Abstract
The present study attempted to give insight into the features of an effective English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education program by exploring student teachers’ beliefs, ideas, and the challenges they encounter during their teacher education program. The data were collected through several semi-structured focus group interview sessions with a total number of forty-one BA, MA, and PhD students studying teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) at university. The qualitative grounded theory design was used to analyze the data, and the findings of the study were corroborated with interpretations obtained from the informal observation of several university classes in a TEFL teacher education program in Iran. The inductive analysis of the data resulted in developing the following categories: the challenge of developing the ability to move back and forth from theory to practice, the struggle to establish a professional identity, the quest for the ‘self’, less-practiced reflective practice, and the missing connection between teacher education programs and schools. The discussion concerning the challenges and issues culminated in implications for EFL teacher education programs through which they can take the issues that student teachers normally experience into account and help them pave the way for an effective EFL teacher education program.
Highlights
Language teacher education programs are designed worldwide to comply with criteria and benchmarks for language pedagogy assigned by education decision-makers and the administrations of the respective contexts
Within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education in Iran, where TE programs generally design their curriculum based on transmission models of TE (Safari & Rashidi, 2015), STs and teacher educators are asking for more practical courses such as practicums and classroom observations to be included in the program and help empower STs as they attempt to overcome the realities of classrooms (Gholami & Qurbanzada, 2016)
Please note that the categories that emerged from the data were obtained from the participants of the three degree levels, the researchers have not discussed them in separate sections for each degree level since the ultimate goal of the present study was to explore the features of a comprehensive TE program in the view of STs and those essential features could not be devoted to one specific degree level
Summary
Language teacher education programs are designed worldwide to comply with criteria and benchmarks for language pedagogy assigned by education decision-makers and the administrations of the respective contexts. Globalization and its impact on education regarding the system, policies, programs, curricula, and students in TE programs (Paine, 2019) have arisen the need for the emergence of shifts in the traditions of foreign language learning and teaching, and this basically requires restructuring and rethinking of TE assumptions (Kumaravadivelu, 2012) In their attempt to investigate the features of an effective TE program, scholars discussed the unhelpfulness of top-down models to TE. Following a predetermined curriculum and incorporating a static view of teaching (Richards, 1990), transmission-based TE programs are oriented toward the transfer of specific contents and knowledge as well as prescribed methodologies to STs, neglecting the context and STs’ involvement and autonomy (Kumaravadivelu, 2012) This technicist approach, through which theories produced by scholars are presented through a number of isolated courses without illuminating their connection to practice, results in the gap between theory and practice (Korthagen, 2010). Within the context of EFL teacher education in Iran, where TE programs generally design their curriculum based on transmission models of TE (Safari & Rashidi, 2015), STs and teacher educators are asking for more practical courses such as practicums and classroom observations to be included in the program and help empower STs as they attempt to overcome the realities of classrooms (Gholami & Qurbanzada, 2016)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
