Internship with narrative research approach: a new model of professional development of teachers

In the process of teacher training, internship is one of the most critical times for theory and practice integration and development of a future teacher. This study sought to uncover Farhangian University teachers’ and students’ understanding and attitudes toward student teaching using narrative research approach. The study population consisted of students and faculty members of Farhangian University, Fars campus. The research method was qualitative and based on purposive sampling and theoretical saturation criterion. This means that the number of 15 professors and 30 students were interviewed during one month. The data gathering tool was a semi-structured interview. Its validity was confirmed by using structural, internal and external construct validity, and its reliability was verified using a member  check, external peer review and external observer. The conventional qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Based on the results, the key categories which emerged from the data were: 1) the nature of narrative research 2) advantages of narrative research 3) challenges of conducting narrative research 4) measures and requirements of narrative research, each of which contains subcategories. According to the majority of teachers and students participating in this study, there should be university and school partnerships and budget allocation for schools collaborating with Farhangian University. Finally, there were some suggestions such as organizing meetings as a venue to exchange experiences among students  and publishing top internship reports.