The Cd-rom is coordinated by Carole Brugeilles, Sylvie Cromer and Thérèse Locoh (CEPED, 2008) and dedicated to the analysis of gender representations in the textbooks, has a companion site where you can find all of the resources offered.
The social relations of gender occupy a growing place in the analysis of the various demographic phenomena. The social behaviour and population are based on identities and representations of gender, different cultures, conveyed through various media and incorporated by the individuals during stages of their socialization. School education plays a key role in this process. Knowledge, values and social standards are laid down within the framework of education policies, listed in the heart of textbooks, and so passed by the school. This publication, in the form of CD-Rom offers six articles that analyze the gender representations in the textbooks of different disciplines used in education in four African countries (Cameroon, Madagascar, Senegal, and Togo), the countries of the Maghreb (Tunisia) and one country in Central America (Mexico). They are based on a common methodology. Based on sociology the social relations of gender and the concept of social representation, supported by a quantitative approach, this method allows to understand “objectively” the gender-based representations and/or cultural offered to young students in the textbooks.
These articles, which reinforce the activities of the International Research Network on Gender Representations in textbooks (RIRRS) supported by CEPED, renew the knowledge of the textbooks and thus contribute to the understanding of the influence of schooling on the construction of representations of the self. They also allow, by highlighting the persistence of inequalities according to the gender, to argue in favour of a modification of the manuals so that they play a role of a lever to promote equality between boys and girls, enrolment of girls, their access to culture and, more broadly, a change in the social roles of gender.