Multi-Layered Research Orientedness: Presenting a Research-Based School Paradigm Model

The present study aimed to present a paradigmatic model of a research-based school using the qualitative method of grounded theory. The population comprised of all the experts and specialists in educational management and curriculum development in Isfahan province, from whom 24 experts and specialists in educational management and curriculum development were selected by purposive (snowball) sampling and a semi-structured interview was conducted to interview with these experts. Findings of the study showed that the deficiency of the course-based structure, the developmental attitude, the requirement for research orientation in the document of fundamental change, the requirement for research orientation in the law of the sixth five-year plan of development and the development of prospective thinking are the causal factors that directly influence research orientation and somehow justify its necessity. The change in learning policies, multimodal grounding, and institutional support are also the contexts that facilitate the realization of research orientation; furthermore, a number of macro factors (socio-cultural, conflict among the institutions of power) and micro factors (psychosocial capital, the demonstrative discourse of education) mediate these influences. To realize research orientation in schools, a number of strategies are needed among which we might refer to the revival of the school’s mission and the rearrangement of educational elements. If the research orientation is realized, positive effects can be observed both on the individual (development of individual pragmatism, mental dynamics), and socio-organizational (social knowledge-based development, organizational improvement) levels.