Medieval women: teaching approaches, textbooks, and historiography

In recent years, a number of different laws have called for the integration of contents related to the history of women into the classroom. The basis of this initiative is twofold: equality between the sexes and pure educational value (^{De Ignacio, 2019}). However it could well be said that the spirit of these guidelines has been betrayed, given that no changes have been made to the official primary education curricula that would help achieve this purpose. These official curricula continue to give pride of place to political and institutional histories, while casting aside more socially oriented aspects of history. In this way, women and their contributions during different historical periods are often relegated to oblivion (^{Crocco, 2009}; ^{Sant & Pagès, 2011}; ^{Sánchez & Miralles, 2014}).

As a consequence, we have a situation in which textbooks - the most frequently utilized classroom resource - offer historical narratives that display a clearly androcentric bias. In fact, studies conducted over the last ten years that have focused on this issue have confirmed the scant presence of women in textbooks, whether individually or collectively, both in the written text of these materials and in the iconography displayed within them. This is a reality as regards textbooks used at both the primary (^{López-Navajas, 2014}; ^{Sáenz Del Castillo, 2015}; Gómez Carrasco & Tenza, 2014) and secondary (Pérez Urraza et al., 1937/2015; ^{Bel Martinez, 2016}; ^{Ortega, 2017}) levels of education.

^{Pagès and Sant (2012}) have proposed a qualitative classification of textbook sections according to the extent to which they integrate women’s history: 1) “history without women” or androcentric history, referring to the kinds of narratives in which women are invisible; 2) “history and women” or contributive history, characterized by the citing of some contribution on the part of women to a history defined by men; 3) “history of women,” which deals with the right to vote and other landmark events of the struggle for women’s liberation; 4) “history for women,” which occurs when small sections are included that highlight “the role of women” in order to fulfill a certain quota and, finally; 5) “history from women,” which happens when a textbook vindicates a uniquely feminine perspective of history. In their study, Pagès and Sant (2012) classify the content of eight textbooks used in secondary education. The majority of the material in these textbooks falls within the intermediate categories 2, 3, and 4. Only one textbook is given an overall rating of 1 (i.e., the category signifying the lowest level of integration) while only a single book contains a number of exercises that can be classified under number 5 (i.e., the category signifying the highest level of integration).

These results are consistent with the criticism of women in school materials that had previously been offered by ^{Fernández Valencia (2004}), who indicated that books often provide either a “contributory” narrative in citing queens and other individual remarkable women, or highlight the role of certain exceptional women within “a man’s world.” At the same time, this author noted instances in which women are almost entirely absent, such as in texts on Ancient Greece, where there is little beyond mention of the fact that women were unable to participate in the life of the polis, without any further exploration of this phenomenon. Finally, this same author points out that, even though books incorporate the struggle for female suffrage, they hardly ever include topics that are more intimately related to the history of women, such as reproduction and child-rearing, social spaces traditionally occupied by women (e.g., water springs, stoves, markets, convents); female social networks or trades; or female-oriented knowledge.

For this reason, the functions and spaces traditionally associated with women constitute environments that are not recognized as either important or meaningful in textbooks, and this results is something of an underestimation of the contribution of women to historical developments. Such a phenomenon in turn leads students to acquire a view of women who “have left no noteworthy impact over the long course of human history” (^{Fernández Valencia, 2004}, p. 11). In other words, students form impressions of the past in which women are entirely removed from the chain of historical causality (^{Sant & Pagès, 2011}).

Some studies have suggested that, in addition to the reduced presence of women, and of topics associated with their history, in textbooks, the latter are responsible for conveying a stereotypical view of their role. Thus, it seems that women are assiduously represented as involved in occupations that are traditionally associated with the “feminine” sphere, such as nursing babies, cooking, and “household tasks.” And it seems that, on the contrary, there are fewer more diverse references regarding their historical roles. One might therefore speak of an unquestioning acceptance of gender stereotypes in the textbooks (^{Vaíllo, 2016}).

The way women are portrayed in textbooks can therefore be criticized from two different standpoints. First, there is the underestimation and lack of recognition of their spheres of activity. And, secondly, there is the perpetuation of traditional gender stereotypes. Both of these features, in addition to representing an inaccurate interpretation of the past, also involve the transmission of discriminatory attitudes to students, given that the latter are not given access to varied historical female figures with whom to identify, and who could serve as psychological anchors (^{López Navajas, 2014}; ^{Ortega, 2017}). The integration of women and their history into textbooks is by no means a trivial matter, given that they are considered depositories of a legitimate trove of knowledge, and given that they are required study material in history classes. Such a selection reflects hegemonic patriarchal values, and thus provides students a concrete set of ideas regarding the society in which they live, while also playing a determining role in students’ future actions within that society, as well as in the construction of their personal biographies. In the face of all this, it would seem fitting to rethink what it is that we are teaching and why we are teaching it, given that this didactic activity is taking place within a society afflicted by a marked degree of gender inequality (^{Fernández Valencia, 2015}).

The history taught in our schools has not found a way to incorporate and convey the latest contributions of historiography - contributions that have succeeded in making women visible, and in showcasing their contributions, activities, and distinctive social spaces. It is for very good reason that, since its beginnings in the 1970s, the history of women has constituted a fruitful line of research within Spain, and has resulted in a considerable production of scientific work. One sees evidence of this in the publication of a number of handbooks, some of them now considered classics, such as those of ^{Duby and Perrot (1991}), ^{Garrido (1997}), and ^{Morant (2005}).

Within this context, medieval studies has become one of the most highly developed areas (^{Segura, 2016}). During the 1980s, which saw a surge of research activity, the study of the legal situation of medieval women was a topic that piqued considerable interest, and led to the subsequent publication of more general studies (^{Arauz, 2007}). These studies helped highlight the legal limitations on women’s activity during the Middle Ages, such as the Roman notion of imbecillitas sexus, as well as the requirement to obtain the husband’s leave. At the same time, these studies made it clear that, despite those restrictions, women had the authority to sign contracts, participate in trials, represent third parties as executors or guardians, take oaths, and take part in legal investigations. Women’s sphere of action expanded or contracted as a function of a number of different factors, such as age, marital status, the position they held within the internal hierarchy of families, whether they owned land, and the socioeconomic stratum to which they belonged. Thus, the legal authority of handmaidens and widows was not equal, nor was that of ordinary women compared to that of influential and honourable nobles.

The female world of work has been another widely studied subject up to recent years (^{Del Val, 2008}; ^{García-Herrero, 2009}; ^{López-Beltrán, 2010}). The usual list of what are considered women’s work has been widely discussed: bakers, peddlers, spinners, seamstresses, midwives, wet nurses, maids, etc. In addition, the social spaces associated with the world of women’s work have been made visible: the home, the spring, the market, the stove, the windmill, the river, the weigh house, etc. Also receiving attention has been women’s contributions to the workshops and artisan industries that appeared on the urban landscape. In these latter endeavors, female family members of the master and female salaried employees were treated like second-class manual labor, and worked under an ambiguous system of labor laws that made their integration into the hierarchy of guilds unviable. Finally, other female occupations have also come to light, such as that of merchants who engaged in long-distance business affairs, and who participated in the arming and loading of merchant ships that set sail for various northern European ports and the Mediterranean.

The analysis of aspects of women’s life cycles, and of their position within the family, have also drawn the attention of a number of historians: arranged marriages and wedding ceremonies (López- -Cordón & Carbonell, 1997); the ways pregnancy was endured and attended (^{García-Herrero, 1989}); and spousal abuse (^{Fuente & Morán, 2011}). Similarly, women’s social roles have also constituted an important line of investigation. Particularly noteworthy in this connection are the results of studies of patronage (^{García-Perez, 2006}), convent networks (Coelho, 2006) and religious houses, and their social impact (^{Graña, 2013}), given that such institutions have highlighted the importance that women had within spaces of spirituality, sociability, creation, and freedom.

During the past decade, the lines of investigation have become diversified. Many studies have recognized anti-establishment focal points that, with differing raisons d’être, invested certain women with authority, thus putting paid to the notion that medieval women generally held an inferior social position. Even taking into account the legal limitations to which women were subject, primary sources reveal ambivalent female personalities who, while in many cases far removed from institutional power, possessed channels for exerting their influence and representing their status (^{Del Val & Segura, 2011}). In line with these findings, the term “queenship” has emerged. It has come to constitute a theoretical model which has made it possible to bring to the fore the authority of queens in the direct exercise of their formal power, in their influence by means of informal channels and also in their social performance of the power (^{Pelaz & Del Val, 2015}).

Another of the most noteworthy lines of investigation concerns the Querelle des femmes. This was a movement that arose during the Middle Ages, and that continued until the eighteenth century. The Querelle was an intellectual debate that proceeded in fits and starts, and that arose in a number of European countries. The terms refers to a debate among educated persons regarding the misogyny that was regnant during the era, and also regarding the dignity of women, and their capacity for reason. One of the most notable figures that emerged at the beginning of this debate was Christine de Pisan, the author of The City of Women (1405). However, many different authors - both men and women - subsequently left a record of where they stood as regards this controversy (^{Vargas, 2016}).

Research design

This study constitutes part of a larger investigation that seeks to evaluate the way women’s history is presented in scholastic materials. The purpose of this study is to identify gaps and to help fill these in through offering proposals, and then implementing and evaluating the validity of said proposals in various schools. The focus here is on an analysis of the Middle Ages within the geographical area of the Basque Country. The first phase of this research is being approached with the following two objectives in mind:

In order to attain each one of these objectives, we have created distinct analytical instruments. As regards the first objective - evaluating the portrayal of medieval women in primary education textbooks - we have created a template with five different variables (Chart 1) adapted from the indicators proposed by ^{Subirats (1993}) for the purpose of measuring the degree of sexism in textbooks.

The sample in this study comprises four teaching units (abbreviated “TU” below) on the Middle Ages designed for students in the fifth grade of primary education. Selection of the sample was determined mainly by convenience: the criterion was that the textbooks were published by the most prolific publishing companies in the Basque Country during the past decade. These publishing companies are as follows: Ibaizabal-Edelvives (TU1), Sm-Ikasmina (TU2), and Zubia-Santillana (TU3). We have deemed it fitting to include a second sample from the first publishing company (labelled as TU4), that is a gamified project, for the purposes of contrasting more traditionally oriented units with more innovative ones.

As regards the second of our objectives, we have indicated in Chart 2 the main lines of inquiry that have been developed in Spanish historiography regarding medieval women. These historiographical lines have served as a reference point for locating teaching resources that might facilitate the transfer of historiographical results into the classroom. For this reason, they have been formulated as objectives to which the teaching proposals need to correspond.

The material used to extract teaching resources is a doctoral thesis dedicated to the study of women in the Lower Middle Ages in the Basque Country (^{Castrillo, 2016}). A general study that provides a horizontal analysis of the situation of women in the family throughout the course of their life cycles, as well as their capacity for legal action, the spaces they occupied and the ways they socialized, and their participation in the world of work. In addition to their suitability in terms of meeting the objectives set forth in Chart 2 above, the selection of resources has taken into account the degree to which materials could be adapted to school use, their digital accessibility, and the potential meaning that they hold for students.

Results

Proposals for bringing medieval women’s history into the classroom

Women with limitations vs. women with power

The results related to the second objective are presented at this point. Firstly, it needs to be stressed that women’s capacity for legal action during the Middle Ages was limited. This was due to a number of reasons: the requirement to obtain the husband's leave, frequent exclusion from the institutional world, etc. On the other hand, a reductionist view also needs to be avoided, and thus, it would seem appropriate to provide examples of women who were influential and powerful in their communities: nobles, abbesses, merchants, etc. Research on such women should be done in order to reconstruct their biographies. In order to foster significant learning, teachers can take as their point of departure the traces that these women have left behind in today’s world: names of streets, monuments, tower-houses, graves, chapels, coats of arms, etc. One example is María Díaz de Haro, a noblewoman who owned and ruled in Bizkaia in the fourteenth century; and the street that reminds her in Bilbao or the monument erected in her honour in Portugalete (Image 1), as she was the founder of the town. Another example is María de Mendoza, owner of the tower of Mártioda, from which she governed the the Alava manor Los Huetos in the fifteenth century. Who were these women? What did they do to deserve a monument? What is special about the lives that they led?

Source: Monumento a María Díaz de Haro [photo], by Zarateman (2018), (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portugalete_-_Monumento_a_Mar%C3%ADa_D%C3%ADaz_de_Haro,_%27La_Buena%27_1.jp) CC BY-SA 3.0 y Torre de María de Mendoza [photo], by Basotxerri, 2018, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mendoza_-_Torre_de_Mendoza_-BT-_02.jpg#filelinks) CC BY-SA 3.0.

IMAGE 1 MONUMENT TO MARÍA DÍAZ DE HARO, AND THE MARÍA DE MENDOZA TOWER 

The world of women’s work

Another topic that should be brought into the classroom is women’s work contributions in a variety of areas: as regards domestic tasks (e.g., going daily to the spring for water, going to the washing place to wash clothes, baking bread in ovens); their role within artisans’ workshops, guilds, and family businesses (e.g., shoemakers, butchers); and the trades in which women engaged beyond the scope of their families (e.g., bakers, peddlers, midwives, seamstresses). On the basis of engravings such as those of Christoph Weiditz (Image 2) or lists of trades (Chart 5), students could be assigned reports that include the main kinds of work performed by women: sectors and kinds of work or trades, professional categories, an indication of the importance of the work, etc. Part of such an assignment could include a comparison with current trades, for the purpose of highlighting both how hard working conditions were during the Middle Ages and the changes or continuities in work assignments according to gender.

Source: ^{Weiditz (1530}).

IMAGE 2 WOMEN’S WORK DURING THE MIDDLE AGES 

CHART 5 TTYPICAL FEMALE TRADES IN BASQUE SOURCES (14TH AND 15TH CENTURIES) 

Bakers	Responsible for everything involved in the preparation of bread: purchasing the flour, kneading, baking, and selling the final product.
Ovenkeepers	Managed establishments containing an oven, which sometimes employed several female workers, and where other women would come to bake their bread.
Millers	Managed mills located outside cities and villages where people brought their grain to be ground. The millers also transported the grain from the weigh house to the mill and back.
Carriers	Transported sacks of grains from individual dwellings to the official weigher.
Street peddlers	Retail sellers of products of daily use: produce, fruit, eggs, candles, etc.
Fishmongers	Sold fish provided them by fishermen at local markets or on the streets.
Cloth brokers	Served as intermediaries in the sale of cloth.
Merchants	Dedicated to large-scale sales, and participated in the supply and loading of ships.
Tavernkeepers and innkeepers	Ran taverns and inns where food and drink was sold, and where lodging was offered.
Chandlers	Made candles with wax or hemp, utilizing molds.
Spinners	Spinned linen or wool into balls, using spindles or distaffs for this purpose.
Weavers	Wove linen or wool utilizing looms.
Seamstresses	Sewed all kinds of clothes.
Drapers	Sold cloth.
“Cushion makers”	Manufactured cushions and quilts filled with feathers.
Maids	Dedicated to domestic work, in many instances living in the homes of their “masters” and “mistresses.”
Washerwomen	Washed people’s clothes.
Wet nurses	Suckled orphans, abandoned children, or children whose mothers could not provide sufficient milk.
Hospital keepers	Provided health care in establishments offering assistance to the poor, sick, pilgrims, etc.
Beedles-“seroras”	Lay women responsible for the upkeep of churches and shrines.
Lay sisters	Lay women who lived in small communities, who were dedicated to religion, and who offered spiritual succor to the community.
Burial assistants	Provided all necessary arrangements for funerals and offerings.
Seat conveyors	Transported chairs or stools from houses to the church so that ladies of the house could sit down during mass.
Midwives	Assisted women who were giving birth. Possessed knowledge of obstetrics.
Day laborers (agriculture)	Hired on a day-to-day basis to work the fields, glean, prune vines, gather apples, etc.
Day laborers (construction)	Participated in the construction of walls and roofs, in the paving of streets, etc.
Auditors	Responsible for determining weights and measures.
Hawkers	Announced events on the streets.
Boatwomen	Possessed small boats for transporting persons or products from one riverbank to another.
Headdress attendants	Tied the head coverings of other women.
Artists	Artists who painted or sculpted.

Source: Authors’ elaboration, on the basis of ^{Castrillo (2016}).

Women’s life cycles

The way in which women experienced and coped with their life cycles is another topic that could productively be brought into the classroom. One way that this might be done would be to discuss the arranged marriages that were agreed upon between families in the absence of any mutual love existing between the future bride and groom. The headdress, one of the most distinctive aspects of a medieval woman’s attire, is also a suitable item for introducing the subject, for it constituted a public sign of a woman’s civil status, given that only married women wore it, while virgins and handmaidens did not. Here once again, teachers might usefully analyze the engravings of Christoph Weiditz (Image 3), and use them as a basis for creating costumes for the purpose of staging a short and simple play whose plot concerns a secret marriage between a young couple in love who have fled from the arranged marriage that has been planned for both of them.

Source: ^{Weiditz (1530}).

IMAGE 3 BASQUE SINGLE AND MARRIED WOMEN 

Analysis and discussion

In their treatment of the Middle Ages, current textbooks continue to emphasize aspects of the political history of territorial entities. There are no innovations as regards subject matter to be found in new teaching approaches, such as TU4, which offers its content in scaled format. In all instances, the main subjects are the formation of the Visigothic kingdom and Al-Andalus, and the expansion of the Christian kingdoms. The hierarchical medieval society is also dealt with, as is cultural development, the morphology of cities, and art. Only TU3 addresses aspects of social life and daily life, although such material appears in supplementary activities, and in a context related to issues concerning language, diet, and attire - as well as the situation of women.

The fact that this latter type of content has such a paltry presence in textbooks is one of the factors that explains the chasm in the numerical representation of men and women identified by ^{Crocco (2009}). This imbalance is without a doubt one of the most incontrovertible findings of our analysis, and is consistent with the results of previous studies (Pérez Urraza et al., 1937/2015; ^{Bel Martinez, 2016}). It is therefore no surprise that women are represented in less than 20% of the illustrations in these textbooks. In the case of one publishing company, the percentage is a mere 7.4%. And when it comes to historical figures cited by name, there are a grand total of 29 men and only one woman - Queen Isabella “the Catholic”.

Over and above this numerical imbalance, there are many differences in the way the two sexes are represented in terms of the functions associated with each sex in the illustrations. Women are far removed from political and cultural activities, given that only 7.1% of women are associated with the former, and 3.6% with the latter. This dissociation of women from the exercise of power and the creation of culture is once again evident in the use of language. In spite of the fact that the language used in the teaching units is lacking in sexist connotations (this owing to the Basque language that tends to shun gender markers), one finds references to monarchs, lords, and monks in the masculine form only (erregea, jauna, and monjeak respectively). This is something worthy of censure, given that the Basque language allows for the use of inclusive binomial designations in such cases (e.g., errege-erreginak, jaun-andreak).

There is an absence of women in images associated with power, the top of the medieval hierarchy, and rites of homage. Thus, the textbooks ignore the role of queens, noble ladies, and abbesses who exercised power in their respective kingdoms, fiefdoms, and convents; who appointed their officials, decreed laws, passed judgments - in other words, who acted in the manner of any other feudal lord (^{Pelaz & Del Val, 2015}). Yet historiography provides multiple examples of such women, such as María López de Haro and María de Mendoza. The inclusion of such female figures in classroom instruction would add variety to the representation of women, and would constitute a salutary break with the stereotyping and patterns of discrimination that are so evident in the books analyzed in this paper (^{López Navajas, 2014}; ^{Ortega, 2017}).

A similar point can be made as regards the images associated with sociocultural representations. On the one hand, the Way of St. James pilgrimage is depicted as a phenomenon exclusively associated with men - thus ignoring female pilgrims and innkeepers. On the other hand, there is barely a reflection of nuns, which is really an egregious slight, given the importance that convents had during the Middle Ages as centers of both cultural influence and cultural vitality - centers where women enjoyed a high degree of independence (Coelho, 2006). And this is to say nothing of the religious houses, which constituted community spaces of lay spirituality that were an integral part of every town during the Low Middle Ages, and which were not cited in any of the teaching units analyzed here (^{Graña, 2013}).

Also absent in the scholastic materials were other fields of women’s sociocultural activity that were important during the Middle Ages. One example is the punctilious homage to dead family members, in the form of offerings and the singing of dirges. These and other activities conducted by women can be introduced into the classroom, thus making them visible highlighting their importance for the saving of the souls of the deceased in what were - it must be remembered - highly devout Christian communities. We can thus see that these spaces and tasks of sociocultural import occupied and enacted by women were not considered important enough for inclusion in the textbooks. Given this absence, not recovering and teaching this knowledge would simply perpetuate the devaluing of the women who performed those tasks, and of the areas in which women played a vital role, as noted by ^{Fernández Valencia (2004}) and ^{Sant and Pagès (2011}).

There are other things missing from textbooks, as well as assignments that reflect an unquestioning acceptance of gender stereotypes that was previously criticized by ^{Vaíllo (2016}). Within the sphere of work, artisan workshops and the work of constructing cathedrals are represented in illustrations as exclusively male work spaces. This leaves an impression that is at odds with the results of historical research on the subject, which has shown that considerable numbers of women participated in such projects (^{Del Val, 2008}; ^{García-Herrero, 2009}; ^{López-Beltrán, 2010}). In order to fill this void, it might be fitting to teach what we now know about women’s contributions in the sphere of work - a contribution evident in a number of different areas: the household (e.g., going to springs for water every day, going to the washing place, taking bread to communal ovens to be baked); artisan workshops; family businesses; guilds (shoemakers, butchers); and work that women engaged in that was beyond the family sphere (bakers, ovenkeepers, street peddlers, midwives, brokers, seamstresses, etc.).

It truly is difficult to find any content in the textbooks having to do with women’s history: the work that they did, the discourse of female inferiority and the Querelle des femmes, arranged marriages, women’s role in the family and in communities, etc. For this reason, the inclusion of a point dedicated to the situation of women in TU3 is noteworthy. However, the story that is recounted there is far from ideal, since it focuses in a negative manner on the limitations of women in the various strata of the medieval hierarchy, and is subject to legitimate criticism, since it resorts to simplistic clichés, while purveying glaring inaccuracies that are easily exposed by consulting research on any Western European region (^{Duby & Perrot, 1991}; ^{Garrido, 1997}; ^{Morant, 2005}). As regards noblewomen, the text indicates that, although they were well educated, they were exclusively devoted to raising children, and were unable to do the same things as men. This is an assertion that has been discredited in light of accounts (cited earlier in this paper) of feudal noblewomen who governed the manors over which they exercised authority. The same section in TU3 informs us that peasant women worked hard, and were unable to own plots of land. The second assertion here is simply wrong, as even a cursory examination of contemporary sources reveals the existence of peasant women who owned and administered plots of land as well as cattle, houses, and production facilities. Finally, this section from TU3 indicates that the wives of artisans who lived in urban areas could only exercise the same trade practiced by their husbands. This is a limitation that is difficult to document, and that would appear strange in light of the fact that medieval women who lived in cities exercised a wide range of professions that were independent from the family sphere, as indicated earlier in this study.

In this regard, it seems important to advocate the inclusion in classroom instruction of those discourses that reflect the most current historiography, and which present women as a politically, socially, and culturally heterogeneous group. In addition, ways need to be found for textbooks to include history from women’s perspectives that are not presented as perfunctory “adjuncts” to a larger - and supposedly more important male-dominated history (^{Pagès & Sant, 2012}).

Conclusions

We can conclude from the rigid nature of the discourses within the primary textbooks studied here, and from the topics addressed therein, that these materials continue to perpetuate an androcentric vision of the Middle Ages that do not integrate content derived from more recent historiography. If the teaching of history is to include among its objectives that of educating citizens to take a critical view of gender differences, then it is clearly important to make changes in the teaching materials used to this end. In order to attain a proper treatment of medieval history that truly incorporates women’s perspectives, it is not enough to merely insert separate sections that suggest a discussion of women’s limitations as a supplementary activity. Instead, there needs to be an actual integration of women’s perspectives. Such an effort would require dealing with a diverse range of topics in the history of the Middle Ages; increasing the number of women who appear in the text, illustrations, and exercises; increasing the visibility of women’s spheres of activity; according these spheres the historical importance that they deserve; and providing a clear sense of the many different ways of being a woman that were possible during those times. Of supreme importance in such an enterprise is moving beyond rigid clichés regarding the limitations and obstacles faced by women, and correcting narratives that offer a reductionist vision in this regard.

Moving forward, two lines of research suggest themselves for building upon the findings discussed in the present study. On the one hand, it is necessary to develop and implement in schools those new teaching methodologies that we have suggested here in order to evaluate their validity, and also to improve and disseminate them. On the other hand, it would seem fitting to increase the size and expand the scope of the analytical sample, which in this paper has been limited to primary textbooks in the Basque Country, to include educational materials used in other phases of education and in other regions. These are the challenges that face us in the future.