The Continua of Identities in Postcolonial Curricula: Kenyan Students’ Perceptions of Gender in School Textbooks

Abstract

The roles of textbooks in postcolonial states is increasingly complicated, even more so when engaging a gendered analysis. This is in large part due the pressure national education ministries face considering the demands of the international aid community, particularly since implementation of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, nation-building, and cultural diversity. Using Kenya as a site of analysis, this article uses interviews conducted with Kenyan primary school students to determine how their perceptions of their textbooks relates to their lived realities. Focusing on images depicting labor in and out of the home, research shows that students’ perceptions of textbooks demonstrate that there exists a continuum of gender identities, particularly visible when images of transformative gendered roles for women that are incongruent with student realities