Novice and Experienced Iranian EFL Teachers’ Work Engagement and Affection in Online Classes[پايان نامه لاتين]

Samira Keshavarz

While the concepts of teacher work engagement and affection have been widely scrutinized within the realm of ELT in recent years, the relationship between the two has not been much examined in online classes. With this information in mind, this research study examined the relationship between novice and experienced Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ work engagement and affection in online classes. With this end in view, in this sequential explanatory mixed methods research study, 263 novice (N = 97) and experienced (N = 166) Iranian EFL teachers completed a web-based closed-ended questionnaire, and some of the questionnaire respondents were interviewed (N = 20). Sixteen participated in an online oral semi-structured interview and four provided written answers to the same interview questions. The questionnaire and interview data were respectively collected through snowball and purposive sampling techniques. The questionnaire constituted three sections focusing on the participants’ demographic characteristics; the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), a questionnaire developed by Schaufeli et al. (2002) regarding teacher work engagement; and the PANAS-X questionnaire (an extended version of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect), developed by Watson and Clark (1994) concerning teacher affection. To analyze the quantitative data, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient as well as multiple regression techniques were employed. The quantitative results indicated that a positive and significant correlation existed among vigor, dedication, and absorption for both novice and experienced participants. The same holds true for the correlation between work engagement and affection. The results further demonstrated that dedication and vigor were respectively strong predictors of teacher absorption and that the participants’ affection scores strongly predicted their work engagement scores. The qualitative findings, using content and thematic analyses, revealed that the teacher internal factors were remarkably cited as to the teachers’ perceptions of work engagement. As for the interviewees’ perceptions of affection in online classes, factors related to teacher and learner improvement were noticeably cited. Turning to the factors influencing teacher work engagement and affection, teacher-related factors were cited at an exceptional rate. Finally, factors associated with increased interest, better emotion regulation, and enhancing teacher effectiveness were among the noteworthy responses of the interviewees regarding how affection could influence teacher work engagement. Overall, the examined relationships and predictability scores in conjunction with the interviews emphasize and reinforce the notion of teacher work engagement. Understanding these issues is key to shaping appropriate policies that can promote work engagement. Such appropriate policies can stop teachers and learners feeling alienated from online environments.