The demise of critical agency in a post-conflict teaching environment

Abstract In this autoethnographic study, I examine how my tension-filled lived experiences and the economic conditions of working as an English teacher in Iran have constrained my critical agency in a post-conflict teaching environment following migration. The guiding research question for this inquiry is: How is my critical agency adversely influenced and compromised in conflictual and post-conflict teaching environments? Analyses revealed that economic instability at the socio-political level, along with prescriptive teaching methods and internal deterioration, created a conflictual condition that pressured me to silence my critical agency. In the post-conflict setting of Poland, although the conditions are more supportive, the memory of past trauma and the fear of losing my current position still discourage me from openly exercising critical agency. Instead, I adopt a more conservative and innovative approach, working within existing structures to make small changes while protecting my role as a migrant academic.