Developing foreign language teacher enjoyment among Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers: A cross-cultural study

Abstract

With the burgeoning of positive psychology, foreign language teaching enjoyment (FLTE) was introduced as a combination of personal and social enjoyment and student appreciation. Despite its critical role in language teachers’ professional development and psychological growth, scant qualitative attention has been paid to clarify how it can be developed. Moreover, there needs to be more cross-cultural evidence to clarify the role of contextual and cultural factors in shaping teachers' FLTE. Therefore, this study explored how Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers experienced and developed enjoyment in their teaching careers. The study followed a cross-sectional and cross-cultural perspective as a research design. Purposeful and convenience sampling strategies were used to reach the target participants, and there were 24 Turkish EFL teachers and 22 Iranian EFL teachers in the study. An online survey method involving open-ended questions was employed to collect data. Thematic analysis was performed to interpret the data. The FLTE among Iranian and Turkish teachers were depicted under the main themes of feelings, enhancing factors, challenges, individual coping strategies, and suggested solutions. The findings implied the dynamic nature of FLTE. Based on the findings, several implications were highlighted to enhance the FLTE of Iranian and Turkish EFL teachers in educational contexts.