Educational Leadership Research

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread shift to online instruction brought increased attention to the importance of educational supervision. During this period, educational supervisors played a key role in improving instructional quality and supporting the professional development of teachers. Given the importance of supervision in virtual education, this qualitative study—conducted using a phenomenological approach—examines the experiences of educational supervision during the era of online learning. The participants included educational supervisors, instructional leaders, school principals, and assistant principals in the Kurdistan province of Iran who were engaged in virtual educational supervision during the 2020–2021 academic year. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews based on purposive and theoretical sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data analysis and theme extraction were conducted using the Attride–Stirling (2001) framework and MAXQDA 2020 software. Three overarching themes emerged: advancement of educational supervision, modernization of supervision practices, and professional development of educational supervisors. The findings indicate that at the onset of online education, supervisors experienced confusion and encountered challenges in monitoring virtual classrooms. They initially relied on supervisory models designed for face-to-face teaching and, at times, approached the supervision process with a degree of leniency. Over time, however, supervisors gradually adapted to the new conditions and adopted updated strategies for virtual supervision. They also became increasingly aware of their evolving role within the supervision and instructional process. Furthermore, virtual supervision holds potential for enhancing the professional skills and knowledge of both teachers and supervisors in the post-pandemic era.

Abstract This qualitative research aims to apply the Grounded theory to developing an effective leadership model for unqualified teachers in elementary schools, which is associated with the discovery of school community members’ experiences about their interaction with those teachers, employing and explaining the behavior of incompetent teachers. Data were analyzed with purposeful sampling and the Grounded theory strategy systematically through interviews with 46 participants who were members of the school community of Sanandaj city, collected during 5 months in three stages of theoretical coding. 211 open codes, 60 axial, and 17 selective codes were acquired and the final model was extracted with MAXQDA 2020. Based on the contributors' ideas, the livelihood and cultural issues of teachers and the politicization of education are the existing fields of recruiting unqualified teachers, defects in the recruitment process and defective bureaucracy in the education system are the reasons for incompetent teachers hiring, supporting professional development, promote teachers job satisfaction and the implementation of punitive measures are the solutions to interact with these teachers and the triple managerial skills have been mentioned as effective factors involved in their leadership. Demonstrating a systematic process of results with a final model is the innovation of this research. Based on the results, very few of these teachers changed and the academic performance has been achieved; But many of these teachers are not transformed and neglect the psychosocial aspects of students, weakness in establishing human relations, unprofessionalism and an undesirable educational restitution are their characteristics.