School Principals

This research has been done with a mixed exploratory method with the aim of identifying the perception and the degree of observance of professional ethics of school principals. The required data were collected using a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The statistical population of the study included all secondary school principals in Birjand. In quantitative phase, 75 people were selected as a sample by relative random sampling. 375 people were selected to be surveyed about the level of professional ethics of their managers. Then, based on the analysis of the findings of the quantitative stage of the research, the participants in the qualitative stage of the research (16 people) were selected by purposive sampling. Descriptive and inferential statistical indicators were used to analyze quantitative data and interpretive analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The results show that from the perspective of teachers, the professional ethics of principal is at a desirable level. Also, the variables of gender and level of education did not make a significant difference in the level of observance of managers' professional ethics. The results of the qualitative phase of the research also represented school principals' perceptions of professional ethics in five main dimensions, including benefit-oriented ethics, person-centered ethics, duty-based ethics, rights-oriented ethics, & justice-oriented ethics. Each of which included several categories. Also, the results obtained from data analysis showed that school principals have a better understanding of task-oriented ethics than other dimensions of professional ethics and benefit-oriented ethics is at a higher level in terms of compliance than other dimensions. But the dimension of justice-oriented ethics was lower than other dimensions in terms of both understanding and observance.

Abstract The present study is a qualitative research with a phenomenological approach that has been conducted to identify the dimensions and components of professional development of primary school principals and to develop its framework. The statistical population of the study was the principals of public primary schools in Tehran in the academic year of 2019-2020. In two stages of sampling, samples were selected by quota and then purposive sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The interview continued until the data exploration and data collection process reached a theoretical saturation point after interviewing 14 people. Data were analyzed by open and axial coding steps. Two methods of verifying the interviewees and verifying an external expert were used to control the validity. Two methods of verifying the interviewees and verifying an external expert were used to control the validity. To determine the reliability, two methods of reviewing the writings and also the method of recoding were used. The agreement was calculated in the coding homogeneity and the agreement coefficient was 86%. Findings showed that the professional development framework for primary school principals has 3 dimensions, 14 components with 117 indicators  Which includes : the content dimension of professional development (with components of general management knowledge, specialized management knowledge, interactive skills, resource management skills, professional skills, personal inclinations, managerial attitude, physical and mental ability and intellectual ability), the dimension of professional development process (with the components of self-development actions and developer relations) and the dimension of organizational requirements (with the components of knowledge acquisition and acquisition of skills, modification of selection and appointment methods of managers, improvement of organizational structure and processes).

این پژوهش با هدف بررسی نقش نگرش کارآفرینانه در عملکرد شغلی مدارس شهرستان دماوند انجام شد. روش تحقیق کاربردی و توصیفی بود. جامعه آماری این پژوهش را کلیه مدیران و معاونان مدارس (دولتی) شهرستان دماوند در سال تحصیلی 97-97 تشکیل می دهند که معادل 218 نفر می باشد. حجم نمونه آماری با استفاده از فرمول کوکران حدود 139 نفر به روش نمونه گیری تصادفی طبقه انتخاب شدند. برای جمع آوری داده ها از پرسشنامه ابزار استفاده شد. داده ها با استفاده از نرم افزار SPSS تجزیه و تحلیل و تحلیل قرار گرفت. برای ارزیابی روایی پرسشنامه تحقیق از روایی سازه و برای تحلیل پایایی آن از ضریب آلفای کرونباخ استفاده شد. یافته ها نشان داد که بین نگرش کارآفرینانه و عملکرد شغلی مدیران مدارس رابطه معناداری وجود دارد و بین چهار بعد از نگرش و عملکرد شغلی رابطه معناداری وجود دارد. همچنین وضعیت فعلی نگرش کارآفرینانه و عملکردی مدیران شهرستان دماوند مطلوب است. نتایج به دست آمده از هدف اولیه پژوهش نشان داد که بین نگرش کارآفرینانه و عملکرد حرفه ای مدیران شهرستان دماوند رابطه مثبت و معناداری وجود دارد. این بدان معناست که هر چه نگرش کارآفرینانه مدیران مدارس بالاتر باشد، عملکرد حرفه ای آنها نیز بالاتر خواهد بود. همچنین تحلیل رگرسیون پژوهش نشان داد که از بین چهار بعد از نگرش کارآفرینانه، بعد از نفس قوی ترین بود. و بعد از موفقیت مداری ضعیف ترین پیش بینی کننده عملکرد شغلی در بین مدیران و معاونان مدارس (دولتی) شهرستان دماوند بود. در نهایت می توان گفت که با طراحی دوره های آموزشی مناسب در زمینه مسائل کارآفرینی و نگرش کارآفرینانه می توان عملکرد حرفه ای به ویژه موفقیت مدیران را ارتقا داد.

Purpose: Mentoring creates a competitive advantage for the organization in compared to the competing organizations. As a result, the aim of this study was identifying the dimensions of mentoring for school principals of Tehran province. Methodology: This study in terms of purpose was applied and in terms of implementation method was qualitative from type of synthesis research and content analysis. The research population was articles related to mentoring in domestic and foreign valid databases in the 2000 to 2023 years and academic experts and officials with experience in education of Tehran province in the 2021-2022 academic year, which number of 18 articles and 17 experts and officials of education according to the principle of theoretical saturation were selected as a sample with the purposive sampling method. Data were collected by taking notes from articles and semi-structured interviews with academic experts and education officials and were analyzed by using thematic analysis method in MAXQDA-V12 analysis software. Findings: The findings showed that based on the review of articles and interviews with experts and officials, mentoring for school principals of Tehran province had 81 sub-themes in 16 main themes of knowledge, attitude, skill, participation-oriented, focus, organization, support, educational leadership, educational communication, development of inherent skills, development of communication skills, development of technical skills, development of environmental skills, innovative performance, competitive performance and educational performance. Finally, a themes network of mentoring for school principals of Tehran province was drawn. Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, can be taken an effective step in order to implement the school principals mentoring of Tehran province through the realization of the identified sub-themes and main themes.

 Despite the attention of many policymakers to the social justice issue, a question can be raised what is the relationship between educational leaders and their social responsibility in the social justice context? Therefore, the current research encompasses the participants' lived experiences of the main essences of educational leadership for social justice to put it in a meaningful context. In the present research with a qualitative approach and a descriptive phenomenology strategy, the potential participants were school principals and experts involved in the education sector of Kermanshah. Among these people, 16 samples were selected by the purposive method and invited to participate in the research. Data were collected using a semi-structured protocol focused on two main and general questions: What have you experienced about leadership for social justice? What situations have affected your experiences of leadership for social justice? The text of interviews was analyzed using the thematic network drawing method (Attride-Stirling, 2001), including three stages of basic, organizing, and inclusive themes. It finally led to a textual and structural description of the experiences and provided an understanding of the participants' common experiences. MAXqda software was used to increase reliability and data management. The results indicated that educational leadership components for the social justice of school principals included six main essences, namely leadership knowledge, professional competence, moral adequacy, cultural capacities, coping strategies, and leadership style. Paying attention to each of these components can effectively promote social justice at schools.

School principals' ethical considerations and organizational decisions can improve schools' image and social credibility. This study designed and validated Lorestan principals' conceptual, ethical decision-making model. The study has an exploratory mixed-methods design. The qualitative section included grounded theory, paradigm-based theme analysis, and interpretive structural modeling. Exploratory, descriptive methods underpinned the quantitative section. Education experts with scientific experience in decision-making and ethics and one or more articles in those fields constituted the qualitative section's research field. The quantitative section's statistical population comprised Lorestan's nearly 1,000 school principals. Semi-structured interviews with 18 purposively selected school principals provided data for the qualitative section. Random cluster sampling and Krejcie and Morgan's table selected 181 people for the quantitative section. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data in this section. The qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on the paradigm model and interpretive structural modeling in three stages (open, axial, and selective coding) using MAXQDA 18. Management experts' opinions and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.95 ensured the questionnaire's content validity and reliability. Quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS-25 and SPSS Amos software for confirmatory factor analysis and partial square model. Qualitative findings identified 15 organizing and five overarching themes: contextual factors, causal factors, strategic factors, intervening factors, and outcomes. The quantitative results from structural equation modeling demonstrated that Lorestan school principals' ethical decision-making model fits well.

The current research aimed to identify the linchpin components for school principals. In the current study, the researcher used the qualitative method of cornerstone content analysis based on the research objective and problem. The research field was formed by all schools’ principals in Tehran. The purposive sampling method was used to select research participants. To collect data, non-reactive measures (various documents such as articles, books, research results of others, reports, etc.) and semi-structured interviews with key informants were used. At the beginning of the interview, general explanations about the research and its objectives were presented to the interviewee and then the interview was started. The purpose of the researcher conducting these interviews was to identify the development’s linchpin components and their symptoms. The duration of each interview was between 30 and 45 minutes; the ideas raised during the interview process were noted down. Qualitative data were analyzed by using the three-step inductive thematic analysis method of Clarke and Braun (2006). In the inductive thematic analysis where there are logically no pre-defined themes, patterns are revealed during the analysis by placing open codes or similar sub-themes within a main theme. Also, to check the validity of the obtained findings, qualitative validation criteria of "validity" and "reliability" as well as "external audit" were used. The findings showed the 13 components to develop the linchpin components of school principals: network communication; strategic planning; collaborative/interactive/ leadership and management based on collective wisdom; expertise and deep knowledge; critical thinking and problem-solving; creativity and innovation; developmental thinking (self and others); (boundary) breaking structure; ethics/professional ethics; insight and inspiration; acceptance of differences and the uniqueness of humans; generosity and the art of work and emotional connection

One of the new concepts in the field of human resources management is organizational intelligence, which is increasing in importance day by day. The main goal of the present study was to identify the factors affecting the organizational intelligence of secondary school principals. The current research method was qualitative-based theory and applied research in terms of its purpose. The participants in the research were principals and vice-principals of schools in Lorestan province. Totally 20 interviews were conducted with them using the purposeful sampling method until reaching theoretical saturation. The research tool was semi-structured interviews. Open, axial and selective coding was used to analyze the data. Also, for the validity of the findings, in addition to reviewing the interview process by researchers, internal participants and external auditors were used, and for reliability, evaluators outside the research were used, and the agreement coefficient was 0.80. The data analysis led to the formation of 9 core categories, based on the paradigm model of Straves and Corbin, "empowerment" and "elements of a smart organization (including justice-oriented components, organizational transparency and research-oriented components)" as causal conditions, "organizational culture" and "leadership" "cultural" as background conditions, "organizational global horizon" as intervening conditions, "financial, psychological and environmental horizon" and "talent management" as strategies/strategies and "productivity" and "career longevity" were also consequences of organizational intelligence. Based on the current findings, the education system should pay attention to the empowerment of managers, the elements of intelligent organization and the organizational culture of managers as factors that shape and accelerate organizational intelligence.