A Study of Gender Ideology in the Fine Arts Textbooks of

[[abstract]]In recent years, under the influence of post-modern educational thoughts and educational reforms, the concept of gender equality received more attention day by day, and it also became one of the important issues in Taiwan’s educational reform. Therefore, this study would probe into the gender issues in current high school art textbooks, discuss the texts based on content analysis, consult and generalize relevant literature home and abroad, and ask experts for opinions. In the end, this study aimed to build up a relevant content for the major and minor categories which were derived from gender issues, and next to analyze the gender ideology presented by the pictures and texts in high school art textbooks. Moreover, in order to complement the insufficient analysis in this study, the researcher interviewed the writers and editors of the textbooks to understand their editing ideas and how they weaved the gender consciousness into the textbooks. The three objectives of this study were explained as follows. The first was to probe into the distribution of artists, genders, and image contents in high school art textbooks. The second was to analyze the gender ideology in the texts of high school art textbooks. The third was to illustrate the relationship between the text composition of high school art textbooks and the gender thinking of the writers and editors, and further to generalize the study conclusions as the reference for textbook editors and teachers of high school art. The conclusions of this study were generalized as follows. First, most pictures in the textbooks were those by male artists, and the proportion of those by female artists was rather low. Second, the features of male characters in the pictures were obviously masculine, and those of female characters were feminine. Third, female artists were rarely mentioned in the text; on the contrary, 90 percent of the artists mentioned in the text were male. Fourth, there was no distinctive difference in the characteristics descriptions of artists; that is, there were no stereotypical descriptions for male or female artists. Fifth, the characters in pictures still matched the general images for males or females in the society. Sixth, there was no gender thinking in the texts in most editions; if there was, the focus was mainly on females rather than males. For most editions, the texts were mostly academic. Seventh, when choosing the artists and their works, the writers and editors considered the curriculum guidelines and the topics as their top priority. Based on the study results, some suggestions are proposed as follows. First, the course of study should bring thinking on gender ideology into action. Second, the editing criterion of male and female artists and images should be students’ learning needs. Third, the integration of gender issues in textbooks should be natural. Fourth, the attitude towards gender issues should be consistent during the textbook examinations. Fifth, in the process of textbook editing, relevant researches on art education should be joined and spread.