Genussystemet i läromedel : En genusteoretisk analys av läromedel i historia för årskurs 1-3 / The genus system in textbooks : A gender analysis of elementary school history textbooks

The curriculum for primary school Lgr11, the governing document that is the foundation of all schoolwork in Sweden, clearly states that education needs to promote and strive towards gender equality. From this perspective, it is this study’s aim to examine how gender is represented in three elementary school history textbooks. The theoretical framework used in this study is the gender perspective, more specifically the gender theories of the genus system of Yvonne Hirdman. The research analyses used in this study are both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative content analysis is used to record gender representation in the textbooks, whereas the qualitative text analysis and the visual text analysis analyses the texts and images from a gender representation perspective. One conclusion of the study is that there is an over representation of men in two of the textbooks, while the third shows equal representation. Another conclusion is that both men and women are represented as gender stereotypes in two of the textbooks, in which men are the norm. The third textbook shows equal representation of female and male characteristics and humans are presented as the norm. This concludes that two of the studied textbooks contradict writings of Lgr11 while one is perceived to be in line with the governing document.