Beyranvand, S., & Mohamadi Zenouzagh, Z. (2021). Teacher immunity, technological pedagogical content knowledge, and teacher engagement: contributing factors and relations. SN Social Sciences 1(9), 241-264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-021-00250-2

Abstract:

“The term ‘language teacher immunity’ has been coined as a novel concept in language teacher psychology. Since no teacher has ever been innately protected from unpredictable and uncontrollable disturbances, their innate immunity should be boosted. To this end, the current study by using a mixed-method approach attempted to examine the roles of two potential influencing variables that might strengthen teacher immunity, i.e., technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and teacher engagement. For the quantitative part of the study, three questionnaires were sent to 120 English teachers to examine the probable predictors. The findings of the quantitative data declared that teacher engagement is highly related to teacher immunity and could serve as a significant predictor for teacher immunity, while TPACK is not associated with teacher immunity nor perform as a predictor. In the next phase of the study and on the basis of explanatory sequential mixed-method design, follow-up semi-structured interviews with 10 English teachers were conducted in order to identify the contributing factors to teacher immunity that might be identified during the project. According to the content analysis of the interviews, it was revealed that teacher immunity is more associated with affective factors, teachers’ engagement, teachers’ autonomy, and teachers’ experiences rather than teachers’ theoretical pedagogical content knowledge. Additional results and the implications for educational policymakers and teacher educators are also presented together with suggestions for further research.”