Iranian EFL Teachers' Willingness to Implement Postmethod Pedagogy: A Mixed Methods Study

As a reaction to criticisms levelled against the notion of method, postmethod pedagogy was proposed as a viable solution to compensate for the frequently reported constraints and adequacies associated with the concept of method in applied linguistics. However, the implementation of postmethod pedagogy in language classrooms has been reported to be problematic and contentious. Given the controversial nature of postmethod pedagogy and also the particular context of Iran, the present study investigated the Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' willingness to implement postmethod pedagogy. In so doing, a mixed methods approach was employed in which first a validated postmethod questionnaire was administered to a nationally representative sample of 711 Iranian EFL teachers. Then a series of focus group discussions and individual interviews with 30 teachers were carried out in the qualitative phase of the study. The findings of quantitative data analyses revealed that the Iranian EFL teachers were not willing to implement postmethod principles in their classrooms. Furthermore, the result of the content analysis for the qualitative phase indicated that Iranian EFL teachers do not implement any particular method in the strict sense of the word. Moreover, the teachers mentioned knowledge and experience of teachers; lack of adequate teacher training program; time and financial constraints of teachers; idealistic nature of postmethod; resistance of language institutes; little support of textbook developers; and cultural tradition as the impediments to the implementation of postmethod pedagogy in Iran. Overall, it was concluded that postmethod may not be a relevant and warranted debate to be addressed in Iran and its requirements are unlikely to be met in the status quo of Iranian EFL context.