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Gender and Ethnic Bias in Reading Passages Included in Science Module in Action Pack 10. Prof. Ruba Bataineh Student Asma'a Abu Qbeita. Introduction.
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Gender and Ethnic Bias in Reading Passages Included in Science Module in Action Pack 10 Prof. Ruba Bataineh Student Asma'a Abu Qbeita
Introduction Action Pack is a series to teach English as a foreign language in Jordan. It is taught in the basic and secondary stages. As a part of this series, Action Pack 10 includes students' book, Activity book, Teacher's book, and a cassette or CD. Students' book is divided into six modules; each module consists of two units except the first one. Each module is ended with a project.
The researcher analyzed the reading passages found in the third module titled "Science". The analysis included student's book and activity book. This module consists of two units. The first unit includes four reading passages in the student's book (pages 26, 28, 29, and 30) and a passage in the activity book (page 21).
While the second unit includes three reading passages in the student's book (pages 32, 35, and 36) and two reading passages in the activity book (pages 25 and 26). Not all passages talk about scientists. Ones have information about scientists were at pages (26, 28, and 35 in the student's book and 25 in the activity book).
The Purpose of the Study The study aimed at exploring how Arab and Muslim scientists were presented in reading passages included in the Science Module in Action Pack 10, as a TEFL textbook for Tenth grade students in Jordan. In addition, it aimed at examining the prevalence of gender and ethnic bias in "Science" module.
Questions of the Study The study addressed the following questions: 1- How are Arabs and Muslims presented in the “Science” module? 2- Is there gender bias in the “Science” module? 3- - Is there ethnic bias in the “Science” module?
Method To answer the questions of the study, content analysis technique was used at the level of the noun phrase. According to the analysis, the categories were Arab and Muslim and foreign scientists, female and male scientists.
The Unit of Analysis: The researcher used the noun phrase as the unit of analysis.
Validity and Reliability A colleague assessed the categories list to assure validity. To assure reliability, the researcher repeated the analysis after three weeks.
Findings and discussion According to the official web site of the Nobel Prize, there were (316) Nobel prizes for sciences "Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine". These were awarded to (566) laureates. They were contributed as the following: (107) Nobel prizes have been awarded for science for (196) laureates. There were two awarded female scientists among them. The Prize was not awarded on six occasions: in 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, and 1942.
In the statues of the Nobel Foundation, if none of the works under consideration is not found to be of the indicated importance, the prize money shall be reserved until the following year. If then the prize can not be awarded the money shall be added to the Foundation's restricted funds. Few Nobel prizes were awarded during World War I and II.
In Chemistry, there were (105) prizes for (166) laureates. The awarded women were four. The prize was not awarded on eight occasions: in 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941, and 1942. For Medicine, (104) prizes have been awarded to (204) laureates. It was not awarded on nine occasions: in 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941, and 1942. Ten women were awarded the prize for Medicine.
Moreover, there were four Arab and Muslim scientists awarded the prize: Peter Medawar won the prize for Medicine in 1960, Abdus Salman was awarded the Physics prize in 1979, Elias Khouri and Ahmed Zewail got the prize for Chemistry in 1990 and 1999.
Table (1) Mentioned scientists in Science Module's reading passages
To answer the first question, table (1) presents the frequencies of Arab and Muslim scientists and foreign scientists mentioned in the reading passages in the Science Module. The analysis showed that four Arab scientists were presented. They were given as examples for the ancient Arab scientists who present great theories and products, but not as examples for laureates of the Nobel prize.
In contrast, the writer presented six foreign scientists, the founder of the prize "Alfred Nobel" and the other five were prize winners "Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Francis Crick, and James Watson". Ignoring the role of Arab scientists in CE and giving examples of famous Arab scientists in the past makes the writer view Arabs as an old nation that had contribution in the development in the past, but not nowadays.
Table (2) Contribution of prizewinner scientists in the Nobel Prize according to ethnicity
Table (2) shows the very few prizes that Arab and Muslim scientists awarded in current era even though they did great things in the Middle Ages. Muslim scientists were the most productive ones in the world, whereas they are doing so poorly today. This could refer to the educational institution policies that focus on memorization more than on creativity. Politics and economy may play an essential role in encouraging Arab to be creative.
Table (3) Contribution of prizewinner scientists in Science Module according to ethnicity
Tables (2) and (3) answer the second question. The writer did not mention any Arab scientists won the prize, even though it is a textbook taught in Jordan. There were four Arab and Muslim scientists won the prize from 1960 until now. It is a fact that Arab and Muslim have very little contribution to the current science field that is indicated by the few percentage of the Nobel prize laureates (.7%), but this does not mean to totally ignore them. Young students need to develop positive image about Arab and Muslim creativity in the past centuries as well as to know the few scientists who deserve to be known as pioneer nation scientists. Neglecting the contribution of Arab and Muslim scientists in the world produces less respect, a low self-image, and shows them as unproductive members in the world.
Table (4) Contribution of prizewinner scientists in the Nobel Prize according to the gender
Table (5) Contribution of scientists in Science Module according to the gender
Tables (4) and (5) present an answer to the third question. It is shown that comparing with the great contribution of male scientists, female scientists have little contribution. There was a general belief that women were less capable of doing valuable scientific work than men. This is indicated in the fact that nine out of (16) female scientists were awarded the prize after 1980 and five out of (16) after 2000.
After all, an adequate presentation of the female winner prize scientists in the reading passages was presented especially when giving Marie Curie as an example for the first women who were awarded the prize twice. Another point to be considered is the focusing on the scientists awarded the prize in the last century and not mentioning any of the prize winners after 2000 even though the textbook was published in 2013.
