Articles
You can access articles and additional files related to our project in this section.
Özge KARAKUŞ ÖZDEMİRCİ Researcher, ozgekarakusozdemirci@gmail.com
Tuba ACAR ERDOL , Doç. Dr., Ordu University, tubaacarerdol@odu.edu.tr
Mustafa ŞAHİN , Prof. Dr., Dokuz Eylül University, mustafa.sahin@deu.edu.tr
The first publication related to our project was the study titled “Determining Criteria for the Analysis of the Representation of Women in Curricula and Textbooks: A Delphi Study.” This study was prepared by our project principal investigator, Prof. Dr. Mustafa Şahin, our researcher, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tuba Acar Erdol, and our project assistants, Dr. Özge Karakuş Özdemirci, and was published in the Western Anatolia Journal of Educational Sciences.
The aim of the study is to develop an interdisciplinary set of criteria for examining the texts and visuals in curricula and textbooks in terms of the representation of women. Accordingly, the Delphi technique was employed, and maximum variation sampling was preferred in forming the expert panel. In total, 23 experts from diverse disciplines—including American literature, linguistics, educational sciences, fine arts education, public administration, psychology, art history, political science, social studies education, sociology, history, Turkish language and literature, and Turkish folklore studies—participated in the process. As a result of the Delphi study, which was completed in three rounds, a comprehensive pool of criteria was created. The 21 criteria developed for the analysis of written texts focus on public/private sphere roles attributed to women and men, professional statuses, emotional and bodily representations, linguistic inequalities, and the relationship between women and technology. The 10 criteria formulated for the analysis of visuals cover elements such as the quantitative distribution of female and male figures, spatial positioning, clothing, bodily representations, multiple feminine identities, and text–image coherence. Finally, the 21 criteria developed regarding social, political, economic, and cultural factors address qualitative changes such as women's representation in working life, their place in decision-making mechanisms, and their domestic roles and social positions; they also consider the reflections of historical turning points—including war, economic crisis, migration, globalization, conservatization, and technological transformation—on the image of women. This study constitutes an important methodological foundation, as it provides a scientific framework for all subsequent analyses conducted in later stages of the project.
Türkçe Ders Kitaplarında Toplumsal Cinsiyetin Söylem Tarihsel Yaklaşım Çerçevesinde İncelenmesi: Adlandırma Stratejisi
Özgül BAŞARAN AYDIN, Öğr. Gör., Kocaeli Üniversitesi, ozgul.aydin@kocaeli.edu.tr
Gülsüm ŞAHİN ERCAN, Doç. Dr., Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, songul.ercan@deu.edu.tr
The second publication related to our project is the study titled “An Analysis of Gender in Turkish Textbooks within the Framework of the Discourse-Historical Approach: Nomination Strategy.” This study was prepared by one of our project researchers, Gülsüm Songül Ercan, together with one of our project assistants, Özgül Başaran Aydın, and was published in The Journal of Academic Social Science Studies. The aim of the study is to examine, within the context of discourse analysis, how gender roles are constructed in Turkish textbooks used at the 1st–4th grade levels during the 2022–2023 academic year. In the research, particular attention was paid to how linguistic resources in the texts—such as personal names, kinship terms, and occupational titles—function within the scope of the “nomination strategy” of the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA). Accordingly, the study seeks to determine whether the textbooks perpetuate an ideological framework that reproduces gender roles or contribute to a more transformative discourse aligned with gender equality. The dataset of the study consists of a comprehensive corpus of all texts included in the Turkish textbooks used during the specified academic year. These texts were analyzed within the framework of “membership categorization devices,” one of the linguistic tools associated with nomination strategies proposed by DHA, and the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 14 was used throughout the analytical process. The coding procedure was carried out both quantitatively and qualitatively, enabling a detailed evaluation of the frequency, contextual positioning, and discursive functions of character representations. The findings reveal that the visibility of female characters decreases markedly as grade level increases, whereas male characters not only appear more frequently but are also more intensively represented in roles associated with prestige in the social sphere. In the examined textbooks, women are predominantly positioned through kinship relations, caregiving, and domestic responsibilities, while men are foregrounded through outward-oriented roles associated with occupation, achievement, decision-making, and public life. All in all, the study demonstrates that the textbooks analyzed reproduce existing gender stereotypes rather than supporting a discourse of gender equality, highlighting the need for primary-level instructional materials to be reconsidered through a more egalitarian and transformative gender perspective.