The characteristics of the ideal content for the history of literature textbook: Evidence from the literature and humanities major textbook at 2nd cycle of high school

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the ideal situation (or to present a proposed ideal model) for the content of history of literature subject, considering the two components of “structure” and “comprehensiveness” at 2nd cycle of high school of literature and humanities major. It was a study based on a connoisseurship model. Yet, for the sake of gaining more reliability and completion of the data, the teachers’ and students’ viewpoints were used as the main users and audiences of the textbook. The research population consisted of all the experts in the history of world and Iranian literature, teachers of history of literature textbooks at 2nd cycle of high schools of Iran, and their students in 2014-2015 academic year. The sample size was 1454 students and teachers of 4 provinces who were selected using cluster random sampling method. The research instruments included history of Iranian literature experts’ interview protocol, history of world literature experts’ interview protocol, teachers’ questionnaire and students’ questionnaire. The content validity of the instruments was checked through obtaining the experts’ viewpoints on them. Findings revealed that the content of the ideal history of literature textbook, on the one hand, should be historically-ordered to show the literary interactions, and on the other hand, should be developed by genre.