primary school principals

This research mainly aimed to identify the indicators of pedagogically-centered leadership in Sanandaj primary schools, which was conducted using a qualitative research approach and a descriptive phenomenology strategy. The two main questions raised in the research were as follows. According to the mentalities and experiences of the participants, what are the meanings and indicators of pedagogically-centered leadership in Iranian elementary schools? What characteristics can make pedagogically-centered leaders separate and unique leader from other educational leaders? The current research is developmental-applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of approach, which was conducted using a descriptive phenomenology strategy. To collect data, 18 primary school principals were selected by purposive sampling and interviewed through three-stage phenomenological interview protocols. Their perspectives and experiences were investigated during the interviews. After conducting the interviews, the data were first manually analyzed, and then by MAXqda 2020 software, based on three-stage thematic analysis (basic, organizing, and global) of Attride-Stirling, analyzed. As the result of data analysis, 90 initial codes, 42 basic themes, 18 organizing themes, and finally, 8 global themes were specified. Also, four distinctive characteristics were identified as unique features of a pedagogically-centered leader: participation-seeker, activist of social justice and equal opportunities, valuing subcultures, and leader of leaders. Findings implicitly indicated that the implementation of this style of leadership in schools requires major changes in the mental paradigms of school community members. These changes include changing the paradigm of playing fixed roles to flexible ones, changing the paradigm of management to leadership, changing the paradigm of bureaucracy to specialization, changing the paradigm of teaching-centered to learning-centered, changing the paradigm of parental participation to parental involvement, and changing the paradigm of knowledge transfer to knowledge creation in students

Despite the importance of continuous professional development for schools principals, researches show that their professional development approaches need to be review and move towards programs based on collective learning. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to provide a model for professional learning communities of elementary school principals. The present study was conducted using the qualitative research method of grounded theory and interviews with a targeted sample, including 29 key informants (15 university professors and 14 school principals) with relevant research records. The interviews were analyzed using the coding methods of Strauss and Corbin (1998). Four criteria of data authenticity, transferability, reliability and verifiability were used to check the validity of the data. After conducting interviews and open, axial and selective coding; The research results showed 18 general selection codes including causal conditions (collective learning culture; feeling the need for collective learning; leadership and management styles), contextual conditions (dynamic and flexible organizational structure; infrastructures and facilities; empathy and common goals; Encouraging principals towards learning communities), intervening conditions (teaching soft skills; suitable time and place for meetings related to communities; management knowledge; correct plan and program), central phenomenon (professional learning communities), Strategies for developing professional learning communities (suitable work space; professional learning; the existence of a supportive policy for learning communities; modeling of the experiences of successful schools) and consequences (organizational consequences; student success; professional development of teachers) that reflected the pattern of professional learning communities of primary school principals and the relationships between its different dimensions.