A Review of the Content Analysis Studies of Physics Textbooks in Iran's Secondary Education: A Comparison with Several Foreign Countries

The aim of this study was to review content analysis studies of physics textbooks in Iran's secondary education and to compare these studies with similar research in several other countries. The research method used was a systematic review. The statistical population included all articles, theses, and research reports published on the content analysis of physics textbooks from 1997 to 2024 in Iran and several other countries. To access the documents, searches were conducted using keywords in reputable domestic databases [such as Civilica, SID] and international databases [including Google Scholar and ResearchGate]. Among the studies conducted, 34 documents (18 domestic and 16 foreign) that directly addressed the content analysis of secondary education physics textbooks met the criteria for inclusion and were analyzed. The findings showed that more than one-third of the content analysis studies of physics textbooks in Iran only focused on quantitative content analysis using William Romy’s method to estimate the engagement coefficient. Most content analysis studies only examined physics textbooks from a single perspective. In comparison, content analysis studies in other countries exhibited greater thematic diversity. The conclusion is that there is no clear pattern governing content analysis studies of Iranian physics textbooks, and many content selection criteria were not included in the analyses. Based on the comprehensive picture derived from this review, it is suggested that future researchers analyze physics textbooks based on other content selection criteria and, in each study, analyze textbooks from all three grades of a discipline simultaneously from multiple perspectives.