Abstract
In March 2020, following the World Health Organisation’s initial declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, educational institutions across the globe commenced closures as a preventive measure to reduce the spread of the disease. This caused a significant disruption to education, impacting more than 1.5 billion students worldwide (Pokhrel & Chhetri, 2021; Ryan, 2023). It resulted in impeded in-person schooling as the brick-and-mortar education became unfeasible. In this unprecedented crisis, educators were tasked with transitioning to online instruction without appropriate training. They had to adapt their roles and responsibilities to the new educational landscape and to reinvent their identities. The current study aimed to investigate the impact of the sudden transitioning to online teaching on the professional identity of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Iran. Similar to educational contexts worldwide, online education was not widely adopted in Iran prior to the pandemic. As such, this global health crisis marked the initial and widespread shift to online education, characterised by a reactive response to a crisis rather than the carefully planned strategies.To investigate the professional identity of teachers, the current study identified influential factors shaping teachers’ professional identity following an in-depth review of the literature. The focused factors included self-efficacy, job commitment, job satisfaction, agency and changes in motivation levels. A mixed-method approach, including quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews, examined the contributors to Iranian EFL teachers’ professional identity among the identified factors. The quantitative analysis showed that self-efficacy, job commitment, agency and change in the level of motivation significantly predicted EFL teachers’ professional identity in the face of adversity. It was also revealed that these influential factors consistently contributed to teachers’ professional identity regardless of their prior online teaching experience, overall teaching tenure or gender. Subsequently, the qualitative analysis revealed several key factors additionally shaping their professional identity. These included aspects of professional development, learner-teacher interaction, autonomy, student engagement, financial matters and workload. By examining the changes brought about by the pandemic, the findings of the present study offer recommendations for practices that can improve teaching and learning in the post-pandemic era by strengthening their current and future resilience. These evidence-based endorsements aim to inform educators, policymakers, teacher educators and appropriate educational institutions on developing improved education at all levels, resilient to unexpected crises.
| Date of Award | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Beata Webb (Supervisor), Gaelle Brotto (Supervisor), Marie-Claire Patron (Supervisor) & Masanori Matsumoto (Supervisor) |