Identifying factors contributing to competency based appointment of principals in compliance with the Clause “Guidance and Management

Education is the most important trustee of formal and public education and the consolidation of public culture and the excellence of Islamic society. One of the major missions of education is to strengthen social capital and train capable, promising, hopeful and rational human resources. In this regard, the efficiency of the education system in the optimal performance of its missions depends primarily on the availability of motivated, thoughtful, creative, capable and responsible human resources, especially at the level of managers. It is obvious that the more qualified, skilled and capable managers are in education, the more and more effective they will be in promoting and achieving the goals of the education system. From this perspective, care and attention in selecting and appointing principals at different levels, especially school principals, is very important because the influence of principals in guiding and motivating forces is much higher than other employees. Given the key importance of the issue of competency in the selection of principals and the role of competency models in this important issue, this issue has been considered by policymakers and education managers for several years. These include the 20-year vision document of the Islamic Republic, the five-year economic, social and cultural development plans of the country, the Civil Service Management Law and the general policies of the administrative system, etc., and the upstream documents of the education system in particular (e.g. The comprehensive scientific map of the country, the document of fundamental change in education, the executive program under the leadership and management system, the national curriculum, the school management excellence program, etc.), have been emphasized on considering this important issue for selecting and appointing education managers. Is. In the meantime, and in the first place, determining and defining the necessary competencies for the principals of the educational system, and especially the principals of the schools, as the most important element that is at the forefront of the management and educational leadership of students, is of special importance. Research results generally suggest that principals' ability to play effective leadership roles is one of the key components of effective schools. School principals have a significant impact on school outcomes, to the extent that their role has been cited as the second factor influencing students' academic achievement. In many studies over the past few years, researchers have found that the manager also influences students' learning. The results also show that although teachers are the key to students' progress, it is school principals who guide and guide them.Therefore, in the document of fundamental change in education, the school principal is effective as a leader and one of the main elements of the realization of the mission of education and training has an extraordinary role and position in the horizon of 1404; Consequently, selecting school principals based on their meritocracy and pioneering in divine and human values and scientific criteria and believing in the goals of the country's formal education system is an undeniable necessity. So that in paragraph 7-4 of the document of fundamental change; The principal, teacher, faithful, creative, committed, flexible, thoughtful, forward-looking, participatory, educational leader, resourceful, knowledgeable, and professional is described as responsible for providing and developing the learning environment for the flourishing of educational instincts and students' instinctual attitudes. , Adapts or compiles, implements and evaluates curricula at the school level The concept of competence has also been considered by policymakers and designers of the Fundamental Transformation Document. For example, in the training objectives section, it is stated: “In order to play a role in the realization of a good life, it is necessary for the first instructors to acquire a set of necessary competencies. Necessary competencies include a set of individual and collective traits, abilities, and skills (such as reason, knowledge, faith, will, and piety) that coaches use to understand their own and others' situations and to continually improve them in order to prepare for fulfillment. They have to earn their living ... ” Since it is up to teachers and principals to train qualified students, school principals in the role of instructor and principal need to have the expected competencies for students in addition to their professional competencies. In the document of fundamental change in education (DFCD), under provision 6-22, competency based appointment of principals is underscored. Employing qualitative approach, the present paper, hence, aims to identify the components and indices of school principals’ competency. Finally, leaders differ from non-leaders. Therefore, what makes a manager worthy is not a specific factor, but a variety of components that in different situations different combinations of factors and elements that cause successful flame performance, achieve goals. And organizational priorities

In so doing, semi-structured interviews were implemented with such 22 informants as designers of DFCD, agents responsible for implementing the article “guidance and Management”, and university teachers with a degree in educational administration. To analyze data, thematic analysis was used. Member checking, and triangulation were used to confirm the validity of the findings.

To calculate the coding reliability, inter-raters agreement was deployed. Line by line coding resulted in 80 indices which were then grouped into 17 sub-categories.

These sub-categories were later fallen into 6 themes: values and beliefs; skills and abilities; personality; knowledge; educational management; and control and supervision. Next, these themes were categorized into two main concepts, that is, general and specialized competency.