Journal of Research in Educational Systems
Scientific Journal

Presention and Validation of the Smart Leadership Model for School principals

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Elham Poormokhtari 1
Fariba Karimi 2
Narges Saeidian 2

1 Department of Educational Administration, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

2 Department of Educational Management, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22034/jiera.2025.531171.3337
Abstract
Objective: The present study aimed to Present and validate the Smart leadership model for school principals and was conducted based on a local conceptual model extracted from the research literature.
Method: This study was conducted using a qualitative-quantitative method, in which thematic analysis was used in the qualitative part and the survey method in the quantitative part. First, 97 basic themes were identified using the inductive thematic analysis method from 40 scientific sources, based on the Atride-Sterling perspective, which became the basis for the formation of the Smart leadership model after calculating the agreement of the two coders and confirming its content validity by 15 experts. Relying on the conceptual model approved by the experts as the basis for designing the research tool, it was implemented on a statistical sample of 314 school principals using a non-random sampling method of the available type. The data collection tool was a 97-item researcher-made questionnaire with appropriate content and construct validity, whose reliability was also confirmed by a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.923. The research data were analyzed using Amos26 and SPSS26 software.
Results: Based on thematic analysis, 3 overarching themes (semantic, argumentative, and insightful), 12 organizing themes, and 97 basic themes for Smart leadership of school principals were obtained, which became the basis for the formation of an Smart leadership model for school principals. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that the model had sufficient fit and the validity of the model was confirmed.
Conclusions: The school principals' Smart leadership scale had adequate validity in measuring and fitting the model. This tool, due to its comprehensiveness, flexibility, ease of use, quality, and appropriateness, has adequate capacity for use in future research.

Keywords

Smart leadership
Validation
School principals
Subjects
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Journal of Research in Educational Systems
Volume 19, Issue 69
June 2025
Pages 27-39

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