A qualitative study of iranian efl university teachers’ attitude towards professional development

Abstract

Within the past few years, teachers have no longer been conceived as mere transmitters of knowledge. The image of the teacher as the exclusive holder of all the information related to teaching and learning has changed dramatically. It the new context, teachers are supposed to act as transformative agents who pay attention to new aspects of their profession in the process of developing professionally as individuals. In other words, the concept of teachers’ professional development (PD) has been recently viewed as a continuous process focusing on planned and systematic activities designed to trigger and enhance their growth. The current status of professional development in Iran, however, is not satisfactory. Summarizing the findings of the interview with the small group of English university teachers, this study attempted to find out the attitudes of participants to PD and discuss the constraints they faced on their way towards PD. Results indicated that a number of impeding factors have influenced the effective implementation of PD policies which need a reoriented and revitalized perspective to make them more compatible with new requirements of the present context.