A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender Roles in Storybooks Written for Preschoolers

Abstract

Preschool storybooks (ages 3-6) are significant ideological tools for conveying societal values and gender roles to children. This doctoral study aims to examine Turkish storybooks written for preschool children by Turkish authors between 2019-2023 to see how societal values and gender roles are linguistically conveyed, how they can be interpreted, and what characteristics they present within a broader social context in Turkey. For this purpose, 15 stories featuring linguistic and social indicators that represent gender roles were selected through criterion sampling, a qualitative purposive sampling method. These stories were analysed using the theorist Norman Fairclough’s (1992, 1993, 2001) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) model, which incorporates linguistic and social perspectives through a three-stage analytical model. Among the analysed stories, while five books embrace only traditional ideological approach, five others adopted egalitarian approach. However, another five books present both ideologies side-by-side, enabling readers to critically engage with the differences through the lens of characters' discourses and behaviors. This comparative approach is particularly effective in fostering early critical thinking and offering children a broader perspective on gender roles.The analyses reflect, on the one hand, the continuation of traditional values in the context of Turkey within the specified time period, and on the other hand, the efforts to convey gender equality and especially women's identity to new generations by presenting them with egalitarian approaches under the effects of various cultural and sociological developments.