Mathematics has often been described as a school subject that privileges white, middle-class, heteronormative male learners (Foyn et al., 2018; Leyva, 2017). Despite evidence that refutes the “white male mathematics” myth and the existence of a supposed mathematics gene that is exclusively found in male learners (Hacker, 2016), girls and queer learners are often socially conditioned from a young age to believe that they are not capable of excelling in the subject (Keller & Molix, 2008; Kersey & Voigt, 2021). In this study, I aim to contribute to the international dialogues in this area by looking closely at the representation of gender in upper-primary mathematics textbooks in the Republic of Cyprus (hereafter will be referred to as Cyprus), in order to identify and challenge stereotypical images that reinforce traditional gender norms. Specifically, this study focuses on the following research questions:

• How is gender portrayed in the upper-primary mathematics textbooks of Cyprus?
• To what extent do these representations align with dominant views of gender roles as fixed and binary?

My understanding of gender is influenced by the work of Judith Butler. For Butler (2004), gender constitutes “the mechanism by which notions of masculine and feminine are produced and naturalized” (p. 42). This stresses how gender is not a personal innate trait, but rather a social construct framed by factors such as, social interactions, cultural expectations, and biopolitics (e.g. access to safe abortion clinics). In this respect, Butler (1990) introduced the term gender performativity to refer to gender as not something that one is, but something one does. In other words, gender performativity encapsulates the ways in which individuals adopt and repeatedly perform specific behaviours, mannerisms, and identities associated with their assigned gender, which are considered “normal” or “appropriate”, based on societal norms.

This study follows the lead of previous ones in different contexts aiming at uncovering how gender is represented in mathematics textbooks around the world. In general, school textbooks have been found to serve as tools through which specific dominant ideologies, normalised social expectations, political views, and religious beliefs are promoted (Mahboob, 2017). Despite common misconceptions of school mathematics being devoid of social, cultural, and political matter, worthwhile mathematics textbooks constitute no exception in being used for ideology maintenance and reproduction, especially regarding heteronormativity and socially acceptable gender behaviours (Parise, 2021).

Several studies in different contexts have analysed the performative aspects of gender representation in mathematics textbooks. From a European perspective, some examples include the work of Macintyre and Hamilton (2010) in Scotland, Osaďan et al. (2021) in Slovakia, and Tainio and Karvonen (2015) in Finland. These studies (and several others around the world that are not mentioned here due to space limitations) have concluded that stereotypical heteronormative roles are prevalent in the textbook series analysed. Even in cases in which women are not presented in stereotypical roles, references to men are far more elaborate and overemphasised. Such examples can be found in Parise (2021) and her analyses of US high school statistics textbooks, in which men are described with phrases such as “founder of modern psychology”, “one of the greatest statisticians of the twentieth century” and “great philosopher and hall of fame catcher”, while women are mentioned merely by their job title: “researcher”, “psychologist”, “actress”.

The originality of the current study lies in the fact that it focuses on mathematics textbooks from an unexplored context, that of Cyprus. In this respect, the study contributes to the growth of the body of literature that takes a critical stance against gender stereotyping in mathematics textbooks and beyond.

Cyprus has been a member of the European Union since 2004. Despite advancements in recent years, Greek-Cypriot society continues to be marked by significant levels of sexism (Tsichla & Zotos, 2016) and homophobia/transphobia (Apostolidou, 2020), with the Greek Orthodox Church still exerting a significant influence on educational matters (Zembylas et al., 2019). The Cypriot educational system is highly centralised, with all public primary and secondary schools using the same national textbooks, administered by the Ministry of Education (Xenofontos, 2019). The mathematics textbooks for primary school can be found at https://mathd.schools.ac.cy/index.php/el/. For practical reasons, I will focus in this study on the upper-primary textbooks (grades 4, 5, and 6). In the future, this could be extended to the lower-primary textbooks. As can be seen online, the textbooks for grade 4 (age 9-10) are in five parts (five sequentially structured textbooks), while those for grade 5 (age 10-11) and grade 6 (age 11-12) are in four parts each. Overall, there are 13 individual textbooks across the upper-primary grades. Following Parise (2021), this study will be developed in three phases. Phase 1 will be concerned with the identification of references to gender in textbooks. This will involve a random selection of two parts (textbooks) from grade 4, one from grade 5, and one from grade 6. I will read each textbook and mark all problems (including problems in the narrative text), images, sidebars, and summaries that use words attributed to sex (e.g., female, male, intersex), gender (e.g., woman, man, girl, boy, non-binary, trans), or relationships (e.g., marriage, dating, family). Phase 2 will be concerned with development of a coding scheme. This phase will begin inductively developing a coding system using the marked in-text problems from the textbooks. During this process, the aim is to discuss the coding scheme with at least two colleagues, of which one will be familiar with the Cypriot context. Phase 3 will be concerned with the application of the coding scheme to all textbooks from all three grades.

It is anticipated that this study will provide evidence as to the ways and the extent to which school mathematics in the context of Cyprus contributes (or not) to the reproduction of gender stereotypes. Reproduction of stereotypes is never innocent. It creates crucial consequences that ought to be addressed and not left hanging, as for example, reinforcing the binary at the expense of other gender identities, continuing to exclude minoritised gender variants from curricula, and not allowing minoritised pupils ever see themselves represented in the (mathematics) classroom. As discussed earlier, there are high levels of sexism and homophobia/transphobia among Greek-Cypriot society. School mathematics is often (yet erroneously) seen as an “innocent” or “pure” subject, unrelated to social, cultural and political issues, which does not contribute to the reproduction of social exclusions. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this study (regardless of whether gender will be found to be depicted stereotypically) can be used to inform policy making, pre-service teacher education, and the in-service professional development of teachers.

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