GENDER REPRESENTATION IN IRANIAN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS WITH A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVE

This study was an attempt to investigate gender representation in some English Language teaching textbooks of Iran, namely, English Book 1, English Book 2, and English Book 3. To this end, Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional model was adopted in order to examine the manifestation of gender in the three textbooks to extract the ideology behind their constructions. Based on the first part of Fairclough’s (2001) three-dimensional model—description—eight factors were designed, i.e. I) female and male characters, II) female and male’s social and domestic roles, III) female and male’s semantic roles, IV) female and male’s titles, V) female and male’s order of appearance, VI) masculine generic constructions, VII) female and male’s pictorial representations, and finally VIII) activities. These factors were described, interpreted and explained. Results revealed that these textbooks presented a “sexist attitude” regarding gender in favor of men, in which the men presented more than females. It is suggested that Persian culture as ideology mirrors the way gender represented in these textbooks. In other words, the gender inequality observed in the series rooted in Iranian culture.