Carving Out Professional Learning Paths and Challenges of Foreign Language Teacher Educators

ABSTRACT Although professional learning (PL) practices of teacher educators have received some attention, the PL challenges of foreign language teacher educators in diverse contexts are under‐researched. Thus, this qualitative study aims to delineate the PL challenges regarding career aspirations, professional roles and research motivations of 22 senior professors in English Language Education programs in Türkiye, a country characterized by frequent reforms in education and teacher recruitment systems. We gathered the PL trajectories and challenges of the participants via semi‐structured interviews. The findings revealed that while the participants were mostly driven by internal motivations in their career aspirations and research motivations, a heavy lecturing workload, large class sizes, abrupt changes in promotion criteria, and a lack of financial and institutional support complicated their PL paths. The findings point to a compelling need for more institutional support and research facilities that can be actioned by universities to stabilize PL within a more massified system.