Breaking Gender Stereotypes: A Linguistic Analysis of Gender Representation in SNC-Based Elementary English Textbooks

Textbooks provide students with opportunities to gain knowledge and develop critical thinking skills.Students internalise social constructs and ideologies through textbooks.This research explores the representation of Pakistani women in English textbooks for elementary students published after the Single National Curriculum (SNC) in 2020.A mixed research design is applied to analyse the data both quantitatively and qualitatively.Guided by the theoretical frameworks of the gendered nature of language by Porecca and of Systemic Functional Linguistics by Halliday, different linguistic elements such as the nouns, pronouns and verbs as processes are studied to analyse the content of selected units of Elementary English Textbooks in Punjab (Pakistan).The findings show that the female participation in outdoor activities such as climbing, rushing, and driving is given a proper place in new textbooks, which highlights the empowered status of Pakistani women.This study is useful for curriculum designers, authors, and book compilers to understand the crafting of an up-to-date curriculum aligned with shifts in social and cultural norms.Thus, this study can be useful for future researchers working in the fields of language and gender in textbooks through semiotic, sociolinguistic, and cultural perspectives.