The conflict Between Official Discourse and Generational Reality in the Gender Socialization of Iranian Adolescents (A Contenet Analysis of Family Management and Lifestyle Textbooks and a Study of Female Students’ Reading of Their Book(

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/jisr.2025.397829.1636

Abstract

This research studies gender socialization in two textbooks, "Family Management and Lifestyle" for twelfth grade girls and boys, and evaluates female students' reading of the gender content of the book which is written for girls. The purpose of this research is to analyze the content of these books as a tool of formal socialization, with an emphasis on the representation of values, roles, and gender power relations, and to study and typify the predominant response of female students as the target group to the content of their special book.
The research method is inductive qualitative content analysis and in-depth interviews with ten girl students, and the data were coded and analyzed by using MaxQDA software.
The findings show that the semantic structure of the books is based on an essentialist view of gender, which leads to the reproduction of traditional gender roles and gender system. Female students' reading of their book is consistent with the results of the content analysis. They believe that the purpose of the book is to reproduce the meaning of femininity and masculinity in accordance with the traditional gender system and to marginalize women's social activism. Therefore, critical, protesting, and resistant reactions to the content of the book have been shown, highlighting the value gap between the official school discourse and their living world. This research shows that a review of gender educational content is necessary to align with cultural and social developments and maintain the effectiveness of the explicit curriculum in the process of gender socialization.

Keywords

References

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