An In-depth Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Role Identities: A Case of Iranian EFL Teachers

EFL teacher's identity plays a significant role in the construction of teachers' characteristics in educational settings. In the Iranian EFL context, the study of teachers' role identity has been given more attention in recent years. The present study has two objectives. First, it aimed to investigate Iranian EFL teachers' perception of their role identity. The study also intended to determine the dominant role identities among participants. To this end, 19 Iranian EFL teachers were chosen through purposive sampling from three universities in Shiraz, Iran. Three data collection methods including semi-structured interview, classroom observation and narrative inquiry were used to collect data. The data were analyzed through Wellington's (2000) staging method. The findings revealed that various EFL teachers' role identities could be categorized under three main themes of teacher as a manager, professional and acculturator based on Farrell's (2011) model. The results of chi-square analysis also revealed that two role of teacher as a knowledge transmitter and caregiver were more dominant EFL teachers' role identities among Iranian EFL teachers in the present study. The findings can have pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, educators and educational staff to better understand teachers' role identities in various contexts.