In the theoretical part of my master's thesis I first make a short introduction of discrimination and its definitions by various authors. A significant part of the thesis are stereotypes, as well as viewpoints and prejudices which relate to them. One part is dedicated to gender and the differences between biological sex and social gender, and the stereotypical perceptions related to both genders, i.e. gender stereotypes. In the theoretical part I touch upon education itself, education plans and learning materials. Textbooks and other learning materials are an important part of a child’s and adolescent’s education. Both the texts and the graphics give them important information and messages, among other things also about (in-) equality of genders and gender discrimination. To determine the representation of gender in texts and graphics in elementary and secondary school learning materials, I analysed them in the empirical part. The analysis comprised ten learning materials, namely three for secondary schools and seven for elementary schools. I used three learning materials from the field of natural sciences, three from social sciences, and two from linguistics and art each. My analysis of the texts and graphics used in the learning materials is based on the 2009 research by UNESCO titled Promoting Gender Equality Through Textbooks – A Methodological Guide. First, I set out to determine which gender form appears more often in texts and graphics, masculine or feminine. Then I focused my analysis on graphics and gender representation in learning materials for elementary schools. For this purpose, I set special categories according to the characters’ activities and social status. It was interesting to compare the texts and graphics to see whether they match. The analysis also included differences in social representations of the male and female gender in learning materials. The results of the analysis show that, according to the definition of discrimination and the guidelines for writing learning materials which I set, most learning materials are discriminatory. In many cases, the male and female gender are stereotyped. In relation to the category of characters’ activities, learning materials include many cases of gender stereotypes. Adult women are mostly represented doing domestic activities (housework, shopping etc.) or taking care of others, while adult men mostly fall into categories of activities related to the public sphere. It is important that both authors and authoresses of learning materials pay attention to the elements of stereotypical portrayals of gender, not only in texts but also in graphics. They can follow existing guidelines set out for just this purpose, as well as the guidelines which I developed based on my analysis and the theoretical starting points.
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