Iranian State School English Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Competence: Exploring the Role of Gender and Teaching Experience

Document Type : research article

Authors

Department of Teaching English, Faculty of Humanities, Ayatollah Ozma Borujerdi University, Borujerd City, Iran.

Abstract

As English teachers’ professional competence may be affected by different factors, it is necessary to investigate Iranian English teachers’ perceptions of professional competence with respect to the role of gender and teaching experience. Hence, the aims of the present study are two-fold. First, to explore the Iranian state school English teachers’ perceptions of professional competence and its components. Second, to investigate the role of gender and teaching experiences in the Iranian state school teachers’ professional competence. To this aim, a total of 338 state school English teachers, including both genders were selected through a random sampling method. The participants responded to the professional competence questionnaire, developed and validated by Khodadadi and Maghsoodi (2020). The collected data were analyzed using the calculation of the percentage of each item, a Freedman test, an independent sample t-test, and a one-way ANOVA. Findings evidenced that the professional competence components, including knowledge, skills, and attitudes were considered important by the participants. Additionally, the results documented that there was not a statistically significant difference between the male teachers and female teachers concerning their professional competence. Furthermore, the results disclosed that there was not a statistically significant difference among the participants of different teaching experiences. The study ends with presenting a range of implications and suggestions for further research.

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Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Foreign Language Research
Volume 13, Issue 1
May 2023
Pages 109-128

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