Bridging Theory and Practice: Turkish In-Service EFL Teachers’ Motivations and Experiences in Graduate Education in an Underresearched Context

Voices from understudied regions continue to be marginalized despite the fact that teacher professional development has been thoroughly examined in Western contexts. The motivations and experiences of 13 in-service EFL teachers pursuing Master of Arts (MA) degrees in Hakkari, a remote area of southeast Türkiye, are investigated in this qualitative phenomenological study. The results of thematic analysis of in-person semi-structured interviews with high inter-rater reliability (Miles-Huberman = 0.91) show that graduate pursuit is driven by intrinsic motivations, especially a love of learning (38.5%) and professional stagnation (30.8%), even in the face of meager financial incentives (a 5% pay increase). Through the development of reflective practice (84.6%), confidence building (46.2%), and teacher-researcher identity (38.5%), the MA program had a significant impact on teaching practice. Most importantly, 76.9% of participants stated that teaching and learning have strong reciprocal influences, with teaching experience helping to make theory tangible and understandable (the strongest single theme, 53.8%). Even though 38.5% of participants reported having trouble managing their time and workload, everyone who did so stressed that the advantages outweighed the drawbacks. By showing that common patterns of professional development appear with significant contextual variations in resource-constrained settings, this study fills important gaps in the research on teacher education in the Global South. The results guide graduate teacher education policies in remote areas across the globe.