Teacher Educators as Role Models: A Qualitative Examination of Student Teachers ’ and Teacher Educators ’ Views towards Their Roles

Teacher Education is considered to be the first and perhaps the most important stage in the professional development of student teachers (Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998) as teacher educators who work with student teachers during these programs exert significant influence on who students are and will become (Caires, 2007; Chalies, Ria, Bertone, Trohel, & Durand, 2005). This article highlights the impact of language teacher educators ’ ideas and beliefs with regard to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and their teaching practices on their student teachers ’ beliefs and perceptions about their role as language teachers. 20 Iranian language student teachers and ten teacher educators teaching at five universities in Tehran were interviewed. The interviews were coded and analyzed in order to develop themes. Considerable similarities were found between student teachers and their teacher educators in terms of their ideas and beliefs about language teaching. Key words: Qualitative research, teacher education programs, TEFL, thematic analysi