Understanding Teachers’ Lived Experience of Conducting the Lesson Study and Action Research Programs in Primary Schools in Mashhad

The main purpose of this study is to understand teachers’ lived experiences in conducting two programs of lesson study and action research with their opportunities and challenges. The research has been conducted according to a qualitative approach, based on Phenomenology as an attempt to reveal the essence of the reality experienced by selected persons in lesson study and action research programs at the provincial or national levels through semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants (17 teachers and 2 principal deputies) in primary schools in Mashhad city. The results showed the most important opportunities resulting from these programs were: paving the way for the creation of new teaching methods, the knowledge exchange among teachers, improving teacher teaching, fostering teacher research, teacher development, teacher moral growth, success and improving student learning. Moreover, the most important challenges were: administrative bureaucracy, poor judgment and feedback on project results, lack of useful use of research results, weak teacher empowerment programs, negative effects of the nature of project festivals, lack of financial support for teachers, lack of time, diversity of teachers' plans and fatigue during the performance, and also, the incompatibility of the awards with the level of hard work. The projects such as lesson study and action research programs have been communicated to schools through directives and teaching methods through a formal and systematic process from top to bottom.