Journal of Childhood

Introduction
Widespread economic, political, and socio-cultural transformations have presented organizations and managers with new challenges. Organizational development, increasing competition, the emergence of new paradigms of total quality management, and especially customer-centricity, have highlighted the growing importance of these concepts in the production, consumption, and investment systems. Meanwhile, educational systems are inevitably required to review their policies and programs, as fundamental reforms in education, as a basis for human capital development, play a key role in advancing the country’s development goals. One effective reform in this regard is the adoption of more flexible and dynamic structures that facilitate greater active participation of all stakeholders of the education system, including parents, managers, teachers, administrative staff, and students, in decision-making processes. This, in turn, enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of educational systems. 
In recent years, the role of development in Iranian schools, particularly focusing on human resources, has received serious attention. This attention is particularly important in primary schools, as the foundation for sustainable development is laid during early childhood. Development, beyond mere growth and progress, is a qualitative, multidimensional transformation and the enhancement of human competencies. This concept encompasses changes in behavioral and social patterns, and even in the nature of phenomena. In human development, it is important to revive motivation and to pay attention to the individual's existential depth before creating motivation. The root of development lies deep within, and its foundation is in childhood. This research aims to identify the key components for “educational development” in Iranian schools. The main research question is: What components are essential for achieving this goal?

Research Methods
This is a qualitative study with a phenomenological method. The participants were 12 school teachers (7 men and 5 women) residing in Alborz and Qazvin provinces of Iran, who were selected using a purposive sampling method and after reaching theoretical saturation by individual interviews. Data collection was conducted by narrative interviews using open-ended and semi-structured questions. Accordingly, the narrative of development in Iranian schools was re-examined, and the contexts for its formation were identified based on experts’ work experiences. Interviews lasting 45-60 minutes were audio recorded and then transcribed verbatim. The interview texts were studied line by line, and basic themes were extracted. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis based on Colaizzi’s seven-step method. The trustworthiness of the data was assessed based on four criteria: Credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability. 

Results
Based on the results, the model of educational development in Iranian schools from the perspective of teachers included three main themes and 15 sub-themes. The main themes included human factors, educational factors, and managerial factors. The sub-themes of the human theme included: Teacher and student development; changing and correcting teachers’ and students’ perspectives; spirit of inquiry and critical thinking; strengthening the spirit of research and exploration; identifying development; and strengthening the creativity and exploratory spirit. The sub-themes for the educational theme included: examining the current educational state, defining the desired state, transformation of attitudes towards education, integrating school curricula with global trends, and in-service training. Furthermore, the subthemes of the managerial theme included: Managerial commitment to education, financial support, transformation of managerial mindsets, and development of a future vision.

Conclusion
The findings of this research indicate that applying educational development in Iranian schools requires attention to key components in three main categories (human, educational, and managerial). The human theme emphasizes that the identified factors can lead to human transformation in schools, especially in childhood. The educational theme indicates that it is necessary to change attitudes, align education with global developments, derive content from students' needs, create an environment rich in inquiry and participation, and move from product orientation to question orientation. The managerial theme indicates that managerial development requires a clear vision, long-term planning, specialized staff, innovative strategies, the establishment of think tanks, adequate budget allocation, and the utilization of teachers’ opinions and the delegation of authority to them.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
All ethical principles were considered in this study. Participation in this research was voluntary. Participants could withdraw from the interview or decline to answer questions that were uncomfortable for them. Also, the conversations were recorded with their consent. They participated in the research with the assurance that their confidentiality and anonymity would be maintained.

Funding
The article was extracted from the doctoral dissertation of Iraj Hamidi in the field of philosophy of education, at the Faculty of Islamic Education, Islamic Azad University, Sciences and Research branch. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Authors contributions
Data collection, data analysis, initial draft preparation: Iraj Hamidi; Conceptualization, methodology, validation and supervision: Saeed Beheshti; Methodology, editing & review: Najmeh Vakili.

Conflict of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all participants who participated in this study for their cooperation.



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