Gendered Messages in Schooling: Education Policy, Textbooks, and the Formation of Girls’ Aspirations
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18753/2297-8224-8497Keywords:
gender, education policy, textbook analysis, patriarchy, ecological systems theory , PakistanAbstract
This paper examines how education policies and school textbooks in Pakistan shape adolescent girls’ aspirations through the reproduction or disruption of gender norms. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, the paper situates girls’ education within intersecting policy, institutional, and sociocultural contexts. Using a qualitative research design, the study analyses national education policy documents alongside secondary-level textbooks to explore how gender roles, futures, and possibilities are represented and communicated to students. The findings reveal, that while policy discourse frequently frames girls’ education as instrumental for national development, it remains largely silent on structural gender inequalities. Textbook content reinforces traditional gender roles by normalising women’s domestic responsibilities and limiting representations of girls’ professional and public aspirations. Together, these policy silences and textbook messages may shape girls' aspirations to conform with traditional gender expectations rather than challenge them.
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