A cross-cultural examination of the role of enjoyment and passion in bilingual English teachers’ desire for professional development: evidence from Iran and Kuwait

ABSTRACT

The present mixed-methods cross-cultural study probed the association between bilingual English teachers’ enjoyment, passion, and desire for professional development from the Iranian and Kuwaiti teachers’ standpoints. In doing so, a random sample of bilingual English teachers (N = 426) was chosen from educational institutions in Iran and Kuwait. Then, using self-report questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, participants’ beliefs and attitudes on the interaction of enjoyment, passion, and desire for professional development were evaluated. The results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) exhibited close, positive associations between Iranian and Kuwaiti teachers’ passion, enjoyment, and desire for professional development. Moreover, the results obtained from structural equation modelling (SEM) uncovered that Iranian and Kuwaiti teachers’ enjoyment and passion can positively predict their desire for professional development. However, as the results of measurement invariance revealed, some meaningful differences were found between Iranian and Kuwaiti structural models concerning the predictive role of passion and enjoyment. Additionally, according to the thematic analysis (TA) outcomes, both Iranian and Kuwaiti instructors believed that passion and enjoyment can trigger teachers to attend professional development courses. These findings may contribute to a better understanding of the role of pleasant emotions in language teachers’ motivation for professional advancement.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual English teachers
• desire for professional development
• enjoyment
• passion
• positive psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon a reasonable request.

Authors’ contribution

All authors have materially participated in the research and article preparation. Additionally, all authors have approved the final article.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all the participants in this study.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by the Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait under grant number 38.