Gender Representation under Critical Image Analysis: The Case of Iranian ELT Textbooks

This paper aimed to identify and reveal gender positioning in the images used in the recent ELT nation-wide text books, i.e. Prospects 1, 2 & 3. To do so, the dimensions in Goffman (1976) were mixed with the image semiotic category of Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) to analyze the images in terms of determining active participant, gaze direction, visual techniques, body display, and the space in which the participants were shown. In order to elicit the hidden patterns, the data went over a thorough content analysis which revealed the following: First, males were presented more than females as active, looking at the viewer, and framed in a close–up format which signified their prominence and power in relation to females. Second, while both men and women were represented as fully clothed, no female character in the images were depicted in sparsely and lightly clothed. Third, a balanced representation was shown regarding the location in which males or females were present in the images, portraying at both home and workplace spaces despite not showing females in images related to open spaces such as streets and neighborhoods. Results promise implications for language teachers and teacher educators as to raise their awareness of gender bias, though in some aspects and not in others, in images of the text books. In addition, results have clear message for material developers not to selectively represent a gender-unbiased picture of males and females in only some limited aspects.