehow it seems that, NCERT is still following the same tool. It will

be a total wrong saying that the present books only contain divisions; but in some books, the

light to gender equality is being focused and shown. It is observed that the textbooks of the

selected subjects that are used for the present work contain relevant informations regarding the

established objectives to understand the problem in a better sense.


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(a) English

Class 1

Figure 1.

The first chapter „A Happy Child‟ does not seem to contain any sort of gender content in

particular as the name itself suggests a gender friendly explanation and it is. Though it is found

to be gender inclusive, but the main bias is spotted in the “Let‟s Read” section, where there is a

question: „Read and match the words with the pictures‟, there is these two figures of one girl and

a boy asking the students to draw line matching „I am a boy‟ or „I am a girl‟. Through this one

can clearly point out primary textbooks play a clever role in making the students construct

among themselves the gender concept.


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Figure 2. Figure 3.

The third chapter „After a Bath‟ is a poem that narrates the simple feeling of a child that came up

after his/her bath, which is actually gender friendly from every other sides as the mention of the

child as a he or a she is nowhere mentioned. It is just the image of the little boy drying himself

with a towel that makes it a total androcentric one. Now, in the “Let‟s Share” section, there is

this question „Do you wear these things?‟, showing along the images of clothing, namely, shirt,

trousers, cap, belt, socks and shoes asking the students to match the words with the pictures

stated. What is to be noted here is that the word „you‟ and the clothes among all the students

referred only to the boys signifying again the patriarchal influence. In the “Let‟s Do” section, the

question, „Match the following to make pairs‟, seems to contain again the images of boys‟ stuffs

namely, shorts, shirt, bat, shoes, socks, ball along with the images of needle, bowl, thread and

spoon which generally seem not having any intention of showing gender. Ironically, it does in a

very witty way. By the boys‟ stuff, we straightaway get what that actually tends to mean. But

through the other four images not relating to the boys, indirectly tries to signify the home-maker

part in girls. What is mainly questionable here is that, why nothing about girls is equally

mentioned (empowering things though); be it through these exercise questions or even the

images.


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Figure 4.

The thirteenth chapter „Murali‟s Mango Tree‟ is a simple story about Murali who ate a mango

one day and threw the seed behind his house. Monthslater he saw a sapling grow and watered

everyday which then grew up to be a big mango tree producing plenty every summer.In the

narration, nothing seems to contain any sort of gender difference but the picture of Murali sitting

under the tree with his family distributing mangoes among them symbolically depicts male being

the head in every sphere.

Figure 5. Figure 6.


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The seventeenth chapter „The Tiger and the Mosquito‟ is a story of a tiger who was dozing under

a tree got disturbed by a buzzing mosquito. The point to be noted here is that the author gendered

the tiger as a „he‟. Another noticeable thing is in the last dialogue said by the mosquito which

goes like this “Don‟t be so proud my friend. Everyone is great in his own way.” This „his‟ is

found to be creating quite a bias, as it could have been made all better and unbiased by stating a

„their‟. So, through this it is observed that how language is used in a biased manner, i.e.,

indicating men solely.

Figure 7. Figure 8.

The twentieth chapter „Flying-Man‟ is a poem of a little boy asking the flying man to take him

along up in the sky. The point here is that men are all the time showcased in the form of a rescuer

or the superman kind of brave savior while women are depicted as caring and loving fairies

fulfilling every desire. Sometimes women could also be depicted in the form of some

superwoman let‟s say. Then, in the “Say Aloud” section, there is this question, „What shall I be

when I grow up?‟ Under this, there the pictures of an artist, an astronaut, a sailor, a dentist, a

doctor, a farmer, a pilot, a postman, a tailor and a teacher are given; and these all are representing

what occupation a girl can go for and what job a boy can go for indirectly, i.e., what actually the

society‟s norms wants them to go for. It is very disturbing to see that women are depicted only in

two occupations, a teacher and a doctor whereas all the other occupations are depicted by men.


68


CLASS 2

Figure 9. Figure 10. Figure 11.

The sixth chapter „The Wind and the Sun‟ is a story about the competition between the sun and

the wind in terms of strength. For this they try their respective powers of blowing air and heat

upon a man walking down the road. This narration is gender specific as it is found to be male

centered. Then again, both the sun and the wind are gendered as „he‟. In the “Let‟s Think”

section, there is this picture of a boy trying to forcefully snatch away a fellow girl‟s book. The

point to be noted here is that, the boy is been shown physically strong and was being harder over

the girl; and this is a very disturbing illustration as the girl is depicted to be the weaker gender.

Figure 12.


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The eleventh chapter „Mr. Nobody‟ is a poem about a person who does mischief in everybody‟s

house and no one gets to see his face. The name of the text itself indicates that it is containing

male centered-ness. Here another thing creating bias is that every time in terms of mischief,

males are allegedly depicted whereas in general, females too are equally mischievous but are

rarely represented like this.

Figure 13.

There is this poem inside this same chapter named “The Zigzag Boy” is about a little boy who

puts everything in a messy way and forgets. The poem‟s name itself directly says that it is

revolving around androcentrism. The stereotypical fact of men being careless and irresponsible is

presented in this text, thus depicting bias. It also points out that, as if men are born in this world

to make mistakes.


70


Figure 14-15.

The twelfth chapter „Curlylocks and Three Bears‟ is a story of a little girl who went to the forest

and entered the cottage of a bear family. The girl ate all the porridge that was there in the baby

bear‟s bowl and went asleep in the bed of baby bear‟s upstairs. It is found that this story is

revolving around a girl. Then again the three mentioned bears are accordingly gendered as „he‟

and „she‟ to symbolize a family. Then in context to the bowls of porridge that were respectively

addressed to the three bears, what is found noticeable is that the papa bear is given the big bowl

which indicates the traditional fact of male being the head of the family. These points together

are indicating towards the existing inequality between both the genders.


71


Figure 16.

The seventeenth chapter „Granny Granny Please Comb My Hair‟ is a poem about a little girl and

her caring grandmother. The text is found to be female centered which is depicting the loving

and caring side of women along with them being assigned mostly to the private domain.

Figure 19. Figure 18.

The twentieth chapter „The Grasshopper and the Ant‟ is a story about a lazy grasshopper and a

hard working ant. This story too is found to contain gender elements as both these insects have

been gendered as „he‟ and „she‟ and somewhat hinted at the traditional fact that women are tend

to be more active in work than that of men.


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CLASS 3

Most of the chapters here are found to be gender inclusive but they are not indicating towards

any sort of gender bias as inside the narrations. Here the children are equally represented in

terms of having harmonious relationship with nature as in the chapters, Good Morning and The

Magic Garden. Even then, out of those most chapters, majority are spotted to be androcentric,

thus, again leading the very way to gender bias. It is not that, the book is not having any female

centric chapters, but it is quite less. The name of the chapters that are found androcentric –

Sea Song

A Little Fish Story

The Balloon Man

The Yellow Butterfly

Puppy and I

Don‟t Tell

He is my brother

The name of the chapters that are found female centric –

Nina And The Baby Sparrows

Little tiger, big tiger

My Silly Sister

In terms of politics of representation, it is found that the women depicted in this book are shown

in the private sphere whereas the men are all depicted in the public sphere. Even if they are

shown in some instances, they are found only to be the medium, as like buying things or

collecting a postcard.The same repetition in case of occupational representation is found as in the

chapter „Flying Man‟ of class 1 textbook depicting men in variety of jobs but women still

confined to doctor, nurse or teacher.

CLASS 4


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The third chapter „Noses‟ is a poem about a girl who is looking at the mirror staring at her nose

as she finds the nose to be very funny. Nothing is found to be of bias here in the narrative. But in

the “Let‟s Sing” section of this chapter, there is this question:

„Sing this song and march as you sing. When you come to ginger, take two steps back and say

2-3. Then start again.

There was a girl.

So tall and thin and fair.

Her hair, her hair was the delicate shade of ginger.‟

The thing to be noted here is that, the above stanza seems to promote the patriarchal set standard

of beauty and this is quite disturbing.


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The tenth chapter „Helen Keller‟ is a story about a great personality who is deaf and blind.

Despite being handicapped, how she learnt her words and tried knowing the world is brought up

in the story. Here, no discrimination is spotted but is found to be female centric. The thing to

note is that through this story, children are taught to respect every individual and are encouraged

to achieve their dreams come what may in the way.


The thirteenth chapter „The Milkman‟s Cow‟ is a story about a cow sitting in the road in a bad

mood and not at all moving even after so much trying and praying of many men, but only moved


75


by herself when a little boy offered it to have grass. It is found that the animal is being gendered

as a „she‟ and the narrative is not containing any bias. It is only in the “Fun Time” section, where

there is a question, „Complete what is missing in these drawings. What work do these men or

women do?‟ is found creating the bias. Even after the mentioning women directly in the

question, there in the picture no image of women is found.



Overall, it is found that this book is containing less bias as in the narratives but in terms of

representation be it through the images or in the context of male centric/female centric chapters,

men are again depicted overtaking the women indicating the greater patriarchal influence. The

chapters like Hiawatha and the Scholar‟s Mother Tongue are showing the intelligence of men,

but nowhere in the book is any chapter where intelligence in women is shown indicating women

to be not having the working brain as it was earlier assumed in the society.


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(b) Hindi

CLASS 1

Figure 31. Figure 32. Figure 33. Figure 34.

The seventh chapter „Rasoighar‟ is a poem about the knives, utensils and other „instruments‟ of

the kitchen talking to each other of the services they provide. This text itself is suitable to be

considered as a stereotype as it tends to show the kids that these are the things to be handled only

by the females; like in the section “Kaam hi Kaam” we get to see a picture of a woman depicting

the traditional role of women staying in the kitchen cooking. Then in pages 54-55 of the book,

there are two pictures; in one of them a woman is shown again remaining confined to cooking

and in the second picture a grandmother is shown starring at a photo frame while a boy is shown

gleaning rice. Now, what is to note here is that generally males are very rarely shown working in

private domain and this image showing the opposite is somewhat countering the established

norm.


77


Figure 35.

The eleventh chapter „Patang‟ is a poem about kites, how it flies in the air and cuts off other kites

to the ground. The kids who are shown flying the kites are all boys while a girl is just shown

standing with one of the boys and looking happily at the kite he was flying indicating kite-flying

to be a male game.


The twelfth chapter „Gend-Balla‟ is a story about a bat and a ball where the ball asks the bat why

it beats the ball. The bat replies if the ball is not beaten, then how will the game be played. This

narration is found to be fulfilling the concept of male centered-ness as the game of cricket is

considered to be played by males. Just to add, nowadays, females too play cricket.


78



The fourteenth chapter „Ek Burhiya‟ is a simple poem about an old lady who had no name and

had nothing work to do. The narration is not at all having any kind of bias as it seems. But the

picture that is shown along is surely depicting all the women in socially established household

chores among which there is an image of a lady who is just lying and doing nothing and this

must be the „burhiya‟ as described in the text. In the section, “Kaam karo kuch kaam karo” there

are these two questions:

Tumhare ghar mein sabse zyaada kaam kaun karta hai?

Tumhare ghar mein sabse zyaada aaram kaun karta hai?

In answer to these both questions children are more likely to say mother for the first one and

father for the second one. As because, they see their mother work 24/7 whereas their father who

goes for work only in the daytime and after returning he gets enough time to rest.

Figure 40.


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The eighteenth chapter „Choti Ka Kamaal‟ is a poem about two brother-sisters, where the brother

says himself to be a fit and healthy being and compares his sister with him saying that she is too

thin and weightless; then later, when they sat on a see-saw the arrogant brother got to know the

benefit of being weightless. The thing to be noticed here is that in the narration exists a

discrimination regarding the representation of the girl being malnourished and the boy being

nourished in a much better way.

CLASS 2


The second chapter „Bhaalu ne kheli Football‟ is a story about a bear who in order to get warm in

the cold thought of playing football with the cub that was in a coiled-up-ball form sleeping under

a tree. The narrative is found androcentric but is not containing any sort of bias. The bias that is

observed is in the exercise, “Thand se bachna” section where there is a question „Bhaalu ne

thand se bachna ke liye football khelne ki baat sochi. Tum thand se bachna ke liye kya kya karti

ho?‟ It is that the word „karti‟ is found emphasizing only upon a single gender among the

students; whereas instead of the word „karti‟ „karte‟would have been more catchy and bias free.

Thus, discrimination through language is again spotted.


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The third chapter „Myau Myau‟ is a poem about a little girl who took revenge from a rat that cut

the nose of her doll while she was asleep, by making the sound of cat. This narrative is female

centric and no bias is found inside. It is in the other sub-story named „Billi kaise rehne aayi

aadmi ke sang‟ where enough of bias through traditional gender role is spotted. What the story

depicts is that the cat (she) used to live with her first cousin brother, the lion in the jungle and

helped him by doing all the household work he instructed her to do. The thing to note here is that


81


the male is shown being dominant over the female, that is, the stereotypical notion of women

being the inferior and men being the superior is carried out here.

Figure 49.

The sixth chapter „Bahut Hua‟ is a poem about the excessive rain that is irritating the children.

This is an androcentric narration as is evident from the stanzas „baadal bhaiyya‟ „suraj dada‟. The

text was not containing gender bias until the last stanza „tum bhi bhaiyya karo duwa‟ is found

addressing only the male students; thus created the discrimination.


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CLASS 3

Figure 50-51.

Figure 52-53.


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The fifth chapter „Bahadur Bitto‟ is a Punjabi folk tale about a farmer‟s wife who saved her

husband and their cattle from the lion very cleverly. The narration is female centric and is not

containing any bias. What is to note here is that, even though, she is depicted in the stereotypical

role of house maintaining, her wit cum intelligence is kept in the main focus and the reverse is

shown in terms of being the savior.

CLASS 4

Figure 54-55.

Figure 56-57


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The tenth chapter „Thappa Roti Thappa Daal‟ is a story about a group of children who were

staging a play. In the play, they were shown playing a game named „Roti Ka Khel‟. The story is

not containing any bias and is revolving around both the genders equally. It is that in the play

boys are depicted cooking as equally as the girls are shown. The thing to notice is that males are

very rarely pictured in cooking games, but in this text, this stereotype is shown breaking.

(c) Mathematics

CLASS 1

Figure 58. Figure 59. Figure 60. Figure 61.

The first chapter „Shapes and Spaces‟ seems to pervade gender elements more often. Like in the

“Inside-Out” section, the narration is all male centered. Then in the “On-Under Above-Below”

section, there is this picture, where representation of women is again in the traditionally allotted

works. In the Wise Grandmother section, both the sheep are again gendered as a „he‟ and a „she‟

irrespective of being confirmed about their sexes.


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The second chapter „Numbers from One to Nine‟ like the previous chapter is found revolving

around males and hence leading to the existing bias. Here, representation through images in the

examples cum figures, female counts (15) and males count (48); this is signifying a huge

difference along with indicating the over ongoing patriarchy. Then in the section “Eight”, there is

this picture of a female teacher teaching the students. What is to note here is that, equal

representation of both the girl and boy students is done which is imparting the message of equal

access to education for both the genders. Again in the section “Nine”, there is this picture of

several men sitting under a tree having some serious discussions. The point noticeable here is

that, this picture is wittily indicating about women who never participate or allowed to

participate in serious discussions as per the rules of the society.

Figure 65.

The third chapter „Addition‟ is found having the same discrimination regarding the

representation of females in examples and illustrations as compared to males. In this chapter, the

female images count (19) and male images count (21). Then in the section “How many


86


altogether?” There are images of shirts referring to the dress code of males. The point to note

here is that, these sorts of illustrations are signifying the male centered-ness.


The fifth chapter „Numbers from Ten to Twenty‟ in the section “Addition”, there are these two

questions:

Rahul has 8 pencils. Sonu has 7 pencils. How many pencils do they have together?

Farida plucked 4 apples. Sita plucked 6 apples. Both put them together. How many

apples are there together?

Through this, what we find is that both the genders are equally represented here. Then, in the

section “Subtraction”, there are these two questions:

Sohan‟s mother brought 9 bananas from the market. She gave 4 bananas to Sohan. How

many bananas was she left with?

Rahim had 8 flowers. He put 3 flowers in a vase. How many flowers was he left with?

Unlike, the previous section, here the representation of gender is not done equally.


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The sixth chapter „Time‟ there is this story named “Sampada‟s Day” where in 7 lines, the

activities Sampada do in a day is described along with illustrations. What is noticeable here is

that this narration is found to female centered. In the questions:

Tick the activities that you do in the morning.

Tick the activities that you do in the evening.

Tick the activities that you do in the day.

Tick the activities that you do in the night.

There are equal illustrations of all the activities performed by both the genders. Then in the other

question: „Number the activities in sequence‟ there are these pictures of a little girl having her

meal, along with five other pictures of a man kneading flour and lighting the hearth. The point

that is being directly reflected here is that, in general, always the opposite is shown; that is, a

woman would have been shown kneading the flour, lighting the hearth and a little boy eating his

meal. It is that a man is shown breaking the stereotype and doing the work of private domain.


88



The twelfth chapter „Money‟ does seem to contain bias as spotted in the representation through

images. Then in the section “Discuss with your friend and guess the price” there is these

illustration of boys‟ stuffs like trousers, a cricket bat, and a kite which is indirectly depicting the

point of male centered-ness.

CLASS 2


The third chapter „How Much Can You Carry?‟ is an exercise about weight calculation. In the

section “How much can Simran carry?” a daughter is depicted helping her father in moving


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things from the store to the kitchen. The thing to note here is that girls are shown involved in

work with the male head.

CLASS 3

Figure 76.

Overall this book is found representing men more actively in illustrations along with the problem

sums in chapters than that of women. Then there are some images of women found selling fruits,

bangles, and beads, again depicting them in traditional spheres, earning though.


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CLASS 4



The language used in this book is quite gender friendly, but then, the overall representation of

both the genders is found to be unequal, symbolically indicating the victory of patriarchy. That

is, in the illustrations, examples and problem sums, men are more showcased than the women.


91


Even if they are shown, they are again in the roles of traditional women selling beads, bangles,

vegetables and so on, but yes, earning. Then again, in some of the problem sums, men are

depicted cooking, as in terms of profession. It would be wrong to say that they are not depicted

in household chores, in fact, regarding this two pictures which are spotted in this book;

indicating a bit understandable equality though.

(d) Environmental Science.

As, the above subject starts in the curriculum from class 3 onwards, so the researcher collected

two textbooks for the ongoing analysis from both the classes of 3 and 4.

CLASS 3

The twelfth chapter „Work We Do‟ is found containing some stereotypes that is reflected in the

Household Work section. There is this story of a girl named Deepali, who do not go to school.

As she is the eldest child of the house, she is shown doing all the household chores as her mother

leaves early for work at other‟s house; right from dropping her sisters to school and little brother

with their father till helping her mother cooking dinner at night. The thing to note here is that the

girl is being exempted from pursuing education for the maintenance of the household works

which shows the serious problems like school drop outs by the girl students due to domestic

commitments.


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Figure 81.

The fourteenth chapter „The Story of Food‟ has got some illustrations that are directly reflecting

the stereotypical gender roles. In the first picture Venu‟s Family, (i) father and mother both are

depicted working equally; that is the mother is bathing her child while the father is sweeping the

floor, (ii)they all are shown having food together, (iii) mother-father are shown reading

newspapers while the child is cycling around. In the second picture Rani‟s Family, (i) only the

mother is shown being involved in the kitchen preparing food, (ii) male members are shown

having food depicting the stereotypical head-ship while the girl is serving them, (iii) mother-

daughter is shown working whereas the father is shown taking rest reading the newspaper.

Figure 82-83


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The twentieth chapter „Drop By Drop‟ is also found storing the illustrations reflecting

stereotypical gender roles for women. There is this picture which is depicting women fetching

water from far in the desert.

CLASS 4

Figure 84.

The ninth chapter „Changing Families‟ is found containing a positive note regarding the birth of

a girl child. It is that, there is this picture of Nimmi‟s Family where the arrival of Nimmi‟s baby

sister is very excitingly welcomed. This symbolically spreads the positive awareness about

accepting girl child. In the “Let Us Talk” section, there is a paragraph about child marriage and

its out coming dangerous results; which seems to emphasis upon spreading the message of „no

child marriage‟.


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Figure 85-86

The tenth chapter „Hu Tu Tu Hu Tu Tu‟ is not containing any gender bias; instead it seems to be

an empowering one. It is that a group of girls are shown playing Kabaddi which is actually

considered to be a male game, thus breaking the stereotype. Then in the “A Tale of Three

Sisters” section, there is story about three sisters from Mumbai who used to play Kabaddi and

taught others too. One of the sisters told that when they were old, they were not allowed to play

Kabaddi as people had thought that if girls would play this rough male games then they would

never get married and over that they had to wear boy‟s dress which was a sort of taboo those

days.

Figure 87.


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The fourteenth chapter „Basva‟s Farm‟ shows that women take active-equal part in agriculture

along with men despite maintaining all the household chores. The point to note is that men are

very rarely shown being equally active in household works with the women folk and this is what

creates a kind of another bias.

Figure 88.

The twenty sixth chapter „Defence Officer: Wahida‟ is an inspiring story about this Lieutenant

Commander cum Doctor in the Indian Navy. The narration has not got any biases and is found to

encourage both the genders through the gender friendly language that is been used in the text.

After the thorough analysis of these select textbooks, the researcher found the fact to be sure that

due to the various constructed socio-cultural norms, these textbooks are not at all free from the

kind of those concrete discriminations which in the present post-modern feminism era are being

put in the verge of addressing in an understanding way. It would be very unfair if not this is

mentioned; here in the books, instances of supportive equity and empowering stuffs has also

been spotted.


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CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION


97


CHAPTER 4

CONCLUSION

The present study tries to observe the various primary school textbooks in the light of gender

bias content which is found to be very much prevalent. The researcher‟s analysis is conducted

upon 14 textbooks; and especially in the books of class 1, English, Hindi and Mathematics, many

instances of creating discrimination has been observed. Then in the same books, promotion of

empowerment has also been found, as like the cover page of English textbook,

Figure 89.

The cover page of the book contains a picture showing a boy reading to a girl in the garden.

From this, we can assume that while the boy is reading to her, she is listening and equally

responding to it. This depicts something quite inspiring.

The main motive of this study was not only finding discrimination contents; in fact it was also

about not to let the eye go off the positive gender contents. It is that regarding this topic there has

been already many researches by many scholars; even then it is again being researched

producing no any unique difference. But the concluding remarks are found to be all making it a

different one.


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The analysis is put forward from the post modern feminist approach. As the researcher is not at

all blaming the male counterparts for these discriminations, instead the patriarchal mindset has

been blamed and found to be in utter fault.

Overall all the books are found including bias in one or the other way and most of the chapters

being androcentric. Like in terms of more representation of men through images than that of

women. It is only fairness that was being expected. What could have happened if there would

have equal amounts of both gender‟s images? Then again animals have also been given human

attributes through mentioning them as „he‟ and „she‟.

It is also observed that women in stereotypical roles are still being represented in these

textbooks, that too in this 21st century era, where women are on a large scale coming out of their

private sphere and successfully creating space of their own in the public sphere. Pictures of men

cooking are spotted along with the normal household one and in terms of profession. Then

representation of both genders in professions is found very uneven, thus again leading to chaos.

The main point is that through these sorts of representation, there has been a greater influence

upon children‟s mentality regarding their genders and the esteemed already created differences

which with time gets reflected in their growing activities. It is not that the aware people want to

subjugate the males and bring up the dominance of females, i.e. overthrowing patriarchy by

matriarchy. It is only that equality and equity is highly expected to be maintained. Then again,

anywhere in all the analysed books, mention of „third gender‟ has not been found. They are all

the way doubly marginalized, as in the society and the books.

In the present day context, fairness among all types of gender is being the ultimate need of the

hour; and this can only be possible if the little children are taught and encouraged to read gender

friendly cum inspiring stuffs. So remodification of the society and education imparting textbooks

shall start right away for a far better gender neutral civilization.

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REFERENCES

Works Cited

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