Designing Professional Support Model for New Teachers: A Grounded Theory

This study aimed to develop an integrative model of professional support of news teachers at the beginning of their careers. This research adopted a qualitative approach and employed grounded theory, a systematic methodology, to identify conceptual patterns from the data collected via semi-structured interviews. Through purposive sampling, 22 education experts and experienced teachers were selected and their responses were analyzed using MAXQDA software in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding. To ensure the validity of the findings, member checking and rich data expansion and description techniques were utilized. The qualitative data analysis yielded 375 conceptual terms, 71 sub-themes, and 21 main themes, which were classified into six dimensions of the paradigm model comprising causal conditions, the main phenomenon, strategies, background conditions, intervening conditions and outcomes. While emphasizing the starting phase of career as an important period in the professional development of teachers and the necessity for providing comprehensive support for new teachers according to the desired model, it is suggested for education to use the capacity of formal and informal supporters of new teachers.