Identifying the Components and Developing a Transformative School Model for Iranian Primary Schools: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the essential components and develop an integrated, context-sensitive model of a transformative school for Iranian primary education. This qualitative study employed thematic analysis. The participants were 20 primary school principals, vice-principals, teachers, and experts from the Department of Primary Education, selected through purposive sampling during the summer of 2025 until data saturation was achieved. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis procedure. Maximum-variation sampling, member checking, expert review, detailed documentation of the research process, and an audit trail were used to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings. The analysis identified eight principal themes constituting the transformative school model: an optimal physical and environmental school structure, an optimal physical classroom structure, instructional facilities, welfare facilities, an administrative and participatory structure, sports, artistic, and extracurricular activities, optimal teaching and learning methods, and teachers’ professional competencies. The resulting model indicated that a transformative school is founded on the systematic interaction of flexible, safe, and developmentally appropriate learning spaces; adequate educational and technological infrastructure; desirable welfare, health, and sanitation conditions; and participatory management. Diverse sports, artistic, cultural, scientific, and skills-based activities were also integral to the model. Furthermore, active, inquiry-based, problem-based, experiential, collaborative, and project-based teaching approaches, together with teachers’ subject-specific, pedagogical, communicative, technological, assessment-related, socio-emotional, and professional competencies, emerged as mutually reinforcing requirements for transformative primary schooling. Transformation in primary schools is a multidimensional phenomenon that cannot be achieved through isolated modifications to technology, physical infrastructure, or teaching methods. Instead, it requires synergy among the learning environment, educational and welfare facilities, participatory administration, curricular and extracurricular programs, innovative teaching practices, and teachers’ professional competencies. Accordingly, the proposed model provides a locally grounded framework that may inform the planning, policymaking, implementation, and evaluation of transformative initiatives in Iranian primary schools.