An Investigation into the Role of Iranian EFL Teachers' Critical Pedagogical Views in Their Educational Success

ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 144-153, January 2014 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/jltr.5.1.144-153 An Investigation into the Role of Iranian EFL Teachers' Critical Pedagogical Views in Their Educational Success Mohammad Bagher Shabani Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran Mostafa Khorsandi Ilam University, Iran Abstract—Critical pedagogy (CP) brings a new sociopolitical concept of linguistics and language teaching that is beginning to influence the teaching of English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). Having this in mind and in line with previous studies done on this field, the present study investigated the possible relationship between EFL teachers' critical pedagogical views and their professional success evaluated by students. In so doing, the Farsi version of Yilmaz Critical Pedagogy questionnaire was used to obtain the measures of the critical pedagogical views of 76 Iranian EFL teachers (Yilmaz 2009). Additionally students were to estimate teachers' professional success through the Successful Iranian EFL Teacher Questionnaire (SIETQ) (Pishghadam&Moafian, 2009). A statistically significant relationship between the two sets of measures was demonstrated through the Pearson product-moment correlation analysis (r = 0.6, p≤ 0.05).In addition by scrutinizing the details it was concluded that two of the three aspects of critical pedagogy sub-dimensions as defined by Yilmaz (2009) namely ‘function of schools' and ‘emancipator school', are significantly positively correlated with SIET scores using the multiple regression analysis. Implications of the study are further discussed. Index Terms—critical pedagogy, teacher success, teaching enhancement, partial correlation, political education I. INTRODUCTION A. Critical Pedagogy Preparing individuals for informed citizenship in a democratic society has become one of the major goals of teacher education in the past decade. Therefore studying teachers‘ teaching approach and the way such approaches can shed light on what constitute informed and critical individual has recently become a promising area of research and contributed to the field of education as well. In the past decades with the emergence of critical pedagogy the teaching approaches got new shape and this caused a complete change in social studies curriculum in general and the educational system trend in particular. Critical pedagogy is an educational theory which tries to make student informed of hidden curriculums inherent inequalities and encourage them to facilitate and perpetuate systematic forms of oppression both within and outside the classroom. This aim can be fulfilled through helping student think critically. Though critical thinking is basic component of critical pedagogy but critical pedagogy extends over critical thinking by making students aware of oppressions, inequality and social injustices and asking them to get brisk steps toward equal society (Freire, 1973).Critical pedagogy was considered as an essential part of teaching by many researchers because of the complicated sociohistorical and political aspects of language teaching and learning. Language is not is not just the way of communication or expression but according to Norton and Toohey (2004),"a practice that constructs the ways learners understand themselves, their sociohistorical surrounding and their possibility for the future". At first glance, one might wonder where the intersection is that the critical pedagogy construct and teaching standards would meet each other. Critical approach to education with the focus on democratic society, civil involvement and oppressed voices‘ empowerment on one hand seems not to have anything to do with set of principles designed to guide the expectations and assessment of teachers on the other. However reviewing the studies done on this field we claim that not only do these entities have an intersection point but when seeking for a democratic society, educational system establishes a firm niche for itself as fundamental factor leading to this change and it is also the goal of teacher education to prepare critical individuals toward democratic society. (Gibson, 1986; Count, 1978; McLaren, 2003; Case and Clark, 1997; Mayo and McLaren, 1999; Calderon, 2003; Fabillar, 2003; Bassey 1996).So it is obvious why a large range of social educational research has dwelt on the principles of critical pedagogy and the ways such principles can induce the enhancement of informed individual which in turn can lead to democratic society. Nevertheless, the literature review on teachers‘ principles of critical pedagogy and its effect on their attitudes and opinions, in particular their level of educational success, divulges that critical pedagogy has not yet fully been the focus of attention in the realm of EFL teaching. © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 145 B. Teacher Success 1. Characteristics of successful teachers In their book, Brown and Marks (1994) stated that pedagogically successful teachers determine the strong and weak points of their teaching by comparing their own approaches and methods of teaching with those of others; successful teachers enthusiastically delve into details about how they are acting in classroom. Brookfield (1995) states that successful teachers have some traits like avoiding the unnecessary parts, using different kinds of instructional approaches, teaching with level adaptation but stopping regularly to have on the spot correction or feedback, dwelling on the content and their instructional aims. Lowman (1996) believes that the teachers who are the creators of successful concepts of learning for students are successful ones. Considering the claims which were mentioned above different kinds of views can be attributed to successful teachers. Ryans (1967) believed that regarding teacher specific characteristics, people may have different viewpoints about what good teaching is supposed to be and good teaching criteria may vary with respect to different communities perspectives. (as cited in Suwandee,1995, p. 9). 2. Teachers role According to Pettis (2002) teacher success can be focus of many studies since with better understanding of the concept teachers can largely improve the quality of teacher education programs. According to Brown (2001) teachers can be considered as change agents to the extent that they can shift the condition from competition to cooperation, from chaos to order, from bias to understanding and from weakness to empowerment (p. 445). According to Sanders and Rivers (1996) teachers are the only most essential factor who is directly influencing student achievement. According to King (2003) teacher quality is considered as a vital essence of teaching program which in turn affects the students' performance. The key role teachers play in the process of language learning has been ascertained by these and many other similar studies. Therefore, it is not amazing that by surfing the related literature, we can find large numbers of successful, effective and good teachers. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Critical Pedagogy 1. Critical pedagogy overview Kincheloe(2004) claims that the concept of critical pedagogy is concerned with people oppression and oppressive power relations throughout the community and it originates from critical theory(p. 45). Kincheloe (2004) also claims that different kinds of theoretical schools have dealt with critical pedagogy and have asked for seeking various oppression perspectives such as gender, race, and class, sexual, cultural, religious, colonial, and ability-related concerns. In a similar vein, critical theorists have investigating new theoretical insights in order to find new and interconnected ways of recognizing power and oppression and the way human life and experience are influenced by them(p. 49). Freire (1973) developed critical consciousness or critical engagement as a way to explore the democratic imperative by deconstructing power relations. Critical consciousness means questioning the assumptions behind an individual‗s actions and attitudes which results in inclusionary and exclusionary practices. This notion is supported by critical pedagogy which is grounded in changing power relationships within the classroom. 2. Critical Pedagogy's background Critical pedagogy has deep historical roots as a philosophy of education. Karl Marx is the first foundation of Critical Pedagogy. The philosophy of the Frankfurt school came after Marxism and critical social theory is precursor to critical pedagogy. The work of Karl Marx and specially his ideas about labor influenced the Frankfurt School and developed the critical theoretical tradition. For Marx socioeconomic inequality is the vital societal problem. According to Eisner (2002) Marx believed that working toward a socialized economy is necessary for all people that each person receives according to her needs and contributes to her ability. Also Marx argued that economic conditions are necessary for social justice. The ''Critical Theorists of the Frankfurt School'' that established in 1923 has a less unified social criticism; however, embracing some of Marx's ideas as they related to schools and education. At first Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimerand most prominently, Herbert Marcus argues that the procedures of schooling obstacles the opportunities for learners to make their own aims and goals, and most importantly serves to de-skill the learners (Apples, 1982; Kincheloe, 2004). According to Gibson (1986) Marxism which is a political/economic view of society based upon the writings of 19th century German philosopher Karl Marx. Marcus and Tar (1984) argue that, in that philosophy, for achieving the last goal of revolution a critique of society is necessary, ending with the aim of having equal society and economy based on socialism. Marcus and Tar (1984) think that Marxism is critical of capitalism looks it as a sick society that achieving equality of people and economy by means of socialism is dismantled (as cited in Hollestein, 2006). According to Marx ''In the social production which men carry on they enter into definitive relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their material forces of production. The sum of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society- the real foundation, in which rises the legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 146 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH of social consciousness. The mode of production in material life determines the social, political and intellectual life in general. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness" (p.365). (as cited in Hollestein, 2006). B. Studies Done on Teacher Success The importance of teachers' role in the process of learning in general and language learning in particular have been verified by many studies. Therefore, it is not unusual that by browsing the same kind of literature, we can encounter many effective, successful and good teachers. Although these evaluations have focused on teachers ‗thinking skills, other characteristics such as affective, cognitive and personality traits have been widely extended by many L2 researchers. For example, the relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‘ emotional intelligence (EQ) and their professional success have been scrutinized by Hashemi (2008), but no significant relation was found between the two variables. A more panoramic view of successful teacher qualities has been suggested by Elizabeth, May and Chee (2008). Professional qualities, Personal qualities and contextual are three groups that they find as the features which are causing influence on teacher success. III. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY As mentioned before, some research has been done on the field of critical pedagogy and on successful teachers‘ characteristics but little if any has been done or reported on the relationship between these two. Because the critical pedagogy concept and characteristics of successful teacher are of high significance in all levels of education and because they contribute to teaching effectiveness, the necessity for further research is felt to examine how these features are related specially in EFL realm. In conclusion, the current study tries to investigate the relationship between EFL teachers‘ view on principle of critical pedagogy and their educational success. It also tries to indicate how much teachers‘ critical pedagogical view contributes, if any, to the prediction of teachers‘ success that in turn contributes to realm of education. More specifically, the study addresses the following questions: 1. Is there any relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogical view and their educational success in teaching? 2. Is there any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and years of teaching experience? 3. Is there any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their age? 4. Is there any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their educational degree? 5. Is there any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their gender? Considering the research questions above this study aims at testing the following null hypotheses: 1. There isn't any relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogical view and their educational success in teaching. 2. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and years of teaching experience. 3. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their age. 4. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their degree. 5. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their gender. IV. METHODOLOGY A. Participants This study consists of two groups of participants. Because the critical pedagogical views of teachers were to be analyzed, the first group of participants was selected from 76 EFL teachers aged between22 and 34 years old with a range of between 1 and 6 years of teaching experience. They consisted of 38 females and 38males from various socioeconomic backgrounds, the majority of whom had majored in the different branches of English—English translation English literature, and English teaching. In order to see how successful the above-mentioned teacher are the second group of participants was chosen to complete questionnaires about their teachers' success. This group consists of 760 EFL learners (students of the abovementioned teachers). They were 371 males and 389 females whose age varied from 14 to 66 and came from various socioeconomic backgrounds. Their educational level varied from high school to MA and their language proficiency varied from elementary to advanced level. B. Instrumentation In the current study, two instruments namely "principle of critical pedagogy" designed by Yilmaz (2009) and "characteristics of successful teacher" by Moafian and Pishgaman (2009) were applied to get information from participants. This questionnaire developed by Yilmaz (2009), involves 31 items with three sub-dimensions namely ―Educational system‖ 15 items ―Functions of Schools‖ 11 items ―emancipator School‖ 5 items. In Turkey, it has been © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 147 used in a study. Factor load values of the scale items ranged from .31 to .80.As Bachman (1990) claims that this method can be considered as one of the most powerful approaches of estimating construct validity. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the scale turned out to be .7.5.The Farsi version of the appraisal was used by the researcher, since the English one was time consuming and difficult for them whose mother tongue was not English. The Cronbach Alpha coefficient of the scale was estimated to be .75.The scale responses were designed as follows: 1- Strongly Disagree, 2Disagree, 3- Fairly Agree, 4- Agree, and 5- Strongly Agree. Total score of the responses indicated the extent to which they agreed with the principles of critical pedagogy. The Persian translation of the questionnaire was applied since answering a 31- item questionnaire in English was time- consuming and difficult for respondents whose mother tongue was not English so a translation version could put them at ease. A copy of the questionnaire's Persian and English translation is provided in Appendices section. The researcher employs the ‗Characteristics of successful EFL teachers‘ questionnaire, to evaluate language teachers‘ performance and success in language teaching which has been designed by Moafian and Pishghadam (in press) and includes 47 items ranging from ‗strongly agree‘ to ‗strongly disagree‘. The results of reliability analysis show that the total reliability of the questionnaire is very high (Cronbach‘s alpha 0.94).The results of factor analysis indicated that the questionnaire measures 12 constructs: teaching accountability, interpersonal relationships, attention to all, examination, commitment, learning boosters, creating a sense of competence, teaching boosters, physical and emotional acceptance, empathy, class attendance, and dynamism (Moafian and Pishghadamop.cit.). The total reliability of the questionnaire was 0.95 that estimated via Cronbach‘s alpha (Ghanizadeh and Moafian, 2010). C. Procedure The employment of an ex post facto design for obtaining measures of teachers' view about the principles of critical pedagogy is considered as an important factor. Yilmaz Principles of Critical pedagogy Scale was given to the teachers to answer in their free time. To the purpose of the research each was shortly introduced and they were instructed on how to answer some the appraisal form. Furthermore, at the end of the term students were supposed to air their views about their teachers' success by completing the Successful Iranian EFL Teacher (SIET) questionnaire in their regular class time. The researcher started the data analysis after collecting the data, to answer the research question as to whether EFL teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy could be a forecaster of their student-evaluated professional success. D. Data Collection The study was conducted in several private institutes such as Jahad- e- daneshgahi, Shokuh, Safir, ZabanGostar, Kavoshgaran, Kanunzabane Iran in Urmia, a city in north-western Iran, between May and October 2011. The researcher selected them because of their feasibility and credibility criteria in Urmia. The teachers were asked to complete the CP test, at the end of the term (Appendix B). At the same time, the "Characteristics of the Successful EFL Teachers' Questionnaire" (Appendix C) was given to the teachers' students. The questionnaires were filled at home by them and, next session, were delivered them back to the researchers. The researchers explained the aim of completing the questionnaire because they wanted to receive the reliable evaluation by the learners, and also researchers assured the learners that their views would be confidential; moreover, teachers' and students' questionnaires were coded numerically and participants were asked not to write a name on them. E. Data Analysis The 16th version of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for analyzing the data. As the first step they tried to discover whether there is any significant correlation between the participants' questionnaire score and their total CP scores. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient for the two sets of the scores was computed, as two continuous variables were involved. After obtaining significant correlation, multiple regression analysis was to be run with the three aspects of critical pedagogy underlying CP- questionnaire designed by Yilmaz (2009) as the set of independent variables and the obtained questionnaire scores as the dependent variable. V. RESULT Descriptive statistics was to run in order to obtain the normality of the distribution. Descriptive results of the two instruments- Critical Pedagogy test and questionnaire- used in this study was summarized in the Table 5.1. According to descriptive statistics (Table 5.1)all the 76 teacher-participants who answered the Critical Pedagogy test and questionnaire were considered as active valid subjects in the data analysis procedure. The range of the participants‘ scores was between 46 to 133 on Critical Pedagogy test and 138.20 to 220 on SIET questionnaire. © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 148 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH TABLE5.1. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF CP TEST AND SIET QUESTIONNAIRE N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation CP 76 46.00 133.00 1.0003E2 30.41797 Success 76 138.20 220.00 1.8723E2 28.72712 Valid N (listwise) 76 According to the first null hypothesis there is no significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogy views and their professional success. In so doing Pearson product moment correlation was employed to test this hypothesis. Table 5.2 shows the coefficient of this correlation between total Critical Pedagogy test and questionnaire scores. The correlation coefficient obtained is 0.635 which shows it is significant at 0.01 level of significance (r = 0.635, p ≤ 0.01). In other words, because of this correlation null hypothesis is rejected and we can notice that the two variables at issue are significantly positively correlated. TABLE 5.2. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN CP TEST AND SIET SCORES Success Pearson Correlation Success CP 1 .635** Sig. (2-tailed) CP .000 N 76 76 Pearson Correlation .635** 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .000 N 76 76 Having rejected the first null hypothesis a significant correlation between teacher student-evaluated success and their critical Pedagogy's views was determined. The next step in the data analysis was to determine where the correlation lay in terms of the three aspects of critical Pedagogy as designed by Yilmaz (2009).In a further date analysis regression analysis was done which indicated that the total score of CP is a key factor influencing the dependent variable which is teachers' success (Table 5.3). TABLE 5.3. COEFFICIENTS BETWEEN CP TEST AND SIET QUESTIONNAIRE Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients B Std. Error Beta (Constant) 127.236 8.861 CP .600 .085 Model 1 .635 T Sig. 14.359 .000 7.073 .000 a. Dependent Variable: success Another multiple regression analysis was employed in order to find the correlation between the teacher-participants‘ scores on the three aspects of critical Pedagogy as the set of independent variables and their questionnaire scores on as the dependent variable. The results of the Pearson product moment correlation analysis of these variables are presented in Table 5.4. An approximate value of 0.6 was estimated regarding the correlation coefficient between the set of independent variables, namely measures of the three aspects of critical pedagogy, and the dependent variable, namely measures of the participants‘ professional success, which, according to table of ANOVA (Table 5.5) is statistically significant. So the null hypothesis is rejected. Moreover, the R Square, as ―the percentage of the variance of the predicted (dependent) variable that is due to, or explained by, the combined predictor (independent) variables‖ (Best & Kahn, 2006, pp.432-433) (as cited in Moafian and Pishghadam, 2010), has a value of 0.546. In other words about 50% of the variance of the teacher-participants‘ questionnaire scores is justified by their total scores on CP. TABLE 5.4. MODEL SUMMARY OF CP SUB DIMENSIONS M 1 Model R .751 a R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate .564 .546 19.35635 a. Predictors: (Constant), CP3, CP2, CP1 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 149 TABLE 5.5. ANOVA FOR PARTIAL CORRELATION OF CP TESTS WITH SIET SCORES Model 1 Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig. Regression 34917.414 3 11639.138 31.065 .000a Residual 26976.127 72 374.668 Total 61893.540 75 a. Predictors: (Constant), CP3, CP2, CP1 b. Dependent Variable: success To delve into details and find the correlation between each of the three components of CP and EFL teachers' professional success a partial correlation analysis was conducted. Table 5.6 indicates the extent to which each of these components of Critical Pedagogy is important to EFL teachers‘ professional success. As it is shown in the table of partial correlations, only two of the components of critical pedagogy, namely ‗function of school‘ and ‗emancipator school‘ show significant correlation at 0.05 level of significance (Beta = 0.446, p ≤ 0.05 for ‗function of school‘ and Beta = 0.508, p≤0.01 for ‗emancipator school‘). The "education system" sub dimension is not significant at alpha level. TABLE 5.6. COEFFCIENTS AND PARTIAL CORRELATIONS OF CP WITH SIET QUESTIONNAIRE Model 1 Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Beta B Std. Error (Constant) 98.224 10.153 CP1 -.344 .396 CP2 .961 .422 CP3 3.511 .827 t Sig. 9.674 .000 -.167 -.869 .388 .446 2.275 .026 .508 4.244 .000 a. Dependent Variable: success Regarding the statistical perspective, the second null hypothesis there is no significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogy views and their teaching experience. Pearson product–moment correlation was used to test this null hypothesis and specify the role of teaching experience in teachers‘ critical pedagogical views. Based on findings no significant correlation was found between teachers‘ years of teaching experience and the total scores of critical pedagogy views. (Table 5.7) TABLE 5.7. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHERS ' EXPERIENCE AND CP PRINCIPLES Experience Experience Pearson Correlation CP 1 Sig. (2-tailed) CP .226 N 76 76 Pearson Correlation -.141 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .226 N 76 76 According to the assumption behind the third null hypothesis there isn't any significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogy views with respect to their age. The Pearson product-moment correlation was employed to investigate the relationship between teachers‘ agreement with principles of CP and their age. According to the results obtained it is revealed that there isn't any significant correlation between teachers‘ age and total CP scores. (Table 5.8) TABLE 5.8. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHERS ' AGE AND THEIR CP VIEWS Cc CP Pearson Correlation CP Age 1 -.019 Sig. (2-tailed) Aaage .871 N 76 76 Pearson Correlation -.019 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .871 N 76 © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 76 150 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH Based on the assumption behind the fourth null hypothesis there isn't any significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogy views and their degree. To determine whether there is any significant correlation between the teachers‘ CP views and their educational degree, Pearson product– moment correlation was used. The results show that there is not a significant correlation between EFL teachers‘ educational degree and their CP views (see Table 5.9). TABLE 5.9. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHERS DEGREE AND THEIR VIEWS ON CP PRINCIPLES CP Pearson Correlation CP Degree 1 .051 Sig. (2-tailed) Degree .663 N 76 76 Pearson Correlation .051 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .663 N 76 76 According to the fifth null hypothesis there isn't any significant correlation between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogy views and their gender. To test the role of teaching gender in teachers‘ CP views, Pearson product–moment correlation was used. The findings indicated that there is no significant correlation between teachers‘ gender and the total scores of CP views (see Table 5.10). TABLE 5.10. CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TEACHERS ' GENDER AND THEIR VIEWS ON CP PRINCIPLES CP Pearson Correlation CP Gender 1 .069 Sig. (2-tailed) Gender .552 N 76 76 Pearson Correlation .069 1 Sig. (2-tailed) .552 N 76 76 VI. CONCLUSION A. Discussion As stated before, the goal of this study is to probe at first if there was any relationship between EFL teachers‘ attitudes toward perception of critical pedagogy and their success. According to the results there was a significant positive relationship between CP and teachers‘ success. Because of the degree of this correlation it is revealed that the closer EFL teachers' methods are toward principles of critical pedagogy, the more likely they are to be viewed successful in their job by their pupils. This is in regard to previous theoretical and empirical studies done successfully. This is not surprising because critical pedagogical views of teachers can be said to influence almost all their pedagogical decisions about how best to improve learner participation, how to group learners and how to make them free in discussing social problems, what additional materials, tasks and discussions related to their future to draw upon, and numerous other ‗how’s, ‗what’s and ‗why’s. As said before, function of schools and emancipator school, among the CP components were key factors with respect to teachers' success. This is not surprising since there was a shift from traditional teacher-centered classes toward communicative language teaching setting specially in private institutes where free discussion, cooperation, pair work are the focus of attention (Ghanizadeh and Moafian, 2010).According to Williams and Burden (1997) the facilitative role of a positive and warm classroom climate that is conducive to learning has been indicated he great amount of research about teacher effectiveness. According to the second component of CP in this study, namely "functions of schools", some issues such as social problems and inequalities are to be discussed in the class, for such view makes students more willing to participate in class activity since their futures are to be quarantined in more just and equal community. Another principle of critical pedagogy is criticism of teacher by students. Students like to have more flexible teachers who accept criticisms made by students to improve their behavior, approach, or even style of his or her teaching. One Principle of second dimension of critical pedagogy is for students to take contribution in class. According to this view teacher is not the only authority in the class who orders commands and rules but he or she is a facilitator helping © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH 151 students to share their ideas toward solving and improving their problems and lives respectively. The more cooperative the atmosphere of the class is, the more enthusiastic the students will be. Another principle underlying the second dimension of critical pedagogy is that not only teacher and knowledge but also students should be the center of attention. This view supports the idea that since the forthcoming future will be made by students and they are to carry the heavy burden of being in charge of society so it is students who must be the focus of attention and be aware of the social problems in society. The third dimension of critical pedagogy designed by Yilmaz (2009) which enjoys the most attention consists of some principles. One of these principles is that education is a must to gain a solid footing in society. It believes that in order for a society to have firm establishment, it should be based on education. Problems of society can be well elaborated by taking educational issues into consideration. Another principle of this third dimension of CP is that students are supposed to be emancipated. They should be set free in order to discuss social problems and they are not to be penalized by any authority for any criticism they made. Authorities and responsibilities are another factor of this session. Critical pedagogy believes that in the classroom students and teachers must share their responsibilities and authorities. Since teachers play an important role in the educational system, this study also aims at investigating their views regarding principles of critical pedagogy according to certain variables such as age, experience, gender, and degree. Considering teachers critical pedagogical views based on other variables on this study no significant difference was noticed. In all of these variables observed values for t score were not greater that the critical value and none of the null hypotheses were rejected and it can be claimed that there is no significant difference between teachers‘ views on critical pedagogy principles according to their age, degree, and gender. educational system in Iran represents top-down approach which means that authority, discipline, and good work habit must be prioritized and there is some sort of limitation in changing educational system and making improvement because of religious beliefs but most of Iranian EFL teachers indirectly apply principles of critical pedagogy in the education which leads to better teaching environment. B. Conclusions of the Study As indicated earlier this study aims at testing the following null hypotheses: 1. There isn't any relationship between Iranian EFL teachers‘ critical pedagogical view and their educational success in teaching. 2. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and years of teaching experience. 3. There isn't any relationship between EFL teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and age. 4. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their educational degree. 5. There isn't any relationship between teachers‘ view on principles of critical pedagogy and their gender. According to the results obtained in the fourth chapter only one null hypothesis of this study was rejected. The results thus indicated that there is not a relationship between Iranian EFL teachers' pedagogical views and their educational success. According to this view the more teachers believe in principles of pedagogy the more successful they are viewed by students. On the other hand there was not any significant difference between teachers' views according to their years of educational experience, gender, age, and educational success. EFL/ESL research on the prevailing concept of critical pedagogy has for the most part rotated around improving social equality and injecting it into educational system. In an attempt to extend this line of research to EFL teacher effectiveness and teacher education studies, the present researcher aimed to answer the question of if the critical pedagogy's views of Iranian EFL teachers of adults have any effect on their student-evaluated professional success. For this aim, the three-component model of critical pedagogy as defined by Yilmaz (2009) is the basis of analysis. Based on the statistical analysis ways employed a rather high significant positive correlation between the teacher-participants‘ total critical pedagogy scores on CP questionnaires and their professional success measures on SIETQ was determined (r ≈ 0.6), therefore the first null hypotheses is rejected. More analysis showed that correlation coefficient obtained was the accumulated influence of two of the three elements of the critical thinking model used in this study: function of school and emancipator school. It can be inferred that the more critical teachers we are the more successful EFL teachers we will be. Having this in mind, some implication can be obtained regarding EFL/ESL teacher success, teacher education program. According to Suwandee (1995), students can be considered the best source for teachers' performance estimate. They are at vantage point to decide the classroom teaching‘s quality. C. Implication of Critical Pedagogy in Education The results of the current study show that teacher critical pedagogical points are significant in teaching. Therefore, if shift and flexibility appear to affect practices of teaching, it is important to specify contributing factors toward the development of teacher educational programs. In a similar vein it is necessary to develop and design programs for EFL teachers the focus of which is critical pedagogy. This will in turn help them to cope with their flexibility in a suitable way, conduct more productive classes and establish more intimate relationships with students in the class. © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER 152 JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE TEACHING AND RESEARCH CP's application in the realm of education also contribute to the process of teaching and learning as political and language use is '' a practice that constructs the ways learners understand themselves, their socio-historical surroundings and their possibility for the future'' (Norton & Toohey, 2004). In addition interest and needs of learners are the focus of attention in critical pedagogy and curriculum is based on these factors. In CP classroom environment is to be enjoyable one in that students are allowed to choose the topic of a course and they are even allowed to criticize their teacher so that there is a share power among teachers and students. As teachers, we should attempt to provide the best possible education for our students, regardless of their socioeconomic background or what makes them different from one another. The prime goal is to use those differences to create powerful learning environment and meaningful experiences in the classroom that they will take with them in the world and set out to change society to be a better place through acts of peace. We need to take it to account that there are still many conflicts in the world regarding race, language, and social class. As educators, we must also recognize that not all of the problems have been solved, nor will they ever be solved. Yet, if we take the time to pay attention to these problems we will be much closer to giving our students the opportunities they deserve. Being one of the post method approaches, CP believes that for a selection of appropriate method or technique teachers need to analyze the teaching context and the learner need in order to make the right choice for a given teaching situation and using of different kinds of CPs' issues, discussions and student points of view can improve the process of learning. D. Limitation of the Study The main limitation of this study was to get participants to respond thoroughly and honestly to the questionnaire they were given at the beginning of the study. The participants were supposed to be as forthcoming in their responses as possible. If any of the participants answer the questions by chance that might have changed the findings. Another limitation for this study was that the sample drawn from a single city (Urmia), so the results may not be generalizable to the whole country. Also because of religious limitations some of the teachers might not be able to answer the questionnaire in the way they want to. According to Dornyie (2007) the inferences made based on the correlational studies should be made cautiously because of the post hoc fallacy thread which means that the observed correlation may not account for cause-effect relationship or on the other hand it may not fail to account to substantiate a significant correlation between two of the components of critical pedagogy, namely ‗function of schools' and ‗emancipator school', and EFL teacher success. E. Suggestions for Further Studies Questionnaires are the only means that we used for measuring the capabilities of the teachers. In forthcoming studies, researchers could make use of other kinds of evaluation means like observation, interviewing students, or a mixture of different evaluation devices to evaluate effectiveness teachers in classroom settings. At the present study, we added limited numbers of variables. The relationship between success of teachers and CP principles could be scrutinized in terms of other variables. Because of researchers' knowledge, they did very little to find the relationship between EFL teachers‘ CP views and their success by a questionnaire that is specifically designed for EFL teachers. Therefore, this study should be replicated. Because this study was done just in language institutes, we need more research for comparing the results in high schools. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Apple, M.W. (1982). Education and power. Boston, MA: Routledge Kegan Paul. Bassey, M.O. (1996). Teachers as cultural brokers in the midst of diversity. 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He has presented numerous articles in national and international conferences. He has also co-authored several books on second language pedagogy. His areas of interest include: Second Language learning theories, methodology, communication strategies and Psycholinguistics. Mostafa Khorsandi received his M.A. in TEFL from the University of Ilam, Iran in 2012 and his BA in English Language and Literature from Urmia University in 2009. Currently, he is teaching English in some Institutes in Urmia, Iran. His main resea rch interests include critical pedagogy, psycholinguistics, and ESP. © 2014 ACADEMY PUBLISHER