Proletarianization of English Language Teaching: Iranian EFL teachers and their alternative role as transformative intellectuals

Abstract

In the field of English Language Teaching (ELT), attention has been shifted toward the alternative role of teachers as transformative intellectuals whereby transformation in teaching occurs from control and technical operations to criticism and intellectual reflection. This role enables teachers to focus on marginalized students’ lived experiences and worlds to transform them into active and critical citizens who are emancipated to develop their voices and question the status quo. Through critically examining the learning milieu that maintains injustice and inequality, students struggle to connect it to sociopolitical conditions in wider society, and eventually transform it to meet the desired ideologies and thinking. This paper attempts to scrutinize teachers’ role as transformative intellectuals and their challenges through the transformation process. Thus, the researcher used purposive sampling to select 26 teachers in four private language institutes of Tehran, Shiraz, and Yazd, Iran to adopt the role of transformative intellectuals based on theoretical principles and concepts of critical pedagogy. Semi-structured interview and an online focus group were used to collect data. Data analysis disclosed transformations and benefits as well as the challenges resulting from teachers becoming transformative intellectuals. The fruitful findings of this study are insightful, since this study is an example to show how language teachers can create transformation in the EFL context, change their fossilized role, and empower oppressed students within the institutionalized and oppressive system of schooling.

Construction and validation of barriers to Iranian ESP instructors’ reflective practice scale

“…Despite the controversy, the overall inclination in Iran is that teachers have become accustomed to a process of proletarianization (Safari, 2016; Safari and Rashidi, 2015) where memorization is the accepted status (Stapleton, 2011). On top of that, it seems that teachers have unwittingly accepted that their sole responsibility is to implement the imposed curriculum rather than actively participating in the process of curriculum development (Safari, 2016). This can be partly due to the social conformity encouraged by the sociopolitical norms (Atai and Mazlum, 2013; Enayat et al , 2015) which prevents any movement towards implementing higher-order thinking.…”

Constructing and validating a questionnaire on barriers to EFL learners’ reflective writing

“…Moreover, the authoritarian atmosphere in the educational setting, known as managerialism, has turned the atmosphere to be ineffective and dehumanized (see Soodmand and Farahani, 2018, p.59). Such a widespread condition in the Iranian EFL context (Safari, 2016) has to lead to ineffective reflective practice (Baldwin, 2004) which can adversely affect students' reflectivity. Future studies can shed more light on the issue.…”

Teachers’ engagement within educational policies and decisions improves classroom practice: The case of Iranian ELT school teachers

“…In sum, Iranian teachers are not empty containers (Safari & Rashidi, 2015b, 2015d) and in Freire’s (1996) sense, to be filled with the bits and pieces of knowledge and information transmitted from educators into their minds; rather, they are active agents who can contextualize their teaching on the basis of the requirements of the learning situation, characteristics of students, and their own personal history (Safari, 2016a). Thus, even in the case of imposed curriculum, contents, and materials, teachers show that they have agency and autonomy, moving beyond the bureaucratic constraints.…”