Gender Differences in Physical Education Textbooks in Spain: A Content Analysis of Photographs

The aim of this paper is to show how gender differences are portrayed in images featured in Physical Education textbooks for secondary schools in Spain published between 2000 and 2006. The sample was composed of 2,724 images published in 36 textbooks by 10 Spanish publishing houses. A content analysis was carried out through the elaboration of an ad hoc coding scheme. The development of the coding scheme followed: two trial tests, two consultations with experts, and triangulation with three observers. The variables of the study were: gender, type of physical activity, field of practice, space and level. The findings showed a noticeable imbalance between male and female representation in which the male model is clearly predominant. In addition, these images portray males and females in stereotypical roles and depict certain activities or sports as more appropriate for one gender or the other. These findings further highlight the need to increase awareness regarding the image content in textbooks and the necessity to work in order to overcome traditional gender stereotypes connected with physical education and sport.     

GENDER BIASES IN TEXTBOOKS FOR INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Because of spreading concerns about gender stereotypes in textbooks, in 1975 an American Psychological Association Task Force recommended changes in the type of language that should be used to report research findings and in the type of information that should be included in reports of psychological research. These recommendations also applied to the presentation of psychological information in textbooks. Studies in the subsequent 7 years indicated some decrease in the use of sex-stereotyped language and some decrease in gender-biased content. Researchers typically concluded, however, that although some improvements had occurred, gender biases and stereotypes still occurred in texts. The present study reports an extensive content analysis of current textbooks for introductory psychology and human development courses. Representation of the work, theory, and behavior of males continues to significantly exceed the representation of the work, theory, and behavior of females, and females continue to be portrayed in negative and gender-biased ways.     

Indirect aggression in the media: A content analysis of british television programs

The purpose of this study is to determine how much indirect aggression occurs in television programs popular among British adolescents. Previous research has mainly focused on violence in the media rather than examining this more manipulative and subtle type of aggression. A content analysis of 228 hours of television programming revealed that indirect aggression was portrayed in 92.04% of all episodes analyzed. It was portrayed more frequently than physical and verbal aggression. Females were more likely to be shown as indirect aggressors than were males, while males were more likely to be portrayed as physical aggressors. Attractive aggressors were more likely to use indirect than other types of aggression. Indirect aggression was often found to be justified, realistic, and rewarded. We conclude that programs that are not considered violent may still contain a large amount of other types of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 30:254–271, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Crusades in Arab School Textbooks

This article examines the depiction of the Crusades in Arab school textbooks. In the introductory first part, perceptions of the Crusades manifest in Arab historiography are described. In addition, modern political discourses referring to the Crusades among Arab authors, politicians and representatives of political Islam are explained. In the second part, accounts of the Crusades in school textbooks from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia are analysed, focusing on the sources used by the books' authors, the terminologies, conceptions, reasoning, and narratives found in them, and the results of the Crusades as they are portrayed. The third part concludes by explaining three different approaches to how the textbooks relate the history, and shows the historical sensibilities concerning the Crusades as taught by the schoolbooks.     

Do Boys and Girls Act Differently in the Classroom? A Content Analysis of Student Characters in Educational Psychology Textbooks

Previous research on gender stereotyping in textbooks has focused primarily on pictures used in texts. However, many textbooks also use scenarios, with fictional characters, as pedagogical devices. Student characters in educational psychology textbooks were analyzed for potential gender stereotypes. Results revealed that male characters were depicted with negative masculine traits, such as aggression, significantly more often than were female characters. However, no differences were found for positive masculine traits or for feminine traits. Male characters were also portrayed as engaging in stereotypically masculine activities significantly more often than female characters, although no difference was found in science activity as a function of gender. The findings are discussed in terms of possible influence on preservice teachers who are the primary readers of educational psychology textbooks.     

Gender and Race Representation in Casual Games

This paper examines gender and race representation in casual games through content analysis. Study 1 looks at gender and race representation in a random sample (N?=?200) of casual games retrieved from the websites of the largest five casual game distributors. Study 2 looks at the most popular games on websites of the same five multinational distributors (N?=?54) and analyzes how primary characters are portrayed in terms of appearance and personality. Females are overly represented as primary characters but chi-square analyses indicate no significant differences between sexes in terms of how they are portrayed: of note, neither males nor females are depicted in a sexual manner. These results conflict with previous studies of gender representation in game characters: this paper suggests that sampling methodology and the relatively new trend of casual games excluded this subset of games from prior research. Implications are discussed using a social cognitive framework.     

A Portrait of Gender Bias in the Prescribed Indonesian ELT Textbook for Junior High School Students

In recent decades, gender in language education has been discussed and studied. Textbooks play a critical role in canalizing particular gender ideologies or values. ELT textbooks are no exception. In response to this, this paper reports on a critical discourse study that examines how females and males are represented in the prescribed Indonesian ELT textbook published by the Ministry of National Education. Critical micro-semiotic analysis indicates that the ELT textbook depicts gender bias or stereotypes in which these stereotypes are presented through visual and verbal texts. This finding implies that gendered texts and discourses in the textbook inadequately depict gender equality. The textbooks also showcases stereotyped gender differences. For this reason, language textbook writers and language teachers need to take into account the interplay between gender and language use when designing and using any ELT textbooks.     

Confronting the Holocaust in Religious Education

Studies of Holocaust education in secondary schools have tended to focus on how the subject is taught as part of the history curriculum. Comparatively little work of either a theoretical or an empirical nature has looked at how the subject is handled in other curricular areas. Religious education is a case in point, for the field is marked both by a dearth of literature on appropriate content and by a virtual absence of research on teachers' practices. The need to address these lacunae provides the rationale for the article. In relation to content, two concerns dominate the discussion. The first is that the Holocaust may be portrayed as an act of religious intolerance; the second is that students may be offered a diluted or distorted account of the part played by Christianity. The empirical core of the article surveys the practices of 28 teachers of religious education in connection with both concerns. It also contains a content analysis of how textbooks used by the teachers treat the attempted annihilation of European Jewry. The article concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the findings.     

Seeking social connectedness: interdependent self-construal and impression formation using photographic cues of social connectedness

Impression formation research has traditionally focused on either the characteristics of the target or of the participant, failing to examine their interplay. In the present study, we explored the role of interdependent self-construal on ratings of others who are portrayed as alone or connected. We hypothesized that participants with an interdependent view of the self would prefer others who are portrayed as socially connected, while the opposite would be true for participants low on interdependence. Results showed that college students high on interdependence rated a university professor photographed with another person relatively more positively than a professor photographed alone. This pattern was reversed for participants low on interdependence.     

“Homeless Killer”: An Analysis of the Media’s Portrayal of the Victims of a Serial Killer

Previous research has examined the newsworthiness of homicide victims and explored many characteristics of victims. To date, there is no research examining homeless homicide victims even though homeless individuals are more susceptible to being victims of violent crimes. This study examines the online media coverage of four homeless homicide victims murdered by a serial killer in 2012 to ascertain how housing status impacts media coverage. Specifically, this study explores through content analysis what kind of coverage homeless individuals receive and how they are portrayed. Findings suggest that housing status is a salient characteristic in the newsworthiness of victims.     

Seeking Social Connectedness: Interdependent Self-Construal and Impression Formation Using Photographic Cues of Social Connectedness

ABSTRACT

Impression formation research has traditionally focused on either the characteristics of the target or of the participant, failing to examine their interplay. In the present study, we explored the role of interdependent self-construal on ratings of others who are portrayed as alone or connected. We hypothesized that participants with an interdependent view of the self would prefer others who are portrayed as socially connected, while the opposite would be true for participants low on interdependence. Results showed that college students high on interdependence rated a university professor photographed with another person relatively more positively than a professor photographed alone. This pattern was reversed for participants low on interdependence.     

Tell Me a Story of Jesus: Teaching as Storytelling and Four Recent Short Histories of Christianity

Abstract. Offering a review of four short introductory books on Christianity, this essay discusses how introductory textbooks, and introductory religion courses more generally, are like storytelling. Books by Lindberg, Tomkins, Norris, and Woodhead are reviewed with an emphasis on their classroom use. These books share several things in common – most notably, each is a “short,” popular text. Dealing with the topic of Christianity in abbreviated form presents certain challenges and possibilities in the task of teaching. After examining these short histories, the essay reflects on several questions that emerge: When should we use textbooks in college classrooms? What are the goals that teachers have in the use of textbooks? How do textbooks define the subject matter of a course? And finally, how do teachers use texts to aid in telling a story in the classroom?     

Reengineering Biomedical Translational Research with Engineering Ethics

It is widely accepted that translational research practitioners need to acquire special skills and knowledge that will enable them to anticipate, analyze, and manage a range of ethical issues. While there is a small but growing literature that addresses the ethics of translational research, there is a dearth of scholarship regarding how this might apply to engineers. In this paper we examine engineers as key translators and argue that they are well positioned to ask transformative ethical questions. Asking engineers to both broaden and deepen their consideration of ethics in their work, however, requires a shift in the way ethics is often portrayed and perceived in science and engineering communities. Rather than interpreting ethics as a roadblock to the success of translational research, we suggest that engineers should be encouraged to ask questions about the socio-ethical dimensions of their work. This requires expanding the conceptual framework of engineering beyond its traditional focus on “how” and “what” questions to also include “why” and “who” questions to facilitate the gathering of normative, socially-situated information. Empowering engineers to ask “why” and “who” questions should spur the development of technologies and practices that contribute to improving health outcomes.     

Pink and blue collar jobs: children's judgments of job status and job aspirations in relation to sex of worker

Past work shows that even young children know that occupations are differentially linked to men and women in our society. In our research, we studied whether 6- and 11-year-old children's (a) beliefs about job status and (b) job interests would be affected by the gendered nature of jobs. When asked about familiar occupations, children gave higher status ratings to masculine jobs and expressed greater interest in jobs culturally associated with their own sex. To circumvent the extant confounds between job gender and job status in our culture, we also developed a new methodology in which novel jobs were portrayed with either male or female workers. Older children rated novel jobs portrayed with male workers as having higher status than the identical jobs portrayed with female workers. Portrayal sex had no effect on children's own interests in these novel jobs at either age. Methodological, theoretical, and educational issues are discussed in relation to sex-role development and vocational aspirations.     

When Men Divulge: Portrayals of Men's Self-Disclosure in Prime Time Situation Comedies

The media have been widely criticized for promoting unhealthy images of masculinity. To better understand how men are portrayed on television, we analyzed male characters' self-disclosures on television. From the 11 most highly rated situation comedies, 1,320 min of programming were examined, in which 328 incidents of self-disclosure were identified. Results indicated that male characters disclosed an average of once every 4.08 min (5.96 times per 24-min episode), disclosed more often to male than to female characters, and expressed negative emotions more frequently to male than to female characters. Male characters self-disclosed freely and comfortably, and they were moderately emotionally expressive and personally revealing. They typically received somewhat favorable responses from others to their disclosures. However, the demographic characteristics of the characters failed to represent the diversity of U.S. society. Potential implications for television and society are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

Gender role stereotyping in children's literature: An update

The impact of gender role stereotyping in children's literature has been examined in numerous studies over the past two decades. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the sex bias portrayed in picture books is still as prevalent as in the past. In particular, we were interested in whether the frequency of males and females in pictures and their characterizations had changed. One hundred and fifty children's picture books were analyzed for gender role content. It was found that while the frequency of males and females depicted in the stories had indeed become more evenly distributed over the past 50 years, the roles played by males and females have changed in a more subtle way. Girls are now being pictured in more instrumental activities, but are as passive dependent as 50 years ago. Boys are occasionally shown as passive dependent today, but are no less instrumental than 50 years ago. The findings suggest that increased effort is needed on the part of publishers and authors to provide children with literature that more closely parallels the roles of males and females in contemporary society.Preparation of this article was supported in part by a Faculty Grant from Monmouth College awarded to the second author.     

Trainee Perceptions of Drill Sergeant Qualities During Basic Combat Training

Basic combat training plays an important role in military service with approximately 72,000 soldiers participating in the United States annually. Although Drill Sergeant qualities have been widely portrayed in popular media, there is very little empirical research that documents the characteristics of Drill Sergeants and the impact these characteristics may have on trainees. In this study we evaluated a measure of perceived Drill Sergeant qualities and the degree to which these qualities related to mental health symptoms and job-related outcomes of trainees. Three types of perceived Drill Sergeant qualities were found from factor analyses: motivation, respect, and toughness. Using latent growth curve analyses, higher initial scores on motivation and respect, but not toughness, were associated with greater decreases in mental health symptoms over time. Further, changes in perceived Drill Sergeant qualities related to changes in depressive symptoms, unit cohesion, and citizen behaviors assessed over the course of basic combat training.     

When constraints interact: a caution about reference variables,identification constraints,and scale dependencies in structural equation modeling

In traditional approaches to structural equations modeling, variances of latent endogenous variables cannot be specified or constrained directly and, consequently, are not identified, unless certain precautions are taken. The usual method for achieving identification has been to fix one factor loading for each endogenous latent variable at unity. An alternative approach is to fix variances using newer constrained estimation algorithms. This article examines the philosophy behind such constraints and shows how their appropriate use is neither as straightforward nor as noncontroversial as portrayed in textbooks and computer manuals. The constraints on latent variable variances can interact with other model constraints to interfere with the testing of certain kinds of hypotheses and can yield incorrect standardized solutions with some popular software.