Representing the Experiences of Rural Multi-grade Elementary School Teachers from the Challenges of the Looping System

Abstract

Along with the changes made in the education system of our country, after the fundamental transformation document was compiled, changes were made in the education of the elementary school, which caused challenges. In this regard, the main goal of the present research was to represent the experiences of teachers of multi-level rural primary schools in Qom province regarding the challenges of the looping system. This research was conducted qualitatively using the phenomenological method and the statistical population of the research included all the teachers of multi-grade rural primary schools who continuously taught students of several grades in the same school for more than three consecutive years leading to the academic year 1401-1402. Sampling has also been done using the criterion-oriented method by the principle of theoretical saturation through in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and the data has been analyzed using the thematic analysis method. To validate the data, two strategies of member review and homogeneous analysis were used, and to check the reliability of the writings, it was tried not to change the meaning of the codes during the coding process. The findings show that the experience of rural teachers in the looping system has been identified in three general themes, including professional challenges, organizational challenges, and relational challenges, and these three general themes have led to the extraction of sixteen sub-themes. The recommendations of this research are the provision of specialized in-service training for looping system education, creating the necessary platforms, and raising the level of parents' awareness about strengthening the relationship between home and school.

Keywords

• looping system
• elementary school
• rural schools
• multigrade class
• teachers' lived experiences