This study aimed to explore the roles of Iranian public high schools' and language institutes' managers in English language learning, and the Iranian government’s policies in their selection process. To achieve this objective, a survey descriptive method was employed. The participants of the study consisted of 40 managers of public high schools and language institutes from different cities in Iran who had BA or MA degrees in different majors. The participants of the study were selected through convenience sampling method, and the data was collected through a semi-structured interview. The collected data from the interviews were transcribed verbatim to be analyzed. To analyze the data, the researcher used a systematic model including three steps: open coding, axial coding and selective coding. According to the results, some roles including improving the standards of schools and institutes, materializing goals of the system, encouraging students to improve their performance, keeping records of students' performance, evaluating the performance of teachers, managing the system financially, supervising the state of affairs, ordering and preparing textbooks, controlling absence and presence of teachers, evaluating students' performance, and accountability to parents and superior authorities were identified. Moreover, the researcher found no definite and clear policy on the part of the Iranian government for selecting managers in schools and language institutes. The main criteria extracted for the selection of managers in schools and language institutes were teaching experience, personal will, compliance with Islam and Islamic rules, education degree, and observing morality.
