Analysis of Pedagogically - centered Leadership’ indicators in Primary Schools

The main purpose of this research was to identify the indicators of pedagogically- centered leadership in Sanandaj primary schools, which was conducted using a qualitative research approach and a descriptive phenomenology strategy. The two main questions raised in the research were as follows. According to the mentalities and experiences of the participants, what are the characteristics of pedagogically- centered leadership among them ? What characteristics can make a pedagogically- centered leader to a unique leader and a distinct one who is different from other educational leaders?

The current research is developmental-application in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of approach, which was conducted using a descriptive phenomenology strategy. In order to collect the data, using targeted sample 18 primary principals were interviewed through three-stage phenomenological interview protocols were used among the principals of primary schools. After conducting the interviews, the data were first manually analyzed, and then by means of MAXqda 2020, based on three-stage thematic analysis (basic, organizing, and global) Atrid Sterling, analyzed.

As the result of data analysis, 90 primary codes, 42 basic themes, 18 organizing themes and finally 8 global themes were specified.Four indicators, including enrichment to the art of teaching, professional development/independence of teachers, constructivist approach to learning and parents' intervention in children's education were extracted as the indicators of the educational leader. Also, four distinctive characteristics of participants were identified as unique characteristics of a pedagogically-centered leader, which were participation-seeker, activist of social justice and equal opportunities, valuing subcultures and leader of leaders. Findings implicitly show that the implementation of this style of leadership in schools requires major changes in the mental images of school community members. This changs include changing the paradigm of playing fixed roles to flexible ones, changing the paradigm of management to leadership, changing the paradigm of bureaucracy to specialization, changing the paradigm from teaching-centered to learning-centered, changing the paradigm of parental participation to parental intervention and changing the paradigm of knowledge transfer to knowledge creation in students.