Polina Shvanyukova - Language Education and Gender Studies: Focus on Italy, 1975 – 2015

In thiscontribution I shall explore the link between language teaching and the topicalresearch area of Gender Studies (cf. Sunderland 1994, Pavlenko et al. 2001,Decke-Cornill and Volkmann 2007, Linke 2012) in the Italian context. I will doso by focusing on the activities of two well-established Italian associations, Linguae Nuova Didattica (Lend, https://www.lend.it/eu/2016-01-12-11-13-15/chi-siamo) and Gruppi di Intervento nel Campo dell’EducazioneLinguistica (GISCEL, https://giscel.it/), both founded in the 1970s with the aim of bringingtogether language teaching professionals. By examining a range of publicationson the topic of gender and language education produced by the two associations(e.g., Lingua e nuova didattica: Rivista di lingua e di didattica, Quadernidel GISCEL and others, https://giscel.it/documenti/pubblicazioni/) in the period between 1975 and 2015, I aim to address thefollowing research questions: How have language teaching professionals in theItalian context dealt with the “gender issue”? What kind of proposals forgender-informed and gender-conscious approaches have been put forward andimplemented in the period under investigation (for example, by influencingmaterials selection or by providing specific suggestions for thematic and otherclassroom activities)? In other words, how has the theoretical perspective ofGender Studies been incorporated in language teaching and what is the generallevel of awareness of gender-related issues among language teachingprofessionals in Italy? This investigation will be carried out against abackdrop of persistent gender inequality in the Italian education system. AsBiemmi (2015) has recently shown, three key topics (gendered subject choice ineducation; sexism in textbooks; teachers’ lack of awareness of gender issues)currently dominate the Italian academic debate on gender and education, withgender issues in education having only recently “become the focus ofunprecedented political and public attention and the subject of importantlegislative actions” (Biemmi 2015: 813).

Keywords: gender, language education, Italy,textbooks, stereotypes

References

Biemmi, Irene. (2015). “Gender in schoolsand culture: Taking stock of education in Italy”. Gender            and Education, 27-7: 812-827.

Decke-Cornill,Helene and Laurenz Volkmann (eds.). (2007). Gender Studies and Foreign           Language Teaching. Tübingen: Narr.

Linke, Gabriele.(2012). “Geschlechterforschung und Fachdidaktik: Sprachdidaktik Englisch”. In Marita Kampshoff and Claudia Wiepcke (Hrsg.). Handbuch Geschlechterforschung und   Fachdidaktik. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag fürSozialwissenschaften.

Pavlenko, Anetaet al. (eds.). (2001). Multilingualism,Second Language Learning, and Gender.           Berlin:Mouton de Gruyter.

Sunderland, Jane(ed.). (1994). Exploring Gender: Questions and Implications forEnglish           Language Education.New York et al.: Prentice Hall.