a comparative study of esp and elt lecturers’ application of critical pedagogy in iranian universities

Critical pedagogy (cp) is a paradigmatic perspective that has been at the center of attention in recent decades. despite positive changes from traditional to emancipator pedagogy, it is not very well known whether elt and esp instructors in iranian universities are familiar with or willing to implement its principles or not. hence, the primary purpose of the current study was to shed light on the application of critical pedagogy in esp and elt courses in iranian universities and explore instructors' perspectives in practicing cp in their classes. in this study, 73 elt and 52 esp university instructors were chosen through convenience sampling. this study enjoyed a mixed method design; the data was gathered through a critical pedagogy attitude questionnaire developed by pishvaei and kasaian (2013) and a semi-structured follow-up interview. the results indicated a significant difference between elt and esp instructors in their awareness of cp and the application of its principles. the results indicated that elt instructors outperformed their counterparts. in the next step, esp instructors became familiar with the principles of cp through some materials and videos made and validated by the researchers. the cp introductory sessions were held through the whatsapp application in three 2 hour sessions for two consecutive weeks (a total of 12 hours). next, the esp lecturers were interviewed for their perspectives on cp. thematic analysis of the interviews results revealed that most esp instructors held positive views regarding implementing cp principles after two weeks of familiarity with them. curriculum developers and teachers can incorporate the cp principles into a general training course to help student personalize their activities, raise students' awareness of critical pedagogy in published materials, help students become more responsible for their learning, challenge hierarchical social relations and power structures, and become more effective language learners.