This study aims to determine whether perceptions of Iranian ESP experienced and novice teachers align with Critical
Cultural Awareness (CCA) principles. Furthermore, this study examines Iranian language teachers' views on what
factors prevent their learners from raising CCA. Sixty Iranian ESP teachers were invited to take part in the study.
For each group of experience, 20 teachers were included (20 novices, 20 developing, 20 experienced). Two
instruments, a Likert-scale structured questionnaire by Atai et al. (2017) and a researcher-made semi-structured
interview, were used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Results found in quantitative analysis showed
that gender does not have a statistically significant effect on CCA. Furthermore, unlike gender, teaching experience
is a determining factor in the perceptions of Iranian ESP teachers towards CCA. It was concluded that teachers with
higher experience level consider CCA as more important when they are compared to teachers who do not have much
experience in their jobs, tending to pay more attention to critical cultural awareness skills in their students. Qualitative
analysis, also, indicated that a great majority of the participants (86%) have laid emphasis on improving their cultural
competence, while a mere of 13% of the interviewees considered students’ language proficiency as irrelevant to
cultural competence. Religious beliefs and some stereotypes and negative attitudes, having anxiety and feeling
insecure while communicating, and not knowing the important role of the cultural competence in learning were
considered as the main factors which prevented their students to develop their CCA. Findings can be helpful for ESP
teachers, institution managers, and course designers.