Attitude of Teachers and Principals towards Professional Rankings Plan of Teachers: A Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this study was to identify the attitude of teachers and educational administration about the implementation of the professional ranking plan of teachers in the education system of the Iran. The method of this research is a qualitative exploratory research which has been conducted in an interpretive analysis method. The data gathering tool was a semi-structured interview, with interviews with 15 experienced teachers, principals, and executives of the project. Sampling was done using purposeful snowball method. For data analysis, coding was used in both open and axial coding. The results of the research showed that the teacher ranking plan has legal, scientific, professional and managerial necessities for its implementation. The main strengths of the plan include increasing teachers' motivation, improving teachers' skills, reducing teachers' livelihood issues, improving student achievement and reducing inequality. The weaknesses include lack of comprehensiveness of the plan, lack of transparency, the ability to apply personal opinion, the length of the process, high emphasis on seniority, weakness in information and lack of implementation. Also, the most important solutions identified for improving the design are: having a professionalism approach to teachers, paying attention to improving teachers' livelihoods, teamwork and continuous evaluation, holistic approach, and bureaucracy reduction.