5 - Teacher Autonomy

Summary

Teacher autonomy is a key component of teacher professionalism. It is positively related to self‐efficacy and job satisfaction among teachers – two factors that enhance their motivation and commitment to providing successful learning opportunities for students. However, despite playing a vital role in the teaching–learning process, insufficient attention has been paid over the past few decades to teacher autonomy in the field of English language teaching. There are significant gaps in theory, research, and practice. For example, there is a lack of consistency in definitions of teacher autonomy. Available empirical studies are also rather scarce. With this in mind, this chapter defines the construct of teacher autonomy and presents a profile of an autonomous teacher. This is followed by an overview of empirical projects investigating teacher autonomy. The aim is to show what has been done and what the findings reveal and identify possible gaps practitioners and educational researchers could fill in future research. The focus then shifts to pedagogical strategies for promoting teacher autonomy in teacher education programmes or professional development events. Eleven effective strategies are proposed that can be easily integrated into both types of provision and afford teachers ample opportunity to show personal autonomy and engage in collaboration, thus demonstrating collective autonomy.