Document Type : Research article

Authors

• Mohammd Bahrami ¹
• katayoon Afzali ²

¹ Sheikhbahei University

² Sheikhbahaee University

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacherpreneurship, a branch of entrepreneurship, is a pioneering practice in the teaching profession that makes use of innovations and technologies. This study, using a basic interpretive design, aimed to explore the motivating factors of EFL teacherpreneurs as well as the EFL teacherpreneur followers’ motivating and demotivating factors to follow them. EFL teacherpreneurs are self-driven teachers who refuse traditional school environments and harness technology to gain autonomy in affinity spaces as an educational platform. Two groups of participants consisting of 25 Iranian EFL teacherpreneurs and 100 followers of the EFL teacherpreneurs in social affinity spaces created by social media, such as Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, Eitaa, and Instagram, were selected via purposeful sampling. To collect the data, two semi-structured interviews in individual and focus group forms were conducted with the two groups of participants. Data analysis was conducted via the manual thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews. The results indicated that the motivating factors of EFL teacherpreneurs were as follows: making financial gain; providing innovative opportunities for others; experiencing professional development, using technology, sharing knowledge, coping with teaching burnout, practicing creativity and criticality, and enhancing self-efficacy and self-confidence. Moreover, the motivating and demotivating factors for the EFL teacherpreneur followers were as follows: finding new ways of EFL teaching/learning, building new working and social relations, becoming aware of the latest developments in EFL teaching/learning, learning self-directed EFL learning, finding a new identity, enhancing EFL teaching/learning effectiveness,  experiencing shortage of time, financial problems, shortage of facilities, students’ unwillingness and demotivation to learn, and suffering from low digital literacy.

Keywords

• EFL teacherpreneurship
• EFL teacherpreneur
• social affinity spaces EFL teaching
• EFL learning
• motivating factors

Main Subjects

• language teaching