Forgotten Feminine Foundations: Content Analysis of Secondary World History Textbooks\u27 Inclusion of Female Agency in the Rise of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

This study investigated women’s agency in the emergence accounts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in nine twenty-first century United States’ world history textbooks through a feminist lens. The collected data were analyzed via critical discourse analysis and content analysis to determine if traditional patterns of female marginalization in content and imagery existed. The quantitative and qualitative findings in both text and imagery indicated that all textbooks in this sample supported a traditional content structure on both an individual and collective whole basis. This study then concluded that these gender-imbalanced accounts of world religions may serve as an avenue in which distorted and/or incorrect information may be communicated to students regarding the interconnectedness of culture and religion, potentially misshaping students’ knowledge cultivation processes. Additionally, traditional content formatting may also reinforce existing negative stereotypes concerning women in religion and women overall. To rectify these transgressions, this study offers educators and textbook publishers succinct, provocative information on seven prominent religious women within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam whose contributions assisted in the rise of their religions

Shedding Gender Stigmas: Work-life Balance Equity in the 21st Century

The gender stigma of work-life balance (WLB) policies as concessions for mothers and female caregivers originated with the push by the Women’s Movement for gender workplace equity in the late 20th century. Unfortunately, this perception continues in the 21st century and retains the additional stigma of employee participation in these policies–—regardless of gender–—as a detrimental career move. Thus, home and work responsibilities for professionals of all genders who desire more occupational flexibility remain unreconciled. Despite this dominant national and international outlook, this article encourages new century organizations and profes- sionals to reject the traditional perception of occupational inequity through gender- colored glasses and instead contemplate the benefits of WLB policies void of gender stigmas. Specifically, organizations could re-create workplace culture with stigma- free WLB policies through administrative leaders’ embracement of and participation in such policies, which may pave the way for establishing occupational equity. Through workplace culture re-creation, organizations may then offer employees–—regardless of gender, marital status, or company position–—flexible work options to assist them in leading happy, healthy, and more productive lives.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1001/thumbnail.jp

Map It! Creating Meaningful Learning Experiences in Social Studies with IHMC CmapTools

As a free software tool, IHMC CmapTools redefines the concept mapping learning strategy with an infusion of technology to provide students with meaningful and non-rote learning experiences. The following review discusses what IHMC CmapTools is, the literature-supported academic benefits of student-employed concept mapping, and how my secondary social studies colleague and I introduced this software to his students to create meaningful learning opportunities with social studies content. After working with IHMC CmapTools for over four years in both social studies and non-social studies classes, I would strongly encourage social studies educators in grades 5-12 to consider implementing this tool in their instruction as a means of enriching both their students’ engagement with social studies material and their students’ understanding of their own metacognitive processes.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1002/thumbnail.jp

On the (Male) Fringes: How Early Religious Women remain “Subordinate” in World History Textbooks

Second Wave feminist researchers identified male-dominated curriculum formats in late twentieth century curriculum materials. This study builds off their work and advances the conversation of women’s inclusion by current United States secondary world history textbook content via a feminist lens to determine the extent of women’s agency in the accounts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The purpose was to determine if textbooks portrayed these patriarchal religions as exclusively male, thereby presenting inaccurate portrayals of the religions and the agents involved, which directly violates NCSS Standards. This study used critical discourse analysis to identify patterns of female marginalization and omission, indicating that modern textbooks still use male-dominated content. This article concludes with pertinent information about early female religious leaders to promote more gender-balanced religious agency discussions in the classroom.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1011/thumbnail.jp

“Pushing Past the Margins” with Micro-content Analysis: A Tool to Identify Gender-bias in Textbooks

We present Micro-content Analysis (MCA) as a tool for social studies educators to quickly review their current textbook and determine if it contains gender-biased content. Our MCA Guide and Toolkit retain traditional content analysis components in a compact manner to ensure that MCA is a time-efficient process for educators. We demonstrate how we implemented the Guide and Toolkit on a secondary world history textbook currently utilized in a Midwest high school. Our MCA Toolkit includes resources for locating information on female historical agents so educators can present gender-inclusive content to their students and rectify any gender-biased messages presented in textbooks.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1034/thumbnail.jp

Whose Story is it, Now? Re-examining Women’s Visibility in 21st Century Secondary World History Textbooks

In 2005 Clark, Ayton, Frechette, and Keller (2005) conducted a content analysis study on secondary world history textbooks to determine whether women’s inclusion had increased or decreased between 1960s, 1980s, and 1990s. They reported women’s severe marginalization in the texts even though the percentages of women’s inclusion had increased over the course of the decades. We conducted a replication study of the content analysis performed by Clark et al. from a feminist research lens and analyzed 2000 and 2010 editions of the same textbooks to determine if female inclusion had increased. Our findings revealed that very little to no progress has been made towards the equitable inclusion of women. We conclude by urging social studies educators to advocate for gender-based content reforms in state and national social studies exams as an avenue for obtaining gender-balanced textbooks.https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/faculty_staff_works/1012/thumbnail.jp