Browsing by Author "Pillay, Preya."

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Gender representation in contemporary Grade 10 Business Studies textbooks.
(2013) Pillay, Preya.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.
Since 2009 the textbook has emerged as a key educational resource in South African classrooms. This has been a direct response to rapid curriculum change, and real and perceived inadequacies in teacher content and pedagogic knowledge. Of significance though is that there is limited understanding of the nature of content selections that textbook authors invoke and the subtext thereof. The purpose of this study therefore is to understand how gender is represented in Business Studies textbooks available to teachers and pupils in the Further Education and Training (FET) band in South African classrooms. This qualitative study is located in the critical paradigm and engaged the tenets of Critical Discourse Analysis as the key analytical frame. A purposive sample of two contemporary Business Studies textbooks was selected to investigate the phenomenon of gender representation. Findings reveal that stereotypes of women and men are reinforced in the selected textbooks under study. Women were shown more frequently in home settings than were men. Men were shown in a wider variety of occupational roles than women. Textbooks portrayed men in a wide range of highly-paid, high-status occupations such as managing directors, doctors, lawyers etc. In both texts more males have been represented in leadership positions in government, economic and corporate institutions. The textbooks further represented women as being disabled and destitute. Males were portrayed as confident and educated in the usage of technology while women were portrayed as illiterate. Additionally men were portrayed as assertive and forthright business individuals, while women were also portrayed as emotional and as more reliant on, or needing, the advice of men to deal with business-related issues. Finally, the portrayal of firstness presented the male pronoun first in sentences and conversation as opposed to the female pronoun. The findings indicate that representations in the textbooks are gender-biased and gender-insensitive. Of concern is that these representations may be transmitted to school learners. A critical approach to the selection and use of textbooks is thus necessary. Much work needs to be done by key role players in the educational sectors to ensure that gender inclusivity becomes a feature of South African Business Studies textbooks.
Gender representation in four SADC high school Business Studies textbooks.
(2017) Pillay, Preya.; Suriamurthee, Moonsamy Maistry.; Singh, Shakila.
This study assumes that text – the printed word and visual representations – is never neutral; it is always embedded with ideological representations. Textbooks, which are the dominant defining authorities of the curriculum in schools, can therefore be regarded as a key contributor to the curriculum as a site of ideological struggle. Significantly, there may be limited understanding among educators and educational authorities of the ideological nature of the contents of textbooks. As instruments of socialisation, textbooks are important vehicles in the construction of beliefs and attitudes about gender that may not be immediately apparent to the untrained eye. The purpose of this study is to understand the way in which gender is represented in four Business Studies textbooks selected from countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and to theorise their particular representation. More specifically, the focus of this study is to understand how gender is represented in the four SADC textbooks and to develop a theoretical explanation for how the phenomenon presents. This qualitative study is located in the critical paradigm and engages the tenets of feminist critical discourse analysis as the key analytical frame. The purposive sample comprised four contemporary Business Studies textbooks from the last phase of schooling preceding tertiary education. Feminist poststructuralist theory was used in order to examine gender representation in the selected textbooks. Both semiotic and textual representations were examined. The findings reveal that the representations of women and men in these textbooks are indeed ideologically invested and contribute to the perpetuation of patriarchal constructions. At a semantic level, the mention of the male pronoun first in sentences and conversation and not the female pronoun endorses the principle of the firstness and superiority of the masculine. In terms of representation, intersectionality of race, gender and disability is pervasive in the four textbooks. This reinforces the ideology of the able-bodied, heterosexually masculine and white person as the norm for entrepreneurial success. Management, leadership and entrepreneurial knowledge are scripted almost exclusively in favour of the male gender. Representations related to sexual diversity are also absent, thereby endorsing a construct of the idealised businessperson as a white, heterosexual, able-bodied male, excluding females, those of another race or gender, and the disabled. In terms of ‘ideal’ business personality traits, women and others are constructed as relatively incompetent and dependant, while men are portrayed as assertive and forthright. Gender and race bias in occupational roles and careers is also evident in the texts, with women and ‘others’ shown in low-paid occupations or domestic settings, whereas white men are shown in high-paying, high-status, technological occupations, and are mostly absent from domestic settings. The four textbooks promoted Western ideals in which the Western male white canons were reinforced as the norm for business success. These Western ideals are responsible for the different manifestations of marginalisation stereotyping, silencing and limited representation of women and minorities in exceptional roles. This may not be done intentionally – textbook knowledge appears to be constructed ‘unconsciously’ or in ways that reflect oblivion to institutionalised prejudice. The implication of these findings is that development of a more gender-inclusive curriculum is needed, where there is not only representation of the idealised businessperson as a white, heterosexual male. This research suggests that teachers, pre-service teachers and learners may need to engage with the textbooks critically and examine how particular texts are written and why they are written in particular ways. Teachers, pre-service teachers and learners are encouraged to interrogate textbook content. There is also a need for textbook writers to question their own ideological assumptions of gender. This demands a robust introspection of possible stereotypes and uncritical assimilation of regressive gender ideologies that may be perpetuated. It is only by reflecting on and reworking oppressive gender norms, that a gender-inclusive curriculum might be contemplated.