Representing Gender in an Indonesian EFL Textbook: Students’ Perspectives and Textbook Analysis
Abstract
This study aimed to analyze gender representation in the textbook Bahasa Inggris: Work in Progress and to explore students’ perceptions of gender stereotypes portrayed in the textbook. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design. The data were collected through content analysis and an open-ended questionnaire distributed to 44 tenth-grade students at a senior high school in Karawang. The analysis focused on seven indicators of gender representation, namely pictures, activities, traits, role models, characters, gender mentions, and the order of name mention. The results showed that the textbook was not fully gender-balanced and still reflected gender bias in several aspects. Male characters were more dominant in most indicators, while female characters appeared slightly more frequently only in the gender mentions indicator. In addition, most students were aware of the unequal gender representation portrayed in the textbook, although several students demonstrated critical awareness toward gender stereotypes. Overall, the textbook still reflected unequal gender representation despite several positive portrayals of female characters.
References
Aini, W., Yanto, E. S., & Fitriyana, W. (2021). (2021). Gender Representation in The English Textbook for Grade Ninth in Indonesia. NTERACTION: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa, 8(2), 6. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.36232/jurnalpendidikanbahasa.v8i2.1334
Connell, R. W. (2002). Gender. Wiley. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=9t4xT-mV5m4C
Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2023). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (7th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Cunningsworth, A. (1995). Choosing Your Coursebook. Macmillan Education Australia. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=yTBVvgAACAAJ
Fauzi, K., Asih, Y. U., & Suhatmady, B. (2023). Gender Representation in Elt Textbook: English for Tenth Graders (Content Analysis). Jurnal Cahaya …, (2001), 576–589. https://ojs.cahayamandalika.com/index.php/JCM/article/view/1522%0Ahttps://ojs.cahayamandalika.com/index.php/JCM/article/download/1522/1255
Fithriani, R. (2022). Gender Stereotypes in Educational Texts: a Comparative Study of Indonesian and International Primary English Textbooks. Discourse and Interaction, 15(2), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.5817/Di2022-2-53
Hall, S., & Lenguaje, S. Y. (1997). EL TRABAJO DE LA REPRESENTACIÓN Stuart Hall 1 1. Representations, 1–55.
Logsdon, M. (1985). Gender roles in primary school texts in Indonesia. In Women in Asia and the Pacific: Towards East--West Dialogue (pp. 243–262). University of Hawaii Press.
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Muthali’in, A. (2001). Bias Gender dalam Pendidikan. Muhammadiyah University Press.
Muzdalifah, A., Noorman, S., & Gunawan, W. (2022). Gender Representation in English Textbook: A Visual Grammar Analyis. Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan, 21(3), 85–95. https://doi.org/10.17509/jpp.v21i3.43093
Nasution, K. F., Setia, E., & Rangkuti, R. (2025). Representations of Gender in English Textbook Super Minds: A Critical Discourse Analysis. JEELS (Journal of English Education and Linguistics Studies), 12(1), 475–499. https://doi.org/10.30762/jeels.v12i1.3600
Nur Amalia, A., Hidayat, D. N., Husna, N., & Alek, A. (2024). The Analysis of Gender Position in English Language Teaching Coursebooks: Pathway to English for The Senior High School. Jurnal Onoma: Pendidikan, Bahasa, Dan Sastra, 10(2), 1440–1451. https://doi.org/10.30605/onoma.v10i2.3468
Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. In Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511667220
Sandelowski, M. (2010). What’s in a name? Qualitative description revisited. Research in Nursing & Health, 33(1), 77–84. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.20362
Su, Q., Wang, Q., Zhang, L., & Zhang, S. (2021). A Review of Gender Stereotypes in Education. Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021), 586(Icprss), 779–783. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.256
UNESCO. (2019). From access to empowerment: UNESCO strategy for gender equality in and through education 2019-2025. From Access to Empowerment: UNESCO Strategy for Gender Equality in and through Education 2019-2025. https://doi.org/10.54675/ijgq3826
Wardhaugh, R. (2002). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (4th ed.). Blackwell Publishing.
Wilfitri, D. Y., & Suganda, L. A. (2023). Gender representation in Indonesian high school English textbooks: A content analysis. Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics, 8(1), 128–142.
Wiraningsih, P., Suwastini, N. K. A., & Padmadewi, N. N. (2025). Gendered pictorial in Indonesian EFL textbook “When English rings the bells.” Journal of Education and Learning, 19(2), 998–1014. https://doi.org/10.11591/edulearn.v19i2.21474
Yolanda, C., & Syafryadin. (2025). Gender Representation in Indonesian EFL Textbooks: A Sociolinguistic Study of “English for Nusantara.” Pedagogy : Journal of English Language Teaching, 13(1), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.32332/joelt.v13i1.10682
Zhao, W. (2022). The Impact of Gender Stereotypes in Education on Female Students’ Psychological Development. Proceedings of the 2022 3rd International Conference on Mental Health, Education and Human Development (MHEHD 2022), 670(Mhehd), 1012–1017. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220704.184
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Article Metrics
Abstract view : 0 timesPDF - 44 times
Accreditation Journal
