Designing a Conceptual Framework for a Designing a Conceptual Framework for a Child-Friendly School in Iran

TThe purpose of this study was to design a conceptual framework for child-friendly elementary school in Iran. The present study was conducted by phenomenological method. In this study, 16 teachers with teaching experience in elementary school were selected as participants. Inclusion criteria included having at least two years of teaching experience in primary school and having at least one article, book or research project in a field related to a child-friendly school. Targeted sampling and snowball sampling were used to select participants. The process collecting data continued until the theoretical saturation of the data. Data collection tool was unstructured interview. All interviews were conducted by telephone or virtual network between May and October 2021. Data analysis was performed according to the steps proposed by Greenheim and Landman. The findings showed that the conceptual framework of a child-friendly school consists of 6 dimensions (healthy environment, happy environment, green environment, education, active education, safety and security, child-centered physical space) and 17 criteria. Based on these dimensions and criteria, 6 statements were formulated to explain the characteristics of a child-friendly school.