The World of School Textbooks

As children are back in school these days, well be looking at a recent study on textbooks run by the School of Sociology in Bucharest between October 2014 - May 2015.

Christine Leșcu, 30.09.2015, 12:58

Sociology scientists looked at textbooks used in the Communication in the Romanian Language and at Civic Education textbooks for the earliest four years of school, first to fourth grade. What they found were plenty of stereotypes, mostly of the gender and age type. Here to talk about them as they transpire from textbooks is Cosima Rughinis, university lecturer.

Cosima Rughinis: “Textbooks are still full of stereotypes in these two respects. The occupation of mothers and women is mostly that of teacher. In early reading textbooks, two thirds of women appear as teachers. In real life, things obviously are not like that. Stereotypes are mostly occupational. Women also appear very often in the position of homemakers, or, as they say in Romanian, ‘cooking pot wives’. This appears quite literally, they are depicted with a cooking pot in their hand, or they are described as cooking desserts. At the same time, we don’t find out other things about them, things that happen in real life. Which is valid for men too. Textbooks ignore the family life of men, or their involvement in the family. At the same time, they are presented exclusively as aviators, lumberjacks or carpenters.”

The pictures in the books are also anachronistic for today’s Romanian society, just as the texts they illustrate. Children read fragments from literary works of the 19th and 20th centuries. Even the texts written by the textbook designers reflect these stereotypes of women as mothers and teachers, occasionally pediatrician. Considering that in Romanian society nowadays women have the most diverse of occupations, while fathers raise children and do household chores, we asked Cosima Ruginis why we have these stereotypes in the textbooks.

Cosima Rughinis: “They can be found in the collective imagination and discourse, when referring to feminine and masculine roles. I don’t think that in contemporary Romanian society there is any expectation for a woman not to work. Which is why the textbooks are discrepant. This discrepancy does not necessarily stem from the literary universe of the 19th century, they also stem from an inertia of representation. Without a doubt, these textbooks are also are designed under pressure, for time or financial reasons. And I don’t think that anyone has even raised the issue of having these textbooks match the children’s life as it is nowadays.”

In addition to gender stereotypes, primary school textbooks also contain age stereotypes, which sociologists believe to be even more dangerous.

Cosima Rughinis: “In Romania, age stereotypes are even stronger and less talked about, they are invisible, and it seems to me they stir the same emotions as the gender ones. We as women, and some men we work with, have bouts of indignation when we see these absolutely ridiculous gender stereotypes. Unfortunately, one may find adorable the image of an old man with a walking stick or of an old woman with a traditional scarf. This happens as Romania is facing a demographic crisis. In this context, the elderly are excluded from social activities both in real life and in the collective imagination. Unfortunately, textbooks contribute to this crisis the elderly are facing. They are not portrayed as active people. In all of the textbooks we reviewed — and we looked at all the reading textbooks, all the civic education textbooks and in all the 4th grade Romanian textbooks except one — we only found one representation in which grandparents were depicted as active people, vacationing in the mountains. Otherwise grandparents sit in armchairs, wear glasses, are hard of hearing, etc.”

In spite of the stereotypes that children are faced with from the very first day of school, sociologists don’t believe that they influence in any way their future choice of profession. Their impact is much more subtle:

Cosima Rughinis: “The danger is that girls will have homemakers as role models. And it’s not even the role models that are the problem. Boys and girls look at society, at movies, at people around them… The danger lies in the credibility inspired by various people. For instance, businesswomen. Sometimes we may feel that a businesswoman is less credible than a businessman. In some civic education textbooks, we found chapters about leaders and occupations where we found only men. These are exceptions, I don’t think they are representative, but their presence in textbooks seems to reflect a certain set image, and for this reason I believe women face a diminution of credibility when they become politicians, managers, businesswomen.”

After this detailed look into the world of primary school textbooks, this group of sociologists will continue with junior high school and high school textbooks.