Cultural Studies Matters

Occupational Models for Boys and Girls: Content Analysis of Turkish Elementary School Textbooks

Asil Ali Özdoğru, Gizem Aksoy, Nurçin Erdoğan, and Fatma Gök

One of the essential functions of educational systems is to assist students’ development of personal as well as professional identities. The present study investigated the occupations men and women associated with in the Turkish elementary school textbooks to discern the range of occupational opportunities the Turkish educational system provided their students with. Content analysis of the first, second, and third grade Turkish Language and Social Studies textbooks published by Ministry of Education in 2001 searched for explicit and implicit gender biases in occupations presented. Men were involved in economically and/or socially prestigious jobs, whereas women were mainly housewives and mothers, and their narrow career options were limited to low-status occupations. Male students received a wider range of occupational models, whereas female students had limited options other than being a housewife or mother. Textbooks can be employed to offer students alternatives and to encourage them to make use of their abilities in the ways that will fit to them.

Keywords: Gender roles, occupational models, content analysis, textbooks

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A., Aksoy, G., Erdoğan, N., & Gök, F. (2005, April). Occupational models for boys and girls: Content analysis of Turkish elementary school textbooks. Poster presented at the Cultural Studies Matters: A Conference on Cultural Studies and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY.

SRCD 2005

Report Cards: A Universal Source of Anxiety for Children?

Asil Ali Özdoğru, Chin-Cheng Kao, Joan Newman, and John J. Johnson

The present cross-cultural study examined how children themselves and their parents responded to their report cards and how it relates to their anxiety level. Fourth grade elementary school students from predominantly middle class schools in Taiwan (n = 291), Turkey (n = 90), and USA (n = 189) completed the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS) and a report card reaction questionnaire developed by the researchers. The report card questionnaire asked children to report their own reactions and parents’ reactions to their last report card by selecting among 32 statements with positive and negative connotations. Results showed that perceived pressure for academic achievement subsequent to receipt of the report card was associated with children’s manifest anxiety levels. Children’s self perceptions about their report cards were more influential on their anxiety levels than their perceptions of parental reactions. Male students’ report card reactions had a closer association to their anxiety levels than female students’ in each country.

Keywords: Academic achievement, report cards, anxiety, parental reactions

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A., Kao, C.-C., Johnson, J., & Newman, J. (2005, April). Report cards: A universal source of anxiety for children? Poster presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA.

Kelly 2005

Computer Skills and Student Attitudes toward Online Courses: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Asil Ali Özdoğru

Online education as the major form of distance education is getting widespread use in higher education institutions across the world. Student attitudes towards online courses play important roles in the future of online education. One of the various factors influencing student attitudes is computer literacy skills. This review analyzed and discussed the studies about student attitudes toward online courses in relation to computer literacy. A general bi-directional relation between attitudes and computer literacy has been identified. A higher level of computer knowledge was associated with more positive attitudes. A positive attitude toward online courses was also found to be important in yielding higher computer literacy. In combination with other instructional and institutional factors computer literacy is important in the formation of positive attitudes. Literature needs a conceptual clarification among various similar terms and methodologically rigorous studies with more sound conclusions.

Keywords: Online courses, student attitudes, computer literacy, literature review

Citation: Özdoğru, A. A. (2005). Computer skills and student attitudes toward online courses: A narrative review of the literature. In M. Bose, & D. A. Chapin (Eds.), Proceedings of the nineteenth annual Edward F. Kelly evaluation conference (pp. 105–121). Albany, NY: Evaluation Consortium.