Gender bias through pictures in the new english textbook set for vietnamese primary schools a critical discourse analysis

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIESNGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG GENDER BIAS THROUGH PICTURES IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG

GENDER BIAS THROUGH PICTURES IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK SET FOR VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOLS:

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Sự kì thị giới qua hình ảnh trong bộ sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh mới dùng cho bậc tiểu học tại Việt Nam qua góc nhìn phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán

M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ NHUNG

GENDER BIAS THROUGH PICTURES IN THE NEW ENGLISH TEXTBOOK SET FOR VIETNAMESE PRIMARY SCHOOLS:

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Sự kì thị giới qua hình ảnh trong bộ sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh mới dùng cho bậc tiểu học tại Việt Nam qua góc nhìn phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán

M.A MAJOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01

Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

I hereby state that the thesis, entitled “Gender bias through pictures in

the new English textbook set for Vietnamese primary schools: A critical discourse analysis” was carried out in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art at the University of Languages

and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi This work isoriginal and all the sources that I used in the paper were documented bymeans of references

Hà Nội, 2019

Nguyễn Thị Nhung

To complete this scientific research, I owe profound indebtedness to manypeople for their tremendous support during the conduct of my study

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude towards

my devoted supervisor, Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn for his intellectual consultancyand constant encouragement, which were the decisive factors in thecompletion of this paper

Second, my sincere thanks go to all of the lecturers at the University ofLanguages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi fortheir invaluable lessons that have established a solid base for my researchwork

Last but not least, I would like to thank all of my beloved family membersand friends for their tremendous love, care and support during the time ofconducting this research paper

The attempt to combat gender inequality in textbooks has recentlyattracted a lot of researchers’ concern However, it is worth noticing thatresearch to date has tended to focus on gender bias in textbooks representedthrough linguistic rather than other non-linguistic features such as visualdesign Educationalists have become gradually aware of the increasing role ofvisual communication in learning materials of various kinds since they believethat pictures and photographs present meanings of their own Among such

attempts, this research investigates gender bias through pictures in the new

English textbook set for Vietnamese primary schools, which aims to 1/

examine how different genders are represented via pictures in the new English textbook set for Vietnamese primary schools, 2/ find out whether gendered visual representations illustrate gender bias in this textbook set In

so doing, qualitative and quantitative content analyses were adopted, in light

of multimodal critical discourse analysis to study images involving menand/or women from three English textbooks By analyzing 1,534 images, theresearch showed that there was a clear females’ visibility in the workplace andsocial activities Nonetheless, there appeared hidden manifestations of genderbias, mainly towards women in their family roles as mothers, occupationalroles, domestic tasks, contribution to the education of children, leisureactivities, color representations, and positions of females in illustrations

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

LIST OF FIGURES viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 Scope of the study 4

1.5 Method of the study 4

1.6 Significance of the study 5

1.7 Structure of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Review of theoretical backgrounds 7

2.1.1 Critical discourse analysis 7

2.1.2 Fairclough’s three-dimention model 8

2.1.3 Multimodal critical discourse analysis 9

2.1.4 Visual images 10

2.1.5 Social semiotics 11

2.1.6 The grammar of visual images 13

2.1.7 Gender bias in school textbooks 20

2.2 Review of related studies 39

2.2.1 Review of related studies worldwide 39

2.2.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam 43

2 3 Summary of the chapter 46

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 47

3.1 Research questions 47

3.2 Research setting 47

3.3 Sampling 48

3.4 Research approach 49

3.5 Research design 50

3.6 Data collection 50

3.6.1 Data collection instrument 50

3.6.2 Data collection procedure 51

3.7 Data analysis 51

3.7.1 Analytical framework 51

3.7.2 Data analysis procedure 54

3.8 Ethical issues 54

3.9 Summary of the chapter 55

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 56

4.1 Frequencies of different genders in illustrations 56

4.2 Gender representations in social references 60

4.2.1 Family status 60

4.2.2 Level of employment 63

4.2.3 Occupations 65

4.3 Gender representations in activities 71

4.3.1 Domestic tasks 73

4.3.2 Contribution to children education 76

4.3.3 Leisure activities 78

4.4 Compositional values 82

4.4.1 Colors 82

4.4.2 Positioning 85

4.5 Summary of the chapter 87

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 88

5.1 Recapitulation 88

5.2 Pedagogical implications 88

5.2.1 For educational authority 89

5.2.2 For textbook writers and publishers 89

5.2.3 For teachers 90

5.3 Limitations of the studies 91

5.4 Further research 92

REFERENCES 93

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDA : Critical Discourse Analysis

EFL : English as a Foreign Language

ESL : English as a Second Language

MCDA : Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis MOET : Ministry of Education and Training

RQ : Research Question

US : The United States

VG : Visual Grammar

Detailed information about English 3, 4, 5 textbooks

Distribution of gender representations in illustrations

Females and males’ family status

Females and males in occupational roles

Females and males in different activities

Females and males’ outfit

LIST OF FIGURES Page

Figure 2 Fairclough’s three dimensional framework (1992) 9

Figure 3 The dimensions of visual space (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) 19

Figure 4 Sexist and non-sexist illustrations (UNESCO, 1986) 38

Figure 6 Data analysis procedure (Adapted from UNESCO, 1986 & Kress & 52

van Leeuwen, 2006)

Figure 8 Distribution of gender representations in illustrations 56

Figure 9 Examples of pictures representing genders in English 3, 4, 5 58

Figure 10 Examples of pictures depicting family roles in English 3, 4, 5 61

Figure 16 Females’ contribution to the education of children 77

viii

Figure 19 Colors attached to females 84

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study

Sociologists assert that the perception of gender is gradually developedthrough observation and is predetermined by “gender agents” (Brym & Lie,

2007, p 97), one of which is textbooks Gender manifestation in textbooksmirrors the attitude of a particular society towards gender that issubconsciously acquired by learners and is likely to cause long-term negativeeffects on their performances and social behavior Considering the number of264,000,000 children still having no access to schooling (UNESCO, 2017), itseems that sexism in textbooks is not a critical educational issue However,the topic has grown in significance in light of recent studies, which haveproven the existence of gender inequality in numerous investigated ELTtextbooks all over the world (e.g Sleeter & Grant, 1991; Sunderlan, 1992;Jones, Kitetu & Sunderland, 1997; Ma, 1998; Cook, 2005; Paivandi, 2008; orNguyễn Thị Hương, 2004) As Blumberg (2009, p 346) puts it, “this is animportant, nearly universal, remarkably uniform, quite persistent but virtuallyinvisible obstacle camouflaged by taken-for-granted stereotypes about genderroles” Indeed, students devote about 80 to 95% of their classroom time usingtextbooks and a majority of teachers’ instructional decisions are based ontextbooks (Sadker & Zittleman, 2007) One’s perception and ideologicaldevelopment is heavily affected by education, with textbooks as its integralinstructional medium Even if largely unnoticed, needless to say, the influence

of sexism in textbooks can be a profound hindrance on the road to genderequality in education More importantly, exposure to ESL/EFL textbooks thatfail to correctly portray the movement toward gender equality in the societystudents are part of and which contain elements that re-enforce sexism would

be greatly unfair to students

American activists and educators during the 1970s were the pioneers tosystematically document gender bias beneath the camouflage in textbooks bymeans of content analysis and other more qualitative methodologies Theirattempt to combat gender inequality in textbooks soon attracted otherresearchers’ interest, including Alrabaa (1985); Kalia (1986); Baldwin &Baldwin (1992); Ross & Shi (2003); Clark & Mahoney (2004); Ahmed(2006); or Blumberg (2007).

Nonetheless, it is worth noticing that research to date has tended to focus

on gender bias in textbooks represented through linguistic rather than othernon-linguistic features such as visual design Educationalists have becomegradually aware of the increasing role of visual communication in learning

materials of various kinds Kress and van Leeuwen’s book entitled Reading

images: The grammar of visual design builds on its reputation as the first

systematic and comprehensive account of the grammar of visual design,examining the ways in which images communicate meaning The authorsassert that they see images of whatever kind as entirely within the realm of therealization and instantiations of ideology, as a means for the articulation ofideological positions of complex and potent kind To put it differently,pictures and photographs present meanings of their own This view issupported by Fang (1996) who believes visual images utilized in textbooksnot only are meant to delight a lesson, to assist a passage or any kinds ofactivities but also hold the transformative power to shape children’s attitudes,beliefs and values Therefore, misapplication of images in textbooks mayresult in negative impacts on the ideological development of both teachers andstudents, especially students at primary level whose cognitive development islargely influenced by input data and critical thinking mindset has started to beshaped Despite Viet Nam’s progress to eliminate gender disparities andachieve gender equality in education, gender discrimination

still remains prevalent in certain different forms, one of which is throughtextbooks Authors Trần Xuân Đi ệp (2005) and Nguyễn Thị Hương (2006)were among the Vietnamese pioneers to confirm gender disparity in bothverbal and non-verbal forms The most recent study focusing on the non-linguistic features in English the national English teaching textbooks forupper-secondary schools was carried out by Trần Thị Bích Ngọc (2017).Following the critical discourse approach, the study also reveals that thesetextbooks present a gender discriminatory attitude towards women However,one of the limitations with this study is that it has been not carried out in thenew set of English textbook, under the National Foreign Languages 2020Project where marked renovation in curriculum design and textbookdevelopment is claimed to be made in order to improve the quality of teachingand learning foreign languages in general and teaching and learning English

in Vietnamese schools in particular

This motivates me to conduct a research paper entitled “Gender bias

through pictures in the new English textbook set for Vietnamese primary schools: A critical discourse analysis” to fill in the identified gaps

in the local literature This study focuses on primary school level because

according to Kohlberg’s stages of gender development (1966), at the agearound six and seven, which is approximately the start of school age forVietnamese children, children reach the stage of gender consistency Thisphase can be seen as a chance to introduce non-stereotyped female and maleimages as well as unconventional behaviors Early intervention in thedevelopment of gender bias can save effort in reducing their negative impactslater in life of children (Zemore, Fiske & Kim, 2000)

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The research attempts to detect the presence of gender bias as a socialphenomenon through pictures in the new English textbook set for Vietnameseprimary schools in order to extract the ideology behind their constructions To

be specific, it 1/ examines how different genders are represented via

pictures in the new English textbook set for Vietnamese primary schools, and 2/ finds out whether gendered visual representations illustrate gender bias in this textbook set Based on the results, implications

for combating gender inequality in textbooks’ pictures were drawn out

1.4 Scope of the study

The data for this research were taken from three textbooks (English 3, 4,5) in the new set of English textbooks for primary schools under theVietnamese’ National Foreign Languages 2020 Project This primary textbook setwas completed by Hoàng Văn Vân et al in 2012 and have been undertaken thelatest revision This study focuses on the investigating visual presentationinvolving females and/or males appearance

1.5 Method of the study

The methodological approach was guided entirely by the foundation of critical discourse analysis (CDA) The research method involved quantitative

and qualitative content analysis Within the scope of this study, the dimension model proposed by Fairclough (1992) was combined with thegender identification framework of UNESCO (1986) and the grammar ofvisual design by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006).

three-1.6 Significance of the study

Once completed, the study would bring about certain benefits to teachers,education planners, and other researchers who share the same interest in thistopic The research findings promise to offer teachers and education planners

a closer look at gender bias in textbooks for an appropriate approach tocombat gender inequality Besides, researchers who take interest in the sametopic can refer to this paper as a source of updated and reliable information

1.7 Structure of the study

The study includes five chapters, including this introductory section

Figure 1: Organization of the study

First, Chapter 1 - Introduction will state the research problem, the

rationale for the study as well as the research aims and objectives, the RQs,the method, the significance, and the scope of the study Moreover, the RQs

are also clearly stated to act as the parameter for the whole paper Chapter 2

- Literature review will provide definitions of key concepts and lay the

theoretical background for the study and a thorough review of related studies

worldwide and in Vietnamese context Chapter 3 - Methodology will then

describe the research setting, research approach, data collection, and data

analysis procedure in full detail Chapter 4 - Data analysis, findings and discussions will present, analyze, synthesize and discuss the findings revealed from the collected data according to the two RQs Finally, Chapter

5 - Conclusion will encapsulate the main issues discussed throughout the paper, draw out several pedagogical implications, acknowledge the limitations

of the study, provide and some suggestions for further studies This part will

be followed by the References and Appendices.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 - Literature Review - provides the theoretical background for the whole paper, in which the key concepts are thoroughly elaborated Besides, the review of related studies worldwide and in Vietnam will help to point out the gaps that this study aims to bridge.

2.1 Review of theoretical backgrounds

2.1.1 Critical discourse analysis

CDA is an interdisciplinary approach to the study of discourse that hasrapidly expanded in the 20th century as a theoretical framework to questionthe status quo, by detecting, analyzing, and also resisting and counteractingenactments of power abuse as transmitted in private and public discourses

What makes CDA different from other traditions in discourse analysis is that

it regards discourse as a social practice, and it should aim to explore anduncover hidden power relations, ideologies as expressed in discourse Criticaldiscourse analysts not only care about social goals of language and discoursebut also social maintenance and change (Bloor & Bloor, 2013) According toVan Dijk (1998), CDA studies the way social power abuse, dominance, andinequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and talks in the socialand political context CDA for Fairclough is an approach that investigates therelationship between discursive practices and social structures His model ofCDA is the cornerstone of CDA field This model is based on the assumptionthat language is part of social life The relationship between language andsocial reality is recognized via social events, social practices and socialstructures (Fairclough, 2003) In general, CDA is considered one of the mostcomprehensive attempts to develop a theory of the inter-connectedness ofdiscourse in order to uncover how language, power, and ideology are related

to each other and how these dependent relations are represented through texts.Often, CDA deals with language, text, or discourse in many ways.However, we had to wait for the various contributions in critical linguisticsand social semiotics, first and primarily in the United Kingdom and Australia

to get a more detailed view of the other side of the relationship, namely ananalysis of the structures of texts and images (Fairclough, 1989; Fowler et al.,1979; Hodge & Kress, 1988)

2.1.2 Fairclough’s three-dimention model

Based on his assumptions that critical analysts should not only focus onthe texts, the process of text production and interpretation of the texts, but alsolook into the interrelationship among texts, production processes, and theirsocial context, Fairclough (1989, 1992, 2003) developed his three-dimensional framework Accordingly, every communicative event comprisesthree dimensions: 1/ the micro dimension which is the spoken or written text(artifact), 2/ the meso dimension which deals with the processes ofinteraction, i.e., production and consumption of that text (artifact), and 3/ themacro dimension, which deals with the context, i.e., larger socio-cultural,political and economic environment of dimensions With these threedimensions, Fairclough (1992) suggests that discourses can be analyzed at

three levels: 1/ description, 2/ interpretation, and 3/ explanation His

framework for analyzing discourses and discourse instances is illustrated inthe following figure

Figure 2: Fairclough’s three dimensional framework (1992)

At the first level, the analyst focuses on a discourse dimension anddescribes its genre, type, category, or quality At the second level, the analystdirects the attention at interpreting and making meanings and inferences fromthe genres, types, categories, or qualities of a discourse dimension Finally, atthe third level, attention is devoted to explaining and making connections andunderstanding implications of a discourse dimension for social practice

2.1.3 Multimodal critical discourse analysis

So far, the term CDA has often been confined to language, manifested inverbal texts or verbal section of texts that also use other semiotic modes.Multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is a relatively new extension

of CDA, which has been called “one of the most influential and visiblebranches of discourse analysis” (Blommaert & Bulcaen, 2000, p 447) AfterKress and van Leeuwen extended the CDA notion of text (which Fairclough(1992) had initially used to refer primarily although not exclusively to spoken

or written language) to include and at times even to prioritize non-linguisticsemiotic elements, researchers began to use CDA methods to examine a much

wider range of linguistic and non-linguistic semiotic components in a practiceknown as MCDA The research field has collectively been called

“multimodality”, where “multimodal” typically refers to the multiple modes(e.g spoken, written, printed and digital media, embodied action, and 3-Dmaterial objects and sites) through which social semiosis takes place.Considered as one branch of CDA, MCDA also purports to investigate howvisual components are used to construct and express social power andideologies Ideological views of one text can be expressed in the choice ofdifferent vocabulary as well as different grammatical structures Visualstructures in the form of images do convey ideological meanings, too

By linking the key principles of CDA with social semiotics theory,researchers outside the specialty field of linguistics now have a valuabletheoretical and methodological tool to help them better understand howlanguage and other types of semiotic signs are used together to construct,express, and challenge social power

2.1.4 Visual images

Within the frame of this research, the term visual images will be used torefer to pictures As stated in the Oxford English Dictionary, a picture is avisual representation of a person or scene as in a photograph or painting

The history of visuality as a subject of scholarly enquiry can be traced tothe “late 1980s and 1990s when a number of authors who had been working inlinguistics began to realize that meaning is generally communicated not onlythrough language but also through other semiotic modes” (Machin & Mayr,

2012, p 6) The fact that the overdependence on verbal expression of the past

is being jettisoned for multimodal communication has given birth to a newdimension for communication in the modern world Communication is hencebecoming increasingly multimodal across different contexts since text

producers make use of semiotic resources for meaning projection Thissupports Natharius’s claim that “in human history, the visual image has neverbeen more dominant than it is now” (2004, p 2) In this multimodal society,people always communicate and pass on information through the co-employment of semiotic resources Without doubt, the popularity of visuality

in contemporary human communication has contributed to the growth ofscholarship in visual communication Pictures always have a profound impact

on the reader In newspaper or magazines, where there are pictorials, peopleusually look at the pictures first before starting to read the content (Kress &van Leeuwen, 2006) Apparently, images powerfully express a message andnone of them are created without purposes The significance of visual imagescan be briefly stated in Kress & van Leeuwen’s book “the image carries themeaning, the words come second” (2006, p 26) With their irrefutable roles toplay, visual images have become an indispensible element in differentcommunication channels, including textbooks

2.1.5 Social semiotics

2.1.5.1 Definition of social semiotics

Social semiotics is a branch of semiotics coined by renowned linguist

Michael Halliday In his book, Language as Social Semiotics, Halliday

(1985) defends the conventional view of separation between language andsociety by exploring the implications of the fact that the “codes” of languageand communication are formed by social processes Therefore, socialsemiotics is an approach to communication that seeks to understand howpeople communicate by various means in specific social settings Hallidaysets out five premises of his linguistic theory, one of which refers to threepurposes (or metafunctions) of language, which will be thoroughly discussed

in the following section

2.1.5.2 The three metafunctions of meaning by Halliday (1985)

Michael Halliday asserts that a language evolves in response to specificdemands of the society in which it is used The nature of the language is;therefore, directly related to the functions it has to perform simultaneously.Corresponding to that, central to Halliday’s framework of systemic functionalgrammar (1985) is the concept of “metafunction” to analyze threefundamental functions of language to communicate meaning

1) Ideational metafunction: Language is used to talk about people’s

experience of the world, including the world in our minds, to describe events andstates and the entities involved in them To put it differently, language has to beable to express how people see the world and what they consciously know

2) Interpersonal metafunction: Language is also a medium for people’s interaction to establish and maintain their relationship, to influence their

behaviors, to express personal viewpoints on things in the world, and to elicit orchange theirs

3) Textual metafunction: Last but not least, in using language, people

organize their messages in a way that shows how they cohere with othersurrounding messages and with the broader context

In other words, every sign simultaneously tells people something about

“the world” (ideational meaning), position people in relation to someone orsomething (interpersonal meaning) and produces a structured text (textualmeaning) (Halliday, as cited in Bezemer & Jewitt, 2011)

2.1.5.3 The three metafunctions of meaning by Kress and van

Leeuwen (1996)

Thibault (1991) points out that social semiotics focuses on social

meaning-making practices of all types, whether visual, verbal or aural in

nature Accordingly, social semiotics field witnessed a shift from theemphasis on language to other semiotic modes The first serious discussions

and analyses of this emerged in the works of Hodge and Kress - Social

semiotics (1988) and Kress and van Leeuwen - Reading images: The grammar of visual design (1996, 2006) In their volumes, which have led to

the subsequent emergence of multimodality, the principles developed withregards to language were also applied to other different communicativesystems Language represents the narrative world, while images illustrate thedisplayed world Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) propose that similar tolanguage, visual images and other semiotic systems can be used to serve the

three foregoing metafunctions In the first edition of their book Reading

images: The grammar of visual design (1996), the two authors quote the

theoretical concept of “metafunction” from Halliday and put forward threecorresponding metafunctions in Visual Grammar (VG), namely

representational, interactive and compositional meaning Specifically,

when being applied to visual systems, the representational metafunctionorganizes the way that represented participants’ relate to each other torepresent the world around them The interactive metafunction controls theinteraction between the represented participants and the viewers; and thecompositional metafunction represents the way in which semiotics modescohere into the kind of meaning whole called “text” (Kress & van Leeuwen,1996)

2.1.6 The grammar of visual images

Because of the importance of visual literacy (the ability to interpret,negotiate, and make meaning from information shown in the form of animage), it is essential to understand visual language in order to be criticallyliterate There are few agreed methods for articulating the way images and

composite texts are read (Anstey & Bull, 2000; Unsworth, 2004) This isunlike the case for verbal texts where there have been several agreed ways ofbreaking down verbal meanings According to Thibault (1991), the primarymission of social semiotics is to establish analytical and theoreticalframeworks that are able to explain meaning-making in a social context.

In response to this call, Kress and van Leeuwen are the pioneers todevelop a methodological tool named “The grammar of visual design” todecode the messages behind the images “Just as grammar of languagedescribe how words combine in clauses, sentences and texts, so our visualgrammar will describe the way in which depicted elements – people, placesand things – combines in visual statements of greater or lesser complexity andextension” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p 1) This (VG) is claimed to be “ausable description of major compositional structures which have becomeestablished in the course of the history of Western visual semiotics, and toanalyze how they are used to produce meaning by contemporary image-makers” (p 1) The authors have a number of key assumptions:

o The grammar of visual design plays a vital role in the production of meaning

o The visual means of communication are rational expressions of culturalmeanings

o Visual language is culturally specific (no universal grammar)

o Visual communication is amenable to rational accounts and analysis Inaccordance with the three metafunctions introduced by Kress and

Leuwen, the grammar of visual design can be summarized in the following table:

Table 1: Visual social semiotics (Adapted from Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006)

2.1.6.1 Representational metafunction

As can be seen from table 1, the first metafunction – representational has

to do with the way experience is visually encoded, to put it differently, theway participants, events (processes), and their associated circumstances arerealized (Bezerra, 2011) The visual encoding is shown either by narrativeand/or conceptual process Narrative process is related to ongoing actions orevents, in which actors are represented by vectors (either real or imaginary),meanwhile conceptual process has to deal with classification or analysis of

diagrams, etc.)

o Narrative process: The presence of a vector is the distinctive feature

of a narrative process A vector is seen as an oblique line formed by arrows,

bodies, limbs or tools, which connects participants and expresses unfolding actions

or events Participants in narrative patterns are labeled as “Actor”, the participantfrom whom the vector emanates “Goal” is the participant at whom the vector isdirected (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006) This is also called a transactional process

o Conceptual process: In the conceptual process, where the vector is

absent, participants are represented as static or as their generalizedessences in terms of class, structure or meaning Subsequently, suchconceptual relations are realized in three types of process, namelyclassification, analytical and symbolic (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006).Classification processes “bring different people, places or things together

in one picture, distributing them symmetrically across the picture space toshow that they belong to the same class” (Jewitt & Oyama 2001, p 144).Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) refer to this as a “kind of” relation.Analytical processes relate participants in terms of a part-whole structure,

in which a concept or entity is defined by showing how it is made up out

of which parts This process involves two kinds of participants: oneCarrier (the whole) and any number of Possessive Attributes (the parts).Finally, symbolic attributive processes define the meaning or identity of aparticipant (Carrier) through the participant that represents the meaning oridentity itself (Symbolic Attribute)

Like simple or complex sentences in language, narrative and conceptualstructures may appear individually or together When they appear together,embedding takes places The distinction between major and minor processes

in visuals is determined “by the relative size and conspicuousness of theelements” (Kress & van Leeuwen 2006, p 107).

o Contact is related to the gaze direction of the represented participants.

Demand and offer are two categories of contact The difference between these twocategories depends on whether or not there is eye contact between represented andinteractive participants Demands establish an imaginary relation with the viewerbecause they address her/him directly Meanwhile, offers, indirectly address theviewer It is notable that the choice of contact can entail different relations betweenparticipants, such as engagement or detachment

o Social distance determines the distance existing between represented

participants and interactive participants Social distance is influenced bydifferent sizes of frame, including close-up, medium or long These sizesapply to humans, buildings, landscapes, and objects alike

o Point of view/ perspective: There are two types of images: subjective

(presenting everything from a particular perspective, dictated by the producer), and objective (depicting all there is to know about the subject) Insubjective images, there are two choices: involvement/detachment and power.Horizontally, the designer can present represented participants from frontal point

image-of view to the viewer (to make involvement), or from oblique point image-of view to theviewer (to make detachment) Vertically, the designer intends to suggest three

possible levels of power: viewer superiority, viewer inferiority, andviewer equality The vertical angle can be either high – bird’s eye view toassign power to the viewer, or low – ant’s view to make representedparticipants more powerful, or eye level to maintain equal relationsbetween the participants and the viewer.

o Modality: This dimension, which includes colors and contextualization

as two modality markers, refers to the normality of images Contextualizationmeans a scale running from absence of background to the most fully articulatedand detailed background Color saturation, color differentiation, and colormodulation are three scales of color Color saturation is defined as the scale thatbegins with full color saturation and finishes with the absence of color as in blackand white Color differentiation is the scale beginning with a maximally diversifiedrange of colors and finished in monochrome Last but not least, color modulationscale begins from fully modulated color to unmodulated or flat color (e.g differentshades of green)

2.1.6.3 Composition metafunction

The last metafunction refers to the meaning of composition, combining allthe aforementioned information into one textual whole Regarding thismetafunction, meaning is communicated by three interrelated systems:

information value, salience and framing Additionally, these three systems apply not only to single pictures but also to composite visuals that

involve text, images and/or other graphic elements, and their layouts

o Information value: In an image, information value refers to the

relative position of different elements to each other Information value is

associated with three main visual areas: left and right; top and bottom; and centerand margin (see figure 3)

Figure 3: The dimensions of visual space (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996)

Information can be structured along a horizontal axis, with the left and

right composition The left side introduces given information, which is

assumed to be familiar and accepted as a point of departure for the

message by the viewer On the contrary, the right side focuses on new

information, to something unknown or requiring special attention

In another case, along a vertical axis is the top and bottom composition

The information at the upper part of the image is considered ideal,

illustrating a “promise” whereas the lower part represents the product

itself, by real or more specific and practical information.

In the remaining kind, different values are attributed to the informationfollowing a center-margin alignment The elements located at the center

of the image are conceived by the artist to be the main message or thenucleus of information By contrast, the margins are reserved forancillaries

o Salience: Another indispensible system in the composition of visual meaning is salience This indicator allows viewers to evaluate how

important certain elements are, in comparison with others in visual design.The degree of saliency is realized by size, color contrast, tonal contrast,

and sharpness of focus To be more specific, larger objects are mostsalient than smaller ones The contrast that exists between highly saturatedcolors and softer colors The tonal areas are more salient than other areas,for example, black borders are placed on white spaces Objects which aremore easily noticed by the eyes are more sharply focused and most salientthan other objects.

o Framing: Framing is another system that determines the degree of

connection or disconnection of the verbal and visual layers The elements

in an image or page can be either connected or disconnected by framelines, discontinuity of shape or empty space between elements

Beyond any doubt, Reading images: The grammar of visual design

has offered a comprehensive and systematic account of VG Built on a strongfoundation of social semiotic theory, it does serve as insightful notions anddetailed information on how to understand visuals Although Kress and vanLeeuwen (2006) resitrict their investigation in Western visual communication,the authors also note that their works would “provide some ideas andconcepts for the study of visual communication in non-Western forms ofvisual communication” (p 4) This motivated me to adapt Kress and vanLeeuwen’s framework for the context of Vietnam’s Oriental culture.However, it is not possible to analyze all the three metafunctions in a paper ofthis limited length Additionally, gender representations might be bestsignified in the composition of different constituent elements Within the

frame of this modest research, the composition theory of Kress and van

Leeuwen will then be the framework guiding the rest of this paper

2.1.7 Gender bias in school textbooks

2.1.7.1 Gender

First and foremost, it is essential to get a thorough understanding of the

term “gender” Sociolinguistically, gender is defined as a socially constructedperception of attributes that are ascribed to members of each sex According

to Holmes (2007), gender is a social construction established in a socialenvironment Additionally, the fact is that social environment is greatlydependent on and is shaped by its culture (social roles and norms) It cantherefore, be inferred that gender construction may differs in different cultures

as the comprehension and treatment of gender vary from society to society.The features of social interaction outline the behavior patterns that must befollowed in order to be gendered With regard to gender roles, Macionis andPlummer (2008) define it as learning and performing the socially acceptedcharacteristics for a certain sex Furthermore, the genders attached to womenand men are usually the conventional structured features associated withsocial roles (Chafetz, 2006) Hence, social roles, norms, and behavior patternsare an inseparable part of gender identity

Some people have a tendency to use the two terms “sex” and “gender”interchangeably In fact, there is a fine distinction between them According tothe World Health Organization, “sex” is a universal concept referring to thebiological and physiological characteristics that define women and men

Gender and gender roles are socially and historically constructed notions.Socially, gender has to do with the socially constructed roles, behaviors,activities, attributes, and responsibilities that a given society considersappropriate for women and men Gender determines what is expected,allowed, and valued in a female or a male in a given context The perception

of gender and gender roles varies across cultures since each society has itsunique social structure Even for each individual, these concepts can beunderstood differently Historically, the way genders and gender inequalityare perceived has evolved during the course of history For example, in

feudalism, the monopoly of men and the extremely low visibility of women insocial activities were not considered gender bias because almost everyonetook it for granted for the expected roles of women at home and men at work.Nonetheless, together with the growing global movement for gender equality,

a lot of such roles or attributes are now labeled sexist when people are moreand more aware of gender bias The danger here is that if gender division isregarded as something natural, but not gender bias, this will put the inferiorgender at a constant disadvantage Therefore, the job of critical discourseanalysts is to deconstruct the taken-for-granted ideology of gender roles andreconstruct better images of genders, with a view to ultimately creating abetter society where everyone is treated equally, regardless of their sexes

2.1.7.2 Gender bias

Definition of gender bias

For the past few decades, gender bias has attracted mounting concern ofresearchers from various fields such as psychology, sociology, economy, andlinguistics One of the most prevalent fields of CDA is gender bias Gender

bias, (also known as gender discrimination or sexism in this paper) is

used to denote the unequal treatment of gender, which leaves members of onesex at a disadvantage In that, women are represented as subordinate to men(Mishra et al., 2012, p 46) Male dominance or male centeredness is stillevident in a number of spheres in many cultures What is highlighted in thisdefinition is that gender discrimination subject to either males or females;nonetheless, it is more towards women

Explaining for the culprit, Mineshima (2008) affirms that sexism is amatter learnt from childhood and expresses the ways in which someunconscious cultural biases are communicated to females and through whichsome negative traits are ascribed to females and the stereotyped roles are

reinforced for female characters.

In conclusion, within the frame of this research, any direct or indirect,intentional or unintentional discriminatory act against one gender,underrepresenting and stereotyping people on the basis of sex, is consideredgender bias

Classification of gender bias

Bisaria (as cited in UNESCO, 1986) assigns sexism into two categories:explicit sexism, and implicit sexism Explicit sexism exists when females andmales are exclusively depicted in fixed, stereotyped conventional roles,without taking into consideration the diversity to be found in the real world.Meanwhile, implicit or latent sexism denotes a real society where females aretreated as inferior to males, and make no attempt to challenge this allegedinferiority or to introduce children to situations (however rare they still maybe) where women and girls prove that they are equal to men and boys

Effects of gender bias on students

According to Davies (1955), gender bias is likely to cause long-termnegative impacts on boys as well as girls although the latter are moreseriously affected since they are portrayed as being the inferior sex First,gender bias prevent girls and women from developing their full intellectual,emotional and volitional potential by refusing to recognize them as humanbeings in their own right, equal in dignity to boys; and they deny them aharmonious relationship with men, and prohibit them from making a fullcontribution to the development of the society in which they live Secondly,the biased ways in which sexes are presented affects not only learners’perception of gender identity but also limits his or her understanding of theother sex making it inferior or superior

2.1.7.3 Gender bias in school textbooks

An overview of gender bias in school textbooks

Gender bias in education can be divided into gender-biased curricula, gender-biased teacher’s treatment of students and gender-bias in textbooks A lot of research on curricula and teachers’ behavior has been

carried out since they are directly related to teaching content, which istangible and problematic especially in low-income countries (Aikman,Unterhalter & Challender (2005); Kotecha (1994) and Pandor (1994)

On the contrary, far too little attention has been paid to textbook content.Moreover, it is frequently neglected in the policy debate However, thisdeserves a serious concern given the evidence that students spend the majority(80% - 95%) of their classroom time using textbooks (Sadker & Zittleman,2007) and the average teacher uses textbooks for 70 to 90% of classroom time(Baldwin & Baldwin, 1992) According to Blumberg (2007), gender bias inthe textbook is one of the hardest budge rocks in the road to gender equality ineducation and is geographically more widespread than the gender gap inschool enrolment

Textbooks do not simply contain mere facts and figures that should belearnt at school Beyond that, they have the great transformative power toinstill the values, beliefs and attitudes of students, especially the young ones.Brusokaite (2013) uncovers two reasons why such education materials aresuccessful in shaping the ideologies in the minds of young students First,most students accept what is imposed on them and are less critical about it.Second, in Asian countries, where textbooks play a significant role in theeducation system, the widely held perception is that whatever is included inthe textbook must be practiced

Sexism in textbooks can also be called hidden or unseen (the “hidden

curricula”) because it is placed “between lines” (Lee, 2014) In other words,the biased elements are not explicitly connected to the content of the subject.Instead, they have a strong relationship with the implied meaning that could

be extracted for background analysis Therefore, gender bias in textbooks isregarded as subtle sexism

At this point, it is pivotal to distinguish between conscious andunconscious learning Conscious learning is related to learning somethingconsciously, i.e planning and eager to do something By contrast,unconscious learning is taking up things subconsciously, without realization(Williams, 2011) By this definition, gender bias is instilled in learners’ mindthrough unconscious learning via textbooks materials because gender roles,occupations, appearances, behavior patterns are hidden in the content oftextbooks The unconscious influence of sexist textbooks on students at theage when their value systems are developed is immeasurable (Sakita, 1995).Language textbooks are models for students and require students to practicethe sexist use of the language At the same time, sex-role stereotyping affectsand distorts students’ view of the world Hence, the only way to combatbiased textbooks is to minimize the representations of gender bias and teachindividuals not to think in a biased manner

Guidelines for identifying gender bias in school textbooks

With a view to facilitating gender bias detection, UNESCO (1986)develops an analytical checklist by presenting an exhaustive summary ofstudies about gender bias in different countries: Norway, France, Peru,Zambia, Ukraine, the United States (US), and seven Arab states (Egypt,Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Democratic Yemen).Those studies investigates textbooks at different levels of education, and indifferent subjects: science, mathematics, language, history, and literary The

book departs with an overview of the issue, continues with methods toidentify sexism and ends with actions to eliminate them It is apparent that thisbook possesses several strong points First, the logical sequence of the books’contents gets readers well informed with comprehensive understanding of thenegative effects of sexism in textbooks and how to fight them back Second,the book offers readers a sense of the big picture of gender stereotypes intextbooks thanks to a rich pool of empirical data from worldwide research.Third, the criticism against sexism and a fighting spirit for gender equality ispresent throughout every single page of the book, which is persuasive andinspirational for the readers Fourth, the book, as can be seen from the veryheadline, is a slogan urging readers to take action against sexism Last but notleast, one more good point of this book is its practical guidelines, which aremade ready to use, promising high applicability.

The checklist of sexism identification is based on two basic criteria The first sign of sexism in textbooks is the representations of genders in

“stereotyped activities that do not accurately reflect the diversity of theirroles” It is the “refusal to acknowledge the social reality and the diversity ofsituation, resulting in a caricatural depiction of male and female roles”

UNESCO (1986, p 48) The second evidence is the silent acceptance of

sexist situation without criticism and offer of any alternative, and thus serving

to strengthen them

The checklist involves three parts namely quantitative analysis of content,

qualitative analysis of content, and analysis of sexism inherent in

the language Below is the table summarizing UNESCO’s three suggested

aspects for evaluation:

1.1

Analysis

of sexism in

SOCIAL REFERENC ES

2 Qualitative analysis

Marital status

Family status

Level of employmen t

Occupation

o Males outnumbers females in terms of their presence o Males are main characters (who plays the central roles) while females are supporting ones (who support the

o Men have more paid job than women.

o Occupations that men take on outnumber those of women.

o Women's occupations are shown to be an extension

of women's traditional domestic roles (e.g hospital nurse, nursery nurse, dressmaker, teacher of young children, hairdresser, etc.).

o When the book neglects to show any other

occupations held by women in society today (e.g doctor, lawyer, bus- driver, works supervisor, factory ‐driver, works supervisor, factory manager, horticulturist, physicist, etc.)

1.2

Analysis

of sexism in

ACTIVITIE S

Domestic tasks carried out

in the home

Contributio n

to the education of

children

o Tasks related to house keeping activities are the domain of women and girls only, while men and boys are systematically excused from them.

o While women are shown as attending to the material and emotional well- being of their children ( ‐being of their children ( e.g

feeding, washing, dressing, encouraging, reassuring, comforting, etc.), men are shown in roles of authority (e.g answering children's questions, introducing them to new things, helping them to solve problems, etc.).

o This refers more specifically to men or women

characters shown acting in a professional capacity (e.g.

Professio nal activities

a doctor treating a patient, or a teacher giving alesson, etc.).

o The professional activities of women and men are

broken down respectively into roles ofdoing the work and giving the orders Women are described as

employees carrying out orders, engaging in repetitive work and/or tasks requiring little initiative, while men are nearly always shown in roles of authority, carrying out non- repetitious jobs requiring initiative and ‐being of their children ( creativity.

Political and social activities Leisure activities

(hobbies, sports, artistic activities)

Positive and negative emotions

o Sports activities are mostly performed by males, not

by females.

o Women and girls are depicted as affectionate or overly emotional, and men and boys as aggressive, violent, combative and insensitive.

o Independence from and resistance to social pressure are shown as being characteristic of one sex, while the other is described as docile, resigned and always yielding to authority and social pressure.

o Weakness of characters appears in texts in the form

of cowardice, confusion, dependence, helplessness and evasiveness, while strength of characters is expressed in bravery, level- headedness, an ability to give orders and ‐being of their children (

a sense of responsibility.