Gender, Sexuality, Race, Nationality, and Religion in Greek Education. : A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Political Education Schoolbook.

Abstract: Feminist and Educational research on schoolbooks in the Greek educational context has discussed the ways in which gender or nationality or religion are being portrayed but has failed to touch upon sexuality and race (and other categories) and deploy an intersectional feminist perspective in their approaches, focusing only on one category. This thesis aims to fill the gap identified in the literature and investigate the portrayal and intersection of gender, sexuality, race, nationality, and religion in the discourses of selected texts of the Political Education schoolbook used in the first grade of highschool and the ways in which this portrayal and intersection challenges or reinforces hegemonic exclusionary discourses, power dynamics and hierarchies. From an intersectional feminist standpoint and a post-structuralist epistemological view, I used Critical Discourse Analysis as a method to achieve this goal, critically engage with the selected texts and uncover/deconstruct the ideologies and power dynamics created by the texts’ discourses. The findings reveal that nationality and religion are explicit in the texts, while gender, sexuality, and race are constructed in more subtle ways. The texts portray nationality as rigid and unchangeable, intersecting with Orthodox Christianity maintaining hegemonic nationalist discourses on“Greekness”. The absence of race and the implied whiteness as the default perpetuate racial hierarchies. Moreover, the portrayal and intersection of religion with gender and sexuality echo elements of gender binarism, compulsory heterosexuality, biological determinism, and cis/heteronormativity, reinforcing the dominant gender/sexual system and leaving no space for those who do not fit into it.