Semiotic analysis of textbooks' cover images from the perspective of gender studies (Elementary textbooks)

The cover of the textbooks has been designed and written as the first communication medium between educational content and the audience of children with the aim of socialization of the next generation. A systematic review of book covers, as an interdisciplinary subject in the field of social sciences in general and in sociology, cultural studies, and also with a gender approach in the study of women in particular, New angles of power relations, roles reveals new perspectives on power relations, gender roles, and gender relations.This study was conducted to gender study of communication patterns between human characters by social semiotics approach. Regarding Representative, interactive and combined meaning 13 images from the total images on the cover were analyzed. The selection of these images has been done by studying all the images and taking into account the image which contains human personality.Findings show that gender segregation and maximum coverage –Hijab- of girls are the main features of the images on the cover. Images can be defined due to the gender stereotypes of the social roles of women and men. The highlighting on famous male historical figures, the emphasis on the maternal role of women, and the ignorance of their roles in the public sphere, along with the smaller number of female characters than men, have generally resulted in bias. As a result, cover images promote gender stereotypes in communicating and engaging audiences, socializing and motivating them.