Exploring EFL Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Teacher Supervision in Iranian Language Schools

Although supervision is an integral component of EFL teacher professional development, there have not been enough studies on language teacher supervision and EFL teachers’ attitudes toward supervision. The present study investigated EFL teachers’ attitudes toward supervision in Iranian language schools. To this end, 218 EFL teachers who received supervision were selected and asked to complete a teacher supervision questionnaire (Moradi, Sepehrifar, & Khadiv, 2014) to elicit their attitudes, feelings, and experiences toward supervision. The questionnaire consisted of five subcategories: teachers’ evaluation of supervision, their attitudes toward the mode of supervision, the contributions of teacher-supervision to their development, and the process before, during, and after supervision. The findings revealed that a great number of the participants harbored this view that the current supervision is useful for them and necessary for novice teachers. However, some held negative attitudes toward supervision as it puts them under pressure, creates anxiety, and damages their confidence and motivation. They found their supervisors’ feedback unsatisfactory mainly done for paperwork formalities. To improve the ongoing supervisory practices, they suggested the need for the development of transparent criteria and rubrics for supervision and called for discontinuation of unannounced and sudden supervisory observations.