A Case Study On EFL Teacher Educator’s Professional Autonomy

Teacher autonomy serves as one of the crucial factors when it comes to professional development,which is originated from a hot issue called autonomy in language learning since mid-1970s.Unlike autonomy in language learning which emphasizes self-control of one’s learning and the goal of improving proficiency,teacher autonomy requires a higher standard for teachers to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses,of their practise and their belief as well.In this regard,teacher autonomy,as a link of professional development,plays a significant role in one’s teaching career.Since teacher educators are defined as people who give guidance and instructions to prospective teachers,they are undoubtedly responsible for the quality of the whole teacher community,and education.The necessity of cultivating teacher autonomy can be proved from two perspectives.From a broader vision,the enforcement of the document ’National Medium and Long-term Plan for Education Reform and Development(2010-2012)emphasizes the importance of teachers and declares teacher autonomy serves as the foundation of innovative talent,which is closely related to the development of the individuals and the education of the whole country.While from a micro-vision,teacher autonomy can have a great impact on the individual from the following aspects.First,it can activate the creativity of teachers.Second,it is the important factor of their job satisfaction,which will affect their self-efficacy and job commitment to some extent.Finally,it is the prerequisite and foundation of lifelong learning of teachers(苏尚锋,2007).Therefore,research on autonomy of teacher educators is urgently needed in order to explore some possible conditions that influence the development of teacher educator’s autonomy and shed light on how can one find their ways to realize the autonomy in the teaching career.Much research concerned with teaching autonomy;the relationship between the level of teacher autonomy and the level of learner’s proficiency are not enough in terms of this issue.In the circle of teacher’s professional development,teaching practices take up a large proportion and thus always become the focus of researchers.But this is not the case of the whole picture of a professional teacher,who is supposed to constantly deal with stress from various responsibilities not only teaching job but from the administrative work,the research work,the collaborative co-relationship with colleagues and so on.In this study,the author aims to explore the dynamic process of autonomy of a teacher educator,Linda at a "Project 211" Normal University,and to construct a full picture of her from different aspects.The research was implemented in a qualitative way under the theoretical framework of Activity Theory from Engestrom’s(1999),which highlights the contextual and social dimensions of activity.Two research questions are listed as followed:(1)What’s the current state of the teacher educator’s autonomy?What are the sources of influence on her autonomy formation and development?(2)During the process of professional development,how many stages of autonomy has the teacher educator gone through?What are the attributing factors?Research finds out that the autonomy of the teacher educator is steadily increasing during her professional development which mainly consists of three aspects:teaching practice,research conduction,and administration work,along with a subtle fluctuation due to the tensions emerged from these perspectives.Besides,though internal and external factors working together on her autonomy,it is the internal factors that have a decisive impact on it.As a lifelong,constant and dynamic process,teacher autonomy plays a key role in the formation of her value towards life and thus guide her action unconsciously.The implication of this study can be analyzed into two aspects,the individual one and the organizational one.From the individual aspect,since a sense of high autonomy can improve a teacher’s creativity and satisfaction towards his/her career as well as be the foundation of lifelong learning,the research will raise the awareness of being a autonomous teacher educator and provide some guidance for him/her about how to perceive and track down the work autonomy,meanwhile,to handle better with the multifaceted workload and keep developing themselves professionally.As for the pre-service and in-service teachers,they can also seek some common ground from the case study of Linda and be inspired by her through this study.From the organizational aspect,the study on autonomy will be beneficial by providing a new mindset for teacher education training and exploiting educational resources and potential.The quality of teacher education can be improved when each individual know how to control and develop themselves and even more,work in a community cooperatively as well as autonomously.Joint efforts need to be made by the policy makers from schools and the governments to empower the teacher educators and guarantee the function of the whole teacher education system.