Identifying dimensions and behavioral symptoms of visionary educational leaders in elementary schools: Qualitative and phenomenological inquiry

The main objective of this research is to identify the dimensions and behavioral symptoms of visionary educational leaders in primary schools in order to localize and develop its theoretical foundations, using a qualitative phenomenological analysis approach. Visionary leadership is the ability to create a common intellectual framework among all individuals in the organization.Visionary leadership as a key factor in the survival of organizations, its success and its development in today's turbulent environment has emerged and has been considered. The presence of a school perspective also depicts the same picture of what the school wants to achieve in the future. In this regard, the role of educational managers in drawing this insight and vision is of great importance. The quality of education in schools also depends on The type and style of leadership of school administrators. Educational Leaders can successfully turn schools into successful organizations that can clearly outline the school's vision and mission and, as clearly as possible, pass on to other dimensions of the school organization, and make their decisions based on that insight. But continuing employment with current affairs and responsiveness to day-to-day activities has prevented school principals from addressing the future and outlining the vision of the school's future. outstanding leaders have a vision of their schools, a mental picture of a preferred future, which is shared with all in the school community. Leader's insight makes it possible to answer the three essential questions: who are we? What do we do? Where are we going to go?  If we do not develop an visionary and upcoming leadership among educational leaders, the future of our educational system will be at serious risk. Without insight Looking at the future of schools, administrators will be the only administrators of the status quo without having to take effective steps towards the growth and improvement of the school. However, despite the importance and undeniable role of insightfully and having vision in the overall development of schools, unfortunately, a comprehensive study of the state of this area of knowledge in our country is not available. Regarding the vacuum of the problem and the need to pay attention to it, the researcher, using a qualitative research approach, has been studying and identifying the dimensions and behavioral symptoms of the behavior of the visionary educational leaders in the schools and seeking to answer this question: What are the most important dimensions and components of the behavior of the educated educational leaders in elementary schools? So, the main objective of this study is identifying dimensions and behavioral symptoms of visionary educational leadership in schools.      Research In terms of methodology, this research is a part of qualitative research that uses phenomenological strategy to identify and extract the components of visionary educational leadership in elementary schools. In this way, the goal of the researcher is to create a comprehensive description of the phenomenon experienced by the participants to achieve its structural understanding. The potential contributors were teachers who have had an experience in job interviews. To this end, 14 experienced and prominent managers of primary schools in Mashhad were selected through targeted sampling method to achieve saturation of the category. The researcher also aimed at enriching the results of the views of nineteen faculty members and faculty members in the field of educational management selected by this sampling method. In total, the statistical sample is 23. in the selection of individuals, , in order to obtain a variety of information and a broader understanding of the components of educational leadership, has been tried to use samples from different groups and, of course, related to the subject. Also The validity of the findings was assessed by the method of review by the participants and To determine reliability, agreement between two coders (inter-subject agreement) was used.      The data was collected by using semi-structured and in-depth interviews and were analyzed using a combination of seven-step cluster approach and open, axial and selective coding. At the end of each interview, At first, the researcher listened to the recorded statements of the participants several times and carefully, and recorded their remarks on the paper word by word. Then with the goal of deep understanding of the feelings and experiences of participants. These statements have been studied several times. In the next step, underlines the key information and concepts. so the important phrases and sentences are distinguished (Open coding). In the third stage, the researcher has tried to separate a concept related to the meaning and feel of the interviewee of these terms and expressions. At this stage, the scholar has used a great deal of precision to establish a deep semantic relationship between the extracted concepts and the stated sentences. In the next step, by comparing the concepts and understanding the similarities and differences between them, the categorization of concepts in distinct classes was dealt with (Axial coding). In the sixth stage, the researcher has developed a more general category by defining a scenario of grouped concepts and a deep understanding between categories. Then, according to the final selection codes, the researcher will give a comprehensive description of the phenomenon concerned.      By analyzing the content of the interviews, and considering the literature and history of research, and the comparison and matching of data, 184 indicators were obtained that with the elimination of duplicates and the integration of homogeneous and similar indicators, This number fell to 58 markers, which eventually summed up in the form of 22 sub categories and 6 main categories. Finally, Data analysis based on phenomenography method demonstrated that dimensions and behavioral components of visionary educational leaders in elementary Schools are as follows: 1) Personality, 2) value, 3) Professional knowledge, 4) strategic thinking, 5) epistemological features, and 6) relationship management Skills.  The results of this study indicate that the visionary educational leaders have a roughly similar approach to long-term goals. Therefore, with the use of proper selection processes and the implementation of appropriate empowerment strategies, the current routine management of schools can be guided to an visionary Educational leadership.