Non-Native EFL Teacher Educators’ Pedagogical Roles: Language Institute Managers’ Perceptions

The pedagogical roles of teacher educators (TEs) in recruiting and educating future language teachers have recently gained attention among language researchers and scholars. Hence, this study set to investigate the pedagogical roles of Iranian non-native teacher educators (TEs) in educating preservice and in-service EFL teachers from the viewpoint of language institute managers. To this end, following a qualitative survey research design, a total of 30 institute managers were selected via the snowball sampling method and engaged in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. The participants’ responses were voice recorded and then thematic analysis was conducted to extract the main themes and subcomponents. The findings of the study showed that institute managers assigned three main instructional roles to TEs: holding preservice/in-service teacher education courses, revising the assessment system, and designing effective language syllabuses. Accordingly, language institute managers believed that effective TEs should not only be responsible for running teacher education courses but also engage in the evaluation process by checking and revising the testing procedures and designing and developing relevant instructional syllabuses in cooperation with educational managers of the institutes. The pedagogical findings of the study are also discussed.