Ageism—understood as the set of stereotypes, prejudices, and discriminatory behaviors directed at people on the basis of their age—is one of the most pervasive yet, paradoxically, least questioned forms of exclusion in contemporary society. It is also an intersectional phenomenon that combines with other axes of exclusion such as sexism, homophobia, and classism. The education system, through school textbooks and the hidden curriculum, functions as a powerful agent of socialization that frequently perpetuates reductionist and pathologizing visions of aging, shaping how younger generations perceive older adults and how students envision their own futures. Schools are therefore central to challenging stereotyped images of old age and fostering more inclusive and diverse representations of older people.

Ageist stereotypes vary in content and valence depending on the life domain to which they are applied, and they may differ across age groups and genders (de Paula Couto et al., 2022). Traditionally, age stereotypes have been treated as a single, predominantly negative construct; however, research shows that they are multifaceted, complex, and domain‑specific (Kornadt & Rothermund, 2011). From this perspective, it is possible to distinguish between descriptive and prescriptive stereotypes (Rothermund & de Paula Couto, 2024). Descriptive stereotypes refer to attributes used to portray how older people are—whether in relation to their physical characteristics, social status, or behavior. These descriptive stereotypes may be negative, especially with regard to health (Kornadt et al., 2016) or cognitive abilities (Dorgnier et al., 2022; Levy et al., 2022), but they may also be positive, as older adults are often considered “cooperative, considerate, patient, and sociable” (Carlson et al., 2020, p. e351), in the domains of family relationships and life experience (Kornadt et al., 2016). Prescriptive stereotypes, by contrast, encompass social beliefs and expectations concerning how older people should be and how they ought to behave (Rothermund & de Paula Couto, 2024).

Likewise, employing a markedly condescending tone, simplified vocabulary, and basic grammatical structures when interacting with older adults—commonly referred to as elderspeak—devalues them by presuming lower competence and increases the likelihood that they will encounter dismissive or disrespectful attitudes. Consequently, old age is frequently stigmatized as a phase of dependency or decline, reinforced through a visual aesthetic that accentuate loneliness, exclusion, and fragility—rather than depicting older adults as integrated into the workforce and acting as fully functional members of society.

As a primary agent of socialization, the education system is not age‑neutral. Implicit representations, preconceptions, and stereotypes about aging and older people directly influence students’ education by transmitting cultural values and norms that shape intergenerational interpretations from an early age (Gutiérrez Moret & Mayordomo Rodríguez, 2019). In primary education, the textbook remains a key reference tool in the classroom; auditing the representations and imagery of older people in these materials therefore enables intervention at a crucial stage to prevent ageism and promote positive intergenerational relations.

The aim of this paper, in the framework of the Research Project PID2023-150704OB-I00: “Linguistic Ageism in Older Adults' Digital Communication: Towards a New Inclusive Language” funded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation, Science and University and by ERDF, EU. is to analyze the presence of ageism in Spanish primary‑education textbooks and, on that basis, propose a set of editorial and pedagogical best practices to reduce this form of discrimination in educational contexts. To this end, we identify and quantify the presence of linguistic and visual manifestations of ageism in a representative sample of Spanish primary‑education textbooks, and we analyze the discursive and visual mechanisms that reproduce ageism in these materials, as well as the intersectionality of ageism with other forms of discrimination (sexism, homophobia, ableism, racism, classism) and the documentation of the hidden curriculum.

We employed a mixed methods quantitative–qualitative design based on documentary analysis of school textbooks. The sample comprises a corpus stratified by subject (Spanish Language, Social Sciences, Natural and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Arts Education), grade level (1st through 6th), publisher (at least the five most widely used publishers in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia), year of publication (within the last five years), textual segments (readings, exercises, explanations, etc.), paratextual elements (glossaries, boxes, etc.), and visual content (photographs and illustrations). For the analysis of linguistic content, we combined several models within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): semantic macrostructures and dominant themes (Van Dijk, 2003), the Appraisal model (Martin & White, 2005), and the assignment of roles/agency to social actors (Van Leeuwen, 1996), among others. For the analysis of visual content, we drew on Kress and van Leeuwen’s Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (2020), which enabled the analysis of diversity in representations, contexts of appearance, gesturality, attributes, and stereotypes.

Findings indicate that the representation of older people in textbooks is marked by pronounced invisibility and the persistence of negative stereotypes that associate old age with decline and passivity. Specifically, four clear dimensions emerge: 1. Invisibility and underrepresentation. Only 7% of the textbooks analyzed contain references to or images of older people, meaning that 93% omit them entirely. When they do appear, they tend to be included incidentally and only when strictly necessary. 2. Visual stereotypes and clichés. The iconography typically relies on extreme physical clichés that reinforce an image of fragility. Men are invariably depicted with white hair, deep wrinkles, and walking sticks, whereas women are frequently shown wearing aprons or head coverings and performing domestic or caregiving tasks. 3. Social roles and personality. Older people are predominantly portrayed in passive, dependent roles and are linked to sedentary activities such as storytelling, fishing, or housework. Within the family sphere, they are relegated almost exclusively to the private domain and represented as “grandfathers” or “grandmothers,” stripped of professional roles or public presence. 4. Gender bias (gendered ageism). A marked imbalance appears in representation by sex: the number of older men depicted is approximately twice that of older women. Older women face a double invisibility; whereas older men may be cast as figures of authority or wisdom, women are penalized more harshly for physical aging and confined to domestic roles. In sum, it is urgent to embed an intergenerational, anti ageist perspective into curricula and textbooks—supported by clear editorial standards, linguistic and visual audit rubrics, and teacher training that promotes diverse and agentic portrayals of older adults—while avoiding elderspeak and gendered clichés, so that schools move from reproducing prejudice to educating for equality across the life course.

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