Beyond Fears and Hopes for Teaching English: An Investigation of Iranian Pre-service and In-service EFL Teachers' Possible Selves

Document Type : مقالات علمی پژوهشی

Authors
M. Maghsoudi 1
M. H. Mahmoodi 2
A. Khodamoradi 3
1 Department of English Language Teaching, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of English, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
3 Department of English Language Teaching, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran.
10.48311/LRR.15.3.135
Abstract
Possible selves represent individuals' ideas of what they might become, what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming. This paper, using a mixed method design, probes the possible teaching selves of 108 pre-service and 41 in-service Iranian EFL teachers to explore their professional fears and hopes. Data were collected via Possible Language Teacher Self Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the qualitative data using MAXQDA demonstrated the fears and hopes of the teachers in terms of professionalism, instructional strategies, classroom management and professional interpersonal relationship. Moreover, both fears and hopes were found to be rooted in personal (cognitive and affective) and social (mostly organizational) sources. Further, analysis of quantitative data via ANOVA, independent-samples T-test also revealed that the pre-service teachers and their in-service counterparts are similar in terms of their feared and ideal to selves whereas their ought self has a determining role in justifying the observable variations in their possible self. In addition, pre-service teachers' year of education was also found to be a significant factor affecting their possible selves; that is, it was shown that first-year, second-year and third-year pre-service teachers' ought self is significantly different from that of in-service teachers. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between fourth-year-pre-service teachers and in-service teachers in terms of their ought self. 



 

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.01.007
Language Related Research
Volume 15, Issue 3 - Serial Number 81
July and August 2024
Pages 135-160