Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances

JALDA

Current Issue

By Issue

By Author

By Subject

Author Index

Keyword Index

About Journal

Aims and Scope

Editorial Board

Publication Ethics

Indexing and Abstracting

Related Links

FAQ

Peer Review Process

Journal Metrics

News

Critical Pedagogy in Iraqi Kurdistan: The Role of Gender, Academic and Contextual Differences in EFL Teachers’ Awareness

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 PhD candidate in ELT, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

2 Associate Professor of ELT, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

3 3Professor of ELT, Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

Critical Pedagogy (CP) has gained increasing recognition as an educational approach that fosters critical thinking, social awareness, and transformative learning. However, its integration into English language teaching (ELT) in the Iraqi Kurdistan context remains underexplored, where traditional pedagogical methods dominate. This study examines the awareness of CP among EFL teachers in Iraqi Kurdistan, investigating whether academic degree, teaching setting, and gender influence CP awareness levels. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 397 EFL teachers employed in high schools, secondary schools, and universities across the region. A newly developed Critical Pedagogy Questionnaire (CPQ) was administered, and the responses were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results revealed significant differences in CP awareness across academic degrees and teaching settings, with BA holders and high school teachers exhibiting the highest awareness levels. Gender-based differences were also observed, with female teachers displaying greater awareness in co-construction of knowledge and adapted content, while male teachers showed higher awareness in agency and praxis. These findings underscore the need for practice-based teacher training programs and institutional support to facilitate CP’s practical implementation in ELT.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Article Title [Persian]

آموزش انتقادی در کردستان عراق: آگاهی مدرسان زبان انگلیسی و نقش بافت و تفاوت های فردی

Authors [Persian]

  • هیزا عبداللە 1
  • دکتر عبدالرضا تحریری 2
  • دکتر سید آیت اله رزمجو 3
  • دکتر مسعود خلیلی ثابت 2

1 دانشجوی دکتری آموزش زبان انگلیسی، دانشگاه گیلان، رشت، ایران

2 دانشیار آموزش زبان انگلیسی، گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه گیلان، رشت، ایران

3 استاد آموزش زبان انگلیسی، گروه زبان‌های خارجی و زبان‌شناسی، دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی، دانشگاه شیراز، شیراز، ایران

Abstract [Persian]

آموزش انتقادی به عنوان یک رویکرد آموزشی که تفکر انتقادی، آگاهی اجتماعی و یادگیری تحول آفرین را تقویت می کند، به رسمیت شناخته شده است. با این حال، تلفیق آن در آموزش زبان انگلیسی در بافت کردستان عراق، جایی که روش‌های آموزشی سنتی غالب است، هنوز مورد بررسی قرار نگرفته است. این پژوهش، آگاهی از آموزش انتقادی در میان مدرسان زبان انگلیسی در کردستان عراق و این که آیا مدرک تحصیلی مدرسان، محیط تدریس و جنسیت بر سطوح آگاهی ایشان نسبت به آموزش انتقادی تأثیر می‌گذارد را بررسی می‌کند. با استفاده از یک طرح پیمایشی مقطعی، داده‌ها از 397 مدرس زبان انگلیسی شاغل در دبیرستان‌ها و دانشگاه‌های سراسر منطقه مورد بررسی جمع‌آوری شد. برای این منظور، از یک پرسشنامه آموزشی انتقادی  محقق ساخته استفاده شد و پاسخ ها با استفاده از تحلیل واریانس چند متغیره (MANOVA) تجزیه و تحلیل شدند. نتایج تفاوت‌های قابل‌توجهی را در آگاهی از آموزش انتقادی در سطوح تحصیلی و محیط‌های آموزشی متفاوت نشان داد. دارندگان مدرک کارشناسی و مدرسان دبیرستان بالاترین سطح آگاهی نسبت به آموزش انتقادی را دارا بودند. تفاوت‌های مبتنی بر جنسیت نیز مشاهده شد و مدرسان زن آگاهی بیشتری در تولید مشترک دانش و محتوای اقتباس شده داشتند در حالی که مدرسان مرد آگاهی بالاتری نسبت به عاملیت و عمل نشان دادند. این یافته‌ها بر نیاز به برنامه‌های آموزش مدرسان مبتنی بر تمرین و حمایت نهادی برای تسهیل تحقق عملی آموزش انتقادی در آموزش زبان انگلیسی تاکید می‌کند.

Keywords [Persian]

  • آموزش انتقادی
  • آگاهی مدرس زبان
  • بافت آموزشی
References
Abdelrahim, A. T. (2007). The relationship between gender and experience in teachers’ awareness of critical pedagogy (Publication No. 3668) [Master’s thesis, Tarbiat Modares University]. TMU Dissertation and Thesis System. https://parseh.modares.ac.ir/thesis.php?id=1043668&sid=1&slc_lang=en
Adel, S. M. R., Egtesadi, A., & Sadeghi, F. (2019). Construction and validation of a critical pedagogy questionnaire to assess ELT teachers: A mixed–method study. Issues in Language Teaching, 8(1), 333–375. https://doi.org/10.22054/ilt.2020.46289.421
Aksikas, J., Green, S. J., & Shohat, E. (2019). Critical pedagogy and global literature: Toward a planetary perspective. Routledge.
Aliakbari, M., & Allahmoradi, N. (2012). On Iranian school teachers’ perceptions of principles of critical pedagogy. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 4(1), 154–171.
Au, W. (2017). A Marxist education: Learning to change the world. Haymarket Books.
Azimi, H. (2008). On the Attitude of English Teachers and University Students in the Implementation of CP [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Tarbiat Modares University.
Bartlett, M. S. (1950). Tests of significance in factor analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 3(2), 77–85. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1950.tb00285.x
Crookes, G. V. (2013). Critical ELT in action: Foundations, promises, praxis. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203844250
Crookes, G. V. (2022). Critical language pedagogy. Language Teaching, 55(1), 46–63. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444820000609
Darder, A. (2017). Reinventing Paulo Freire: A pedagogy of love. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560779
Davari, H., Iranmehr, A., & Erfani, S. M. (2012). A survey on the Iranian ELT community’s attitudes to critical pedagogy. English Language Teaching, 5(2), 101–111. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v5n2p101
Dörnyei, Z., & Dewaele, J. M. (2022). Questionnaires in second language research. Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003331926-2
Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). Herder and Herder. (Original work published 1970). https://fsi-ebcao.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf1411/files/media/freire.pdf
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.
Gilligan, C. (1993). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women’s development. Harvard university press.
Giroux, H. A. (1983). Theory and resistance in education: A pedagogy for the opposition. Bergin & Garvey.
Giroux, H. A. (2011). On critical pedagogy. Continuum.
Giroux, H. A. (2021). Paulo Freire’s pedagogy of hope revisited in turbulent times. Postcolonial Directions in Education, 10(2), 280–304.
Gutiérrez-Ujaque, D., & Degen, M. M. (2024). Beyond critical pedagogy of place: sensory-embodied learning through the university campus. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 48(4), 537–556. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2023.2267489
Hair, J. F., Jr., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., & Anderson, R. E. (2019). Multivariate data analysis (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203957769
Horn, J. L. (1965). A rationale and test for the number of factors in factor analysis. Psychometrika, 30(2), 179–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02289447
Jiang, L., & Alizadeh, F. (2023). Community-based theatre: Critical pedagogy for promoting social connectedness recovery in the post-pandemic era. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311983.2023.2198311
Johnson, B., & Mughal, R. (2024). Towards a critical pedagogy of trans-inclusive education in UK secondary schools. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2024.2326612
Kincheloe, J. L. (2008). Critical pedagogy primer. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1455-7
Kumashiro, K. K. (2002). Troubling education: Queer activism and anti-oppressive pedagogy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203819753
Lodge, W. (2021). Confronting repressive ideologies with critical pedagogy in science classrooms. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 16(2), 609–620. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11422-021-10047-7
Macalalag, A. Z., Jr., Kaufmann, A., Van Meter, B., Ricketts, A., Liao, E., & Ialacci, G. (2024). Socioscientific issues: promoting science teachers’ pedagogy on social justice. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research, 6(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-024-00118-4
Mahmoodarabi, M., & Khodabakhsh, M. R. (2015). Critical pedagogy: EFL teachers’ views, experience, and academic degrees. English Language Teaching, 8(6), 100–110. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n6p100
McLaren, P. (1995). White terror and oppositional agency: Towards a critical multiculturalism. In C. E. Sleeter & P. McLaren (Eds.), Multicultural Education, Critical Pedagogy, and the Politics of Difference (pp. 33–70). State University of New York Press.
McLaren, P., & Jandric, P. (2020). Postdigital dialogues on critical pedagogy, liberation theology and information technology. Bloomsbury Publishing.
McLaren, P. (2023). Critical pedagogy: A look at the major concepts. In A. Darder, M. Baltodano, & R. D. Torres (Eds.), The Critical Pedagogy Reader (pp. 69-96). Routledge.
Mendes, A. C. (2024). Unlearning imperialism through artistic remediation: A critical pedagogy approach. Critical Arts, 38(4-5), 140–158. https://doi.org/10.1080/02560046.2024.2312434
Morgan, H., & Parker, A. (2023). Sport-for-development, critical pedagogy and marginalised youth: Engagement, co-creation and community consciousness. Sport, Education and Society, 28(7), 741–754. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2022.2075336
Norton, B., & Toohey, K. (2004). Critical pedagogies and language learning: An introduction. In B. Norton & K. Toohey (Eds.), Critical Pedagogies and Language Learning (pp. 1–18). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524834
Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410600790
Pishvaei, V., & Kassaian, S. A. (2013). Design, construction, and validation of a critical pedagogy attitude questionnaire in Iran. Special Issue on Teaching and Learning, 2(2), 59–74.
Raubenheimer, J. (2004). An item selection procedure to maximize scale reliability and validity. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 30(4), 59–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v30i4.168
Roohani, A., Hashemian, M., & Haghparast, S. (2016). Validating a context-specific teacher critical pedagogy questionnaire. International Journal of Research, 5(4), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsll.2015.1313
Sadker, D., & Zittleman, K. R. (2009). Still failing at fairness: How gender bias cheats girls and boys in school and what we can do about it. Simon and Schuster.
Sahragard, R., Razmjoo, S. A., & Baharloo, A. (2014). The practicality of critical pedagogy from Iranian EFL instructors’ viewpoints: a cross sectional study. The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 5(2), 178–193.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
Skelton, K. (2023). Counter-critical pedagogy: A manifesto. Critical Studies in Education, 65(4), 348–365. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2023.2266522
Sofi-Karim, M. (2015). English language teaching in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq [Master’s thesis, Webster University]. Webster University Library. http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.3494.2564
Soodmand Afshar, H., & Donyaie, S. (2019). English teachers’ perception of critical pedagogy: Any discrepancy between perception and actual classroom implementation? Applied Research on English Language, 8(1), 78–114. https://doi.org/10.22108/are.2018.112452.1341
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press.
Tabachnick, B. G., & Fidell, L. S. (2019). Using multivariate statistics (7th ed.). Pearson.
Velicer, W. F. (1976). Determining the number of components from the matrix of partial
correlations. Psychometrika, 41(3), 321–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF02293557
Velicer, W. F., Eaton, C. A., & Fava, J. L. (2000). Construct explication through factor or component analysis: A review and evaluation of alternative procedures for determining the number of factors or components. In R. D. Goffin & E. Helmes (Eds.), Problems and Solutions in Human Assessment: Honoring Douglas N. Jackson at Seventy (pp. 41–71). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Yilmaz, K. (2009). Elementary school teachers’ views about the critical pedagogy. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 18(1), 139–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.3860/taper.v18i1.1042
Zeichner, K. M. (2010). Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college- and university-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(1-2), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487109347671
Zokaeieh, S., & Tahriri, A. (2016). The effect of critical language awareness on EFL learners’ writing ability. Iranian Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5(2), 7–29. https://dor.isc.ac/dor/20.1001.1.24763187.2016.5.2.1.2
Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamics and Advances
Volume 13, Issue 2
October 2025
Pages 105-129
Files
History
  • Receive Date: 10 April 2025
  • Revise Date: 11 June 2025
  • Accept Date: 20 September 2025
Share
How to cite
Statistics