Iranian Teachers

Investigating teachers’ cognitions, both in general education and in language teaching, has gained momentum in the past few decades. Yet, the practical knowledge-base (PKB) of practitioners who teach languages to students with special needs has not been amply explored. The present study aimed to investigate the personal PKB of EFL teachers of individuals with Down syndrome (IDS). To this end, several classes of three Iranian EFL special education teachers were observed and video-recorded, and the teachers were interviewed using the stimulated-recall method. Analysing the data resulted in the emergence and conceptualization of a framework characterizing the PKB of Iranian EFL special-education teachers in terms of eight major knowledge types: knowledge of learners’ characteristics, learner-based pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of classroom management, visual-impact knowledge, knowledge of self, curriculum knowledge, language subject knowledge, and contextual knowledge. These knowledge types and particularly their subcomponents are argued to be heavily reminiscent of the teachers’ learner-centered (vs. content-oriented) attention to their students’ special needs, characteristics, motivations, limitations, potentials, and deprivations. Dealing with an under-researched domain, the study is hoped to sensitize ELT special-education teachers, teacher trainers, and policy-makers to the possibilities and requirements of quality teaching to IDS. 

Since teachers’ perceptions of work engagement can strongly shape their engagement level, it is imperative to explore how teachers perceive this construct and its associated dimensions. With this in mind, some researchers have evaluated teachers’ beliefs and attitudes towards this notion.  Notwithstanding this, to the authors’ knowledge, no study has examined language teachers’ viewpoints on this variable and its significance in online EFL classes. To bridge these gaps, this phenomenological study explored Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions and experiences of work engagement and its value in online English courses. To this aim, using the purposive sampling strategy, a total of 21 EFL teachers were chosen from different state, private, and non-profit universities in Iran. To obtain the required data, all participants were invited to complete an open-ended questionnaire. To reach more comprehensive data, from among the 21 participants, nine willingly took part in a 20-minute interview session. Results obtained from content analysis revealed that Iranian EFL teachers considered work engagement as a complex variable with four related dimensions of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social engagement. The results also indicated that Iranian teachers perceived work engagement as an important professional behavior that results in increased academic achievements, professional advancement, improved teaching quality, and strong teacher-student rapport. Hence, education leaders and teacher educators should support Iranian EFL teachers in enhancing work engagement dimensions to improve professional growth and teaching quality.