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ABSTRACT
This paper investigates admission procedures of Master of Arts programs of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MA TEFL) in Iran in comparison with universities around the world. Along with a view of the centralised national MA TEFL entrance exam held in Iran during the past three decades, we investigated admission requirements for comparable graduate programmes of 110 universities in 32 countries and regions. Our qualitative content analysis of this body of data revealed five major categories of admission requirements: Teaching Background, Statement of Purpose, Letter of Recommendation, Interview and Curriculum Vitae. Based on a comparative account of these categories in various universities, we argue that rather than traditional measurement-oriented exams, graduate programmes in general and language education programmes in particular, need to rely on multiple types of admission requirements that provide evidence as to the personal characteristics of applicants, their background and experiences, and their prospects and visions.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dr. Mohammad Hossein Sahami-Fard for his contribution and support during the course of this research.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini
Seyyed-Abdolhamid Mirhosseini is an Associate Professor at The University of Hong Kong. His research areas include the sociopolitics of language education, qualitative research methodology and critical studies of discourse in society. His writing has appeared in journals including Applied Linguistics; Language, Identity and Education; Critical Inquiry in Language Studies; and TESOL Quarterly. His most recent book is Doing Qualitative Research in Language Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
Mojgan Afifezadeh
Mojgan Afifezadeh received her MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran. She is interested in social and cultural aspects of teaching English as a foreign language.
Leila Tajik
Leila Tajik is an Associate Professor of the Department of English at Alzahra University in Tehran, Iran. Her areas of interest include language teacher education and morality in language teaching. She has published papers in various national and international journals including Australian Journal of Teacher Education; Journal of Moral Education; The Qualitative Report; Pedagogy, Culture & Society; and Open Linguistics.