Constructing the "Resilient Teacher": A Critical Discourse Analysis of Professional Identity in Iranian EFL Online Communities

Document Type : English Research Article

Authors

1 University of Kurdistan

2 دانشگاه حلبچه

10.22034/lda.2026.146387.1163

Abstract

While resilience in language education is traditionally examined as an internal psychological trait or individual resource, this study reconceptualizes it as a contested discursive accomplishment. Adopting a qualitative, multi-layered research design, the study combines digital ethnography with Fairclough’s (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate how Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers co-construct professional identity within the socio-political and institutional constraints of their local contexts. Data were collected over an eight-month immersive period from a prominent, member-only Telegram community (n = 4,200), resulting in a corpus of 585 discrete discussion threads (82,500 words). Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the analysis identifies three dominant Discursive Interpretative Repertories (DIRs). Findings reveal a pervasive "discourse of struggle" where institutional surveillance is countered by sophisticated linguistic strategies. Specifically, teachers employ transitivity re-allocation to reclaim agency within the classroom micro-space and use hypothetical modal distancing to reject bureaucratic burnout identities. Furthermore, the results highlight an intertextual hybridization of psychological constructs, such as Psychological Capital (PsyCap), which are transformed from individual metrics into collective "calls to arms." The study concludes that teacher resilience is sustained through a serial mediation of discourse, where the digital "third space" allows practitioners to discursively re-author their professional realities. These insights offer a critical alternative to positivist views of teacher well-being, emphasizing the role of communal, discursive resistance in high-pressure educational climates.

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History

  • Receive Date: 15 July 2026
  • Revise Date: 14 September 2026
  • Accept Date: 14 September 2026
  • Publish Date: 23 July 2026

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