Job Performance of Iranian English Teachers: Do Teaching Experience and Gender Make a Difference?

Abstract

In the available teacher development literature, the linkage between teaching experience, as one the crucial factors in teacher development (Tsui, 2005), and English teachers' job performance with regard to gender differences has remainwidely underexplored. To fill up this lacuna, this study investigated whether there was any significant correlation between Iranian English teachers' years of experience and their job performance as well as how teaching experience can impact the job performance from the participants' viewpoints. To meet the aims, 100male and female English teachers were selected through convenience sampling approach in Loestan Province, Iran. To gauge the participants' job performance, they completed a validated questionnaire developed by Moafian and Pishghadam (2009) and 20 teacherswere invited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Their years of experience were requested. The findings indicated that there was a significant correlation between teaching experience and teachers' job performance. In addition, it was found that there was not any statistically significant difference between the Iranian male and female English teachers' job performance. Meanwhile, the results of the interviews unraveled that teaching experience can affect positively job performance from the participants' perspectives.Finally, the implications for educational policy makers, teacher educators, and teachers were presented and discussed.