Payame Noor University Research in School and Virtual Learning 3060-6497 13 1 2025 04 21 Developing a Conceptual Model of the Safe (Secure) Teacher: A Grounded Theory Study Developing a Conceptual Model of the Safe (Secure) Teacher: A Grounded Theory Study 9 20 11656 10.30473/etl.2025.70291.4143 FA Omid Shokri Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Kiana Fereidoni M.Sc in Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Jalil Fathabadi Associate Professor, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Journal Article 2024 01 15 The necessity of rethinking the issue of teachers' professional identity and transitioning from their exclusive preoccupations with professional learning concerns has caused a number of educational researchers to insist on the necessity of developing ideas such as the inspirational teacher, the positive teacher, and the compassionate teacher. Accordingly, researchers in this study prioritized the development of a conceptual model of a "safe teacher" with the aim of trying to help deepen the content of the puzzle of professional transformation in teachers. In this study, the researchers, using purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews with 29 elementary and middle school teachers, counselors, and principals in Tehran in the academic year 2021-2022, collected data and analyzed participants' responses using a grounded theory approach with open, selective, and axial coding process. In this study, four criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln used to assess the quality of the grounded theory. The results of different stages of coding included 54 sub-categories and 21 main categories, which organized in the form of antecedent factors, core phenomena, intervening factors, contextual factors, strategies, and subsequent factors. The findings of this study showed that responsible participation by teachers in professional development will inevitably lead to a qualitative transformation in the meaning of the students' academic life. Therefore, systematic pursuit of understanding professional identity of teachers with the help of innovative proposals such as the idea of the safe teacher will undoubtedly deepen our understanding of the determinants of the academic identity of learners as citizens of the third millennium AD. The necessity of rethinking the issue of teachers' professional identity and transitioning from their exclusive preoccupations with professional learning concerns has caused a number of educational researchers to insist on the necessity of developing ideas such as the inspirational teacher, the positive teacher, and the compassionate teacher. Accordingly, researchers in this study prioritized the development of a conceptual model of a "safe teacher" with the aim of trying to help deepen the content of the puzzle of professional transformation in teachers. In this study, the researchers, using purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews with 29 elementary and middle school teachers, counselors, and principals in Tehran in the academic year 2021-2022, collected data and analyzed participants' responses using a grounded theory approach with open, selective, and axial coding process. In this study, four criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln used to assess the quality of the grounded theory. The results of different stages of coding included 54 sub-categories and 21 main categories, which organized in the form of antecedent factors, core phenomena, intervening factors, contextual factors, strategies, and subsequent factors. The findings of this study showed that responsible participation by teachers in professional development will inevitably lead to a qualitative transformation in the meaning of the students' academic life. Therefore, systematic pursuit of understanding professional identity of teachers with the help of innovative proposals such as the idea of the safe teacher will undoubtedly deepen our understanding of the determinants of the academic identity of learners as citizens of the third millennium AD. https://etl.journals.pnu.ac.ir/article_11656_9e98dfe9e325d8c8800e7318a27a4d2e.pdf