This work is funded by the R&D&I Project PID2023-149084OB-I00 financed by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, entitled: Female labour inclusion in STEAM professions: analysis of discourses on women in the STEAM field in school textbooks in democratic Spain.

In today's society, characterised by the dizzying pace of constant change, schools operate in an environment of digital stimuli that can hinder deep reflection. For this reason, humanistic education geared towards critical thinking is becoming increasingly important (Moreno-Pinado, & Tejeda, 2017). To this end, we must review the teaching resources that are commonly used in education, such as school textbooks.

School textbooks remain a central resource in teaching, and images in particular are a highly prominent component that contributes to constructing professional references, roles and expectations. In the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), the visual representation of women and men can reinforce or challenge gender stereotypes linked to epistemic authority, innovation, leadership and professional training. The comparative European study by Jehle et al. (2024) indicates that, even in contexts with regulatory frameworks favourable to equality, biases persist in textbooks in terms of gender presence and stereotyping. This coeducational approach requires going beyond equal representation and addressing the professional training and qualifications of women, thereby increasing their visibility as scientists within school knowledge (Subirats, 2017).

From a European and international perspective, this work is linked to SDG 4 (quality education) and SDG 5 (gender equality) and to the monitoring of equality in research and innovation through comparable indicators (European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation - ECDRI, 2025). This approach is in line with UNESCO's guidelines on the future of education and with the 2030 Agenda (UNESCO, 2021). In the Spanish context, recent analyses document the persistence of gender gaps in STEAM pathways throughout the educational cycle and into the labour market (Cobreros et al., 2024). These gaps are connected to the processes of identity construction and professional aspirations in young women and are related to biases in the attribution of fields of contribution when women are represented (Vázquez-Cupeiro, 2022), reinforcing the need to identify and correct curricular messages that operate as early references.

Therefore, this contribution poses the following research question: to what extent does an image analysis matrix allow us to identify patterns of female representation and gender stereotypes in images from STEAM textbooks? To answer this question, the following objectives are established: O1) to design an analysis matrix focused on the person represented; O2) to analyse content validity through expert judgement; O3) to estimate reliability through a pilot test with independent coding.

A design for the development and validation of the instrument for visual content analysis is adopted. The pilot corpus will focus on Spanish secondary education textbooks published after the curriculum reform of Organic Law 3/2020 (LOMLOE, 2020). The starting point is based on school textbooks and previous proposals for analysing the representation of women in textbooks (Moreno-Crespo et al., 2022). However, it incorporates an adaptation with regard to the unit of analysis, which shifts from the ‘complete image’ to the ‘character/person’ represented, allowing for the description of the attributes and narratives associated with each figure analysed. For each record, the matrix includes the assigned book code, as well as the page and location in the book. The iconographic analysis incorporates various variables such as: image mode; type of drawing; character characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity); character type; character name (if identifiable); and whether it is a cultural reference. For the occupational and contextual dimension, the main activity performed is coded; the description; the field; the profession; the type of activity; the sector and the professional classification, according to CIUO-08 (general and specific). The validation process to ensure the consistency of the instrument involves expert judgement in gender and education. To this end, a qualitative review and quantitative estimation (CVI/CVR) have been used, taking into account recent guidelines and protocols (Mokkink et al., 2025) and comparative evidence on content validity indices. Subsequently, for the pilot test and reliability calculation, the matrix is applied to a purposive sample of STEAM textbooks for secondary education (2023–2024 editions). Three researchers perform independent coding after training. Inter-coder reliability is estimated using Krippendorff's alpha, and training and data cleaning decisions are documented, following recent standards (Oschatz et al., 2023) and current tools for calculating the coefficient (Marzi et al., 2024).

The aim is to consolidate a robust tool that allows for the description, comparison and auditing of female representation in images in STEAM textbooks from a gender perspective. The tool provides twofold added value. On the one hand, it allows for the quantification of presence/absence and, at the same time, captures the ‘quality’ of that presence through narrative attributes. On the other hand, it makes it possible to translate the findings into operational guidelines for publishers and teaching teams, so that materials can be adjusted in terms of equity and the promotion of scientific vocations without bias. The expected results aim to verify whether, despite a favourable regulatory framework and possible improvements in numerical representation, subtle inequalities persist: secondary roles, traditional scenarios, less visual centrality, or recurring associations of women with milestones of the past, rather than with current leadership and technological innovation (Jehle et al., 2024). In a context of rapid change at the global and local levels, the study is aligned with the commitment to SDGs 4 and 5 of the 2030 Agenda, contributing to quality and inclusive education that offers diverse models and does not limit the professional potential of half the population. As an international contribution, the work proposes a transparent, replicable and transferable procedure for auditing curriculum materials consistent with European equality agendas in R&D&I (ECDRI, 2025), in a scenario in which education systems seek to balance deep learning and social justice (UNESCO, 2023; OECD, 2024). The end result, therefore, is not only a validated matrix, but also an applicable tool for improving textbooks and teaching practices aimed at equity.

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