A que(e)ry about representation : A study of LGBTQIA+ persons in textbooks for English 6

This study’s intention is to inspect if and how LGBTQIA+ persons are represented in English textbooks for the upper secondary school course, English six. To narrow the field of examination, the focus of this study is on “love and relationship” chapters in each book. The chapters are analysed in three textbooks published between 2000—2015 to see if the representation has changed overtime. In order to inspect each textbook objectively, the basic values from The Swedish National Agency for Education from 1994 and 2011 (Lpf94 & Gy11) are observed to see what the textbook writers had to proceed from. The text in the chapters is analysed using discourse analysis (a method suited for examining what a text depicts as “normal”, and by extension, abnormal). The result is distinct. Heterosexual and cis-gendered stories dominate the chapters, and where non-heterosexual characters are represented the portrayal of the representation is often somewhat problematic. By shedding light on the many inadequacies in the representation of LGBTQIA+-persons in textbooks, this study suggests possible solutions