Creativity-Nurturing Practices of Iranian EFL Teachers

The present study adopted a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design to explore the status of nurturing creativity in Iranian EFL classrooms. A standard questionnaire was given to 214 public high school EFL teachers to rate the frequency of using creativity-nurturing strategies in their classrooms. While the curriculum policies stipulate creativity-nurturing strategies, the results suggested that the teachers do not frequently adopt the strategies. Further, interviews were conducted with the teachers to find out the factors hindering the teachers from using these strategies. Deductive thematic analysis of interview transcriptions led to the extraction of five themes regarded as attributes to the inability of Iranian EFL teachers to adopt creativity-nurturing strategies. The findings imply that the existence of performativity in Iranian EFL classrooms creates pressure and dilemma for EFL teachers to teach for creativity. Issues such as time, exams, and pressures of the curriculum strictly constrain the creativity-nurturing practices of these teachers. Generally, modifications need to be supported in various aspects of teaching English in Iran to help the teachers nurture creativity in the classrooms.