Content analysis of national identity components in French education textbooks at guidance school, high school and pre-university levels

National identity is considered as the highest level of community identity and it is a factor of national unity in the society. One of the important systems influential in national identity protection and transmission to youth generation is the education system of a country which can insert the national identity components in the contents of nationwide textbooks. The purpose of this research was to study the amount of national identity components in French education textbooks at guidance school, high school and pre-university levels in Iran. The research method was documentary and was done by quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques. In this study, the identity components like nation, culture, religion, geography, politics, ethnics, subcultures and national symbols have been considered. The results showed that Iranian French education textbooks did not use identity components in a balanced and homogenous way in the mentioned textbooks, and sometimes some of the mentioned components in the French education textbooks could not be seen. At pre-university and high school levels, there are more identity components in the textbooks than at guidance school level, whereas there is more cohesion in the presentation of national identity components at guidance school level. It is necessary to revise the content of French education textbooks from the viewpoint of national identity to prepare a good youth national identity improvement through these textbooks.