Motivation and Educational Culture: Iranian EFL Learners’ Views on Teacher Strategies

Understanding how to effectively strengthen learners’ motivation requires attention to the cultural and social conditions that shape how motivational strategies function. In educational settings such as Iran, where teacher authority, collectivist values, and high-stakes assessment strongly influence classroom norms, motivational practices operate as both pedagogical tools and culturally embedded behaviours. This study examines how Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners evaluate the importance and classroom frequency of a range of motivational strategies used by teachers. A modified Likert-scale questionnaire was administered to 182 students, who rated both the priority and regularity of these strategies. Descriptive and correlational analyses indicated that learners generally perceived a broad alignment between what they considered important and what teachers reportedly used, though several noteworthy gaps emerged. The results show that students gave the highest priority to strategies involving teacher conduct, acknowledgement of effort, and the creation of a supportive classroom environment: patterns reflecting deeper cultural expectations regarding authority, respect, and collective harmony. By situating these patterns within ongoing discussions about educational and social transformation, the study suggests that motivational strategies are not neutral techniques, but part of wider negotiations involving teacher–student relations, learner autonomy, and institutional change. A modest discrepancy also emerged between the strategies learners valued most and those they perceived teachers using most consistently, suggesting that classroom practice does not always reflect learners’ motivational priorities. Implications are outlined for teacher education, language policy, instructional quality, and the cultural dynamics that shape motivation in Iranian EFL contexts.