Secondary- level EFL Teachers' Perceptions toward Doing Research and Their Challenges in Research Engagement

Subject Areas : Teacher training and professional development in second language instruction

Sara Noroozi ¹ , Effat Fathi ² , Ghlamreza Zareian ^{3 *} , Mohammad Reza Amirian ⁴

1 - Department of English, Ne.C. Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran
2 - Department ofEducation, Sabzevar
3 - Hakim Sabzevari University
4 - Hakim Sabzevari University

Received: 2025-03-01 Accepted : 2025-06-25 Published : 2025-07-01

Keywords: Research engagement, teacher research, reasons for research engagement, challenges on RE, Iranian EFL teachers ,

Abstract :

The present study employs a mixed-methods design to examine Iranian EFL teachers' engagement with and in research in the context of the secondary level EFL teachers in Iran. The researcher gathered empirical information from 100 English language teachers who teach at various lower-secondary and upper-secondary public high schools and also some private language institutions mostly located in the city of Sabzevar in Khorasan Razavi province. The findings indicated that the EFL teachers' engagement in/with research in the research context was not a frequent activity and most of them were engaged with/in research in a less than a moderate level therefore RE was a minority activity. EFL teachers also highlighted mostly external reasons for research engagement. The impeding factors were firstly related to lack of financial supports and economic matters and secondly to the barriers related to non-collaborative school culture in the context of the study. The study has some implications and applications of the findings and also some suggestions for further studies.

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