A Gender Study Of Chinese Textbooks For High School Published By People’s Education Press

When it comes to school education,textbooks would never be neglected as they enjoy a core position in the school education activities.Compared with other books,textbooks are prone to be more logical,pragmatic and standard,which is suitable for students.And among various textbooks,Chinese textbooks tend to be more influential because they are comprehensive educational reading materials which students first come across.The nature of Chinese curriculum has been finally discussed in the Chinese Curriculum Standards for Senior High School as a unity of instrumentality and humanity,which is also a basic characteristic of Chinese courses.On the one hand,Chinese curriculum serves as the basis for learning other subjects.Only when students have got good command of Chinese could they acquire knowledge of other subjects further.On the other hand,Chinese curriculum’s educational function is of great importance with its sharp and sensitive reflection of social development and changes,ideology of mainstream and values of the society at that time.The gender culture contained in Chinese textbooks plays a subtle role in the formation of students’ gender concepts,among which the right one has a positive impact in shaping gender awareness,while,conversely,the backward one might lead to gender bias,resulting in the failure of achieving educational equity and gender equality.As comprehensive educational reading materials,Chinese textbooks are ought to present students with advanced gender culture.This thesis aims to reveal and analyze explicit and implicit gender issues respectively in the Chinese textbooks for senior high school published by People’s Education Press through text analysis,documentary research and comparative research.In the thesis,narrative texts are taken as examples,the Theory of Social Gender and the Theory of Feminist Literary Criticism serve as theoretical guidance.What’s more,based on the actual situation,the impact caused by gender issues are to be discussed specifically.And appropriate suggestions are also provided from the two aspects of constructing Chinese textbooks and implementing Chinese teaching.The introduction part offers a brief description about research background and significance.For one thing,it sorts out and appraises the current tendency on gender issues in the textbooks both abroad and at home.For another thing,a detailed explanation on innovations,deficiencies and study approaches applied in the thesis would be presented.The main focus of this part is to comb and review the processes of gender study in Chinese textbooks in the field of education.The main body of the thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter defines the concepts of Chinese textbooks,narrative texts and social gender.A vital interpretation of the Theory of Social Gender and the Theory of Feminist Literary Criticism,namely the central concepts of Feminism,is offered,and also severs as the theoretical support of the thesis.The second chapter focuses on the explicit gender issues in narrative texts contained in the Chinese textbooks for senior high school published by People’s Education Press.The study has found explicit gender issues on character shaping,gender image and personality.Generally speaking,male is superior to female on character shaping,image distribution and personality,following the traditional division of labor model that “male tends to be out-door oriented while female is prone to stay indoor”.Meanwhile,gender values are allocated and the gender personality is also shaped according to different gender scale,that is,“male is likely to be masculine while female is gentle”.These characteristics are mutually exclusive,presenting a tendency towards patriarchy.The third chapter pays attention to the implicit gender issues in narrative texts included in the Chinese textbooks for senior high school published by People’s Education Press.The analysis is made from the perspective of gender,focusing on the discourse appeared,attribution of characters’ destiny and literary theme.It is found that the allocation of female’s being inferior to male is not superseded in the textbooks.Female is regarded as an object with subjective flavor,serving as the auxiliary to male.And in the texts,female is still beset with the stereotype of being inferior.The fourth chapter elaborates and explores the profound impact brought by the gender bias in the Chinese textbooks for senior high school published by People’s Education Press.The period of senior high school plays an important role in students’ forming gender concepts,which might be shaped by the gender bias that takes effect in students’ unconsciousness in the textbook.The fifth chapter provides relative suggestions,aims at eliminating the influence of gender bias in Chinese textbooks from perspectives both of editors and teachers.For editors,they should be aware of gender equality,accentuating advanced gender culture while editing Chinese textbooks,and choose texts with gender awareness as well as take the gender values of text into consideration.As for teachers,multiple and bounded interpretations should be offered,and the strategy of “teaching based on gender” are also ought to be applied in the process of teaching.The last part summarizes and reviews study conclusion of the main body,that is,there is a tendency that male is in the core position in the Chinese textbooks for senior high school published by People’s Education Press.Meanwhile,the suggestion of editing textbooks through gender perspective is put forward in this part.Teachers are ought to be aware of gender values while interpreting text content and take advantage of textbooks critically.What’s more,the application of the strategy of “teaching based on gender”serves to create a gender-friendly atmosphere in class,as well as guide students to form healthy gender concepts.At the same time,the expectation of pluralistic development in Chinese textbooks and teaching methods is given in the thesis.