Designing a model for improving the performance of primary school principals: A qualitative study

One of the most important factors for the excellence or ruin of any organization is the quality of performance of school principals. Improving the performance and quality development of primary school principals increases efficiency and effectiveness and creates change in the education system. Studies have been done to improve the performance of school principals, but a qualitative study that improves the performance of primary school principals has been neglected.

This study The aim was to design and test a model to improve the performance of primary school principals in Kermanshah province.

The present study was conducted with a mixed design with both qualitative and quantitative approaches in the academic year 2019-2020. In the qualitative approach, the underlying theoretical method was used. In this regard, using a purposeful approach and applying the theoretical saturation criterion, an attempt was made to use the semi-structured in-depth interview technique, perception and experience of 15 people (university faculty members and general managers and deputies working in education in Kermanshah province) as a case study. In-depth review. The research tool was the qualitative part of semi-structured interviews. In the quantitative part, the necessary data were made using a researcher-made questionnaire based on qualitative data and were administered among 228 primary school principals in Kermanshah province. For data analysis, systematic coding method was used in the qualitative part and descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (confirmatory factor analysis) were used in the quantitative part using Smart pls software. 

After conducting the interviews and in-depth data analysis, 283 indicators, 15 criteria and 4 main factors including four dimensions of "leadership development", "structure improvement", "performance planning" and "self-development" were identified. The results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed 54 items for the managerschr('39') performance improvement questionnaire in four factors.

The results showed that the model extracted from the present study, despite the appropriate validity, can be used to improve the performance of primary school principals.