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Exploring Prospective EFL Teachers’ Beliefs

The Roles of the Researchers

The potential influence of offering the course as well as collecting the data by the instructors of the
course has been acknowledged. Therefore, throughout the data collection and analysis, the researchers
were cautious of the importance of willingness on the part of the PTs to participate in the study and tried
to observe and reflect on the effects of the researchers’ presence in the study as well as participating in
the participants’ reflections through conducting interviews.

Data Collection

As Creswell (2007) emphasizes, the fact that case studies collect multiple sources of information (e.g.
observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and documents and reports), and reports a case description
and case-based themes, throughout the analysis, perspectives of the PTs were gathered from multiple
data sources (see Table 1). In Table 1, the participants and valid return rate of the data collection tools
were also highlighted.
As Table 1 presents, the data sources consisted of pre- and post-course metaphor forms in addition
to semi-structured interviews with the PTs during the data collection procedures. Data were collected
during the spring semester of 2013-2014 academic year. Data cited from the pre- and post-course meta-
phors and interviews are referred as Pre-M, Post-M and Int, respectively throughout the study. All PTs
participated in the study were informed about their rights to participate in the study and asked to give
their consent to participate. Throughout the data collection and analysis procedures, PTs were given
pseudonyms to preserve their anonymity.

Data Analysis

Data were collected and analyzed on a simultaneously on-going basis. Specifically, to examine PTs’
professional perceptions of selves and teaching practices, a qualitative approach was employed and the
grounded theory procedures (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) based on the procedures of thematic analysis (Miles,
Huberman & Saldaña, 2014). The interviews conducted with the PTs were transcribed verbatim, and the
transcriptions were reviewed by the researchers for accuracy. The transcriptions of the interviews and
the reflective journals as well as the metaphor forms of the PTs were read several times in order to find
commonly emerging topics and themes about ‘teachers, teaching and being a prospective EFL teacher’
throughout the practice teaching course. The topics and themes of each data source were listed and then
grouped into similar categories. Categories uncovering the change or lack of change in the perceptions
of PTs were then established with reference to the conceptual framework and related literature in PTs’
situated professional learning. Following the naming and labeling stage, the researchers decided on the
unit of analysis by sorting the metaphors. The metaphors were compiled and categorized considering the

Table 1. Data sources of the study

Early-M Post-M Int
Participants 110 119 10 (appr. 15 min)
Valid data turnout 44 81 10 (appr. 15 min.)

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