Humanized EAP Education in Iran: Exploring Barriers to Implementation

Humanized pedagogy, which prioritizes students' unique identities, voices, and lived experiences, aligns theoretically with the mission of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), which aims to socialize learners into academic communities. Despite this alignment, there is a lack of empirical research examining how such pedagogy can be operationalized within the specific socio-educational context of Iranian EAP programs. This qualitative study employs Constructivist Grounded Theory to investigate the impediments to embedding humanized pedagogy within Iranian EAP programs. Through semi-structured interviews and life history narratives with ۱۶ EAP instructors and eight ELT/EAP educators across Iranian universities, the research elucidates that a content-centric focus, misconceptions equating general English proficiency with academic competence, and a reductionist view of EAP as mere terminology acquisition undermine the integration of humanized principles. These challenges are compounded by fragmented curricula and a lack of specialized EAP teacher education. The findings offer transformative reforms, including participatory curriculum development and robust EAP-specific teacher education, to align instructional practices with learners' academic and professional aspirations. This study contributes to the literature by contextualizing humanized pedagogy within Iranian EAP, offering implications for policymakers and educators to foster inclusive, empowering academic environments. It proposes actionable reforms to align instructional practices with students' diverse identities, voices, and academic aspirations, enhancing their socialization into professional academic communities.

کلیدواژه ها:

Constructivist Grounded Theory ، Curriculum Coherence ، English for Academic Purposes ، Humanized Pedagogy ، Teacher Education