CALL Teachers’Professional Development Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

To enable language teachers to rethink their teaching practices and involve them in evaluating, planning, and applying technology in online education due to the COVID-19 outbreak, scholars suggested appropriate CALL professional development (CALL PD) courses. However, the literature review on CALL PD shows that little has been focused on teachers’ expectations. Thus, this short paper aims to determine Iranian teachers’ expectations of a CALL PD course during the COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, I undertook a small-scale qualitative case study of 12 pre- and in-service English language teachers who attended a CALL course at an Iranian university. The findings affirmed that online education needs to be accompanied by ample training. Irrespective of how much professional development accompanies online education if decisions about teachers’ professional development are taken without proper consultation and disregarding teachers’ preferences and concerns, the tool in question is likely to fail to deliver the expected outcomes. Unless teachers feel reassured that they are in charge of their professional development, there might be the risk that the technology will be resisted to such an extent that it never manages to fulfil its potential.