Context As A Shaper Of EFL Teacher Identity: Mediating Role Of Professional Development

Abstract

Generally, professional development initiatives focus mainly on enhancing teachers’ classroom practices. However, teaching practices without being cognizant of students’ culture and teaching contexts rarely have an impact on students’ learning outcomes. With regard to language teaching, teachers’ knowledge of teaching context is a pivotal factor in learners’ language development. This paper reports on a study that explored how the Cambridge English Teacher (CET) professional development program influenced knowledge of teaching context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in a Saudi Arabian public university. Utilizing convergent parallel mixed-methods design, survey questionnaire and semi-structured interviews provide the data to explore the CET experiences of 130 EFL teachers. The combined quantitative and qualitative results show that because of the CET, the participants’ knowledge of the Saudi EFL context was enhanced in the following areas: the status of the English language in Saudi society, learners’ culture, adaptation to institutional policies, building rapport with learner, and learning from multicultural colleagues. Specifically, the findings indicated that EFL teachers from different linguistics backgrounds gained an understanding of how the English language is taught through using culturally sensitive methodologies. Finally, the article recommends steps that seek to help institutes provide context-specific PD to teachers as well as offers directions for current practices and future research.