Variations in EFL Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge Base as a Function of Their Teaching License Status

The study of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge base (PKB) to discover how teachers think and work is attracting increasing attention in ELT. Against this background, the present study aimed at probing the likely variations in EFL teachers’ pedagogical knowledge base as a function of their teaching license status. To this aim, six teachers (two standard-licensed, two alternatively-licensed, and two non-licensed teachers) were selected as the participants. Stimulated Recall Technique was used for the data collection purpose. Identification of the dominant thought categories of the three clusters of teachers was carried out by segmenting, coding and categorizing them. The analyses of the data revealed significant differences in the number and list of dominant pedagogical thought categories (PTC) across the three groups of teachers. Language Management, Procedure Check, Affective, Self-Reflection, Progress Review, and Beliefs formed the dominant list of PTCs by Standard Licensed (SL) teachers. Language Management, Procedure Check, Affective, and Progress Review comprised the dominant categories of Alternatively Licensed (AL) teachers, while Non-Licensed (NL) teachers' dominant PTCs included Language Management, Procedure Check, Progress Review, and Note Behaviour. Self-reflection and Beliefs were the thought categories absent in the AL and NL teachers’ list of dominant PTCs.