Professional development pattern of School principals in Technical and Vocational Schools (using the emerging foundation data theorizing approach)

Professional development is one of the most important issues in the field of human resources, which results in the emergence of levels of professionalism within employees. In education, studies on professional development have been done with different approaches: identifying and determining the professional needs of school principals and teachers; and examining the methods through which professional development takes place is among the most frequently done ones. Considering any approach, determining and measuring the dimensions, components and elemenst that construct professional development of principals and teachers has been essential required. The purpose of this study was to identify the dimensions and components of professional development and designing a model for professional development of technical and vocational school principals.

 This research is applied in terms of objectives, qualitative in terms of data and emerging- data in terms of nature and type of study. The population of the present study consisted of all science and management experts at the level of staff managers in the Ministry of Education and technical and vocational colleges, from whom 30 experts were selected as the sample of the study, based on purposeful snowball sampling. The instrument used in the study was a semi-structured interview for the development of which the dimensions, components, indicators and national and international theories in the field of prrofessional development model were studied and applied. First, a significant number of national and international models, findings, studies, and theories were examined and then through open coding more indicators were counted and classified into dimensions, components, and indicators by axial coding. Finally, the categorized indicators were set in the form of a semi-structured interview and opinions of 18 experts were obtained through this form. This process was followed by selective coding through interviews, Delphi technique, and brainstorming until theoretical saturation was achieved.

After the research stages and applying three coding procedures (open coding, axial coding, and selective coding) 10 dimensions, 39 components, and 320 indicators for the professional development model of technical and vocational school principals were identified and finalized.

 Finally, the dimensions of school principals’ professional development in 10 dimensions were determined in terms of priority, including: knowledge, attitude, intellectual and mental abilities, management abilities, functional management skills, interpersonal skills, management skills, excellence and improvement, transformational leadership skills, professional and career skills, and psychological and personality traits, respectively. These dimensions included 39 components that constituted the final dimensions and components of the professional development model for technical and vocational  school principals, which involved general knowledge, educational management, school principal, specialized knowledge, attitude towards human resources, attitude to change, transformation and improvement , attitude towards stakeholder participation, attitude to education, attitude to technical and vocational and skills training, attitude to entrepreneurship, strategic thinking, critical thinking, problem solving, creative thinking, general ability, vocational ability, technical and professional ability , people’s motivation , development training, planning and organizing, consequentialism, collaboration and empathy, team making, effective communication, networking, attention to stakeholders, organizational awareness, change and Improvement, authority, Ideal and charismatic influence, inspirational motivation, mental persuasion, individual attention and considerations, vocational skills, technical and professional skills, self-confidence, responsibility, honesty, perfectionism, and professional growth.