Problematizing EAP education in Iran: A critical ethnographic study of educational, political, and sociocultural roots

Abstract

The undeniable shortcomings of EAP education in Iran, from unformed policies to uninformed choices of materials based on unverified assumptions to flawed methodologies and haphazard practices by unqualified teachers, has hitherto piqued the interest of several EAP specialists and researchers. They have explored the actual classroom practices to figure out where exactly the problem lies, but to no avail. Most of the studies conducted in this respect have ended up with a mere list of problems faced in this context rather than the sources or how to fix them. Thus, this triangulated ethnographic study deals with a multidimensional analysis of the status of Iranian EAP education to explore the nature and sources of the problems that have brought EAP to its current form. Data were compiled from several sources including: class observation, semi-structured interviews, informal talks, focus-group discussions, and the researchers' retrospection. Participants included 7 subject teachers, 15 ELT instructors, 17 graduate students, and 178 undergraduate students, from eight universities. The data were qualitatively analyzed. Our findings point to the educational, political as well as sociocultural and ethno-religious nature of the higher-level causes of this collective dissatisfaction amongst the stakeholders regarding various dimensions of EAP education.