Sexism in “Discussion”: A Critical Analysis of an EGAP/EFL Coursebook

Sexism in “Discussion”: A Critical Analysis of an EGAP/EFL Coursebook

This study examines hegemonic ideologies associated with the depictions of women or femalepresenting persons in “Discussion Process and Principles,” an English for general academic purposes (EGAP) and English as a foreign language (EFL) coursebook employed primarily by tertiary and secondary institutions in East Asia. Drawing on previous research on gender representation within English language teaching (ELT) texts, this study provides a critical perspective of this coursebook through content analysis and multimodal critical discourse analysis research methodologies of its text and illustrations. The results suggested that within such measures as visibility, prominence, firstness, turn-taking, and volume of words sexism or other gender bias was not present. However, it was also discovered that sexism was in operation in assigning social roles and discussion functions to female-presenting characters. Moreover, occurrences of sexism appear intersecting with other discursive ideologies that promote inner circle cultural dominance, centralize Whiteness, and marginalize non-White racial and ethnic groups via token representation and trope-inspired character depictions. Based on these results, this study implicates that in the selection of EGAP and EFL coursebooks, educators should consider how gender and other intersectional facets of identity are embedded to avoid promulgating ideological hegemonies of sexism, pro-Whiteness, and inner circlism in the classroom.