An Analysis of the Position of National Identity Symbols in Iranian and Afghan Textbooks, a Comparative Study A Comparative Study

Introduction: In the discussion of types of identity, national identity can be introduced as one of its types. The importance of the concept of national identity compared to other collective identities lies in its great impact on different spheres of life in every social system. Therefore, National identity is the most pervasive and at the same time the most legitimate level of identity in all social systems. Various factors, including education, are influential in the formation and development of this identity. Among these, textbooks used in the educational system of countries are significant because the content of textbooks is one of the main sources which can have a serious impact on strengthening or weakening national identity.
Research Question: In this regard, the current research seeks to answer the question, what is the quality of different aspects of national identity in the textbooks of Iran and Afghanistan?
Methodology: By examining the three-year secondary school books of the two countries, 17 common books in both educational systems were selected as a statistical sample. Then the six dimensions of national identity were identified and coded in all these books (1703 pages of Iranian textbooks) and (1452 pages of Afghan textbooks).
Methodology (and Theoretical Framework if there are): As an applied research, the current research intends to analyze the data by applying the content analysis method and measuring the frequency of the mentioned indicators in the text; in this way, first, the indicators proposed in the text and images of each lesson of the textbook were examined and then we will analyze the results of the findings. The face validity of the indicators was also done based on the agreement of the professors. Therefore, the analysis unit of "word" and "symbol" is defined and the data is checked based on "book". After collecting the required data, by entering the data into the computer and in the Excel environment, it is processed and its results are displayed in the form of tables that show the frequency and also the percentage of each of the relevant indicators. It should be noted that the library method was used to collect information in the subject and background literature. The textbooks of Dari history, language and literature, Islamic or religious education, the electronic version of which were extracted from the two websites of the Iranian textbook database and the website of the Ministry of Education of Afghanistan. The amount of resources examined in this research is based on the final edition of 2016. In this sense, the sampling was purposeful.
Results and Discussion:  In relation to secondary school textbooks in the educational system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the results indicate that the emphasis on different aspects of national identity in the content of secondary Persian literature books is not balanced and has significant differences in such a way that the emphasis on four of the nine dimensions examined in this research, which includes the components of the flag, national anthem, native clothes and historical places is insignificant compared to other components. Also, the level of emphasis and attention to the mentioned dimensions in the history textbook has been similarly seen as inconsistencies and imbalances in the content of the mentioned books. In the second and third year books, only the dimensions related to the official calendar and indigenous art are emphasized and other dimensions of national identity are neglected. Finally, in the books of religion and life of three years of high school, there is basically no news of attention and emphasis on these dimensions and only a small percentage is dedicated to the dimension of national elites and celebrities.
In connection with high school textbooks in the education system of Afghanistan; the results show that the emphasis on various dimensions of national identity in the content of high school Dari language and literature textbooks has a significant imbalance and this time according to the official calendar, flag and national anthem, other dimensions of national identity have been neglected. This imbalance is repeated in the history books of the high school of this country and it is observed that other dimensions have been clearly neglected only by emphasizing the dimensions related to the elites and celebrities and historical places.
Conclusion: In terms of comparison, the level of attention of the two countries to the nine dimensions of national identity can be explained as follows: Based on the analysis of the data obtained from the nine dimensions of national identity in Iran's secondary school books, the amount of attention and emphasis on these dimensions in Afghan books has been more than that of its neighbor. But the interesting thing is that the dimensions of the flag and the national anthem, which are actually the first steps of the young generation to get to know their national identity, have been given considerable attention in the high school textbooks of Afghanistan while in the high school books of Iran this issue has been severely neglected.
What is clear is that in the comparison of other countries of the world, in both countries under study, the quantity and quality of attention to the dimensions of national identity is low and it should be analyzed with double precision and then promoted in the educational policy of identity issues. One of the important steps in this field can be the balanced distribution of identity categories in the content of textbooks, a point that has been neglected so far. In this process, the dimensions should be distributed in such a way that the Iranian-Islamic content of the identity of the two countries is taken into consideration and quantitatively and qualitatively solve the identity needs of the young generation, especially in the period of adolescence which is considered the period of identity search.