Gender Representation in Graded Readers: A Comparative Content Analysis

While Extensive Reading (ER) has emerged as an effective approach to developing language skills, ER research has largely focused on its impact on language acquisition, rather than the socio-cultural content of the materials used and any effect of those on the reader. Considering that ER programs tend to expect learners to read large volumes of text, the socio-cultural information (including the messages regarding gender representation and gender roles) that learners are absorbing appears worthy of attention and consideration from educators. While some studies have examined gender in educational materials more broadly, so far, there is a dearth of similar research focused on graded readers. This paper reports on the results of a pilot project using content analysis to examine aspects of gender representation in the text and images of sets of fiction and nonfiction readers, specifically the numbers of female, male, and unidentified characters, and their occupations.