The work is a contribution to the analysis of the "hidden" gender curriculum in teaching materials. The goal of this study is to review the present data material under the aspect of queer/feminist questions in order to reveal heteronormative gender assumptions and their contradiction with the teaching principle that promotes the gender equality education. This research draws upon 99 classroom activities (teaching aids) for the subject German (Secondary Education level 1) that have been newly

more »

... eloped in connection with the introduction of the educational standards testing in Austria. The Austrian Federal Ministry of Education (Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur) is not only responsible for the introduction of the educational standards but also for the promulgated decree (1995) of gender equality as a teaching principle. These obligations emphasize the importance of the checking of the provided teaching aids with reference to the included gender assumptions. A "mixture of methods" originated from qualitative research methods consisting of qualitative content analysis, discourse analysis, and a critical approach to texts is used as a tool to examine the data material in view of gender construction processes. The tool allows a contextual and detailed analytic exposition of the construction processes. The theoretical framing of the analytic approach in the empirical part of the work consists of heteronormativity-critical findings, contributions coming from the gender studies, and feminist school research findings regarding the social construction of genders. The results point out that the provided classroom lessons convey on structural, interactive and linguistically discursive levels gender assumptions which are shaped by gender binary and heterosexuality and estimated unequally. It becomes apparent that the included gender assumptions contradict gender mainstreaming claims that are defined in the promulgated decree of gender equality. The findings from the research show clearly that the "hidden gen [...]