Ali Salami

Culture and Gender Representation in Iranian School Textbooks

Theo Van Leeuwen, one of the main developers of social semiotics and co-founder of Multimodality, discusses Social semiotics, Multimodality and Critical Discourse Analysis and other related issues.

Abstract

It is grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis and uses van Leeuwen’s Social Actor Network Model to analyze social actor representations in the gendered discourses of compulsory heterosexuality.

Findings from the analysis show that the representations endorse the discourse of compulsory heterosexuality which is an institutionalized form of social practice in Iran.

critical discourse analysis

Three male and three female students were interviewed to find out what they think about these representations. Their responses with regard to whether they think textbooks should also include representations of other forms of sexuality were non-committal and vague.

To them LGBT people are the “Other” practicing a form of sexuality that is not normal. Such exclusions could obscure the reality regarding the existence of such gender identities and represent the world in a particular manner.

 

By Ali Salami & Amir Ghajarieh

 

Download the article here

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *