Children, gender, and language teaching materials

This subject was at first one of the topics selected for my assignment "Gender and Education." After the teacher told us in class about some of the gender problems that exist in teaching materials, a light seemingly lit up before our eyes: How was it that there were such problems in the language teaching materials that had commanded so much "respect"? We had never noticed or suspected such problems. At the time, the teacher did not say what direct effects these problems had on children, but examined teaching materials from the perspective of feminism supported by many theoretical backgrounds. Since I have always loved children, I like to listen to their voices, am highly interested in their ways of thinking, and am often curious about such things. On top of that, the qualitative (zhi xing) research methods I had once learned gave me confidence that I could convincingly present these interesting things; they were not absurd, and perhaps people could find value in them. Hence, I had a strong desire to know how children saw their language teaching materials. How far from or how close are the children to their textbooks? What do they see in them? Have the gender issues in the teaching materials come to the attention of children? How do these affect elementary school students? We wished to bring attention to the ways teaching materials affected children's gender concepts. Copyright © 2003 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved.