Paper long abstract:

Textbook discourses are central to realizing inclusion for all. Given the secure institutional location and the compulsory exposure of students to textbook discourses, identity positions in textbooks can significantly shape students' (gender) identities. However, gender bias in textbooks is reported to be an insurmountable barrier in achieving gender equality in education.

This paper explores the construction of gender in Kazakhstani textbooks. While Kazakhstan is close to achieving gender parity in schooling, women continue to be overrepresented in teaching and health and underrepresented in scientific and technological fields, resulting in their concentration of women in feminised occupations with high prevalence of low-wages. The gendered labour outcomes, as well as a high incidence of gender-based violence in Kazakhstan are linked to expected gender role s and unequal power relations. Although, Kazakhstan has undertaken ambitious large-scale curriculum reforms, rigorous gender analyses of Kazakhstani textbooks are non-existent.

The paper draws on Butler's(1990) notion of 'gender' as 'always a doing', performed within the constraints of particular social contexts and intersected by other social structures and identity markers. Secondary school textbooks in languages (English, Kazakh and Russian) and algebra were subjected to qualitative and quantitative gender analyses. Pilot analyses were undertaken on the first chapter of each textbook to refine the analytical tools. These are currently being applied to a larger data corpus.

Preliminary findings indicated that textbooks entrench gender hierarchies by making females less visible in text (32%) and illustrations (21%) relative to men (68% appearances in text and 59% in illustrations), although this varies across different subjects. Textbooks normalise desirable femininities by portraying female characters predominantly in familial and gender stereotypical roles (dancers or singers) and marking beauty as a symbol of the 'ideal' woman. By contrast, mathematicians or scientists are exclusively male. The 'ideal' man is muscular, brave, wise, courageous, sporty and engaged in leisure activities, while non-binary gender identities and people with disabilities remain invisible. The implications of gendered textbook discourses on student subjectivities are discussed.