Exploring Hurdles to Professor-Student Rapport and Suggestions to Overcome Them: Voices From Foreign Language Faculty in Iranian Universities

Abstract

Positive professor-student relationship is widely accepted to impact academic outcomes including teacher and teaching efficacy, students’ motivation, and their learning. This qualitative study explores the barriers to professor-student rapport experienced by foreign language (FL) faculty in Iranian universities. Employing in-depth interviews with 46 FL professors from public and private universities across Iran, the hybrid thematic analysis identified two core themes: (1) Personal-Socio-Cultural barriers (academic snobbery and instructor inauthenticity), and (2) Organizational-Institutional barriers (pressure to publish and gender sensitivity). The two themes and their sub-themes will be elaborated upon in this article. The article concludes by discussing the purposeful and potential solutions to overcome these barriers, including training programs focused on fostering authenticity and humility, re-evaluating publication metrics, and promoting a more open and inclusive academic culture.