Inclusive Books and Learning Materials

Introduction to Topic

Books and learning materials are vital didactic tools for your teaching. As a teacher, you may have access to an array of resources, depending on your subject, age group, budget and where you are in the world, or you may have very little variety of materials at your disposal. What you need to think about is how these materials can help you engage students with your subject and increase levels of student achievement, and what you need to do for this to happen. Also, bear in mind that learning is a process and not simply the transfer of information from the teacher to the student. It is, therefore, worthwhile spending time, and paying attention to, the content of your materials and how it is represented and consider the implications of your choices. Classrooms are changing and becoming more multicultural and diverse, and this is something we must be aware of because, we as teachers, have a commitment to support all learners.

Maybe you are already familiar with the Ted Talk “The danger of a single story,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2009). In this talk, Adichie discusses the idea that we need a wide variety of telling’s of people’s stories to give a realistic and authentic portrayal of society. The classroom is a representation of said society, where pupils from a range of different backgrounds and identities, meet and interact, in other words, a place of intersectionality. Like society, the classroom is not homogeneous and, therefore, books and materials should reflect the diversity that is found in today’s society and schools. That is why, in this chapter, you will be introduced to the importance of the representation of diversity in books and learning materials. By this, we refer to books and materials used for general education, not for specific contexts or needs, and these include textbooks but also literary texts, illustrations, photographs and images that appear in them, as well as media resources such as films and websites, etc.

The chapter starts with a description of the concept of the hidden curriculum and the impact it may have upon our perceptions. Then, we consider the issues that arise from this impact, such as whose voices are allowed to be heard or represented, and the danger of othering marginalised minorities and other particular groups. It is our responsibility as teachers to ensure that we are aware of the biases and prejudices we unconsciously reproduce in our teaching, especially within the changing educational landscapes. We need to create a paradigm in which diversity is a sustainable, integral component and not an occasional activity that is done in order to tick off a list of topics, only to then return to our usual teaching. We can achieve this by diversifying our teaching material, for example, exposing students to a multitude of perspectives or to a more diverse literary canon and thus allowing them to read about people from other backgrounds and inspire them to read more through which they may increase their empathy with and awareness of others.

The chapter will also provide some guidelines on how to select books whose contents cater for diversity, how to critically assess the books and learning materials you have or plan to use in your classroom, and how to approach problematic texts that are obligatory in your teaching context. Finally, we will present some discussion questions that will enable you to reflect on these issues in relation to your particular teaching context and provide some suggestions for further exploration.

Key aspects

Hidden Curriculum and Othering

The term hidden curriculum, coined by Philip W. Jackson (1968), refers to the social, cultural, and behavioural messages that are implicit in teaching materials and practices, and that usually reflect the dominant culture in the context in which the materials are produced, and the teaching and learning are situated. For example, educational policies that vary depending on the political party in power will reproduce the latter’s ideological values and beliefs, and these will seep into the production of curriculum materials. In terms of diversity, the hidden curriculum is very relevant as political agendas and ideologies also bring with them preconceived notions on gender, age, religion, sexuality or nationality that inform the visual and verbal construction of people in learning materials, and that may create, reproduce or reinforce stereotypes and prejudices (Kamasak et al., 2020).

For example, a study coordinated by UNESCO in 2009 analysed twenty-four mathematics textbooks used for Primary Education in four French-speaking African countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo and Tunisia (Brugeilles and Cromer, 2009). It revealed that female role models rarely appeared in those textbooks (21.4% of characters were female in Togo, and 28% in Cameroon, for example) and that “the exclusion of girls becomes more marked in the course of the curriculum. As learning becomes more complex, female characters are phased out” (Brugeilles and Cromer, 2009: 33). Consequently, this absence of female examples in the textbooks offered female pupils little foundation for identification and projection, and also male pupils could not find role models from the opposite sex. This, together with the prevalence of male teachers for that subject, favoured that, eventually, all pupils together with their parents and their teachers developed the understanding that knowledge, in this case mathematics, was legitimate for the male students only, and did not address female students. The textbooks thus contributed to perpetuating the traditional stereotype of ‘maths = male,’ and were unlikely to ever encourage girls interested in learning mathematics (Brugeilles and Cromer, 2009). Although recent studies have reached more positive conclusions as to the quantity and quality of female presence in textbooks in other contexts (Alter, 2019; Demir & Yavuz, 2017), there is still room for improvement in order for books to achieve a balanced representation, not only of female and male characters, but also of characters with other markers of identity such as disability, age, or ethnicity (Alter, 2019; Alter & Köffler, 2021; Bulut & Arıkan, 2015; Hawthorne, 2020; Jensen, Herrebrøden & Andreassen, 2023).

As regards the latter, you can see different ways that othering may occur in the research done by Liese in 2010 on the representation of the ethnic and cultural “Other” in Primary textbooks in Germany and Ireland. Despite both countries sharing their cultural diversity and experiences with immigration, their representation of the “other” in their teaching materials is approached in opposite ways. The analysed Irish textbooks include a few implicit representations of ethnic and cultural diversity that avoid the stereotype and portray the “other” as an integrated part of Irish society, but they tend to underrepresent the “other” and do not engage with the challenges or affordances of interculturalism in the society they depict but seem to shy away from tackling them. On the other hand, German textbooks offer more numerous and overt references to the ethnic and cultural “other”, with several explicit examples of xenophobia and prejudice that, without further reflection or criticism on the students’ part, can nonetheless contribute to creating a “we/they‟ setting and reinforcing rather than counteracting the stereotype (Liese, 2010: 173).

Another instance is offered by the World Bank’s Executive Summary on Disability and Inclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean (García Mora et al., 2021: 17), which affirms that “[t]o have an inclusive education system, for example, countries must strive to change the mindset of teachers, school staff, parents, and students,” and a way to do so is to “design a curriculum and learning materials that positively represent persons with disabilities.” They report, however, that people with disabilities only appear in 83 out of 5,100 images of a selection of 40 official or officially recommended textbooks of history and language courses in ten Latin American countries studied (and 65 of those 83 images correspond to only one Ecuadorian textbook). The effect of this invisibility and of “stereotypical representations of disability in learning materials weakens the sense of belonging and dignity of learners with disabilities and inhibits the teaching of noncognitive skills such as tolerance and empathy in the classroom” (García Mora et al., 2021:11). Thus, although it may not be the explicit aim of the learning materials, they still play a part in the discrimination against this group of learners.

These examples of the effects of the hidden curriculum show that history, political ideologies, and traditions can all influence the content of our materials. This can mean that certain groups of people are not included or represented in learning materials because they are different and do not fit in with the norms of mainstream society. As a result, these groups are treated differently and may be discriminated against. In some cases, they may even be perceived as posing a threat. This is a phenomenon known as othering, which divides groups of people into us and them. People can be othered due to their race, sexuality, religion, gender identity, disability, nationality, ethnic background, or other identity markers. This can lead to isolation, bullying, shaming or abuse. Therefore, even if “it should be the responsibility of text-book developers and publishers to avoid reflecting the biases of the real-world and to use textbooks as agents of ‘social reform’” (Goyal & Rose, 2020: 8), studies such as the World Bank’s, and Brugeilles and Cromer’s prove that there is still a long way to go, and we as teachers should be aware of the risks of othering and should approach our materials in a critical way, so that we may not contribute to the perpetuation of such prejudices and injustices that cause othering.

The opposite of othering is belonging, so it is important that we think about how to make students feel that they belong, that they are included and valued, and that their differences are appreciated and celebrated. We should consider how we can incorporate differences in a way that encourages a sense of belonging, whilst avoiding othering. We should also be aware of falling into the trap of believing that when we do include minorities or marginalised groups, our practices are in fact more than a box ticking exercise. For example, there are opportunities throughout the school year, such as Black History Month, World Autism Day, Indigenous People’s Day, etc. which are often used to teach students about, and highlight awareness of, social injustice and difference. Although this may initially seem positive, it can still turn into a form of othering, as the way in which we approach difference is separated from the standard curriculum. We should also be aware of how we display books in our classrooms or libraries, as to avoid othering and making the subjects appear separate and not belonging to the main group.

Selecting and Evaluating Books

We should create a diverse canon of literature and materials. For example, with literature the aim should be to widen the canon of literary texts, not to remove or replace it. One way to start is by conducting an audit. This involves counting and then analysing the number of representations of diversity (race, gender, etc.) in your existing materials, for example the number of texts written by people of colour or the presence of characters from minoritised groups.

For example, the Teen Services Underground website suggests different ways to do a diversity audit of your class library or school library (Frencham, 2018). The most basic one is list checking:

• Conduct an internet search to find ready-made lists of award-winning diverse titles or titles that are considered canonical within diverse literature, and
• Double check the titles listed to see if your library already has those titles.

Another method is randomised shelf checking:

• Start at the beginning of your book section and count your shelves, leaving a post-it note on the fifth shelf, then the tenth shelf, then the fifteenth, etc. You don’t have to count by fives, you can always choose to count by another number if it works better.
• The shelves you have marked with a post-it note will be the ones you are going to audit.
• Look at the books that are on the marked shelves, and make tally marks in a chart, to represent each diverse title. Then calculate what percentage of the total books on the shelf appears in the chart: for instance, if the shelf has 30 books and 6 of them have made it into the chart, it means you have 20% of diverse books.

If you want to be more exhaustive, carry out a thorough check of your entire collection: download all the titles in your collection onto an Excel document, create a column for each diversity category and mark the columns for each individual title. Although the process is time-consuming, “this will give you an idea of how many books you have in your collection and overall, how many books you have for each diversity category” (Frencham, 2018).

Using the information gathered from the audit, we can then evaluate how well diversity is represented by revealing the dominance of particular groups or diversity categories, and the absence of others. We can also consider the textbooks we use and how diverse the images or illustrations are, and critically reflect on the consequences that using such examples may have upon your students and their learner identity. For example: how is gender represented in scientific, technology or home economics textbooks? How are different ethnic groups represented in history textbooks? What are the implicit messages that students receive due to these images? The next section will cover all these aspects.

Finally, if after the audit you realise you need to incorporate new books and materials to your teaching, be active in your search for these materials by contacting regional or national educational organisations, activist groups, or local libraries, and by keeping updated on the recent research in your field. You can find some suggestions and links at the end of our chapter, for example, diversity-friendly book lists.

• Quantitative evaluation of diversity

In order to know whether a book, textbook or teaching material represents diversity adequately, we may apply two complementary approaches: a quantitative and a qualitative one. In the quantitative analysis, we must identify the presence or absence of references to diverse communities and identities both in the materials’ verbal and visual texts like in the Example Case that opens this chapter. Brugeilles and Cromer (2009) offer examples of charts or grids to count characters and record their characteristics both in their visual representations and in their textual appearances. We may ask questions such as:

• Can we find any examples of characters of a variety of ethnicities, abilities, and/or social classes who show different identity markers as regards sexuality and gender, culture, and age in our books?
• Are there images of different models of families, or religious practices, or is it always the same types that are represented?

In this last regard, we should consider whether there are any intersectional examples, too, where several identity markers are combined, for instance:

• Do the examples of people of colour mostly belong to the same gender and the same age?
• Are the majority of families white, middle-class, and heteronormative?

Also, regarding the writing, we should check:

• Whether the texts are narrated in gender-neutral terms or if they use the male pronoun to refer to both males and females.
• Whether there are any terms whose meaning or use may bear negative or derogatory connotations for a particular group, for example, talking about “primitive” customs of current minority cultures or “perverted” or “abnormal” behaviours of non-heterosexual people.

This initial quantitative revision will help us discover whether there are “invisible” groups in our materials, such as single parents or same-sex couples, blue-collar workers, transgender people, people of minoritised religions, etc. Although the pertinence or relevance of these and other groups may be different depending on our teaching context, all these individuals are part of our societies and should have their representation within our classrooms, even more so if the latter comprises students who share backgrounds or identity markers with them. Remember that this does not mean that we must devote one lesson, activity or particular material to each of these groups, in order to tick a box: the balance in their representation in our books and materials should be a sustainable component of our teaching and not an occasional activity.

• Qualitative evaluation of diversity

After detecting the absence, or presence, of examples of diverse voices and images, we must carry out a qualitative approach that will evaluate how those identities are represented and take into consideration the context they are presented, because their mere presence is not enough: “[u]sing pictures of kente cloth on a poster about textiles would be inclusive; using a photo of a woman in Ghanaian dress to illustrate a poster on maths, just to raise the number of pictures of black and minority ethnic people on the classroom wall, would be tokenistic”, that is, a superficial attempt at representing diversity only to prevent criticism (Pilgrim, 2020).

We must therefore check on the one hand, whether the materials’ verbal and visual texts depict all people as individuals with distinctive features rather than stereotypical ones. We should look out for stereotypes: are strong, independent girls and women described as “manlike”, or sensitive men as “feminine”? Are people of a particular ethnicity always depicted in traditional clothing? Are people with disabilities portrayed as not independent or to be pitied? Are low-income families depicted as passive or needing help?

On the other hand, we should also consider whether the diverse characters have a central or participant role in the stories: if they are present for a purpose or if instead, they are simply used for “decorative” reasons – like the Ghanaian woman in the example above. For instance, we must pay attention to who the “heroines” or successful protagonists in the stories are, and ask questions such as: do they always belong to the same social class, ethnicity, or gender? In which context are they introduced, for example, are people of colour included only in pieces dealing with migration, poverty, or sports? Do characters of a particular ethnicity or gender need the help of characters from other, more dominant groups, to succeed or solve their problems?

For example, the quantitative revision of gender representations in the images of a contemporary English reader series used in primary schools in Hong Kong carried out by Lee and Chin (2021) concludes that female characters appear more often in the illustrations than male characters. However, the qualitative analysis reveals that those women – and the men too – are usually depicted in stereotypical ways: mothers are busy feeding their families, whereas fathers appear at a greater distance from their children and are portrayed as less nurturing compared with mothers; girls receive pink presents and boys blue ones, and “girls are presented as more emotionally vulnerable carriers and behavers than boys.” For instance, in one of the illustrations “three children are hungry, but Bella and Katarina [girls] are in tears while Steve [boy] looks shocked but tries to seek a solution” (Lee & Chin, 2021: 21). Thus, although the sheer numbers of female representations in the books give a positive first impression, the critical analysis of those representations show the prevalence of traditional gender stereotypes.

Lee and Chin’s study highlights the importance of critical visual literacy when analysing the presence of diversity in our books and teaching materials. Usually, we as teachers and our students “do not read visual images critically and may not be aware of how illustrators use visual elements such as gaze, backgrounding, etc. to create meaning and signal relations and power” (Short, 2018, qtd. in Lee & Chin, 2021: 14). To interrogate this role of images in books and textbooks, we can use the following seven question framework, used both by Giaschi (2000: 37) to analyse gender and by Hawthorne (2020) to analyse race:

1. What is the activity of the image(s)?
2. Who is active (the “protagonist”) in the image(s)?
3. Who is passive (the “receiver”) in the image(s)?
4. Who has status in the image(s)?
5. What does the body language communicate?
6. What does the clothing communicate?
7. Where are the eyes directed?

The answers to all these questions, and to all the others above, will help us reveal the underlying biases and prejudices that our books and materials may be reflecting and that our students are being exposed to.

Dealing with Problematic Books

Sometimes teachers are not able to select suitable books and teaching materials themselves, either because the curriculum states that certain literary texts should be studied or because the school that they are working in has already bought a large number of textbooks for a particular course or class. Often schools use the same textbooks for several years even if those books feel out of date. Sometimes it is the case that schools pay expensive subscriptions to online material, which therefore restricts teachers to using this material primarily before turning to other resources. In other words, teachers often must make use of books and teaching materials at their disposal, regardless of whether the materials are suitable in terms of the stereotypical images they contain or whether they represent diversity at all.

What we as teachers should do then, is to make sure that such stereotypical images and texts are not left uncommented upon. If we must use a particular textbook when teaching chemistry, for example, and all the images in this textbook show people of a certain age or ethnicity, we must bring this to our students’ attention by engaging in a critical discussion with them. We should also reflect on what images may have been left out and need to be added.

One may argue that scrutinising images in a chemistry book has got nothing to do with the teaching of chemistry, but, in fact, students’ ability to engage in subjects and show their understanding and perspectives of different school subjects, whether it is chemistry, language studies or mathematics, can actually increase students’ motivation and encourage critical thinking. Also, having role models who the students can identify with is a crucial aspect that can determine whether students develop and maintain interest in that particular subject and essentially perform better.

For instance, in the article “Teaching Between the Lines: Representation in Science Textbooks” (Simpson et al., 2021), the authors refer to a study in which second grade pupils were prompted to draw a picture of a scientist. The results showed that most pupils drew a stereotypical picture of a white man in a lab coat. When asking students at university to do a similar test the results revealed that the majority still had that very same image in mind. The authors thus conclude that pupils’ perceptions of who is allowed to be part of the scientific community; or to be a scientist, is established early and this mental image is very difficult to change as the students’ progress within the educational system. Therefore, the authors argue that it is important to provide a wide range of role models in the course material to make sure that all students feel that they are allowed in the scientific community. Also, the article presents a study which shows that ninth grade students whose perceptions of scientists were positive performed better in those particular subjects compared with students who did not share these positive views (Simpson et al., 2021). In short, students’ performance within different school subjects is not only related to the teaching and learning of the content of those particular subjects, but it is also related to whether you see yourself as belonging to the community or group of people who you believe have the right to access and achieve something within that subject.

Therefore, if we find that the textbooks we must use in our teaching are not particularly suitable in terms of diversity, we need to add complementary materials which include, for example, information about scientists of other ages, genders, or ethnicities that have also contributed to the topic being learnt. As a starting point, we advise you to make use of the resources that your school library, colleagues, and students already are familiar with. If you find that searching for additional material for your courses is an overwhelming task, remember that adding one new text, film, or any type of resource, per year is better than not doing anything at all. Revising and updating your teaching material is after all an open-ended process and something that you should do throughout your entire teaching career. Our Further Resources section offers some resources to help you begin this process.

Lastly, when writing instructions or creating assignments or exams yourself, regardless of whether they are in writing or presented orally, you also need to reflect on the type of language and type of instructions you use. The United Nations’ Guidelines for gender-inclusive language may be used as a starting point when reflecting on how to make your texts as gender neutral as possible so as to avoid using stereotypical descriptions of gender. The guidelines have been produced in several different languages, such as English, Arabic, French and Spanish, and even though some of these guidelines may not apply to the language used in your teaching context, they can still serve as an important reminder or eye-opener of what areas may be problematic when referring to and addressing students of different genders.

Local contexts

Further Resources

In this section you will find more academic research on diversity in books and learning materials but also some useful guidelines which help you check whether your textbooks are free from prejudice and stereotypes: for example, the UNESCO’s publication Making Textbook content inclusive: A focus on Religion, Gender, and Culture offers an in-depth analysis and guide to check whether textbooks are free from prejudice and stereotypes based on religion, gender, and culture by looking at their employment of inclusive language, their representation of diverse identities, and their integration of human rights. Furthermore, there are links to websites that offer checklists to detect prejudiced and biased materials and book lists of diversity-friendly literary texts.

Studies on diversity in books and learning materials

(If you are interested in the studies that we reference in this chapter – for example, the study on the representation of gender in mathematics textbooks that was mentioned in the section about the hidden curriculum, you can find their bibliographical reference in the Works Cited section of the book.)

Lists of diversity-friendly readings

More than 90 lists of multicultural and social justice books for children, young adults, and educators: https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/

List of resources for increasing diversity in science: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534720302883

Literature

About the authors

name: Tracy Fletcher

Tracy Fletcher is a teacher in the subject of English, and researcher, originally from the U.K but has been based in Sweden for the last 14 years. She has experience of curriculum planning and management, co-ordinating CPD for teachers, as well as working to support newly arrived immigrant students integrate into a new school system. Her research interests include anti racist education, inclusive education, and student mental health. She is also an activist for autism awareness and trans rights.

name: Laura Torres Zúñiga

Laura Torres Zúñiga is a lecturer and teacher trainer at the Department of Philologies and Didactics of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), where she teaches English Language, Syllabus Design and Children’s Literature in English to pre-service teachers of all educational stages. Her research interests center on contemporary short narrative forms, English language teaching and active learning methodologies.

name: Lisa Johansson

Lisa Johansson is a lecturer of English within the teacher training programs at the University of Gävle. She teaches courses in proficiency, language structure, didactics, and world English across primary, secondary, and upper secondary school levels. She has a teacher’s degree in English and history for upper secondary school and her interests cover sociolinguistics, language and gender dynamics and language and power.