Religious Teachers' Perceptions of Their Religious Identity: A Case of Iranian English Language Teachers

Teacher identity has turned out to be of great importance in teacher pedagogical practice. A number of factors are implicated in shaping and reshaping teachers’ identities. Despite numerous studies on teacher identity, language teacher religious identity has remained under-researched. Therefore, the current study examined how Iranian religious English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers are identified. To do so, 30 religious teachers were selected through the purposive sampling method. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, developed based on Simon’s (2004) six components of identity, namely personal features, physical characteristics, special abilities, behavioral qualities, ideological attributes, and group membership. The results demonstrated that religious teachers tend to manifest certain Islamic-based personal attributes like fairness and kindness and also adhere to some Islamic rules of physical features like head covering for females and dignified clothes for males. In addition, religious teachers' behaviors and performances were profoundly affected by their religious background, realized in their attempts to control their anger, to avoid insulting and backbiting, and to disregard or replace the materials which seem to be against the Islamic thought. The findings of the study can have practical implications for teachers, institute administrators, and other stakeholders whose cognizance of religious teachers’ identity could help prevent possible identity tensions.