This study was conducted with the aim of exploring student teachers’ lived experiences of professors’ professional instructional leadership at Farhangian University. Employing a qualitative approach and based on a narrative inquiry design, the research gathered sixty narratives from students majoring in Persian Language and Literature through purposive sampling until data saturation was reached. The data were analyzed narratively using an interpretive approach. The findings indicate a predominance of dissatisfaction in the students’ narratives compared to accounts reflecting satisfactory experiences of professors’ professional instructional leadership. In representing participants’ experiences, shortcomings in “instructional knowledge” emerged as the central source of dissatisfaction, followed by weaknesses in “communication skills” and “time management.” Deeper layers of narrative analysis reveal that inadequacies in pedagogical knowledge and in professors’ capacity for professional action fundamentally shaped the quality of student teachers’ learning experiences and illustrated a semantic gap between “professional expectations” and “students’ lived realities.” The results underscore the necessity of moving beyond traditional evaluation methods toward faculty development programs in which “students’ narratives” are not treated merely as statistical data but as an authentic source for rethinking and improving professional instructional practices.
dehghani, H., Marashi, Z., & Pashaei, M. R. (2026). Analysis of Students' Lived Experiences of Professional Teaching Leadership:
A Narrative Research Study at Farhangian University. (e21473). Educational Leadership Research, 10(39), e21473 https://doi.org/10.22054/jrlat.2026.89958.1911
MLA
dehghani, H., Marashi, Z., & Pashaei, M. R. "Analysis of Students' Lived Experiences of Professional Teaching Leadership:
A Narrative Research Study at Farhangian University" .e21473 , Educational Leadership Research, 10, 39, 2026, e21473. doi: 10.22054/jrlat.2026.89958.1911
HARVARD
dehghani H., Marashi Z., Pashaei M. R. (2026). 'Analysis of Students' Lived Experiences of Professional Teaching Leadership:
A Narrative Research Study at Farhangian University', Educational Leadership Research, 10(39), e21473. doi: 10.22054/jrlat.2026.89958.1911
CHICAGO
H. dehghani, Z. Marashi & M. R. Pashaei, "Analysis of Students' Lived Experiences of Professional Teaching Leadership:
A Narrative Research Study at Farhangian University," Educational Leadership Research, 10 39 (2026): e21473, doi: 10.22054/jrlat.2026.89958.1911
VANCOUVER
dehghani H., Marashi Z., Pashaei M. R. Analysis of Students' Lived Experiences of Professional Teaching Leadership:
A Narrative Research Study at Farhangian University. Educational Leadership Research. 2026;10(39):e21473 (In Persian). doi: 10.22054/jrlat.2026.89958.1911
