In contemporary societies, increasing visible diversity related to gender, culture, ethnicity, disability, and sexual orientation has made questions of social cohesion, mutual respect, and democratic coexistence central to public debate. As school textbooks are fundamental pedagogical resources used consistently over many years (Stará et al., 2017), they play a crucial role in shaping societal perceptions of professions typically associated with men or women (Fruehwirth et al., 2024). Although their primary function is the transmission of knowledge, textbooks often convey gender stereotypes and may influence how students perceive their future, their abilities, and their role in society.

This research (Kerger, Pianaro & Schadeck, 2023) is grounded in a theoretical framework combining gender studies, critical discourse analysis, and the sociology of education. Drawing on the work of Brugeilles and Cromer (2005, 2008), the Centre Hubertine Auclert (2015, 2020), textbooks are conceptualised not as neutral reflections of reality but as normative representations that legitimise specific social orders. From this perspective, representations of gender and diversity in textbooks can either reproduce inequalities or promote equality, inclusion, and respect for diversity, influencing students’ attitudes, aspirations, and understanding of social norms.

The central research question guiding this study is: To what extent do school textbooks used in the lower cycle of Luxembourg’s secondary education reflect and promote values of gender equality, diversity, and inclusive citizenship in line with national, European, and global commitments? More specifically, the study examines how gender, disability, ethnic diversity, and sexual diversity are represented across different school subjects.

The study is situated within a strong institutional and legal context. Luxembourg has ratified key international conventions, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (United Nations, 1981), the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) (United Nations, 1969), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (United Nations, 2008). Additionally, national policies such as the first National Action Plan for LGBTI Rights (Ministère de la Famille, des Solidarités, du Vivre ensemble et de l'Accueil, 2018) reflect a commitment to inclusive education. These frameworks align with broader European objectives promoting equality, non-discrimination, and democratic citizenship as articulated by the Council of Europe.

Despite these commitments, recent public debates in Luxembourg—illustrated by parliamentary petitions (Petition, 2024) concerning the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ topics in education—demonstrate that issues of diversity and inclusion remain socially contested. This highlights the importance of empirically examining how educational materials address gender and sexual diversity, particularly in ways that are age-appropriate and focused on values such as respect, empathy, and openness.

The importance of this research extends beyond the national context. Across Europe and worldwide, textbook analyses have consistently revealed persistent gender stereotypes, underrepresentation of women and minorities, and limited visibility of non-heteronormative identities. By focusing on a multilingual and culturally diverse country such as Luxembourg, this study contributes to comparative international research on inclusive education and textbook reforming. Its findings offer insights relevant to policymakers, educators, and researchers seeking to align educational practices with international human rights standards.

Ultimately, this study underscores the responsibility of educational systems to ensure that textbooks support the development of critical thinking, democratic values, and social inclusion. By examining the gap between institutional commitments and actual representations in textbooks, the research highlights both challenges and opportunities for fostering equality and living together in increasingly diverse European and global societies.

This research project investigates representations of gender and diversity in school textbooks used in the lower cycle of Luxembourg’s secondary education. This educational level was selected because it plays a crucial role in shaping students’ academic pathways, as it precedes and strongly influences the choice of educational tracks in the upper cycle. By focusing on this stage, the study aims to capture representations that may contribute to early perceptions of gender roles and social norms. The corpus was constructed based on the official list of best-selling school textbooks published by the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth in Luxembourg. To ensure a comprehensive analysis across the curriculum, textbooks from a wide range of subjects were included: German, French, English, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, and the subject “Life and Society”. In total, the corpus comprises 52 school textbooks from different editions. Methodologically, the study adopts a mixed-methods design combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative component is informed by established methodological frameworks developed by the Centre Hubertine Auclert (2015, 2020) as well as by Brugeilles and Cromer (2005, 2008). This approach enables a systematic and comparative analysis of gender representations in both textual and visual content. The qualitative analysis of selected content was also conducted to provide concrete examples illustrating the quantitative results and to highlight both traditional and non-normative representations, such as gender identity and family models. All individuals appearing in texts and illustrations were systematically identified and counted. Individuals could be real or fictional, while pronouns and pictograms were excluded. Six categories were used to classify individuals according to gender and age: girls, boys, women, men, children and adults of undetermined gender. A predefined counting method was applied, treating each page as a single unit. In addition, the analysis examined the types of activities in which individuals were engaged, grouped into domestic, leisure, professional activities and celebrities. This categorisation allowed for the identification of potential gendered divisions of roles. Beyond gender, three cross-cutting diversity categories were included: non-whiteness, disability and sexual orientation. Non-whiteness referred to individuals not socially assigned as white, based on physical or cultural markers. Disability was defined according to the United Nations (2008). Sexual diversity included individuals explicitly represented as homosexual or homoparental, based on relational and textual indicators rather than appearance alone. The quantitative comparison of heterosexual and homosexual couples provided further insight into the visibility of sexual diversity in school textbooks.

This study analysed 52 school textbooks used in the lower cycle of secondary education in Luxembourg in order to examine representations of gender and diversity. Across all subjects and in both textual and visual content, 61409 individuals were counted. Male individuals were found to be predominant and the largest gender imbalance was observed in history textbooks, where male individuals vastly outnumber female individuals, followed by French and German textbooks. In all subjects, disparities were more pronounced between adult men and women than between boys and girls, highlighting a persistent underrepresentation of women in public and historical spheres. The analysis of activities revealed clear gendered patterns. Female individuals were more often associated with domestic tasks, while male individuals dominated leisure and professional activities across all textbook series. Men were not only more visible in professional contexts but also represented across a wider range of occupations. A similar imbalance was observed among famous people, who were predominantly male, reflecting the ongoing marginalisation of women in historical, scientific, and cultural narratives. Regarding diversity, individuals with disabilities were largely underrepresented and, when present, mainly defined by their disability. Non-white individuals were also marginalised and frequently portrayed as belonging to non-Western societies rather than as part of contemporary Western contexts. This tendency was particularly marked in French textbooks, while English textbooks offered relatively more inclusive representations. Sexual diversity was scarcely represented across the corpus: homosexual individuals and couples appeared mainly in natural science textbooks and were entirely absent from mathematics and geography, contributing to the invisibility of non-heterosexual identities in educational materials. Overall, the persistence of stereotypical and unequal representations in textbooks may reinforce traditional gender norms. Given the role of textbooks in transmitting social values, promoting more balanced and inclusive representations remains essential to fostering equality and combating discrimination in education.

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