Social reproduction of gender hierarchies in sports through schooling in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

This paper examines a neglected aspect of gender equality debate – how knowledge about gender and sports is organized in school textbooks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). It examines the contradictions that exist between government rhetoric of eliminating gender biases from school textbooks and the prevalence of the same in the current school textbooks. Our aim is not to simply point out gender stereotypes but also to explore whether and to what extent textbooks encourage females' participation in sports and physical activities. The key focus then is to highlight the possible influence of textbooks' messages on the construction of gendered identities. The data reported here comes from core curricula (Urdu, English, and Social Studies textbooks from class 1 to 8) and secondary school students (aged 15–16 years). The study's findings suggest that textbooks in KPK are gender biased and function as cultural conduits in the construction and reproduction of gendered hierarchies in sport. Boys are portrayed in a wider range of outdoors competitive sports, whereas girls are either invisible or presented in selected indoor sports. The results depicted that the majority of girls and boys reproduced traditional dominant form of femininity and masculinity through their choice of and participation in sports.