ABSTRACT
Textbook analysis in a gender context is a well-known research topic. The study of textbooks led to a far-reaching change in the Ministry of Education’s policy in the field of Gender. In this context, gender equality education has become a mandatory requirement enshrined in the Ministry’s regulations and published in its Director General 2002 Circular. The circular established binding rules for promoting gender equality in textbooks. The aim of this study is to examine whether the existing conflicts in Israeli society between the religious and secular sectors, and between different religious sectors, affect the decision-making of school textbook writers and editors, and the way in which gender worldviews are passed on to pupils through these textbooks. Is gender equality also reflected on issues in which there is built-in gender inequality? The study compares 19 pairs of textbooks written at the same time for state religious and secular schools written after 2002. The study reveals the impact of the power struggle between the conservative and the liberal sectors in Religious Zionist Orthodoxy on the textbooks. The conservative worldview is openly presented in the textbooks, and the liberal worldview is covert. The writers of these textbooks for State secular schools adopt the conservative Orthodox discourse. The study’s findings also indicate a lack of oversight on the implementation of the Director General Circular.
