Analysis of Iranian EFL Teachers’ Narrated Critical Incidents and their Productive Coping Strategies

Critical incidents are unanticipated and unplanned events which happen in the classrooms and may throw teachers into a state of disequilibrium which results in teachers’ losing their resilience. Therefore, when encountering critical incidents teachers are required to stop and reflect on the occurred event. However, teacher education programs do not prepare student teachers to cope with these situations appropriately. In view of this problem, the aim of the present study is to categorize critical incidents and provide a repertoire of teachers’ productive coping strategies. To this end, fifteen English teachers, eight females and seven males, were selected from three universities and three institutes in Isfahan, Iran. They were asked to narrate the critical incidents they faced in their English classrooms and their coping strategies they used in their classrooms throughout one semester. The three-stage coding process of grounded theory was utilized to analyze 49 narrated critical incidents and teachers’ coping strategies. Six categories and 14 subcategories of critical incidents were identified. The findings can have implications for teacher education programs. There should be educational programs to encourage teachers to reflect on the critical incidents and promote their resilience when encountering critical incidents in their classrooms. The programs could be used for pre- or in-service teachers. Critical incidents provide opportunities for reflection and challenges of teachers’ beliefs and values to promote and foster teacher development.