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Agheshteh H, Saeedi S. Resistance in Language Teacher Supervision in Iran: Identifying the Sources and Developing Strategies to Manage the Mess. JCALS 2024; 1 (2) : 10
URL: http://cals.gonbad.ac.ir/article-1-51-en.html

Language teacher supervision, which is mainly characterized by power asymmetry and imbalance, is a highly complex process that involves a number of potentially huge challenges, one of which is the English language teachers’ resistance and even reluctance to change their teaching behavior as instructed and required by the language teacher supervisors. Drawing on Foucault’s (1990) concept of power and resistance and Vygotsky’s (1978) social constructivism, the present study mad an attempt to identify the principal sources of this potential resistance and reluctance to change in the Iranian EFL supervision context and develop some coherent strategies to tactfully manage the problem at hand. The qualitative data which were obtained from semi-structured interviews were rigorously analyzed by using constant comparative analysis. The themes which were developed as the main sources of teacher resistance and reluctance to change included the following: (1) language teacher supervisors’ top-down views, (2) language teachers’ and supervisors’ conflicting beliefs on learning and teaching (3) classroom dynamics, and (4) contextual variability. The themes that were developed as possible strategies to successfully manage the problem were (1) supervisors’ acceptance of healthy resistance, (2) adopting a dialogic approach, (3) considering contextual variability, (4) using above-the-utterance-level mitigation, and (5) developing public relations skills.