Textbooks and genders : gender representation in teaching materials of liberal studies in Hong Kong

Abstract

This study is analyzing the gender representation of liberal studies textbooks. Education Bureau suggested that Liberal Studies aims to arouse students’ attention on gender stereotypes. Recently researches have shown that more than 90% of students in Hong Kong are using textbooks to learn in liberal studies lessons. However, as the use of textbooks is not encouraged for Liberal studies, the textbooks review mechanism does not apply to liberal studies textbooks. This study aims to review 5 liberal studies textbooks available in the market. The study focuses on the coverage part and content analysis. The result shows that gender stereotype could also be found, in terms of the ratio between male and female characters, the domestic roles and social roles of characters depicted, as well as the activities taken up by the characters.