Impact of Participatory Critical Pedagogy Interventions on EFL Learners' Class Participation and Engagement: The Case Study of Female EFL Learners in Iran

Given the significance of Critical Pedagogy (CP) as a transformative educational practice in empowering and enabling learners in terms of enhancing their voice, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of participatory critical pedagogy intervention on the development of Iranian female EFL learners in terms of enhancing their voice and class participation. Female learners were selected as the population of the study as gender is a social category reconstructed and negotiated in ELT classroom context entailing the exercise of power. Adopting Hart's (1992) Ladder of Participation framework, this case study was conducted using qualitative strategies fused with the components of experimental design, known as the qualitative experiment design. Accordingly, the in-depth experience of a group of 15 participants during treatment sessions of CP were evaluated through interview, structured non-participant observation, and reflective journals. Findings pointed to the positive and transformative impact of CP in practice on female learners' engagement in and enjoyment of classroom activities in Iran. Moreover, CP in practice resulted in the development of female learners in terms of taking an active role in the process of learning EFL in Iran. However, the development was not statistically significant.