International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature ISSN 2200-3592 (Print), ISSN 2200-3452 (Online) Vol. 5 No. 2; March 2016 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Iranian EFL Teachers' Sense of Professional Identity and their Computer Literacy Toktam Abtahi (Corresponding author) English Department, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Iran E-mail:toktamabtahi@gmail.com Khalil Motallebzadeh English Department, Torbat-e-Heydarieh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Torbat-e-Heydarieh, Iran E-mail: kmotallebz@gmail.com Received: 02-10-2015 Accepted: 01-01-2016 Advance Access Published: January 2016 Published: 01-03-2016 doi:10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.2p.207 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.5n.2p.207 Abstract This study examines Iranian EFL teachers’ sense of professional identity and their computer literacy. To these end, 718 EFL teachers from different cities in Iran filled out job satisfaction, occupational commitment, and computer literacy questionnaires. SPSS software was employed to summarize the collected data. Independent Sample t-test and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation were run to check the level of significance. For qualitative data collection, five open- ended questions were added to the end of the job satisfaction questionnaire. The obtained answers were categorized and the frequency for each category was calculated. The results revealed that computer literacy has a significant relation with continuance commitment, job satisfaction, and gender. The results further suggested that teacher computer literacy provided an encouraging base for their professional identity. Keywords: Teachers’ sense of professional identity, Occupational commitment, Job satisfaction, Computer literacy, Teachers’ computer literacy 1. Introduction Over the last century, professionalism has been the subject of numerous studies (Day, 2002). Day (1999) defined teachers as the heart of the process of education. Verghase (2010) pointed out though some scholars (Moran, 1996; Duff & Uchida, 1997; Johnston, 1997) investigated ESL, bilingual, and foreign language teachers’ professional identities, they have never been considered as a subtopic within the field of language teacher education. Johnston (1997) argued that though the notion of career and profession are extremely prevalent in discussions of EFL/ESL teaching, little is known about the teacher’s working lives in this area. Day (2002) in his argument about professionalism, mentioned the importance of considering teachers’ identities, the role of self-efficacy, motivation, job satisfaction and commitment and the relationship between these and being effective. Hall (1999, in Vesanto, 2011) indicated that identity as incomplete concept has had continuous and unconscious growth over time. It is maintained that “teachers' perceptions of their own professional identity affect their efficacy and professional development as well as their ability and willingness to cope with educational change and to implement innovations” in their own practice about teaching (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 2000, p.750). Motallebzadeh (2005) stated that everyone is entitled to an opportunity in order to become more and more dynamic in a constantly changing world within which the people live with the newest data. Without exception, the language teachers are needed to access information in order to perform their responsibilities more successfully. He also argued that change is a prerequisite for ICT use in educational environment. As a result, a key issue in the area of teacher education is how to develop the ability of using computers (Son, 2004). Toffler (1984, in Miller & Green, 2012) claimed that change is life- not just necessary to life. A crucial aspect of teachers’ professional identity is change. One of the factors that can affect that change is their awareness and their ability on the new world of technology. As agents of change, if teacher become ICT literate, they would make a lot of positive attitude to computer use and information technologies (Kpai, Joe-Kinanee, & Ekeleme, 2012). An important rationale behind the ICT’s failure in teaching is teacher resistance to ICT. It is argued that difficulties are the consequences of the lack of training. Many teachers feel uncomfortable since they do not have both the necessary IT abilities and the specific training to use the new resources in the classroom environment (Carnoy, 2004). The interrelationship between variables of the current study is not very much investigated in Iran. Therefore, the result of this study will be helpful for teachers, students, and educational settings. To address the aforementioned problem, the question arises as follow: Flourishing Creativity & Literacy