Iranian EAP Teachers' Emotional Trajectories and Professional Identity Re-Construction: A Qualitative Study on EAP Teachers through Positioning Theory Lens

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Gholamreza Zareian
Department of TEFL, College of Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University
10.22034/quipls.2025.2057564.1003
Abstract
Through the lens of positioning theory, this study probed into Iranian EAP teachers’ professional identity development with regard to their emotional trajectories. Participants included 12 EAP teachers teaching English to the students of Islamic History, who were studied using Gadamerian hermeneutics. Data collected through hermeneutic interviews and reflective journals were analysed using hybrid thematic analysis. Three main themes were identified, reflecting teachers’ movement from their pre-positioning or willingness towards their negotiated teacher identity: a) the third space of hybridity between the global and local, b) re-imagining religious identity, and c) de-familiarisation: shifting from technical terms and specialised grammar towards real-life topics. These themes showed a need for translanguaging turn, post-secular orientation, and life capital acknowledgement in EAP practices to humanise EAP, help EAP teachers practice their agentive teacher identity, and shift the aim of teaching EAP from improving intra-lingual language competence towards cultivating the trans-lingual competence.

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