Identifying and Leveling the Dimensions and Components of Service-Learning in the Golestan Department of Education

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the dimensions and components of service-learning and determine their structural relationships and hierarchical levels within the Golestan Department of Education. This sequential qualitative study was conducted in two stages. In the first stage, a service-learning model was developed using grounded theory based on the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin, including open, axial, and selective coding. Participants comprised faculty members in educational sciences, educational administration, and public administration, human resource development managers in the education system, and experts familiar with the research topic. Fourteen experts were selected through snowball sampling until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using MAXQDA software. In the second stage, the relationships among the identified dimensions and their hierarchical levels were examined through interpretive structural modeling and MICMAC analysis. Data were obtained using a matrix questionnaire completed by 10 senior managers and experts in the national education system. The credibility and confirmability of the qualitative findings were established through expert review and participant checking, and the intra-subject agreement coefficient was 0.81. The test–retest reliability coefficient of the matrix questionnaire was 0.84. The analysis identified five main categories and 21 subcategories. The main dimensions were economic sustainability, learning responsibility, educational sustainability, learning participation, and innovative trust. Interpretive structural modeling demonstrated that economic sustainability occupied the most fundamental level of the model and exerted the strongest driving influence on the other dimensions. Learning responsibility and educational sustainability were positioned at the intermediate level, learning participation at the subsequent level, and innovative trust at the final and most dependent level. MICMAC analysis further classified economic sustainability as a key independent driving variable, whereas innovative trust exhibited high dependence on the other dimensions. The institutionalization of service-learning in the Golestan education system requires the coordinated development of economic infrastructure, multidimensional responsibility, sustainable educational practices, stakeholder participation, and trust in innovation. Nevertheless, economic sustainability should receive priority in policymaking and resource allocation because of its foundational position and substantial driving power within the proposed model.