Iranian Journal of Educational Sociology 2645-3460 9 July 2026 2026 07 30 Examining Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceived Effect of Anxiety on Pedagogical Competence in Online Education Examining Iranian EFL Teachers’ Perceived Effect of Anxiety on Pedagogical Competence in Online Education 1 17 10.61838/rbnktp97 EN Journal Article 2026 03 02 <p><strong>Purpose:</strong> This study aimed to examine Iranian high-school EFL teachers’ perceptions of the effect of online teaching anxiety on their pedagogical competence and determine whether these perceptions differed according to gender, teaching experience, university degree, and field of study.</p> <p><strong>Methods and Materials:</strong> The study employed a mixed-methods descriptive design. A researcher-developed questionnaire, entitled Teachers’ Online Pedagogical Competence as Affected by Anxiety (TOPCA), was initially administered to 240 Iranian high-school EFL teachers in Guilan Province for validation through principal component analysis with varimax rotation. After item reduction, the final questionnaire contained 43 items and demonstrated high internal consistency. The validated instrument was subsequently administered to 120 EFL teachers selected through convenience sampling. In addition, 10 teachers participated in semi-structured interviews to provide qualitative explanations of their perceptions. Quantitative data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and one-way analyses of variance, while interview data were transcribed, coded, categorized, and examined through content analysis.</p> <p><strong>Findings:</strong> The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin value was 0.764, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant, supporting the suitability of the data for factor analysis. Principal component analysis retained 13 components with eigenvalues greater than one, accounting for 67.858% of the total variance, and the final TOPCA questionnaire achieved a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.93. No statistically significant differences were found in TOPCA scores according to gender, F(2, 118) = 0.142, p = 0.709; field of study, F(4, 116) = 0.456, p = 0.789; or university degree, F(5, 115) = 0.174, p = 0.841. However, a statistically significant difference was found among teachers with different levels of teaching experience, F(6, 114) = 4.070, p = 0.008. Interview findings supported the quantitative results by identifying concerns related to lesson planning, classroom management, instructional updating, and online assessment.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Online teaching anxiety was perceived to influence several dimensions of Iranian EFL teachers’ pedagogical competence, while teaching experience emerged as the principal professional characteristic differentiating these perceptions.</p> https://www.qijes.com/index.php/ijes/article/download/1530/1550