Secondary English Language Teacher Educators: Voices from Bangladesh

Given the heightened attention regarding the professional development of teachers, teacher education is regarded as a critical field to be investigated and evaluated more profoundly. While trainee teachers have been the primary foci of teacher education scholarship, the perspectives and experiences of teacher educators (in this study context, teacher trainers also), have not been explored to the same extent, particularly in developing countries like Bangladesh. This study, using a qualitative case study research paradigm, attempts to fill the gap. As a part of a doctoral project, seven English language teacher educators and ten trained English language teachers working in the secondary English language education context in Bangladesh were interviewed. The findings revealed that the teacher educators were not fully prepared for their task, expressed critical concerns regarding their professional development as well as the bureaucratic milieu within which they work, and were uncertain about career prospects. The paper, thus, reflecting on the voices of teacher trainers, concludes with a set of recommendations for improving and sustaining the quality of teacher educators/ trainers in Bangladesh.


Introduction
Students' performance and achievement are considered to be predominantly proportionate to the quality of teachers [1][2][3][4]. While the level of knowledge and performance of students is judged against that of teachers' knowledge and performance, the same claim can be made for quality teacher education and quality teacher educators. To put it simply, a quality teacher is a product of a quality teacher education program. However, the domain of quality teacher educators/trainers has been paid less attention, except some recent studies that investigated the process of becoming a teacher educator/trainer [5,6], identified what teacher educators should know about their profession and able to perform accordingly [7] and recommended ways of improving teacher educators' work [8] respectively in the US, the Philippines and Cambodia.
In the Bangladeshi context, the practical issues and concerns regarding teacher educators or trainers appears to be absent in research. More specifically, studies on different occasions attempted to re-theorise secondary English language teacher education program [9], discussed paradigms of teacher education in ELT and their implication in the Bangladeshi context [10], highlighted key ingredients and importance of professional development [11], explored teacher development conditions in Bangladesh [12], identified problems in 14], evaluated the implementation of ELT-INSET programs in schools [15]. However, there has been very little attention paid to investigate teacher education in terms of the perceptions and experiences of teacher educators' professional work.
The current study, therefore, has been designed to explore the voices of secondary English language teacher educators/trainers (hence abbreviated as SELTE), 'an under-researched and poorly understood occupational group ' [16], to understand their perceptions and experiences about their professional lives, including their professional development opportunities, quality of teacher educators, their working context.
The study reported in this article is presented as follows. First, a review of literature on teacher educators is presented. Then, the context of teacher education with particular attention to SELTE in Bangladesh is outlined. The paper then details the research methodology employed for this study. The following section presents the findings. Finally, the paper discusses the findings and also offers a set of recommendations for improving the quality of secondary English language teacher educators in Bangladesh which could also be applicable for other countries with the same context.

Review of Literature
The precursor task of teacher educators is to educate teachers (in terms of teaching and/or training), while the former is second-order practitioners, the latter is first-hand practitioner [17]. A teacher educator's 'to-do' list is similar to what teachers do in schools. The list includes making lesson plans and delivering them, reflecting on how to teach in a methodological framework, mentoring, observing and evaluating the students' performance and developing their pedagogical and professional quality. What differs is that teacher education does not merely refer to teaching or educating or training pre-/in-service teachers. It is also centered on 'a purposeful commitment' to teach teachers and to develop an extensive and deep understanding of meaning about teaching by conducting hands-on research in the field of teacher education [7].
Such a wide range of tasks has also facilitated international teacher education scholarship to frame standards for teacher educators. Those standards, for displaying shared aims across the contexts [18], were heuristically termed by Smith and Lytle [19] as the core of 'knowledge-for-practice...knowledge-in-practice…knowle dge-of-practice' (p. 250). For example, developing and facilitating competencies among teacher educators in terms of content, pedagogy, communication, group dynamics, personal growth and organizational capabilities were identified as standards of teacher educators by Murray and Male [17] in the Netherlands. The US based Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) formulized an expanded framework of the standard of teacher educator reasoning that the role of teacher educator needs to be accomplished with a set of abilities with reference to 'teaching, cultural competency, scholarship, professional development, program development, collaboration, public advocacy, teacher education profession, and vision' (ATE, 2008 as cited in Goodwin et al. [7]). Then based on the work of Bolin and Goodwin [20] and Goodwin [21], a set of five 'deep, broad, context specific as well as integrated' (p. 338) domains of knowledge was offered by Goodwin and Kosnik [5] to conceptualise the standard of teacher educators. These set includes personal, contextual, pedagogical, sociological and social knowledge.
However, literature also indicates a misalignment between what teacher educators should know about how to implement pedagogical knowledge and to what extent they are able to know and practice in a real context. A study conducted by Goodwin et al. [7] researched teacher educators' unpreparedness in understanding and assuming their supposed roles. The study also revealed an expression of negotiation from the study participants, a negotiation between policy and practice they made to avoid conflicts among related stakeholders of the wider education system. This challenging context was also noted by other scholars, such as Guilfoyle,Hamilton,Pinnegar,and Placier [22] and Swennen,Shagrir,and Cooper [23]. A lack of explicit attention towards developing the scope of the approaches of teacher educators was also mentioned by these studies. Studies conducted by Murray and Male [17], Smith [18] and Zeichner [24] also underscored the importance of considering and understanding 'the wider education system, including policies, standards, and their implications' [7] for making the role of teacher educator more meaningful and contextual.
A more recent study by Zein and Haing [8] identified that the higher the qualifications and the more the experiences, the better the teacher educators are. The study also argued that field level experience will enhance the academic quality of teacher educators. Some recommendations including emotional and physical support were also outlined for improving the professional work of teacher educator.
So, what do the Bangladeshi SELTEs perceive about themselves and their profession? Given the importance of English language education in Bangladesh, it is indispensable to look at and listen to the voices of SELTEs who play significant roles, not for "possessing power nor personal prestige" [25], but for their ad hoc agentic involvement and representation as the ground level curriculum-policy implementation stakeholders. The current study, thus, is a small contribution to a much larger sphere of ongoing English language education policy research.

Secondary English Language Teacher Education in Bangladesh
Bangladesh, with its limited national resources (in terms of manpower and institutional capability), intends and attempts to provide teacher education for secondary school teachers through three channels. One is the government based teacher education and training institutions, the second is the private enterprises and the third way is to invite international agencies with their English language education projects. , falls under this group. Therefore, the Bangladeshi government has directed secondary school teachers to attend different English in-service training programs arranged by different national and international projects, Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) and Master of Education (M.Ed.) [27]. These programs are considered as training program instead of academic program. Table 1 provides information regarding secondary teacher education provisions provided by government and private enterprises in Bangladesh (regardless of the subjects).
Apart from these institutions, there are some INSET programs or projects funded and arranged by international donor agencies like the British Council, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Department for International Development and the Canadian International Development Agency. The main reason to initiate such project based teacher education or training provision was to supplement the institutional and resourcing capabilities of the Bangladesh government [28]. These projects, with a view to providing training to secondary school English teachers, are arranged at local institutions. The Ministry of Education of Bangladesh is responsible for implementing these projects. The majority of the trainers are also local. However, the project design, format and reporting are principally conducted by the foreign consultants. Names of such projects are English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) Bangladesh, English in Action (EiA), English for Teaching, Teaching for English (ETTE), Secondary Education Quality and Access Enhancement Project (SEQAEP), Teaching Quality Improvement in Secondary Education Project (TQI-SEP).

Research Aims
The aim of this study was to develop a better understanding about the professional lives of teacher educators. Teacher educators working in the secondary English language teacher education context have been taken as the main case. The research questions for this project are: a) How do secondary English language teacher educators evaluate their own academic and professional qualifications? b) What perceptions do secondary English language teacher educators possess about their profession?

Research Design
This research is situated in a qualitative case study research paradigm [29] intending to capture the meaning people define, construct and describe [30]. As qualitative research paradigm aims to produce a rich and thick illustration of the phenomenon under examination, sample sizes are usually kept small and also selected purposively aligning with how well they fit with the study focus [31].
Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 7 teacher educators (1 female and 6 male)-the key participants of this research. The teacher educators were working as the trainers of secondary English language teachers. Table 2 presents their profiles. However, their affiliation was omitted due to ethical reasons and renamed as X, Y and Z accordingly. This study also employed interview data elicited from 10 trained secondary English language teachers (2 female and 8 male) who received in-service training from those 7 teacher educators on different occasions. The latter cohort also added a valuable contribution to the studied topic by including their first-hand perspectives and experiences.

Data Collection Procedure
Data collection procedure followed two steps. First, the Director General (DG) of the training institution was contacted to secure permission and gain access to the SELTE for conducting interviews. The list of trained English language teachers was also collected from the same institution. Then the school principals of potential schools were contacted to secure approval to conduct the study as well as to reach to the trained English language teachers for interviews.
Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with the individual stakeholders on the agreed date and time in order to capture the multitude of participants' views on the studies issue. 5 SELTEs and 2 trained English teachers used English while the rest 2 SELTEs and 8 teachers preferred to be interviewed in Bangla (the first language of Bangladesh). Each of these interviews was digitally recorded, and then transcribed duly. The translation of 10 Bangla interviews into English was conducted by the researcher.

Data Analysis
A step-by-step inductive thematic data analysis [32] approach was employed for analysing data, as the study aimed to generate and hence interpret the insights and perspectives of teacher educators through their semi-structured interview data. First, meticulous reading and re-reading of transcriptions was made to become familiar with the data in order to facilitate coding. In the next phase, different codes were sorted out and put under potential themes. Subsequently, the emerging themes were refined and rearranged either by separating from or collapsing into others in order to attain both internal and external homogeneity between themes [33]. Finally, the eventual refinement of themes was conducted by further defining and refining the themes so that the core of each theme as well as aspect of the data under each theme is identified and reported [32]. The overall data analysis procedure resulted in the emergence of 6 themes which are presented in the findings section.

Findings
During the interviews, the 7 SELTEs were asked to provide information about their academic and professional qualifications, evaluate their preparation for their current profession as well as their own professional development opportunities and to identify key issues they experience while playing the role of a teacher educator. The 10 trained English teachers were asked about their perceptions and experiences of the quality and efficacy of the SELTEs. Further amplificatory questions also assisted the researcher to elicit recommendations from the viewpoints of the SELTEs. The emerging themes derived from the data analysis are presented below with supporting extracts.

Academic and Professional Qualifications of SELTE
This theme, based on the profiles of secondary English language teacher educators, was sought to show the typical picture of the majority of secondary teacher educators in Bangladesh. The perceptions derived from the profiles (presented in Table 2) also facilitated to reflect on the subsequent themes and to see a coherence among them.
The data presented in Table 2 demonstrated that the SELTE obtained master's degree in English as their highest academic qualification. Interestingly, 5 of them had their MA degree in English literature while the other 2 completed their MA degree in Applied Linguistics and English language Teaching (ELT) long after commencing their profession as teacher educators. Moreover, only three participants could report the completion of M.Ed. degree as their professional qualification.
Participants also indicated that they felt that a relevant academic qualification is necessary for them to be more effective as well as to enable them to be more confident in conducting their roles as a teacher educator. Participants having an M.Ed. degree as a professional qualification also criticised the content and format of the degree program saying that such a program was 'designed to cover general education' (SELTE.07); 'the course content was contextually less operative' (SELTE.02) to be utilised while they teach or train secondary English language teachers.
One interesting yet crucial finding was the participants' happenstance in engaging with teacher education field and so they admitted their lacking in proper preparation to be a teacher educator. Extract from one participant shows such, as: Actually, I started my career as a lecturer in a college. Meanwhile, the institution X was recruiting teacher trainers for secondary English language teachers. So, I joined the X. When the project was over, I was then transferred to Y as a teacher trainer. So, you can say that I was and still learning (how to train) while doing (teaching). (SELTE.07)

Scope of Professional Development for Teacher Educators
While reflecting on professional development (PD), participants (SELTEs) were critical of the inadequate opportunities of their professional development. Closer analysis of data further shows a critical concern regarding the quality of the existing professional development programs designed for teacher educators.
Data from participants revealed that the present scope of professional development of teacher educators is low. The existing training programs are mostly unrelated to their real contexts of providing training to secondary English language teachers. Participants also criticised the short-term ToTs (Training for Trainers) sporadically organised by the government and some other organisations.
Analysing data regarding teacher educators' experiences and insights of PD programs they attended so far also raised quality issues of those programs. While only one participant (SELTE.01) said 'I have received a 3 months training from UK named ELT resource Centre Training', the others were persistently critical about their experiences of their professional development. One participant said that although the trainers in the ToT programs might be academically qualified, the ToT program itself was not pedagogically well-structured. The frequency of delivery of the programs was 'occasional' (SELTE.03), a 'wastage of money, time and effort' (SELTE.05). Such findings were also expressed more fully as: Um… The same participant described the quantity and quality of their professional development programs: So personally, for my own professional development, I always look for opportunities by myself. For ex: American Centre often runs programs for ELT and Teacher trainers. I try to attend those. I also secured some scholarship to do some online TESOL courses. These courses really helped me. But how many of us can afford time and money to attain such kind of avenues to develop ourselves? (SELTE.02)

Frustration about the Career Prospect of SELTE
Data analysis also indicated the participants' frustration while they discussed their career progression. Although the SELTEs started their career with enthusiasm and aspiration, they found it difficult to gain promotion and recognition. As employees of the Bangladeshi government, participants reported that their previous experience working with another government project has not been properly evaluated by their current institution. Having experience of an assistant/associate professor (in terms of years, as per government rule), they are still ranked as a lecturer. The below extract expresses this sense of frustration: When I started working with the X project, it was like a dream job for me. When X first started its journey in Bangladesh, at that time the air-conditioned office room, the land cruiser car for going to the field observation, all those working environment …it all made our job a dream job. When I started working with the grass root level teachers of English, used to observe their classes, talked to them about their problems…all these made me feel that I am meant for this teacher educator job. I am only capable of being a teacher educator, no other job is suitable for me. My love and attachment for this job gradually turned out to be so intense that still I am in this profession. And so doing I am sacrificing in terms of position and finance. With our 16 years of experiences as teacher trainers, we were supposed to be ranked as Associate Professor by this time, but here at Y we had to start with the very initial rank, as a lecturer. Yet we feel to work as teacher educators, as we want to hold and maintain the connection with our English language teachers across the country. (SELTE.01)

Discontent about a Power-Coercive Working Context
Teacher educators also mentioned some in-house, bureaucratic hurdles they face while undertaking their role. They explained, for instance, that appointing a Course Director (CD) from a non-ELT background for the purpose of supervising the overall training program does not make any major difference, and that those in management roles appear to be 'either unable or unwilling to realize our mission, planning, potential' (SELTE.02). Therefore, the 'conflicting interest of the management' along with its 'inactive role as a support distribution channel' (SELTE.05) results in inefficiency in the process of executing effective teacher training programs. The participants also shared their experience of being professionally humiliated by other senior trainers as well as committee members and other related stakeholders in the policy table. This works as a legacy to demotivate their working spirit and enthusiasm. The following extracts exemplify this finding: Sometimes some of my colleagues argue with me to stick to the old materials; they discourage me to incorporate the new ELT trends. There is a lack of collegial collaboration among us. (SELTE.03) This is very much my personal observation. I discovered that the same teacher trainers who used to work with passion, enthusiasm and dedication, now here they are not performing their duties and responsibilities seriously. Not only the trainers, the other senior committee members of ELT training program are also found in procrastination, sometimes either they try to ignore, or they dump their tasks on us. While working with others in the committee, this procrastination has a viral effect on the other members. Moreover, in the committee sometimes we have some deputed senior personnel who devalue and sometimes demoralize us by criticising our expertise as teacher trainer. They do not count our experiences, reflections. They don't have that mentality. So, it lessens our work spirit. (SELTE.06) We didn't receive warm support from the district education office (DEO) and teachers' training college (TTC) in terms of logistic and others. I mean they didn't support us happily, except the occasion where the Education Minister would be the chairperson of the concluding ceremony of the ELT training. (SELTE.01)

Quality Issues of Teacher Educators
Participants, both SELTEs and trained secondary English language teachers, underscored the importance of quality teacher educators for ensuring quality teacher education. They asserted that teacher educators have to be knowledgeable in personal, contextual and pedagogical domains in order to maximize the quality of teacher education as well as the quality of teachers. Relatedly, participants raised quality issues of the existing teacher educators.
Teacher educators, reflecting on their academic and professional quality, admitted the quality issue of training programs. They reasoned that teacher educators enter this profession without any proper pre-service education. Moreover, their 'on-site learning while doing' (SELTE.04) does not necessarily equip them with the skills and knowledge that a qualified teacher educator should possess. A majority of them admitted their training sessions appeared to be a 'patch-work'. The issue becomes severe when they design their training formats based on decades old needs analysis report, materials with very less improvisations. Below the extract epitomises more: If you look at the profile of our trainers of English here, you will be surprised to know that some of us are having no proper academic ELT background or enough training to be a teacher trainer. To some extent, they are lagging behind in terms of adopting new ELT technique, pedagogies etc. They are not very much updated. It becomes a problem for me as what I had to experience in my last training period. So, from a trainer's perspective I want to say that they (some TTs) should be trained enough to be an effective TT and be updated with the current ELT practices. (SELTE.02) Along with the teacher educators, the trained secondary English language teachers also felt that the quality of their educators was not up to the mark. The majority of the trained English teachers interviewed for this study said that the quality of training they had received was not satisfactory, as one of the main reasons was the lack of their trainers' pedagogical and professional quality. They perceived that quality of teacher educators to be indicative of the quality of teacher education leading to the assurance of quality teacher. Two relevant statements are given below: Trainers should be more expert, professional and efficient in giving training. We had two trainers who seemed not be fully prepared, seemed nervous and to have lack of confidence while doing the sessions. So specialized and efficient trainers should be appointed to conduct and manage this very important ELT training. (TSELT.04) Actually, I didn't learn that much from the INSET. I attended the training with great expectations but ended up with despair. It seemed to me that they conducted their sessions hastily. They did not consider our working context. I mean the way they showed demo class is quite undoable in my class. So, the trainers should know the real picture of class and then train us accordingly. To me, models are for show, not for practical usage. (TSELT.07)

Lack of Professional Evaluation
A further close investigation of participants' responses identified the theme related to the absence of professional evaluation of teacher educators. Professional evaluation or monitoring system with the tools of evaluating trainers, training sessions (materials, contents) while conducting training, according to the participants (teacher educators) would not only assist in making them personally and professionally more thoughtful, responsible and contemporary in their approach, but also improve overall teacher education quality. Currently, there is no such systematic evaluation conducted for teacher educators in Bangladesh.
Trainers' evaluation is also an important issue-it needs to be done effectively and rigorously so that we the teacher trainers feel the importance of developing ourselves professionally. But unfortunately, there is no hard and fast rules to do such kind of professional evaluation of our trainers here. (SELTE.02)

Discussion
Undoubtedly, the domain of teacher education has not been addressed rigorously by the Bangladesh government. The National Education Policy [27] focused heavily on the importance of quality teachers by underpinning the necessity of quality teacher recruitment as well as developing their professional excellence through repetitive, demand-driven teacher education and training programs (p. 64). Ironically, the domain of teacher educators was neglected except for the statement that they are required to have adequate knowledge in their own subjects and 'the trainers will be accordingly trained in their own subjects before the change in curriculum and syllabus takes place' (p. 65). Therefore, this study was necessary to understand the issues, challenges teacher educators experience in their professional context.
Teacher educators' experiences and perceptions of their professional lives and works analysed in this paper has raised a number of issues of concern. Teacher educators' preparation (in terms of educational) for taking up the role of a teacher educator simply tends to lack explicit or systematic preparation. Teacher educators, interviewed in this study agreed that a relevant and higher educational qualification benchmark is required for their profession. Some of them completed their second master's degree or professional education in English Language Teaching (ELT) as they realised that the task of teacher educator would be inappropriate, disorganized and ineffective unless they possess solid, relevant educational qualifications aligned with their profession. Appropriate academic qualifications frame the quality teaching [34] and it is the relationship between pedagogic knowledge and practice that develops the extent of such quality teaching [19].
By the same token, the scope of professional development, in terms of quantity and quality is also required for developing teacher educators' pedagogical excellence. Being teachers of teachers, the teacher educators in this study were critical of the quality of the existing ToT programs. They reported those programs to be merely 'eyewash', 'theoretic' and 'wastage of time and money' offering little in terms of professional development. Instead, they argued for incorporating such pedagogy in ToT or professional courses which will involve 'a knowledge of teaching about teaching and a knowledge of learning about teaching and how the two influences one another [35] and so will enhance their professional excellence. They suggested for devising a policy of effective and rigorous evaluation of their performance with a view to ensure the quality of teacher educators. Teacher educators also emphasised on the provision of visiting and observing real-life classes as they believed that it would be beneficial for them to know and understand trainee teachers' pedagogical knowledge as well as practice more contextually, extensively and holistically.
The data analysis also explored the practical dilemmas elicited by teacher educators regarding their status, facilities, future and working context. The interviewees expressed their feelings of being under-appreciated and under-paid, mounting up their feelings of discontent, frustration and demoralisation about their future. The teacher educators also added that they work within a power-coercive, bureaucratic professional environment where instead of being professionally acknowledged and rewarded, they often experienced harsh comments full of disdainful attitudes from the top-level management team. Given the importance and social impact of their profession, teacher educators highlighted the importance of receiving support from the management in every aspect, including financial (higher salary), logistics (resources), emotional (recognition, promotion) in order to sustain their professional commitment. in feeling committed towards their profession.

Recommendations
The extent to which this study represents perceptions and experiences of teacher educators' professional lives, a summary can be drawn up by saying that the overall quality of the English language teacher education sector in 2258 Secondary English Language Teacher Educators: Voices from Bangladesh Bangladesh would be jeopardized unless adequate and proper attention is given to its teacher educators and the number of issues raised by them. Moreover, the policy goal to develop a qualified, prepared, well-trained, supported, and efficient English language teaching pool will not be realised accordingly. Compromise in this regard will simply lead to continuing the emergence of multifaceted issues in the overall goal of English language education, as it is happening right now [35,36]. The insights derived from the study findings, thus necessitates to set forth a number of recommendations in terms of 'support' applicable for Bangladesh and beyond with the same context.
First, teacher educators require support in terms of developing their pedagogical skill set. For pedagogy, along with the subject specialisations, a strong foundation of knowledge about the field of teacher education with reference to theories and practices of teaching and learning should be emphasised. Regarding this, the ToT or other related education and/or training programs for teacher educators should be developed and improved in such a way so that they offer a balanced combination of theories and methods of teaching to enrich and develop teacher educators more professionally, holistically and extensively.
The second recommendation is to provide teacher educators with ample opportunities and provision to observe teachers' classes with the view that such first-hand field experience would give them a clearer picture of the real teaching context of schools. Contextual first-hand experience, what Zeichner [24] termed as a 'self-evident activity' for improving teacher educators will enable them to develop a framework that is not only pedagogically sound, but also contextually appropriate for teaching and/or training the teachers coming from different contexts.
The teacher educators also shared their stories of being professionally under-appreciated and under-acknowledged as professionals, a cause for demotivating them to pursue their task properly. The third recommendation is, therefore, to ensure a friendly, supportive professional atmosphere for teacher educators where they will receive both professional support (in terms of logistics, balanced workload) and psychological support (in terms of attractive salary, required rank, supportive colleagues and authorities). This type of appreciation, support and acknowledgement will increase the self-esteem and motivation of teacher educators which in effect will improve the quality of teacher education programs in Bangladesh.
The fourth recommendation is that the government should pay more attention in establishing concrete policy directions regarding teacher educators, an inseparable part of quality teacher development. More specifically, the personnel policy of English-in-education policy planning in Bangladesh should attend to pertinent issues such as establishing the quality and the standard of teacher educators' academic, professional qualifications, insurance of their professional support, effective evaluation of their performance so that the overall quality of English language education could be enhanced, ensured and sustained.

Conclusions
The intention of this research was to study teacher educators or trainers, a less commonly studied aspect of teacher education in the Bangladeshi context. The study attempted to elicit critical insights from English language teacher educators about their profession. The perceptions of trained teachers were also considered in pertinent cases to make the understanding more robust, holistic and compelling. What the overall study implies is that teacher educators in Bangladesh raised issues regarding the quality of their own academic, professional competencies, were dissatisfied with extent and quality of their professional development experiences, and questioned the power-coercive, unsupportive, bureaucratic working environment. Thus, the views shared by both teacher educators and trainee teachers trainers implied the necessity of looking into the ways of improving teacher educators' quality, because the quality teacher preparation highly depends on quality teacher educators [5,33].
One of the teacher educators, interviewed in this study exhibited a more personal zeal for his profession, as: When I started my career in Gazipur, I used to clean and decorate my own room by myself. So, this involvement is beyond description. What did I receive in turn? We might be professionally less developed and might have received less attention in terms of remuneration and other related sectors. Nevertheless, I love my professional identity. What is the source of this fascination for working as a TT…I don't know…I don't realise. What I know is that I am incomplete without this identity. (SELTE.03) Therefore, it is high time to make sure the zeal of SELTEs is sustained not only for making teacher educators qualified and content, but also for ensuring the quality of both English language education and overall education in Bangladesh. English language education policy planning in Bangladesh should attend the SELE stakeholder more effectively and rigorously in order to maximise and ensure the benefits of English language education.