A Peer Mentoring Model for Professors at Teacher Training University: A Grounded Theory Approach

Peer mentoring could be mentioned as one of the novel approaches for professional development of university professors. The present study sought to propose a model for the peer mentoring program which could be employed by the professors of Teacher Training University. The statistical population included all the professors at the Teacher Training Universities and the sample were selected through criterion sampling which is considered as a variation of purposive sampling. The study data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 professors from Teacher Training Universities of Alborz and Tehran provinces. In the next step, open, axial and selective coding methods were used in order to analyze the data. Lincoln and Cuban criteria were used to ensure validity and reliability. The results of the research revealed thirty-five core concepts and eleven selected categories, which were organized and presented in the form of a paradigm model including planning and formulation of macro strategy, needs assessment, attitude, organizational structure redesign, revision and refinement of laws and designing a new performance evaluation system as the core subject and causal conditions (individual and organizational factors), contextual factors (environmental and organizational factors), facilitating intervention conditions (information and media literacy, professional ethics, support, mentoring relationship and job turnover, realism and revision in recruitment policy), limiting intervening conditions (politicization, materialism, weak human resource management, traditional view toward human resources, structural weakness, formalization and temporary view) and outcome (professional growth and development of Teacher Training University professors).