Null Curricula for the Professional Development of Faculty Members of Iranian Universities: Ferdowsi University, Iran

The present study investigated null curriculum research in professional development programs for faculty members at Iranian universities and focused on educational programs at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. Two main questions were raised for this research: first, “what areas of professional development programs are covered” and, second, “what areas have been neglected in professional development programs”. In this research, two types of research synthesis strategies (first question) and content analysis (second question) were used. The corpus for this study consisted of 67 related articles. The credibility of the findings was confirmed by the Delphi fan. Regarding the second question, the research strategy was content analysis (documentation) and included 6 documents that were censored. The credibility of the findings was confirmed by a percentage agreement. The findings indicated that the dimensions of professional development include three areas: a) supportive programs; b) individual programs, including cognitive (knowledge, skill and emotional) and metacognition (dimensions of excellent levels of thinking and management), human (interactions and Interpersonal skills), professional ethics and discipline; and (c) organizational programs including occupational, managerial, organizational, environmental, consulting, research and educational. In the second part, the most important areas of curriculum neglected in Iran and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad are supporting programs in the area of ​​organizational counseling programs and in the individual domain of cognitive programs. It seems that professional development programs for faculty members need a serious improvement at the macro level as well as the micro level, and it is necessary for actors to develop preparation in a variety of curricular contexts and wide-ranging educational developments.