Are Emotionally Intelligent EFL Teachers More Satisfied Professionally?

Mohammad Hossein Hekmatzadeh ,Laleh Khojasteh ,Nasrin Shokrpour

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.2p.97

Abstract

Despite the fact that Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is an important factor in one’s success in terms of working environment, it is believed that emotional quotient or EQ plays a more important role. With that in mind, this study investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who work at private language institutes in Iran/Shiraz. Furthermore, this study tried to answer whether there is a significant difference between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of Iranian’s EFL teachers in terms of gender. A 90-item Bar-On questionnaire was used to measure the teachers’ emotional intelligence; also, a modified version of Karavas’s (2010) job satisfaction scale was used to see how satisfied our teachers are with their teaching career. To answer the research question, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient statistical test was run. The results showed that there was a positive and significant correlation between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of EFL teachers in Iran/Shiraz. Furthermore, the results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in emotional intelligence between EFL male and female teachers, but there was no statistically significant relationship between Iranian EFL teachers’ job satisfaction in terms of gender. Based on our findings, it is suggested that some preparatory courses aiming at enhancing the important psychological traits such as emotional intelligence should be incorporated in educational programs designed for novice teachers so that it will contribute to pedagogical improvement.

Highlights

Money, manpower, strategy and material are thought of as four significant pillars of any organization, among which manpower is the most important one (Ghazi, Ali, Shahzada & Israr, 2010)
As opposed to English language teachers who work and teach at high schools, this study aimed to choose English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers who teach at private language institutes because the researchers thought that most of the EFL teachers who teach at these particular institutions are not permanently employed
Comparison of the results of this study with teacher-related studies revealed that our finding is in line with those of Anari’s (2012) study in which a positive significant relationship was found between JS and EI of Iranian English high school teachers

Summary

Introduction

Manpower, strategy and material are thought of as four significant pillars of any organization, among which manpower is the most important one (Ghazi, Ali, Shahzada & Israr, 2010). One of the valuable assets of any country is its quality teachers who form the strength of a nation in progression of “human capital for a knowledge-based economy” (Kappagoda, 2011, p.1) This is a crucial role because without a combination of teachers’ skill, knowledge and experience, we wouldn’t have a coherent system to lead the students to a better achievement of their goals. One must be careful in generalizing the teachers’ dissatisfaction to every country and all cultural contexts, it has been reported that teachers are not happy with their jobs because of their low salary, reduced autonomy and heavy workloads, to name a few (Dinham & Scott, 2000; Fenech, 2006).

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