Assessment of the Professional Competencies of Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources University of Tehran for Biodiversity Education with Content Analysis Approach

Today, higher education institutions around the world are beginning to change their missions, goals, and prospects to address and integrate issues related to biodiversity conservation in their functions. The human component of the agricultural higher education system is one of the pillars of this system that plays a central role in advancing the objectives of the system in a dynamic and harmonious connection with other components. However, so far no effective efforts have been made in the country to identify effective factors in improving the professional competence of faculty members. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the components of faculty members' professional competencies for biodiversity education. This study was conducted using qualitative approach and inductive content analysis method. Required information was collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 experts in the field of environmental education and biodiversity selected by snowball sampling. We began the inductive content analysis by identifying the meanings and then tagging them in the form of qualitative codes, and continued by codifying the codes and linking them to categories. This process was implemented with the help of MAXQDA software. To validate the qualitative findings, participant review and expert review strategies have been used. The findings showed that faculty members' professional competencies for biodiversity education included skills competencies, knowledge competencies, value competencies and ethical competencies, each of which has indicators