Sexist manuals, sexist classroom? The role of teachers in promoting gender equality in the ELE classroom

Abstract

This paper explores the attitudes of teachers towards the (non) sexist content of didactic materials, and the influence of hidden curricula in the transmission of ideologies in the Spanish L2 classroom. The study is based on the information gathered through an anonymous esurvey distributed to 20 current and former Spanish teachers at the Department of Iberian Studies, University of Belgrade. The questions in the survey addressed the gender ideology of the teachers and the ways they deal with gender stereotypes in textbooks they use in the classroom. A qualitative analysis of their responses, carried out in the theoretical frame of Critical Applied Linguistics, confirms the hypothesis that the treatment of gender stereotypes in the classroom depends not only on the didactic material, but also on teachers’ attitudes and values, which can have an important impact on the transmission of ideas and ideologies in learning process.