A Critical study of EFL Teacher Education in the Context of Iran

The current article reflects upon language teacher education programs in the Iranian context. It is a comprehensive study focusing on language teacher education (LTE) programs in different Iranian settings including schools, universities, and language institutes across the nation. A mixed method strategy was adopted including qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. The methods include using observation and semi-structured interviews for the qualitative phase and a questionnaire for the quantitative one.Participants of this study were divided into three main groups of English language teachers which consisted of 11 university professors teaching English Language and Literature, English translation and English Language Teaching at ShahidBahonar University of Kerman, 15 school English teachers and 14 teachers of English working at language institutes. The findings of the study point to the fact that for the contexts that lack a proper teacher education program, an implementation of such a program should occur, with the aim of educating efficient EFL teachers. It also reveals that there is an urgent need for a rethinking of the process of teacher education as it is practiced now. The current teacher education programs must put aside the transmission model of education and adapt a more transformative approach of teacher education, with the ultimate aim of teacher growth and development.