Gender Representation in Junior High School Efl Textbook: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

Textbooks play an important role in teaching and learning process since textbooks are easy to access. Widodo (2018) posited that ELT textbooks are one of the tools to achieve the curriculum goals which is supposed to consists of not only knowledge materials and skill, but also attitude and character education. This is justified by Dewantara (1962) who believes that education is a way to develope characters, intelegence and physical of students. Since the topic of the research is about gender, attitude domain of the curriculum becomes the main concern In Indonesian context, gender is considered as important since “the country socio-culturally recognizes gender differences” (Ariyanto, 2018: 1). This statement justifies that each gender in Indonesia has certain role which affects the students‟ attitudes toward their real life if they encounter certain forms of gender bias in the classroom. Gender is constructed based on the culture in which they live. According to Butler (1990), the different roles of gender proves to be performative within the borders of a given culture and society. Critical discourse analysis is the best tool to reveal “how a text represents and constructs social reality contextually tied to a specific ideological (system) through covert message based on what is said and left unsaid” (Widodo, 2018). The textbook‟s title is “Headline English 1” which was written by M. Badrus Sholeh and was published by Srikandi Empat, a private publishing company. The data collected was in a form of verbal and visual depiction of conversations, pictures, reading passages, and assignments. The data also consisted of male and female gender in the depiction. The semiotic analysis was used to reveal the hidden meaning.