Thesis, Vol. 13 No. 1, 2024.
Original scientific paper
Gender Sensitive Language: Nouns Denoting Profession in Macedonian Language Primary Education School Textbooks
Violeta Janusheva
orcid.org/0000-0002-9912-3988
; “Sv. Kliment Ohridski” University, Faculty of Education, Bitola, North Macedonia
*
Stojanoska Marija
orcid.org/0009-0003-1873-0124
; “Sv. Kliment Ohridski” University, Faculty of Education, Bitola, North Macedonia
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Within the gender-neutral language use debate, education and school textbooks are perceived as vital factors that can increase students’ gender issues awareness. Previous textbooks’ research indicates the usage of gender unfair language through utilization of the generic masculine nouns designating profession. Thus, the present study examines the gender of the nouns denoting occupation in Macedonian primary education and the goal is to depict the textbooks’ role in increasing/decreasing the students’ understanding for gender matter questions. The sample consists of two Macedonian language primary education school textbooks for sixth and seventh grade. Each unit (noun) signifying occupation is organizationally coded, meaning that there are boxes in which the data are sorted for further analysis (4 boxes for feminine and masculine nouns representing occupation in singular and plural). The codes arise from the reading and through the coding, the meaning is analyzed. The analysis rests upon the general qualitative interpretative-inductive approach. Research results suggest that these two Macedonian language textbooks, regarding the feminine and masculine nouns indicating occupation, follow the same course present in many ELT/EFL or other language textbooks globally, meaning that there is absolute supremacy of the masculine nouns expressing occupation. Therefore, this paper contributes to the worldwide gender sensitive language use discussion and encourages the efforts that should be made towards more gender sensitive textbooks.
Keywords
Gender sensitive language; nouns signifying occupation; Macedonian; language; primary education;
Hrčak ID:
320806
URI
Publication date:
6.7.2024.
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