Orchestrating human and artificial intelligence: a model for collaborative reflective practice in EFL teacher development

The challenge of planning effective professional development (PD) for language teachers is particularly pronounced in complex linguistic, cultural, and institutional settings. This narrative inquiry investigates a seven-month synergistic PD model involving 20 Iranian EFL teachers from private high schools. The seven-month model followed bi-weekly cycles: (1) classroom teaching + individual journaling; (2) 90-minute face-to-face CoP dialogue; (3) asynchronous WhatsApp/Telegram peer discussion; (4) independent ChatGPT engagement using CoP-generated prompts, with critical evaluation logged. This cyclical sequence – repeated 14 times – forced interdependence across modalities. Data from interviews, reflective essays, AI logs, and digital discussions were analyzed using MAXQDA. Six main themes emerged. First, relational trust and psychological safety were foundational prerequisites for honest dialogue and professional risk-taking. Second, ICT platforms functioned as ‘connective tissue’ – supporting continuous, asynchronous reflective dialogue across time and space and transforming reflection from an isolated event into a continuous collective process. Third, AI played a dual, experience-contingent role: it served as scaffolding for novice teachers, who valued its immediate instructional guidance and reduced isolation (coded 56 times), and as disruptor for experienced teachers, who critically questioned its decontextualized, often Western-centric outputs and found their entrenched assumptions challenged (coded 42 times). Fourth, teachers experienced professional identity renewal – reporting increased confidence, agency, and resilience. Fifth, systemic contextual constraints persisted, comprising institutional ambivalence, policy–practice gaps, and digital inequities. Sixth, teachers vigorously engaged in the cultural translation of technology, adapting AI-produced content to align with local curricula and collectivist norms, and developed informal community workarounds.