Delving into EFL Teacherpreneurship: The Perceptions of Iranian EFL Teacherpreneurs and their Followers in Social Affinity Spaces

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English, Foreign Language Faculty, Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of English, Foreign Language Faculty, Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacherpreneurship, a branch of entrepreneurship, is a pioneering practice in the teaching profession that makes use of innovation and technologies. This study, using a basic interpretive design, aimed to explore the motivating factors of EFL teacherpreneurs as well as the EFL teacherpreneurs’ 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 social affinity spaces as an educational platform. Two groups of participants consisting of 25 Iranian EFL teacherpreneurs and 100 followers of the EFL teacherpreneurs following them in social affinity spaces, 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 implemented 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 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 teacherpreneurs’ followers were 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,  along with suffering from shortage of time, financial problems, shortage of facilities, students’ unwillingness and demotivation to learn, and low digital literacy.

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References

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Journal of Language Horizons
Volume 8, Issue 3 - Serial Number 21
November 2024
Pages 35-63

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