Developing A Model for Multi-Grade Teachers’ Professional Development: A Grounded Theory Study

Education is a fundamental human right and is at the center of human potential development. Despite the necessity for all individuals, especially children, to have equal access to quality education, many children in various parts of the world, including Iran, are deprived of equal educational opportunities due to factors such as poverty, gender, parental income, living in deprived and remote areas, lack of schools, and shortage of teachers. Therefore, in order to address the crisis related to the development of inclusive education and remove the financial barriers in deprived and sparsely populated rural areas, developing multi-grade schools has been put on the agenda of educational policymakers in many countries.
Given the widespread use of multi-grade classes as a tool for education in remote and deprived areas, and the critical role of multi-grade teachers as the mainstay of various educational programs in improving the quality of such schools, multi-grade teachers’ professional development is essential. Professional development is the key to the progress and professional growth of teachers, and the success of educational sectors in educating students is significantly affected by teachers’ access to and participation in high-quality professional development programs.

Research Question

What are the key elements of a model developed for multi-grade teachers’ professional development?

In this research, grounded theory, as a qualitative research approach aimed at uncovering the meanings of people’s social actions, interactions, and experiences, was used as the study method. Therefore, the study participants’ perceptions about the process, content, strategies, context, and consequences of participation in multi-grade teachers’ professional development programs and the relationships between them were investigated. The purposive (criterion-based) sampling technique was used to select 20 participants, including three administrative experts, six educational leaders, and 11 multigrade teachers. The inclusion criteria included at least 25 years of teaching experience in multi-grade classes. These individuals had extensive experience in teaching multi-grade classes and were highly knowledgeable about the research topic. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data and record participants’ experiences and perspectives. In the process of data collection, assumptions, concepts, and themes were accumulated step by step. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Open, axial, and selective coding was used to analyze the data. The quality or validity of the research was ensured using long-term involvement and continuous observation methods (interviews with individuals with 25 years of work experience in multi-grade schools), member checking (the transcription of interviews was made available to participants for their approval), and methodological triangulation (using various data collection methods such as library studies, specialized sources and texts, as well as semi-structured interviews).

Through a three-stage data analysis process, 371 open codes, 25 axial codes, and six selective codes were obtained in the form of a paradigm model with six dimensions, including “causal factors” (two categories: multi-grade teachers’ professional development programs and lack of financial resources), “multi-grade teachers’ professional development” (five categories: educational competence, psychological competence, managerial competence, ethical competence, and social competence), “strategies” (five categories: policy making and legislation of multi-grade teachers’ protection laws, empowerment and knowledge enhancement programs for multi-grade teachers, development of suitable and accessible educational content, increased budget and provision of welfare, and hardware and software support for multi-grade schools), “contextual conditions” (five categories: cultural dimension, social dimension, economic dimension, historical dimension, and political dimension), “environmental conditions” (five categories: teachers’ inadequate content knowledge, lack of necessary organizational support, rural deprivation, problems rooted in the backwardness of deprived areas, and structural factors), and “consequences” (three categories: effects of professional development on teachers, effects of teachers’ professional development on students, and effects of teachers’ professional development on society ). The integration of codes based on the existing relationships between them around the axis of multi-grade teachers’ professional development led to the formation of the paradigm model that reflected multi-grade teachers’ professional development.

Providing equal educational opportunities for children in deprived areas will lead to the cultivation of students’ potential talents and their empowerment, promotion of a promising prospect, and increased self-efficacy and self-confidence, which in turn will result in the growth and development of deprived regions. The success of children is significantly influenced by access to qualified teachers in various educational, psychological, managerial, ethical, social, and cultural contexts. In this regard, multigrade teachers are identified as the central nucleus of change who have the power and potential to create desirable changes at individual and collective levels. Their actions and practices are influenced by the abovementioned factors. However, the lack of comprehensive, forward-looking, and specialized policies concerning multi-grade teachers’ professional development dashes the hope of achieving the desired goal of educational justice in deprived regions. The lack of a clear vision and the adoption of short-term, superficial, and temporary policies and solutions are the major factors inhibiting multi-grade teachers’ professional development. Multi-grade teachers are the center of cultural-educational gravity in deprived areas, and educational planning and policymaking should focus on their professional growth and development.