The Positive Teacher: Development of a Grounded Theory Conceptual Model

The current research was conducted with the aim of identifying the emotional and social competences of teachers in the form of the conceptual model of a positive teacher. In terms of its fundamental purpose, this research was carried out with a qualitative approach and using the theory of fundamental conceptualization. The participants were university experts who were interviewed from Tehran, Khwarazmi, Allameh-Tabatabai, Shahidbeheshti, Al-Zahra and Shiraz universities. According to the criterion of theoretical saturation, after interviewing 18 participants, theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and then categories and components were extracted through open coding, central coding and selective coding. The designed framework includes causal conditions (emotional abilities, flourishing classroom design abilities, and social abilities); Intervening conditions (cognitive skills, self-transformation, self-development, intelligence, level of mental health literacy and personality); Background conditions: (family conditions, social factors, moral factors, cultural ability, school organization position and structural factors); Strategy and strategies: (policy making, planning, changing educational procedures and empowering teachers); and the consequences (raising a positive generation, positive organizational transformation and realizing the essence of teachers). In general, it can be said that the extraction of the mentioned characteristics can be used in the selection and training of teachers.IntroductionTheoretical and empirical evidence shows that positive psychology provides effective and valuable research findings in the field of teachers' well-being and mental health (Singh & Kaur., 2019). One of the important topics of this field is the emotional and social skills of teachers. The emotional and social competencies while supporting the acquisition of adaptability (Kerr et al., 2019) and effective coping with life pressures and requirements (Scott et al., 2023) and positive interactions with others (Macintyer et al., 2020) constitute importantly to the well-being and psychological health of teachers (Dreer., 2020). In this regard, Jennings et al. (2019) believe that emotional and social skills play an important role in the teaching process, and a teacher needs a full range of emotional and social skills to be effective in the classroom. In its most general form, emotional and social competencies are a set of skills, attitudes and values related to the ability to correctly interpret and interpret emotions, manage emotions and emotions, deeply understand the emotions of others, make effective decisions, and determine positive social goals (Larsti et al., 2019). Considering that emotional and social skills as an important and necessary indicator in the field of education (Jennigs et al., 2019) plays a decisive role in improving the well-being and mental health of teachers and then students, the development and promotion of models based on the identification of these capabilities as much as possible, it is extremely important (Glavili et al., 2023). However, this field still lacks a comprehensive and coherent organizational framework to determine the emotional and social competencies that teachers value. On the other hand, despite the importance and significant role of positive psychology in the field of teachers' professional health, there is a to the design and formulation of a model that emphasizes the identification of antecedent elements, and specifies the consequence and processes. Therefore, the main goal of the current research was to provide a model of emotional and social competence of teachers based on the principles and foundations of positive psychology in the framework of the conceptual model of a positive teacher. MethodThe current research is descriptive in terms of its basic purpose and in terms of data collection method and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. According to the criterion of theoretical saturation, theoretical saturation was obtained after interviewing 18 participants. Purposive sampling method was used to select the participants of the sample group. The number of experts was 18 and included: four from Tehran University, four from Kharazmi University, three from Shahid Beheshti University, three from Allameh Tabatabai University, three from Al-Zahra University and one from Shiraz University. In order to collect data, a semi-structured interview tool was used. The method of interview analysis was carried out using the analytical techniques of Strauss and Corbin (2008) in three stages of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. ResultsThe data were analyzed in the form of Strauss and Corbin (2008) paradigm model in three stages of open, axial and selective coding. The data were later categorized in the form of causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences: 1. What are the effective factors in the development of a positive teacher? Causal factors: Among the categories extracted from the interviews conducted with experts, three general categories of emotional abilities, classroom design flourishing abilities and social abilities were classified as the causal factors in positive teacher education. 2. What are the conditions for effective intervention in positive teacher training? Intervention conditions: six general categories of cognitive skills, self-development, self-improvement, wisdom, mental health literacy and personality were the intervention conditions. 3. What are the effective conditions for positive teacher training? Background conditions included six main categories: family conditions, social factors, moral factors, cultural competence, school organization status and structural factors. 4. What are the effective strategies for the growth and development of a positive teacher? Strategies: In the obtained conceptual model, strategies involved policy making, planning, changing educational procedures and empowering teachers. 5. What are the consequences of using strategies in the development of a positive teacher? The results showed that the consequences related to the emergence of a positive-thinking teacher included raising a positive generation, positive organizational transformation, and realizing the essence of teachers. ConclusionThe current research was conducted with the aim of identifying the components of the conceptual model of a positive teacher. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the fields of positive psychology and teaching and learning. In the next step, the data collected from the interviews were coded using the grounded theory method. The result of the grouping of codes showed general categories that were theoretically modeled in five categories: a) causal conditions: emotional abilities, flourishing classroom design abilities, social abilities, c) intervention conditions: perspective of self-transformation, self-development, wisdom, mental health literacy and personality traits d) background conditions: family conditions, social factors, moral factors, school organization situation, structural factors. e) Strategies: policy making, planning, changing educational procedures and empowering teachers. f) Consequences: raising a positive generation, positive organizational transformation and understanding the nature of teachers. In the model, a wide range of factors were presented in a broad framework, which should be given special attention in order to improve the emotional and social skills of a positive teacher. Ethical ConsiderationCompliance with Ethical Guidelines: Compliance with Ethical Guidelines: All ethical issues such as confidentiality of participants' identity were attended to and informed consent were obtained from the participants.Contribution of the authors: This article is extracted from the doctoral thesis of the first author. Extraction, preparation, editing and submission of the article were done by the first, second and third authors. The fourth and fifth authors are thesis advisors.Conflict of interest: There is no conflict of interest between the authors of this article.Funding: The authors received no financial support for the study.Acknowledgment: The authors thank all theparticipants of this study.