Teachers as Leaders: Probing into the Class Routines of Selected Iranian ELT Contexts

Abstract

In the absence of studies on leadership skills of English language instructors, this enquiry explored transformational leadership skills of ten English teachers in the contexts of five private language institutes in Tehran. Purposive sampling was adopted to choose ten experienced male and female teachers, holding an academic degree in English, teaching intermediate level students in five English language teaching centers. Data was collected through classroom observations, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The framework for transformational leadership offered by Bolkan and Goodboy (2011) was utilized. Thematic analysis of the data revealed that our participants represented the majority of behavioral indicators of transformational leadership skills- including indicators of charisma, individual consideration, and intellectual stimulation- in their classroom practice.