What Does It Mean to Be a Girl? Teachers’ Representations of Gender in Supplementary Reading Materials for South African Schools

South African Curriculum Standards and the IWP

The National Curriculum Statement (NCS) was in effect when the IWP team created the materials under examination in this study. The ministerial committee approved the NCS in 2002 and implemented it in 2004. The NCS stipulated policy on curriculum and assessment in schools. South Africa’s government of national unity inherited a segregated and imbalanced system of education. Before 1994, there were various departments of education, segregated by race, geography, and ideology. The NCS laid a foundation for one comprehensive curriculum, and the decision-making processes were representative and participatory. The NCS, grounded in outcomes-based education, included learning outcomes and knowledge, competencies, values, and attitudes for all subjects. The key principles and values that underpinned the curriculum, derived from the Constitution of South Africa, represented the nation’s social values, including the roles, responsibilities, and rights of citizens in South Africa. The curriculum, in consonance with the spirit of the Constitution, encouraged an awareness and understanding of the rich diversity of beliefs, cultures, and worldviews—all of which manifested the intended unity of the country. The Constitution guided the set of principles and values that the NCS followed. These principles and values included human rights, inclusivity, and social justice; these consequently reinforced the democratic values of the Constitution. The goal of the NCS was to ensure that the country saw social, political, cultural, and economic transformation.

In addition, the NCS aimed to reconcile a new education system following the apartheid education system, characterized by oppression and inequity in education because of racial discrimination. It was thought that the NCS could be a tool that would root out inequalities, racism, and social injustice. Racial segregation in South Africa began with the classification of people as Black, White, colored, and Indian during colonial times. This state of desegregation generated extreme economic inequalities. The NCS was a means of education transformation because it introduced the notion that people who were previously disadvantaged could (and should be able to) choose the language that guided learning and teaching in the schools that served their community.

The NCS, required supplementary materials to be created that aligned the new curriculum. Research has shown that supplementary reading materials are a necessity for adequate progress in reading achievement.Moreover, for our purposes here, we believe that the availability of supplemental reading materials might lead to changes in perceptions of gender and identity.

It was against this backdrop that a team of international curriculum developers assisted in the design, development, and publication of supplementary learning materials to support the standards and social reform in South Africa. The IWP, a one-time, USAID-funded project, was part of a larger plan of South African government to place learning materials written in the indigenous South African languages into the hands of teachers and learners to potentially impact the educational experiences of historically underrepresented populations in South Africa.

Due to the ongoing need to create materials for schools in post-Apartheid South Africa, the DOE in South Africa partnered with the University of Texas San Antonio and two South African nongovernmental organizations, the READ Educational Trust and the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy, to design and develop supplementary reading materials for students in Grades 4, 5, and 6. Students in these grades had textbooks provided to them by the government, and the IWP was created to provide students with supplementary reading materials that were culturally relevant and tied to the NCS. Workshops led by 10 South African facilitators (and supported by four faculty members from the United States, including the second author of this study) guided South African teachers through the authoring of these books. The facilitators led the workshops (which took place in the local language of the community); the support team was there to help with technology issues and offer other logistical support services.

The majority of the South African authors were females (85%) with the vast majority of them being Black South Africans (98%). The subject matter of the books was relative to the experiences of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders living and attending school in South Africa. Through a series of three writing workshops based in the provinces of Gauteng (largely urban) and Limpopo and Mpumalanga (largely rural), teachers were engaged as authors—documenting and describing “lived experiences” and expert self-knowledge. These authors were encouraged to find the intersection between their own experiences/expertise and topics that children in Grades 4, 5, and 6 would find interesting. Black South African artists illustrated the books.

As authors, we were part of an international team that helped to develop picture books replete with instructional guidelines for implementation. Members of our team (workshop facilitators and faculty at U.S.-based universities) edited the locally authored stories in the following ways: developmental appropriateness, relevance, aesthetically appealing, various rhetorical forms, word identification, fluency, number of words per page, sentence patterns, and illustration and prose correspondence.

The IWP designed, developed, and produced 140 titles, printed more than 2.5 million books, in 11 official languages (English, Afrikaans, Setswana, Sesotho, Sepedi, isiZulu, Xitsonga, isiXhosa, SiSwati, isiNdebele, and Tshivenda). Furthermore, teachers’ guides instructionally integrated these supplementary readers with the NCS as an impetus for mathematics, natural science, or social studies lessons that followed the reading of the books. Finally, the local nongovernmental organization teams taught more than 8,000 teachers to utilize the new learning materials to their fullest potential.

Gender Equity and Women’s Identities in South African Schools

Significant gender inequities continue to prevail in South Africa. The HIV/AIDS epidemic, for example, continues to be characterized by gender inequalities: Young women are more likely to be HIV infected, especially if they are heads of households, than their male counterparts (Shisana, Rice, Zungu, & Zuma, 2010). Other studies demonstrate the ill effects of globalized economic and trade policies on women’s occupational roles and resources that contribute to poor economic status for families in Africa. These effects burden women and have serious negative consequences for their own and their families’ health, safety, and nutrition (Loewenson, Nolen, & Wamala, 2010).

The most recent measure of the effects of poor health, education, and lifestyles on women is the Gender Inequality Index (GII; measured by the United Nations Development Program [UNDP]). This measure captures the disadvantage of women in three dimensions: empowerment (representation of women in parliament and educational attainment, secondary level and above), economic activity (participation in the labor force), and reproductive health (maternal mortality and adolescent fertility). In 2010, the global Human Development Report estimated the GII for 138 countries to determine gender inequalities across all regions of the world as these substantially erode human development achievements. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of highest reported losses in human development (74%) due to significant gender disparities in education and high maternal mortality and adolescent fertility rates (UNDP, 2010, p. 19). Similarly, regional patterns reveal that the reproductive health of women is the largest contributor to gender inequality around the world; South Africa dropped 45 places in rank on the GII (UNDP, 2010, p. 25) due mainly to its relatively high maternal mortality ratio (p. 26). In summary, the UNDP report demonstrated the disadvantage of women in critical dimensions, pointing to the need for more proactive public policies and awareness.

Gender Representation in School Materials

Research on the representation of gender and gender identities in different texts continued to indicate a lingering favoring of males over females as recently as the late 1990s and early 2000s. In research on popular picture books, for example, Davis and McDaniel (1999) analyzed gender portrayal in Caldecott-winning books (U.S.-based) of the 1990s and found that a disproportionate percentage of men appeared over women in these books. Gooden and Gooden (2001) explored the representation of females in Notable Children’s Books from 1995 to 1999. Their findings indicated that female representation greatly increased since the 70s but gender stereotypes remained prevalent in children’s literature. Still another team of researchers (Hamilton, Anderson, Broaddus, & Young, 2006) explored the representation of females in 200 best-selling picture books in the United States. Their findings echoed those of previous studies: There were nearly twice as many male as female main characters and male characters appeared more often in illustrations than females. Importantly, females were represented as more nurturing and passive; males were seen in more outdoor scenes and in more active roles than females. Occupations were gender stereotyped, and more women than men appeared to have no paid occupation.

Representation of Girls and Women in Core Subject Materials

The line of research in which our work most aligns—that of the examination of materials used by teachers in schools as part of a core-learning program—has examined the appearance and the roles of girls and women in core textbooks in the United States (see, for example, Bordelon, 1985; Jacklin & Mischel, 1973; Purcell & Stewart, 1990; Turner-Bowker, 1996). The prevalence of studies in the area of reading was pervasive in the 70s and 80s (see Britton & Lumpkin, 1977; Fishman, 1976; Graebner, 1972; Grund-Slepack & Berlowitz, 1977; Heathcote, 1982; Hitchcock & Tompkins, 1987; Kinmon & Henderson, 1985; Marten & Matlin, 1976; Rupley, Garcia, & Longnion, 1981; Schulwitz, 1976; Tibbetts, 1978) with little research since then on current basal readers in the United States.

Educational researchers outside of the United States have also contributed to this line of research. In one of the earliest international studies, for example, Alrabaa (1985) used content analysis to explore the number of male and female characters/leading figures and subjects of biography in 28 Syrian textbooks. Alrabaa found that male characters clearly dominated the lessons (75%). The books portrayed women’s identities in very stereotypical ways, described for their beauty, obedience, and self-sacrifice. The men in the textbooks filled 84% of the occupations while women filled only 16%, with the largest number of female characters operating largely as homemakers.

Researchers involved in the analysis of children’s literature have found common prevalent themes. Females and males continue to be portrayed in traditional and stereotypical ways. Girls were more likely to be engaged in less imaginative roles that often included household chores and domestic activity. They were featured less than males in many texts and were glaringly absent from math or science texts. For example, Yaqin (2002) explored the gender roles and women’s identities in reading materials for young children in China. Across the books written and analyzed for young children (ages 4, 4, and 6 years), this researcher found that the males in the books were creative and independent and had far-reaching ideals. The females were mostly attentive to detail and displayed domestic sensibility. Girls in the books were far more likely to be engaged in household chores (75%) than boys (25%), and boys were far more engaged in intellectual (60%) and physical activities (85%) than girls (40% and 15%, respectively).

Ping and Weiling (2002) in their analysis of Chinese math books for children in Grades 1 to 5 found that there was a scant representation of girls in illustrations in these math books (only 33% of images examined contained girls). In looking at the gendering of occupations presented to children in the books, the team found that both males and females were restricted to traditional gender roles. Girls made up the majority of the passive and inferior positions when the team looked at the illustrations related to activities about learning math.

Likewise, Lee and Collins (2009) examined the nature and extent of gender stereotyping in 10 Australian English-language textbooks for middle school learners. The team used a content and linguistic analysis focusing on the ratio of male to female characters, the portrayal of women and men in social and domestic settings, the use of gender-inclusive language, and the ordering of female/male symmetrical constructions. Although there was a level of sensitivity to gender issues displayed by most of the writers who contributed to the textbooks, the findings of the team suggested that women characters had not achieved truly equitable treatment.

Finally, Schoeman (2009) examined post-1994 South African history textbooks to see how well the history textbooks built on the gender equality initiatives introduced since 1994. In her analysis, she used a nonprobability purposive sampling to identify a sample of history textbooks for her data. Her subsequent analysis demonstrated that images of men far exceeded those of women. Schoeman considered these textbooks “old-fashioned” because patriarchal ideology continued to stereotype the sexes. Males, often portrayed as active, assertive, and curious, were in contrast to females, portrayed as dependable, conforming, and obedient.

Although many continue to work on equalizing gender representation in textbooks used in schools, we argue for equal effort to be given to the examination of gender representation in lesser studied materials used by teachers and learners, particularly supplementary reading materials. Defined as those materials that add to the value of an existing reading program (such as a set of core textbooks that operationalized a state or national curriculum), supplementary reading materials provide learners with additional opportunities to use and practice skills and strategies taught in their core materials. In addition, we believe that supplementary reading materials offer learners opportunities to learn to love reading. As with core textbooks, supplementary learning materials can act as transmitters for social knowledge. In supplemental texts, readers might construct an understanding of gender roles, gender identities, and the role of women and men in society. This work is particularly important to undertake in developing countries, where governments are assuming great efforts to establish new schools and create classroom materials that represent the goals and interests of their society and established educational standards. It was under these conditions that we set out to study the gender representation in a set of teacher-authored supplementary reading materials in South Africa.

Data Sources and Sampling

We used purposeful sampling (Erlandson, Harris, Skipper, & Allen, 1993) to identify our dataset. Initially, we turned to the entire set of books created under the IWP; we only selected 90 books, using the following procedures. First, we used the original database of the entire set of IWP books to identify those that contained female characters (Sailors et al., 2013). Second, we selected books that represented features of realistic fiction; that is, stories that focused on the fidelity of life, ordinary people doing ordinary things, and the absence of fantasy, magic, and supernatural events (Temple, Martinez, & Yokota, 2015). The majority of the books included in this dataset contained females as the main character(s) in the story (60%); a smaller set of books (40%) contained female characters as supporting characters. We used the English versions of the books for this analysis as they were created by the author at the same time the mother tongue versions were written, thus providing us with confidence that the two versions were the same (Horan, Sailors, Martinez, Skerrett, & Makalela, 2011).

Data Coding and Analysis

We used qualitative research methods to analyze the data using an inductive approach drawing upon content analysis methods (Hoffman et al., 2011), specifically critical content analysis (Beach et al., 2009), because of its flexibility as a method for analyzing, describing and interpreting written text (White & Marsh, 2006). Critical content analysis, according to Beach and colleagues (2009) is,

A close reading of small amounts of text that are interpreted by the analyst and then contextualized in new narratives; a definition that is a hermeneutic, reader response oriented research stance that can be critical as well. What makes the study “critical” is not the methodology but the framework used to think within, through, and beyond the text. (pp. 2-3)

Content analysis becomes “critical” when the methodology used flushes out issues of overt or covert power found in texts. This kind of analysis requires a critical theoretical stance or framework to buttress the analyst’s purpose for the study (Hoffman et al., 2011). Our theoretical stance is a feminist lens, one that assumes that power relations have relegated women and girls to lesser status in society than men and boys.

Female scholars conducted the content analysis of the books for this study. Two members of the research team were graduate students: one in a college of education and the other in a college of communications. Two other members were faculty in colleges of education, one based in the United States and one based in South Africa. All members have international education experiences. The fourth member of the team was South African educator who provided ongoing interpretation and understanding of the dataset as codes, categories, and themes that emerged. During the analysis process, all team members read all the books. Each team member first read each book and created a research memo for it, noting interesting components of the book and thoughts to talk about with the research team. Afterward, all team members met to discuss interpretations of the books. We then uploaded the books into NVivo 8 (QSR International Pty Ltd, 2008).

Relying on qualitative research methods to analyze the data, we used an inductive data-driven, constant-comparison approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), analyzing all of the data from the books—proposition by proposition—for content related to female characters. We assigned codes to these propositions (referred to as nodes in NVIVO), and entered them into our codebook, which contained the definitions of each code. For example, the proposition, “it was Nonjabulo’s duty to clean, wash clothes, and cook,” was coded as “females as domestic keepers.” Similarly, the proposition, “Makgwale was named after a brave and well-known woman,” was coded as “strong female honored by society.” Finally, the proposition, “Katlego bowed her head and stood silently for a moment,” was coded as “strong female character making her own choices.” We referred back to the codebook as we moved through the process, constantly comparing the data with the existing codes. We modified the codes throughout, relying heavily on team discussions to do so (as a way of building consensus). In total, we coded 655 propositions, using 89 codes to label them. These codes became the basis for the creation of categories.

We allowed the codes to group together into emergent sub-categories; we relied heavily on the recurrent patterns (repetitious words, phrases, and/or actions) and used those patterns to create groups that we later called “sub-categories.” These sub-categories then clustered together to create categories. For example, in Table 1 (which illustrates our codes, sub-categories, and categories for one sample theme), three codes (“concerns of older female for younger’s well-being; females as keepers of domestic responsibility; older female as responsible for younger female”) were all clustered together to create the sub-category we labeled, “females as caring.”

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Table 1.

Sample Codes, Coding Definitions, Sub-Categories, Categories, Within One Theme.

Theme	Category	Sub-category	Node	Number of nodes coded	Definition from coding process
Relationships matter	Take responsibility for others	Females as caring	Concerns of older female for younger’s well-being	14	Older female character “looks out” for younger female character.
			Females as keepers of domestic responsibility	30	Female in role of the keeper of cleanliness, chores, financial well-being, and nutritional needs of family.
			Older female as responsible for younger female	12	Older female character is portrayed as responsible of younger female character.
		Care for others	Traits	16	Explicit mention of traits (e.g., nurturing, caring, loving, generous, etc.).
		Care for society	Females give back	6	Female characters behave in ways that “give back” to society (take care of larger societal family).
	Females hold together familial relationships	Females actively unite to hold relationships together	Togetherness	23	Females are the impetus of families/communities/groups operating as completing tasks/activities.
			Shared experience	3	Female characters bond through a shared experience (usually emotional).
			Strong bonds	4	Female characters create strong bonds with each other like a family (they comfort each other).
			Unity	28	Female characters as keepers of family/communal “units” (It’s just about being with someone else).
	Females learn through traumatic circumstances	Death	Death	3	Young female experiences death in her family.
			Young female encounters death	2	Young female has direct experience with death of another character.
		Violence	Violence in the presence of females	14	Females in situations where there is emotional, physical, and/or mental abuse.
		Anger	Female character subjected to anger of male characters	3	Male characters are allowed to display anger toward female characters.
		Protecting each other	Female protecting female	5	Female character protecting other female character from unsafe situations.
			Female peer as savior	8	Female character saves female from unsafe situation.
			Saving young female from violent male	2	Female character saves female from unsafe situation with male.
	Females learn from bullying or teasing	By others	Response of environment to nontraditional female	7	Way in which environment (including people inside environment) respond to nontraditional females.
			Negative feedback from others	3	Female character receives negative feedback from others due to friendship.
			Deviant	8	Female character acts in deviant ways (mischievous, troublesome, opposite of what parents want, etc) not necessarily the antagonist.
			Loss of innocence	2	Young female character is seen (and labeled) by others as “not innocent.”
			Peer pressure	3	Females are pressured by peers (male/female) into behaving in ways accepted by peer group.
		Self imposed	Self perception—Juxtaposed	2	Female character perceives her behaviors in juxtaposition to other female character(s).
			Female self-marginalized	6	Young female marginalized self from others.
			Young female separated from group	7	Young female character is separated from group (family and/or class).
		Physically	Young female all alone	5	Female looking around for others; no one there.
			Female silenced	5	Female character ignored or literally silenced (told to be quiet) by other characters (male or female).
	Females counter the objectification of women	Objectified	Female bowing down to authority	5	Female character is docile and submissive to authority figures.
			Female as a possession	4	Female characters are portrayed or described as possessions.
			Young female in the position of servitude	3	Young female character serving older family members.
			Female objectified by others or self	5	Female character described by others or narrator with focus on physical characteristics (e.g., beauty).
			Female objectified by self	2	Female character uses physical attributes for benefit/control/manipulation.

We organized our sub-categories into categories following the same emergent processes. For example, following the example in the previous paragraph, the three sub-categories of “females as caring, care for others, care for society” organized themselves into the category we labeled, “taking responsibility for others.”

Eventually, the categories were organized to reflect themes that were representative across the books. For example, following the previous example, the categories of “taking responsibility for others, females hold together familial relationships, females learn through traumatic experiences, females learn from bullying or teasing, females counter the objectification of women” grouped into one of our emergent themes, “relationships matter to females.”

Our process of formulating categories and themes was highly interactive and collaborative. We discussed the categorization until we reached 100% agreement. We handled disagreements through discussions and turning back to the original sources of data.

Although we address the limitations of this study in a separate section, it is important to note here those methodological decisions that may have influenced our findings. For example, we were only able to examine the content of the finished products, the books. Although these data provide a particular insight into what it means to be a female in a country that has seen radical changes in the past two decades, these data are limiting. Each of the books underwent several instantiations; an examination of each of the various revised versions might have yielded an even more nuanced manifestation of the identified themes. Those versions were not available to us, so we were unable to analyze them.

In addition, we did not analyze the images in the books. Although the teachers interacted with the illustrators and the teachers provided guidance related to revisions of the images, the teachers had very little control over the final product. For that reason, we did not feel an examination of the images in the books was in keeping with our research questions. Perhaps an examination of the interactions between teachers and illustrators would have yielded an even more nuanced manifestation of the identified themes as viewed through an analysis of the discourse that surrounded those interactions. In addition, a separate analysis of the images might also yield interesting portrayals of women in South African society. We did not collect such data.

We also opted to analyze only those books that were realistic fiction. Even though this only eliminated a small percentage of the books, a full analysis might have revealed more insight into the nature of girls as represented by the authors. Finally, we did not gather data on our participating authors. Thus, we were unable to complete any statistical analysis of the representation of females by author (male vs. female).

Female Characters Are Multifaceted

Our analysis indicated that teacher authors presented female characters in the stories as multifaceted characters, which can be discerned through the traits of the characters. There were five categories within this theme: Female characters are dominant and lead; they are strong and active problem solvers; they have or seek knowledge; they retain their emotional proclivity; and they are engaged in thoughtful reflection. These stories are indicative of the multicultural and feminist suppositions that once given voice, empowerment is realized.

Relationships Matter to Females

The teacher authors presented the relationships of female characters as important. There were five categories in this theme: females characters take responsibility for others, female characters hold together familial relationships, females can learn through traumatic circumstances, female characters learn from bullying or teasing, and female characters counter the objectification of women. All of the findings, particularly those related to the importance of familial and social relationships among girls and women, reveal the presence of multicultural and African feminist perspectives. In addition, these findings indicate the importance of context in the emergence of feminist sensibilities among women in this setting.

Females Are Valued Members of Society

Our analysis indicated that the authors of these supplementary books presented females as valued members of society. We had three categories found inside this theme: educated females are valued, strong females are valued, and females keep familial and societal traditions.