A Closer Look at EFL Teacher Education and the Role of Mentoring in Iran: Teachers’ Attitudes in Focus

This survey study aimed to investigate the attitudes of Iranian EFL teachers towards EFL teacher education and the role of mentoring in Iran. In so doing, 235 EFL language teachers in public schools (PSs) from 108 cities and 30 EFL teacher educators in various branches of Farhangian University (FUs) from 9 cities were invited to give their attitudes through using two close-ended questionnaires in relation to factors such as (i) employment of EFL teachers and teacher educators, (ii) in-service EFL teacher training programs, (iii) mentoring in EFL teacher education and (iv) the system of evaluation and feedback in Iranian teacher education. The study concluded none of the various ways of EFL teacher employment in Iran enjoys the standards of in-service developmental programs offered by the Ministry of Education. Similarly, the employees do not experience any mentoring scheme in their career and hence their teaching is rarely subjected to any feedback or evaluation. Moreover, the respondents believed that even the in-service programs did not gain their objectives as they generally suffered from inefficient planning as well as ineffective tutors. Such ideas were evident in the responses of both PS teachers and teacher educators at various branches of FU. The study, therefore, suggests that serious thoughts need to be put into EFL teacher education programs of the country, and that effective mentoring and evaluation schemes have to included in them.