Iranian Language Teachers’ Passion for the Profession: A Qualitative Study

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

To explore Iranian professionally developed English teachers’ passion for the English language teaching profession, an interview with 7 open-ended questions was conducted to 14 Iranian professionally developed teachers to discover what factors were at work in their professional growth. Participants included 8 Ph.D. holders, 3 Ph.D. candidates, and 3 M.A. holders in TEFL who had more than 20 years of service in the Iranian context and were chosen by purposive sampling. After interviewing the participants via a standard interview and delving deeply into the emotional aspects of their professional journey throughout their lives, the following factors emerged from the analysis of the transcriptions of the interviews as reasons to have and sustain passion for language teaching profession: acceptance of change, cooperating with colleagues, being a model, establishing relationships, helping the students, meeting personal needs, contributing to the society, and love of learning/language.

Keywords


Acker, S. (1999). The realities of teachers’ work: Never a dull moment. London: Cassell.
Averill, J. R., & More, T.A. (2004). Happiness. In L. M. Haviland & J. M. Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (pp. 663-676). New York: The Guilford Press.
Barbalet, J. M. (1998). Emotion, social theory, and social structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beck, C., & Kosnic, C. M. (1995). Caring for the emotions: Toward a more balanced schooling. In A. Neiman (Ed.), Philosophy of education (pp. 161-169). Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society.
Benesch, S. (2012). Considering emotions in critical English language teaching: Theories and praxis. New York: Routledge.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching36(2), 81-109.
Borg, S. (2006). The distinctive characteristics of foreign language teachers. Language Teaching Research, 10(1), 3-31.
Borg, S. (2009). English language teachers’ conceptions of research. Applied Linguistics, 30(3), 358-388.
Borko, H. (2004). Professional development and teacher learning: Mapping the terrain. Educational Researcher33(8), 3-15.
Brownlee, J. M. (2003). Paradigm shifts in preservice teacher education students: A case study of changes in epistemological beliefs for two teacher education students. Australian Journal of Educational and Developmental Psychology, 3(1), 1-6.
Bullough, R. V. (2009). Seeking eudaimonia: The emotions in learning to teach and to mentor. In P. Schutz & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in teacher emotion research: The impacts on teachers’ lives (pp. 33-53). New York: Springer.
Bullough, R. V. Jr., & Pinnegar, S. (2009). The happiness of teaching (as eudaimonia): Disciplinary knowledge and the threat of performativity, Teachers and Teaching, 15(2), 241-256.
Cho, D. (2005). Lessons of love: Psychoanalysis and teacher-student love. Educational Theory, 55(1), 79-96.
Creswell, J. W. (2002). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research. New Jersey: Upper Saddle River.
Cross, D. I., & Hong, J. Y. (2009). Beliefs and professional identity: Critical constructs in examining the impact of reform on the emotional experiences of teachers. In P. A. Schutz & M. Zembylas (Eds.), Advances in teacher emotion research: The impact on teachers’ lives (pp. 273-296). New York: Springer.
Damasio, A., Stella, F., & Helderman, S. (2010). Self comes to mind. USA: Brilliance Audio, Incorporated. ‏
Day, C., Sammons, P., Stobart, G., Kington, A., & Gu, Q. (2007). Teachers matter: Connecting work, lives, and effectiveness. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Dewaele, J.-M. (2015). On emotions in foreign language learning and use. The Language Teacher, 39(3), 13-15.
Edge, J. (1988). Applying linguistics in English language teacher training for speakers of other languages. ELT Journal, 42(1), 9-13.
Farouk, S. (2012). What can the self-conscious emotion of guilt tell us about primary school teachers’ moral purpose and the relationships they have with their pupils? Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18(4), 491-507.
Fisher, C. D. (2000). Mood and emotions while working: Missing pieces of job satisfaction. Journal of Organizational Behavior21(2), 185-202.
Frederickson, B. L. (2004). The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions: Philosophical transactions of the royal society of London. Biological Sciences, 359, 1367-1377.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 47(1), 1-53.
Freeman, D. (2004). Language, sociocultural theory, and L2 teacher education: Examining the technology of subject matter and the architecture of instruction. In M. R. Hawkins (Ed.), Language learning and teacher education: A sociocultural approach (pp. 169-197). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Freeman, D. (2009). The scope of second language teacher education. The Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education, 11-19.
Freeman, D., & Johnson, K. E. (2005). Toward linking teacher knowledge and student learning. Second Language Teacher Education: International Perspectives, 73-95.
Frenzel, A. C. (2014). Teacher emotions. In R. Pekrun & L. Linnenbrink-Garcia (Eds.), International handbook of emotions in education (pp. 494-519). New York: Routledge.
Gibbons, S. (2013). The aims of English teaching: A view from history. Changing English, 20(2), 138-147.
Goldstein, L. (1997). Teaching with love: A feminist approach to early childhood education. New York: Peter Lang.
Golombek, P. R., & Johnson, K. E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: Examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers’ development. Teachers and Teaching10(3), 307-327.
Golombek, P., & Doran, M. (2014). Unifying cognition, emotion, and activity in language teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education39, 102-111.
Graddol, D. (2006). English next. London, UK: British Council.
Gregersen, T. S., & MacIntyre, P. D. (Eds.). (2017).  Innovative practices in language teacher education spanning the spectrum from intra to interpersonal professional development. England: Springer International Publishing AG.
Hargreaves, A. (1998a). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14, 835-854.
Hargreaves, A. (1998b). The emotional politics of teaching and teacher development: With implications for educational leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1, 315-336.
Hargreaves, A. (2000) Mixed emotions: Teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 811-826
Hatch, J. A. (2002). Doing qualitative research in education settings. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Isenbarger, L., & Zembylas, M. (2006). The emotional labor of caring in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(1), 120-134.
Johnson, K. E. (2006). The sociocultural turn and its challenges for second language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly40(1), 235-257.
Johnson, K. E. (2009). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (Eds.). (2011). Research on second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on professional development. New York: Routledge.
Khong, T. D. H., & Saito, E. (2014). Challenges confronting teachers of English language learners. Educational Review, 66(2), 210-225.
King, J. (2016). “It’s time, put on the smile, it’s time!”: The emotional labor of second language teaching within a Japanese university. In C. Gkonou, D. Tatzl, & S. Mercer (Eds.), New directions in language learning psychology (pp. 97-112). Berlin: Springer.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2012). Language teacher education for a global society: A modular model for knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing, and seeing. New York: Routledge.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2017). Complexity theory: The lessons continue. In L. Ortega & Z.-H. Han (Eds.), Complexity theory and language development: In honor of Diane Larsen-Freeman. (pp. 280-299). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). What we can learn from multicultural education research. Educational Leadership, 51(8), 22-26.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.
Little, J. W. (1996). The emotional contours and career trajectories of (disappointed) reform enthusiasts. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26, 345-359.
Little, J. W. (2000). Emotionality and career commitment in the context of rational reforms. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
Loughran, J., & Berry, A. (2005). Modelling by teacher educators. Teaching and Teacher Education21(2), 193-203.
Lortie, D. C. (1975). Schoolteacher: A sociological study. London: The University of Chicago Press.
Lui, D., An, G.-S., Baek, K.-S., & Han, N.-O. (2004). South Korean high school English teachers’ code switching: Questions and challenges in the drive for maximal use of English in teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 38(4), 605-638.
Manning, P. K., & Cullum-Swam, B. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications
Mason, S., & Poyatos Matas, C. (2016). Social capital: A vital ingredient for retaining foreign language teachers. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 1, 1-19.
McLaren, P. (2000). Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of possibility. Freirean Pedagogy, Praxis, and Possibilities: Projects for the New Millennium, 1-22.
McMillan, J. H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based inquiry. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Merriam, S. B. (2010). Adult learning. In P. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), An encyclopedia of education (pp.12-17). USA: Elsevier Science.
Nguyen, M. (2014). Preservice EAL teaching as emotional experiences: Practicum experience in an Australian secondary school. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(8), 63-84.
Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about feeling: The emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26, 293-306.
Nieto, S. (2002). Language, culture, and teaching: Critical perspectives for a new century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Noddings, N. (2005). What does it mean to educate the whole child? Educational Leadership, 63(1), 8-13.
Norman, D. A. (1981). Twelve issues for cognitive science. In D. A. Norman (Ed.), Perspectives on cognitive science (pp. 265-295). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
O’Connor, K. E. (2008). “You choose to care”: Teachers emotions and professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 117-126.
Pappa, S., Moate, J., Ruohotie-Lyhty, M., & Etelapelto, A. (2017). CLIL teachers in Finland: The role of emotions in professional identity negotiation. Apples, 11(4), 79-99.
Pekrun, R. (2009). Emotions at school. In R. W. Kathryn & A. Wigi (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (pp. 575-604). New York: Routledge.
Pekrun, R., vom Hofe, R., Blum, W., Frenzel, A. C., Goetz, T., & Wartha, S. (2007). Development of mathematical competencies in adolescence: The PALMA longitudinal study. In M. Prenzel (Ed.), Studies on the educational quality of schools: The final report of the DFG priority program (pp. 17-37). Munster: Waxmann.
Phelps, P. H., & Benson, T. R. (2012). Teachers with a passion for the profession, Action in Teacher Education, 34(1), 65-76.
Richards, J. C., & Farrell, T. S. C. (2005). Professional development for language teachers: Strategies for teacher learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ruohotie-Lyhty, M. (2013). Struggling for a professional identity: Two newly qualified language teachers’ identity narratives during the first years at work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 30(1), 120-129.
Ross, A. S. (2015). From motivation to emotion: A new chapter in applied linguistics research. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL, 10(1), 1-27.
Sarason, S. B. (1998). Political leadership and educational failure. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Saunders, R. (2013). The role of teacher emotions in change: Experiences, patterns, and implications for professional development. Journal of Educational Change, 14, 303-333.
Spencer, D., Walby, K., & Hunt, A. (Eds.). (2012). Emotions matter: A relational approach to emotions. London: University of Toronto Press.
Stets, J. E. (2012). Current emotion research in sociology: Advances in the discipline. Emotion Review, 4(3), 326-334.
Stough, L. M., & Emmer, E. (1998). Teachers’ emotions and test feedback, Qualitative Studies in Education, 11, 341-361.
Sweeney, D. (2003). Learning along the way: Professional development by and for teachers. New York: Stenhouse Publishers.
Tsang, K. K. (2016). Teacher alienation in Hong Kong. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education. Retrieved March 25, 2017, from the World Wide Web: http://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2016.1261084
Tsang, K. K., & Kwong, T. L. (2016). Emotional experience of caam2 in teaching: Power and interpretation of teachers’ work. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1400.Retrieved January 1, 2018, from the World Wide Web: https://www.ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5020618/
Vallerand, R. J., Paquet, Y., Philippe, F. L., & Charest, J. (2010). On the role of passion for work in burnout: A process model. Journal of Personality, 78(1), 289-312. ‏
Xu, Y. (2013). Language teacher emotion in relationships: A multiple case study. In X. Zhu & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Preparing teachers for the 21st century (pp. 371-393). Berlin: Springer.
Yin, H. B. (2016). Knife-like mouth and tofu-like heart: Emotion regulation by Chinese teachers in classroom teaching. Social Psychology of Education, 19, 1-22.
Yin, H. B., & Lee, J. C. K. (2012). Be passionate, but be rational as well: Emotional rules for Chinese teachers’ work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 56-65.
Yuan, E. R. (2016). The dark side of mentoring on preservice language teachers’ identity formation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 55, 188-197.
Yuu, K. (2010). Expressing emotions in teaching: Inducement, suppression, and disclosure as caring profession. Educational Studies in Japan: International Yearbook, 5, 63-78.
Zembylas, M. (2002). Structures of feeling in curriculum and teaching: Theorizing the emotional rules. EducationalTheory, 52, 187-208.
Zembylas, M. (2005). Teaching with emotion: A postmodern enactment. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.