The Influences of Online Teaching on Iranian EAP Teachers’ Professional Identity (Re)Construction

Abstract

In recent years, online education has become a significant part of teachers’ professional career. Moreover, it has been argued that contexts of teaching are significantly influential in EAP teachers’ practices and identities. Despite these points, little research has examined EAP teachers’ identity construction in online contexts. The present study addressed this gap by exploring the impacts of online education on 20 Iranian EAP teachers’ identity construction. The participants were interviewed and thematic analysis was run to analyze the data. The findings revealed that online education influenced the teachers’ personal, pedagogical, and social identities. More specifically, it was found that the teachers could reconstruct their identities in light of the challenges and affordances of online teaching and adopt new identities that featured concerns with both their EAP and educator responsibilities. These findings are then discussed and implications for teacher educators are offered so that they could help EAP teachers construct their identities in online settings effectively.

Keywords

• eap teacher identity
• identity reconstruction
• iranian eap teachers
• online education
• online teacher identity