The relationship between English learning and professional identity changes among Iranian PhD teachers

This mix-method study investigated Iranian PhD teachers professional identity changes associated with English learning. For this reason, 130 PhD teachers (39 female and 91 male) were selected from different majors and from five different Universities of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Azad University of Ardabil, Payame Noor University of Ardabil, Tabriz University, and Allameh Tabataba i University of Tehran. Teachers exposed to a 19-item questionnaire which designed by Cheung to determine the amount of teachers commitment to three domains of professional identity, including student needs, school issues, and personal growth and development with a 5-point Likert scale. Then they answered the interview questions about the same domains. Main findings of the study are as follow, first, female teachers were more committed to the three professional domains than male teachers. Second, as the level of proficiency raise the amount of commitment to professional domains increase too. Third, compared to non-English major teachers, English major teachers demonstrated higher amount of commitment in all domains. Almost all teachers unanimously believed that English learning has a key role in personal growth and development in their professional environment. General results indicate that teachers underwent professional identity changes after learning English.

کلیدواژه ها:

Identity change ، language learning ، professional identity