The Interrelationship Between Iranian EFL Teachers’ Locus of Control and Resilience in Terms of Experience[Latin Thesis]

Negar Mohammadian

Teachers’ locus of control and resilience are significant as they may directly affect their teaching effectiveness. In addition, understanding the mediating role of teaching experience in the amount of correlation of locus of control and resilience can lead to better predictions about teachers’ performance in the classroom. Thus, the present study was an attempt to discover the relationship between teachers’ locus of control and resilience in terms of teaching experience. To this end, an explanatory mixed-methods research approach was adopted. In the quantitative phase, 125 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers with different levels of teaching experience were non-randomly selected to complete the two questionnaires of Teacher Locus of Control Scale and Teacher Resilience Scale. In the qualitative phase, 30 of the teachers who took part in the quantitative phase were interviewed to examine the role of teaching experience in teachers’ locus of control. The first research question was answered through analyzing the data collected from the quantitative phase through running Pearson correlation. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant correlation between teachers’ locus of control and resilience in terms of teaching experience. The findings also indicated that teaching experience significantly predicted teachers’ locus of control and resilience level. In response to the second research question, analysis of the qualitative data revealed that experienced teachers (6-10 & 11-15 years) had mainly internal locus of control, and novice teachers (1-5) had external locus of control. The findings of the current study may be beneficial for materials developers, policy makers and EFL teachers. Locus of Control, Resilience, Teachers’ Locus of Control, Teachers’ Resilience, Teaching Experience