Gender in secondary schools social studies textbook

Textbooks, one of the most important tools of the education and training process, have an important place in the formation of the next generation in terms of reflecting the roles of individuals in the socialization process. The aim of this research is to examine the verbal and nonverbal messages in the Secondary School Social Studies textbooks, which are allowed to be taught by the Ministry of National Education, within the framework of gender roles. Social Studies textbooks were examined in line with the idea that the aims and achievements of the Social Studies course affect the gender perceptions of individuals. The research was carried out according to the principles of qualitative research. The study group of the research consists of Social Studies textbooks used in the 5th, 6th and 7th grades of secondary school in the 2018-2019 and 2019- 2020 academic years. In both academic years, one book was used for each grade level, that is, a total of 6 books were examined. While 2 of these six books were published by the Ministry of National Education, 4 of them were published by private publishing houses. Verbal and nonverbal messages in the textbooks were collected by document analysis method and the obtained data were analyzed through content analysis. For this, verbal and non-verbal messages in the books; Categories were created for the quantitative representation of women and men, the presentation of women and men according to the fields they are represented, the frequency of the names of women and men quantitatively, and the representation of women and men according to occupations. Findings were presented by creating tables for the determined categories. As a result of the results obtained from the research, the representation frequency of men in verbal and nonverbal messages is quantitatively higher than women. In the examination of the public-private sphere, it has been seen that the visibility of men in public spaces is higher than women, and women are more in private spaces. When the frequency of usage of male and female names is examined quantitatively, it has been found that male names are more common, especially in some units. In the representations of women and men towards their professions, it has been observed that there are representations suitable for gender stereotypes. As a result, it has been determined that secondary school Social Studies textbooks reflect gender stereotypes, while men are shown as having power, women are identified with home and child care. Looking at the results, it can be said that the textbooks examined may cause the reproduction of gender inequality. Keywords: Gender, Gender, Education, Social Studies, Textbooks.