Exploring the reasons for the non-scientific nature of school management in Iran from a new-institutionalism perspective

Different research which is conducted in Iran has shown that school management is not done scientifically.This unscientific approach to school management has led to an isomorphism.Namely, in terms of an unscientific approach, all school management in Iran has become the same.The current research aimed to explore the reasons for this isomorphism by relying on the new institutional perspective.A qualitative approach and emergent grounded theory were applied to achieve the purpose.The research participation included all key informants in the field of educational administration in Iran.A total of 11 key informants were selected through theoretical purposeful sampling and relying on the data's theoretical saturation.A total of 112 open codes, 7 axial codes, and 2 selective codes were identified and extracted.The findings of the present research showed that two kinds of institutional pressures have led to isomorphism in terms of an unscientific approach.The first kind of institutional pressure is coercive institutional pressure, which includes economic, political, cultural, and inefficiency of university education pressures, and the other kind of institutional pressure is normative institutional pressure, which includes policy-making, organizational, and power relations pressures.Based on the new institutionalism explanation, the non-scientific management processes of schools are an imposed and forced phenomenon, and schools need to institutionalize pressures to be accepted by the external environment.These findings show that the concern of schools is survival and not effectiveness.Such indifference creates an unscientific approach in school management