Designing the Model of Strategic Thinking for Educational Managements by Mixed Method

The aim of this study was to design a model of Strategic Thinking for Educational Managements. This research, from the view of the target, is applied, in terms of strategy and method, is a mixed research and exploratory. The statistical population in the qualitative section consisted of faculty members of the educational sciences and Ph.D students of educational management of Kermanshah Azad University and quantitative section consisted of primary schools’ principals in Kermanshah province. The sample size at the qualitative section, 12 people were considered based on saturation principle which, were chosen through purposefully sampling and in quantitative section was 200 people were considered based on the principles of determining sample size in structural equation modeling. A tool for collecting research data in qualitative section was semi-structured interviews and quantitative section was made researcher questionnaire. Validity and reliability of the tool in the qualitative section with acceptable and appropriateness criteria, and validity in quantitative section by the experts and its reliability with Cronbach’s alpha, Spirman-Brown and combination method was confirmed. The qualitative data were analyzed by thematic analysis based on Brown and Clark model (2006) and quantitative data were analyzed by structural equations and it was tested through the SPSS and LISREL software. The findings from the qualitative section led to the identification of five main elements, including: providence, creative thinking, intuitive thinking, intelligent opportunism and environmental intelligence about the strategic thinking of educational managers. Then, a 32-item scale was presented to the statistical population in quantitative section. The findings of the data analysis in the quantitative section showed that the model of the extracted elements has favorable fit indices.