Investigating the Role of Facilitating Principals in The Professional Development of High School Teachers

Support for teacher learning and development is one of the fundamental roles of school principals. Principals as facilitators can play an effective role in strengthening the professional development of teachers. The main aim of this research was to investigate the role of facilitating principals in the professional development of secondary school teachers in District 1 of Ahvaz city with a qualitative method. The Snowball sampling method was used to select the sample. For data collection, semi-structured interview methods and data were extracted and analyzed based on the content analysis method. This study sought to answer five research questions. Findings showed that managers have good skills but need to acquire the necessary skills in areas such as evaluation, planning, and delegation. It was also found that principals carry out effective activities in the school, but do not draw up appropriate plans for holding and conducting in-house workshops and seminars. This study also showed that the most important challenges that principals face in exercising the facilitating role for the development of teachers' professions are insufficient budget, lack of facilities and teaching materials, administrative bureaucracies, lack of motivation of teachers, and so on.