Influence of Attitudes on the Autonomy of English as a Foreign Language Teachers

Abstract

In applied linguistics, teacher professional development and teacher autonomy have long been hot research topics. However, little attention has been paid to the issue of what attitudes teachers hold toward their professional development. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether teacher autonomy is influenced by the aforementioned attitudes. Under this circumstance, the current study attempts to explore what attitudes English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers hold toward their professional development and whether such attitudes influence teacher autonomy. For this purpose, we investigated 14 EFL teachers, using classroom observation, stimulated recall interview and semi-structured interview, respectively. The collected data were analyzed in light of the grounded theory, which gave rise to three main findings. First, the participants’ autonomy was positively correlated with their attitudes toward professional development. Second, most of the participants held a negative attitude toward their professional development. Third, the participants held conflicting opinions about the influence of in-service training on professional development. These findings indicate that EFL teachers’ professional identity is positively correlated with teacher autonomy. Moreover, the findings call for effective measures to improve EFL teachers’ attitudes toward their professional identity.

1. Introduction

With the rapid development of pedagogical concepts and methodologies, teachers are confronted with a great challenge on how to engage in professional development. This is particularly true for EFL teachers in Chinese universities, for they are usually non-native speakers of English. Besides improving English proficiency, EFL teachers also need to update their pedagogical skills and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK), partly due to the fact that modern technology has changed the landscape of education (Koehler & Mishra, 2005; Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Since the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, a lot of teachers have been catalyzed to master online teaching methods (Blankenberger & Williams, 2020; Del Pino Espinoza et al., 2022). In this context, EFL teachers have to keep learning online pedagogical skills, so as to survive in their teaching career. In other words, teachers are supposed to possess the ability of self-directed learning, fostering their professional development. Smith (2000) refers to such kind of ability as ‘teacher-learner autonomy’.

In the respect of teacher-learner autonomy, it cannot be emphasized too much that professional development is crucial for teacher autonomy. However, it remains unknown what attitudes EFL teachers have toward their professional development. Furthermore, it is unclear whether EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence teacher autonomy. This line of research deserves exploration, as it might not only help teachers to develop their teaching career, but also contribute to college administrators in the respect of organizing teacher professional development activities. Against this backdrop, the current study was designed to examine the relationship between EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development and their autonomy.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Teacher Professional Development Toward Teacher Autonomy

Teacher professional development (hereafter abbreviated as TPD) is usually described as a “process of continual, intellectual, experiential, and attitudinal growth of teachers” (Lange, 1990, p. 250). The impact of TPD is individual, institutional, and far-reaching. First, professional development enhances teacher efficacy effectively (Ross & Bruce, 2007). Besides the individual satisfaction and financial gain, teachers’ professional development has a very “positive impact on teachers’ beliefs and practices, students’ learning, and implementation of reforms” (Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p. 19). Nevertheless, technological advancements in the post-COVID era have posed multifaceted challenges to TPD. For instance, Anis (2024) has found that teachers are confronted with challenges such as technological awkwardness, pedagogical shifts, and mental adaption into the digital era. To sum up, EFL teachers’ professional development has been studied worldwide.

However, previous studies were mainly concerned with different modes and designs of TPD programs (El Shaban & Egbert, 2018; Zimmer & Matthews, 2022; Chung & Fisher, 2022), individual differences in TPD interventions (Scanlon et al., 2022; Magnusson et al., 2023), and the effectiveness of TPD interventions (Ehlert & Souvignier, 2023; Ha, 2022), but less attention has been paid to the issue of whether TPD interventions affect teachers’ practical classroom teaching. Even if the effectiveness of TPD is judged, the results are always self-reported and indirect (see, e.g., Ehlert & Souvignier, 2023). Osman and Warner (2020) tried to link TPD and teacher practice by measuring their motivation, but it only proved the validation and reliability of the scale design. However, more direct and practical classroom teaching evidence is needed to support the relevant theoretical arguments.

One of the ideal goals of teacher professional development is that teachers are expected to become genuinely successful masters of their teaching practice. As successful teachers are always autonomous and strongly responsible for their teaching (Little, 1995), professional development entails the possibility to strengthen teacher autonomy. According to Little (1995), teacher autonomy should be overtly exhibited in their teaching practice. Furthermore, an autonomous teacher has been characterized as possessing “a teachers’ awareness of why, when, where and how pedagogical skills can be realized in a self-conscious process of teaching” (Tort-Moloney, 1997, p. 51). In Tort-Moloney’s description, an autonomous teacher embodies two aspects of awareness. One is the awareness needed to acquire pedagogical skills. The other is the awareness needed to apply pedagogical skills to teaching practice with a clear objective. In this sense, teacher autonomy should not only be studied from the theoretical perspective, but it should also be examined from the practical perspective. In the present study, we adopt the latter perspective to look at EFL teachers’ teaching practice, so as to gain an insight into their degree of autonomy.

From the perspective of the developmental trajectory, a teacher’s professional development can be viewed as a continuous contribution to the development of teacher autonomy (McGrath, 2000). Therefore, as a critical component, teacher autonomy is always associated with teacher professional development. This assumption can be expressed as follows:

“One way of defining autonomy is in terms of control over one’s own life; in relation to teachers this might be glossed as ‘control over one’s own professional development’. … A second and equally common sense of autonomy is ‘freedom from control by others.”

(McGrath, 2000, p. 100)

In this definition, a clear distinction has been made between self-control and other-control in terms of autonomy. McGrath tends to consider teacher autonomy as teacher’s self-control over their professional development. Furthermore, if a teacher’s professional development is self-controlled, then it is very likely that s/he holds a positive attitude toward professional development. In this paper, we tend to adopt this definition. According to Bailey et al. (2001), it is better for teachers themselves to manage their professional development, as they are the best sources to achieve effective outcomes, compared with professional development enforced by institutions. However, it may be problematic to assume autonomy as teachers’ ‘freedom from control by others’; this is because such kind of freedom does not necessarily lead to a beneficial result for both teachers and students (Aoki, 2002). Moreover, the application of teaching quality control probably leaves teachers less self-freedom, but more control by others.

Previous research findings in mainland China tend to support EFL teachers’ self-directed professional development (Sun, 2002; Jin, 2003; Wang, 2011; Xu, 2020). First, the study by Sun (2002) has revealed that teachers’ self-directed professional development is an international trend, a guarantee of successful educational reform, and an internal motivation for sustainable professional development. Second, it has been claimed that EFL teachers’ self-directed professional development is an optimal mode for sustainable development (Jin, 2003). Third, it has been argued that teachers’ professional development is closely related to teacher autonomy, such that it encourages self-directed development in a manner of being able to acquire new pedagogical concepts as well as reflect on teaching practices (Xu, 2020).

2.2. Teacher Autonomy

As a multi-dimensional concept, teacher autonomy is more concerned with teachers’ pedagogical practice in the classroom, including teachers’ decision-making on their classroom practices, lesson plans, teaching materials and approaches, curricular development, and student outcome assessment (Ozdemir & Cakalci, 2022; Nguyen et al., 2021). Therefore, many previous studies found suitable approaches to develop the teaching profession, so as to achieve a higher level of autonomy (Ushioda et al., 2011; Bentham et al., 2015; Dikilitaş & Griffiths, 2017; Banegas et al., 2013; Burns, 1999, 2010; Bustingorry, 2008; Castro Garcés & Martínez Granada, 2016). First, it has been claimed that continuous professional development support promises to build up teacher autonomy as long as teachers are not resistant to change (Bentham et al., 2015). Second, it has been shown that the practice of online communities can help support teacher autonomy (Ushioda et al., 2011). Third, it has been suggested that developing teacher autonomy through action research is an effective approach for language teachers’ professional development (Dikilitaş & Griffiths, 2017; Banegas et al., 2013; Burns, 1999, 2010; Bustingorry, 2008; Castro Garcés & Martínez Granada, 2016). Continuous teacher professional development may help to build up teacher autonomy, based on the principle of being willing to change, to be open to new initiatives, to incorporate innovative practices, and so on.

Moreover, previous research has shown that professional development is conducive to autonomy of both novice and experienced teachers (Castro Garcés & Martínez Granada, 2016; Dymoke & Harrison, 2006). For novice teachers, it has been pointed out that there is a close relation between teacher autonomy and professional development (Dymoke & Harrison, 2006). However, it has been argued that novice teachers have limited space for autonomy, as they have to cope with many practical problems in their first years of professional development. During this critical period of time, it is necessary for novice teachers to learn from experts in professional training programs. By contrast, experienced teachers have a higher level of autonomy, as they are more familiar with disciplinary knowledge. Thus, teacher autonomy inherently requires such necessary disciplinary knowledge for professional growth (Castro Garcés & Martínez Granada, 2016). Additionally, some teacher trainers hold the view that professional development is an integral aspect of teacher autonomy. In essence, teacher professional development reciprocates teacher autonomy, and the enhancement of teacher autonomy largely hinges on teachers’ professional development.

Another line of research has revealed that teacher autonomy is inversely influenced by teachers’ feelings toward their professional development. Javadi (2014) has argued that as a kind of professional construction, teacher autonomy is greatly influenced by occupational burnout, which is “a psychological syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who work with other people in some capacity” (Maslach, 1993, p. 19). Teachers’ perspectives and attitude to professional development may vary due to individual differences, which means the impact on their autonomy could be highly personalized. It would also be important to examine teachers’ subsequent engagement after participating in such development initiatives, particularly their readiness to apply the acquired knowledge and skills in their actual classroom practice.

In summary, previous studies have indicated that teachers’ attitudes toward professional development greatly influences teacher autonomy (Castro Garcés & Martínez Granada, 2016; Dymoke & Harrison, 2006). However, little attention has been paid to how the attitudes toward professional development influence teacher autonomy. Therefore, the present study seeks to address this gap by answering the following two research questions:

(1)

What attitudes do EFL teachers hold toward their professional development?

(2)

How do such attitudes influence teacher autonomy?

3. Research Design

3.1. Research Methods

The present study adopted a qualitative research design to explore how EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence their practice of autonomy. As such kind of influence is implicit, it cannot be uncovered directly by quantitative data. Therefore, we employed the following three qualitative research methods to address the research questions. First, we used classroom observation to probe the signs of EFL teachers’ autonomy. Secondly, we conducted a stimulated recall interview (hereafter abbreviated to SRI) to double-check whether the EFL teachers’ practice of autonomy are self-conscious, based on the observed behavior of classroom teaching. Thirdly, we conducted an interview to investigate how EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence their autonomy.

In addition, the professional development of EFL teachers has been regarded as a context-specific process (Villegas-Reimers, 2003). Scribner (1999) noted EFL teachers’ professional development reflects individual differences due to its situational and environmental complexity. Therefore, a collective case study design was employed in the present study. Specifically, 14 EFL teachers at a public Chinese university were selected as a collective sample to probe into how EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence their practice of autonomy. These participants were selected as they included teachers of different ages, teaching experience, and professional titles. This selection criteria makes the sample particularly representative, and findings from this population can offer meaningful insights for the broader EFL teaching community.

3.2. Participants

The fourteen college English teachers were selected according to their age, teaching experience and professional title. As shown in

Table 1. The participants’ profile (n = 14).

No.	Name (Pseudonym)	Gender	Age	Teaching Experience (Years)	Title
T1	Wong	M	41–50	20	AP
T2	Qin	F	41–50	19	AP
T3	Fang	F	41–50	17	L
T4	Hui	F	31–40	16	AP
T5	Lee	F	31–40	16	L
T6	Yuli	F	31–40	15	L
T7	Lin	F	31–40	15	L
T8	Lock	F	31–40	13	L
T9	Yann	F	31–40	13	L
T10	Tse	F	31–40	11	L
T11	Yvo	F	31–40	10	L
T12	York	M	41–50	5	L
T13	Ying	F	21–30	3	AL
T14	Suzy	F	21–30	1	AL

M: male, F: female, AL: associate lecturer, L: lecturer, AP: associate professor.

, the participants included novice and experienced teachers with different ages and professional titles. To ensure confidentiality, each of the participants was assigned a pseudonym. Two of the participants were male and 12 were female. They were all holders of an MA degree majoring in English education or applied linguistics, which was not listed in the following table. All of them were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, with English as their second language. When the study was conducted, their teaching experience ranged from 1 to 20 years, with 2 teaching assistants, 9 lecturers and 3 associate professors.

3.3. Data Collection

First, we observed each participant’s classroom teaching, so as to capture signs of teacher autonomy. Note that the students we observed were non-English majors and their English proficiency nearly reached the level of College English Test Band 4 (comparable to CEFR B2 level). Each classroom was observed using a log, the whole session of which lasted 90 min. The log included the basic information of the class, classroom arrangement, classroom interaction, student performance, and teaching effectiveness. In addition, the whole session was video-recorded for subsequent data analysis after the participant’s oral consent.

Second, following the classroom observation, an SRI was designed to probe into each participant’s autonomous teaching practice of the observed class. Specifically, each participant was first shown the video of his/her class. Then, s/he was invited to answer the interview questions that covered the purpose of certain classroom activities or the purpose of their pedagogical questions in the observed class. This research technique helped to gain insight into the participants’ initial perception of the class design that might not have been directly observable. Each SRI lasted about 50 min, so a total of 13 h of recordings were obtained. Thirdly, we examined what attitudes the participants held toward their professional development by a semi-structured interview. The main questions of the interview are depicted as follows:

(1)

Do you have a plan for your professional development? Why yes/no?

(2)

If yes, what is your plan for your professional development?

(3)

What are the requirements on EFL teachers’ professional development set up by the school authority?

(4)

What is your opinion about these requirements?

Note that the semi-structured interview was conducted after the classroom observation and the SRI. This maneuver was made to prevent the participant’s classroom teaching from being influenced by the semi-structured interview. Both semi-structured interview and SRI were conducted using Mandarin Chinese, as the participants could communicate effectively with the researcher using their mother tongue. Each semi-structured interview lasted about 50 min, and 11 h of interview recordings were collected in the study.

3.4. Data Analysis

All of the interview and classroom observation data were transcribed, so as to find out signs of the participants’ autonomous teaching practice. In addition, all interview excerpts were translated into English by the researcher, proofread by a bilingual colleague and double-checked by the corresponding participant. Furthermore, we adopted the software NVivo 11 for the data treatment (Jackson & Bazeley, 2019). The data were analyzed in light of the grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 2017; Carlin & Kim, 2019), which has three major procedures, including coding, memo writing, and theoretical sampling (Charmaz, 2015). First, the data were coded at the phrasal, sentential and discoursal level. Each of these expressions must have an incorporated meaning within each participant’s attitudes toward professional development or his/her autonomous teaching practice. Second, the coded data were categorized using memos based on their main ideas, which helped us to develop themes in terms of the semantic abstract of the accumulated memos. Third, some of the most saturated memos emerged as themes at the end of data coding. In the present study, three main themes emerged from the data, including teaching approach, interactive patterns, and classroom adaptability.

In order to figure out the influence of EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development on their autonomy, we compared the participants’ classroom teaching and their attitudes toward professional development based on the three emerged themes. Thus, teacher autonomy in classroom teaching was triangulated. The participants’ classroom teaching and their interpretation of their classroom behaviors were jointly considered, to evaluate whether they showed signs of autonomy. In addition, the data collected from the semi-structured interview were also utilized to assess whether the pedagogical concepts underlying the teaching behaviors were affected by the participant’s attitudes toward their professional development.

4. The Main Findings

The present study gave rise to three main findings, which involved the EFL teachers’ attitudes toward their professional development, the influence of their attitudes toward professional development on teacher autonomy, and their views on the in-service training programs.

4.1. The Participants’ Attitudes Toward Professional Development

4.1.1. The Participants’ Plan of Professional Development

A personalized plan of professional development is highlighted as a significant factor in promoting teacher professional growth, and it is also a sign of positive attitude toward teaching profession (Samundeeswari et al., 2024). In this sense, a good plan for teacher professional development implies that a teacher proactively engages in self-directed learning, takes part in a visiting scholar program, enrolls in some training programs, sets up a timetable for promotion, etc. Alternatively, no plan for professional development indicates a negative attitude toward professional development. That is, the participants’ personal plan was set as the criterion to judge whether their attitudes toward professional development was positive or negative. Following this criterion, we analyzed the data of the interview to see what attitude the participants have toward their professional development.

Here is how we present the participants’ attitudes toward professional development: if the participant had either a short-term or long-term plan for professional development, s/he was regarded as holding a positive attitude, which is represented by a ‘+’ symbol. Alternatively, the participant was regarded as having a negative attitude, which is represented by a ‘-’ symbol. The participants’ attitudes toward professional development are presented in

Table 2. The participants’ attitudes toward their professional development.

	T1	T2	T3	T4	T5	T6	T7	T8	T9	T10	T11	T12	T13	T14
On PD	-	-	-	-	-	+	+	-	+	-	+	-	+	+

.

As shown in Table 2, the majority of the participants did not have a plan for their professional development. Specifically, there were only six teachers who had a plan for their own professional development, whereas eight teachers had no plan at all. In a nutshell, most participants hold a negative attitude toward their professional development, whereas only a subset of the participants holds a positive one.

In addition, when the participants were asked about a plan for professional development, their responses were rather negative. For instance, the most frequent words used by the participants to express their feelings toward professional development were “aimless” and “helpless”. This means these participants had no idea about what to do when they intended to develop their profession and whom to turn to for help when they encountered pedagogical problems. Eight of the participants told the interviewer straightforwardly that they had no idea about their professional development. In other words, they either had no plan for their professional development or were unclear about it. For example, in response to the interview question (1), some of the participants provided the following answers: “I am poor in this aspect” (Fang); “Actually, I feel rather perplexed” (Lin); and “No, I have no plan at all” (Lock). In addition, one of the participants (Wong) even claimed that it was not necessary to have any plans for professional development, as teaching was just a way of making a living. That is, he thought that the job was valueless, so he was unwilling to invest time and energy to engage in professional development.

Nevertheless, a few participants provided positive responses to the interview questions. These participants had a detailed plan for both short-term and long-term professional development. For instance, one of the participants (Yvo) replied as in Excerpt 1:

Excerpt 1: Yvo’s responses

“Of course, I know that I have to do something. Due to the heavy teaching load, I can only complete my teaching tasks in this semester. This is my short-term plan. For the long-term plan, I wish to improve my teaching and research ability by doing a visiting scholar program.”

As Excerpt 1 shows, Yvo had a clear short-term plan and a practical long-term plan for professional development. The long-term plan was indicated by her wish of taking part in a visiting scholar program, so as to improve her teaching and research ability. As we all know, a visiting scholar program is viewed as an important approach for teacher professional development. Other participants (e.g., Tse and Lin) also expressed their plan of taking part in a visiting scholar program.

The next section further discusses the participants’ attitudes toward professional development in two respects: the obstacles they face and their attitude toward in-service training programs.

4.1.2. The Participants’ Obstacles to Professional Development

The findings suggest that there were four major obstacles against the participants’ engagement in professional development, including poor awareness, inactive attitudes, family commitments, and other personal reasons.

Firstly, as shown in Table 2, the participants demonstrated a low level of awareness regarding professional development. In particular, if they had recognized its significance, they would have formulated a plan to pursue it. As previously noted, most participants (such as Fang, Lock, and Wong) did not acknowledge the importance of professional development. This lack of awareness negatively impacts their professional growth. Therefore, it is necessary to implement measures to improve teachers’ awareness of professional development, or at the very least, investigate the underlying reasons for this limited awareness.

Secondly, some participants were rather passive about planning their professionalism. For instance, they had no plans for their professional development as they had no ideas about what to learn. Several other participants appeared to simply regard professional development as promotion of professional qualifications. Taken together, the findings reveal that the participants had poor awareness of professional development. To illustrate, consider the statement by one of the participants (Tse) in Excerpt 2.

Excerpt 2: Tse’s statement

“As a teacher, I often tell my students explicitly what they should do. However, nobody tells me what I should do and how I should plan my career as a teacher.”

As shown in Excerpt 2, Tse was purposeless when talking about her plan for professional development. In fact, she was expecting others to help her with her own professional development. Apparently, this passive attitude undermines her professional development. As Bailey et al. (2001) have proposed, only an active attitude is conducive to a teacher’s professional development.

Next, professional development will inevitably lead to the issue of keeping balance between work and family. As most participants in the present case were young mothers, this issue became more salient, which is evidenced in the explanation by Qin and Lin about their obstacles to professional development. The detailed explanation is depicted as in Excerpts 3 and 4.

Excerpt 3: Qin’s responses

“In fact, the school authority does provide us with some opportunities for professional development. Nevertheless, I have difficulty participating in the programs because I have to look after my young child.”

Excerpt 4: Lin’s responses

“I cannot do a visiting scholar program because my husband and my child are in China. Without their company, I cannot study abroad.”

As Excerpt 3 shows, Qin admitted that the school authority indeed provided opportunities for professional development, but she had difficulty participating in the programs because of family commitments. As nine of the participants were young mothers, they tended to regard family commitment as their first priority. That is, they considered professional development as less important than family commitment, which might constrain teacher autonomy. Moreover, this is also a great challenge for institutions of higher learning to organize teacher training programs. Based on the findings, in-service teacher training programs are suggested to be tailored as short-term, school-based, and held online for the teachers that have family commitments.

Lastly, the participants’ attitudes toward professional development may be influenced by individual factors such as age, personality, and health. These factors reveal that internal factors play an important role in the participants’ professional development. To illustrate, consider Excerpts 5, 6 and 7.

Excerpt 5: Qin’s responses

“I am forty years old, and I have a child to support. Therefore, it will be impossible for me to receive any further education. Even if I have such a plan, it will be encumbered by the reality of my life.”

Excerpt 6: Yuli’s responses

“I have many good plans for professional development, but my poor health prevents me from carrying them out.”

Excerpt 7: Fang’s responses

“I do like professional development programs, but I am afraid of the overseas education programs because I am airsick on long trips.”

In addition, other kinds of obstacles were observed. For instance, Wong pointed out that the current promotion system posed a major obstacle to his professional development. Although he acknowledged that the College English course he taught was primarily aimed at improving students’ language proficiency—an objective that emphasizes teaching—he noted that, in practice, teachers are more likely to be promoted based on their research publications. However, most teachers were heavily engaged in teaching tasks and had limited time for research activities, making it difficult for them to meet the promotion criteria.

Wong also argued that many research findings were not applicable to EFL classroom teaching. This further discouraged EFL teachers from conducting scientific research.

4.1.3. The Participants’ Attitudes Toward In-Service Training Programs

The participants were offered single-subject training programs, pedagogical training programs, research training programs, and domestic and overseas visiting-scholar programs in the university we studied. However, the participants had varied attitudes toward in-service training programs. Some participants were satisfied with the in-service training programs, and they believed that those programs were beneficial to their professional development. By contrast, some participants complained that the in-service training programs did not suit them at all, as the training programs were not based on their actual needs. Therefore, they believed that such training programs made no contribution to their professional development. To illustrate, consider Excerpts 8, 9 and 10.

Excerpt 8: Wong’s responses

“The school authority actually provides us with a variety of in-service training programs. Faculty members can participate in any of those programs if they feel it is necessary. I think that these programs are beneficial to our professional development.”

Excerpt 9: York’s response

“I graduated from a normal university. However, it was required by the school authority that I should follow a course on Education Psychology and Teaching Methodology in an in-service training program and sit for the examinations of these two courses at the end of the training program. I cannot understand why I should do this as I have already taken these two courses during college. For me, this kind of training programs is just a waste of time.”

Excerpt 10: Yuli’s responses

“Generally speaking, I don’t think there is a systematic and long-term plan for teacher professional development in our university.”

Excerpts 8 to 10 reveal that the participants held differing views regarding the in-service training programs. In Excerpt 8, Wong expressed a positive opinion, believing that these programs were beneficial for the professional development of teachers at the university in question. In contrast, two other participants viewed the programs negatively. For instance, Excerpt 9 shows that York questioned the relevance and necessity of the two courses included in the training, arguing that he had already received similar training during his college years. Similarly, Yuli criticized the lack of systematic structure in the programs, attributing this to insufficient overall planning (Excerpt 10). Based on these responses, it can be inferred that teachers’ needs should be carefully considered when designing in-service training programs, so that the university can provide more appropriate and personalized professional development opportunities. Additionally, it would be beneficial for the university to grant teachers a certain level of autonomy in shaping their own professional growth.

4.2. The Participants’ Practice of Autonomy

4.2.1. The Practice of Autonomy by the Positive Group

As Table 2 shows, six participants (Lin, Ying, Yuli, Yvo, Suzy, and Yann) belong to the positive group, as they all have a clear plan for their professional development. Among them, Suzy and Ying are new teachers who have only been in service for a couple of years, and the other four are lecturers with five to fifteen years of working experience. Yvo is a good representative of the positive group, as she has a very clear plan for her professional development (see Excerpt 1), even though she has a short period of service time. Therefore, we take Yvo as a representative of this group to gain insight into their practice of autonomy.

Yvo’s students were in the first year of college. When her class was observed, she was talking about vocabulary exercises. The multiple vocabulary exercises revealed her awareness of interacting with her students in a classroom setting. The teaching design also reflected her adequate preparation and rich pedagogical skills.

Moreover, Yvo was quite learner-centered in her teaching practice. For example, if a student was unable to answer her question, she would always give her/him another chance to try. Such an affirmative attitude helped her students to make progress step by step. In the freshman year, students may be shy and lack of confidence, so that they do not only need academic guidance, but also emotional support. Therefore, teachers should be patient and supportive, so as to foster learner autonomy among students. Furthermore, Yvo consciously adopted a new pattern of interaction in her class. That is, she encouraged her students to nominate one another to do classroom activities. The next section illustrates how this pattern of interaction was conducted, as shown in Excerpt 11.

Excerpt 11: The Observation of Yvo’s class

T:	Now we need more volunteers to read the following words. Who would like to have a try? (One boy and one girl raised their hands.) Ladies first, OK?
S1	Routine. (The girl read the word in a weak voice.)
T:	Routine, pay attention to the stress, OK? Next one, please go on.
S2:	Foundation.
T:	Foundation, OK, good. Please also read the sentence behind it.
S2:	Self-learning, to some extent, emancipate students from the hard work and arouse their creativity. It laid foundation for the sustainable development of the students.
T:	Thank you! Please nominate one of your classmates to translate the sentence, OK? Anyone is OK, so you have equal opportunities.
S2	[S3]

As Excerpt 11 shows, Yvo interacted with two students in a vocabulary exercise. She interacted with the first student in an IRF model (cf. Bellack et al., 1966). She asked the student to read a new word in the unit. Following that, she repeated the student’s answer by drawing her attention to the stress of the word, and then moved on to the next word. In an IRF pattern of interaction, a teacher only has a one-turn interaction with his/her student, so students have few chances to speak up. Therefore, it is difficult for students to develop their language proficiency in this pattern of interaction. However, Yvo changed this typical IRF pattern of interaction when she invited the second student to do the exercise. That is, she firstly asked the second student to read a next new word plus an example sentence, and then encouraged the student to nominate another classmate to translate the sentence. This small change indicates that her instruction was student-centered and provided more opportunities for student–teacher interactions.

More importantly, Yvo’s autonomy was exhibited in her careful selection of teaching content. To illustrate, consider Excerpt 12, which illustrates how Yvo cautiously selected a number of new words as her teaching items.

Excerpt 12: Yvo’s discretion regarding teaching content

R:

There were a dozen new words in the exercise. Did you select the words all by yourself or the ones that were listed in the teachers’ reference book?

T:

I selected them all by myself. When I teach new words and expressions, I will refer to the teachers’ reference book. Following that, I will select 12 important ones based on my own understanding and then interpret their semantic meanings using example sentences. This enables my students to learn the semantics of the new words in concrete contexts. Why do I select 12 new words for one lecture? This is because I heard that students could only learn 8 new words in one lecture.

R:

Ah? Who told you this message?

T:

Actually, I do not remember who told me this, but I believe this is true. You know, if I only teach 8 new words in one lecture, I will not be able to enlarge my students’ vocabulary size. So, I decide to teach 12 ones, which is reasonable for one lecture.

As Excerpt 12 shows, Yvo took the teaching contents firmly under her control. She selected the teaching content based on the teachers’ reference book and a piece of advice. This indicates that she was willing to learn pedagogical skills from authoritative sources and her colleagues. Moreover, her decision to teach 12 new words in one lecture indicates that she made a compromise between her students’ learning capability and her teaching objectives.

Taken together, we can see that Yvo is very good at employing teaching skills to help her students to improve their English proficiency (Tort-Moloney, 1997). More importantly, she knows when, why and how to employ such teaching skills. This indicates that Yvo is a typical example of teacher autonomy. In particular, she is conscious of controlling her teaching content and the pattern of interactions in her class, which helps her to achieve multiple teaching objectives. Yvo’s story invites us to conclude that the more positive a teacher treats his/her professional development, the more autonomous she/he is likely to be.

4.2.2. The Practice of Autonomy by the Negative Group

As shown in Table 2, the other eight participants belong to the negative group, as they did not have any plans for their professional development. Overall, most participants in this group did not show any evidence of teacher autonomy, whereas a subset of the participants show a tendency toward teacher autonomy. We take Fang and Qin, respectively, as representatives of this group, to illustrate their attitude toward professional development and teaching practices. First, most of the participants in this group treated their professional development in a negative way. For example, Fang was not willing to take part in the in-service training programs due to poor health and family commitments. Second, most of them used the traditional IRF pattern of interaction in their teaching practice, which was not a learner-centered approach. For instance, Fang adopted the typical IRF pattern of interaction in her teaching. In the first round of interaction, she asked a student to translate an expression. In the second round, she asked another student to make an English sentence using the expression. In these two turns of interaction, both students only had one chance to express themselves. Excerpt 13 illustrates how Fang explained a paragraph of a text.

Excerpt 13: The observation in Fang’s class

T:	OK, ‘take it for granted’. [S1]: What’s the meaning?
S1	Take something for granted. (S1 provided the Chinese translation.)
T:	OK, good! ‘Take… for granted’. [S2]: Please add a clause to it and make the sentence complete.
S2: … (The student keeps silent; obviously he is unable to do the task.)
T:	‘Issue’. [S3]: What’s the meaning?
S3:	Issue. (S3 provided the Chinese translation.)
T:	Issue, good! Do not use ‘problem’, it is too common, and it is not big enough here, right? We use ‘issue’, and it has the meanings of ‘very big’, ‘serious’, and ‘carefully-treated’…

Excerpt 13 illustrates two turns of IRF interaction observed in Fang’s class. The two students actually fulfilled one task: translation. This task was a check of students’ rote memory, but not a check of whether they had mastered the actual usage of the expression. Nevertheless, Fang did give a sentence-making task to the second student, which involved the usage of the expression “take…for granted”, but the student was unable to fulfill the task. Unfortunately, Fang did not give any feedback to the student. That is, she avoided interaction with her students. To recap, the findings show that Fang interacted with her class only using the IRF pattern. In this pattern, the teacher is always the starter and dominator of the classroom, while learners only have very limited opportunities to practice the target language. In addition, students’ creativity and productivity were not encouraged in this pattern of interaction. Moreover, the teacher-centered approach was also observed in her interaction with students, as Excerpt 14 shows.

Excerpt 14: Observation of Fang’s class

T:	Look at the screen. OK, how to translate this sentence? You know every word in this sentence, right? How to translate it? Come on, use your mind! [S1].
S1:	I don’t know.
T:	En? You cannot say you don’t know. You have learned every word, so why don’t you know?
S1:	A big what, cut… consumed what… a…
T:	I mean the whole sentence. Sit down, please. Big what? Cut what? Consumed what? Who knows? All these are basic words, right? There is only one new word ‘fuel’, but the rest are words you learned. This is your problem, not me! [S1], you are not allowed to escape my class anymore! You have escaped my class many times…… [S2]

As Excerpt 14 shows, Fang asked one of her students to translate a sentence. Her follow-up instruction, “Come on, use your mind”, revealed a sense of distrust and depreciation. When the student said that he did not know how to translate the sentence, her comment “You cannot say you don’t know” was a teacher-centered command. It was very impolite to make such a comment, but Fang did. Obviously, she was a little bit angry because her student was unable to do the translation. Fang’s reaction actually made her student feel very embarrassed, and the classroom activity resulted in a very frustrating experience for the student.

As discussed earlier, Fang treated her professional development quite negatively. The classroom observation data reveal that she was not autonomous in her teaching practice. First, she adopted a traditional pattern of teacher–student interaction, which prevented her students from obtaining more opportunities for practice. This kind of interaction pattern undermined her students’ creativity and productivity. Second, she was quite teacher-centered in her class. During the teacher–student interaction, she was very impatient and impolite to her students. Moreover, her pedagogical decisions were not based on her students’ needs and linguistic proficiency, which led to a frustrating experience for her students. Taken together, the findings reveal that Fang was not autonomous in her teaching practice.

Qin was another representative of the negative group. Although she held a negative attitude toward professional development, she was quite learner-centered in her teaching practice. After warming up, Qin adopted a question–answer approach to carry out her classroom activities. First, Qin invited her students to raise questions based on their preview of the text. The students’ questions reflected their weak points in the comprehension of the text, so they had to make preparations in advance. For example, one of the students pointed out a sentence for discussion. Qin did not tell him the answer directly, but asked the whole class for help. Meanwhile, she interpreted the difficult word using body language. Eventually, her efforts made her students understand the meaning of the sentence. Excerpt 15 depicts the details of the interaction pattern.

Excerpt 15: The observation of Qin’s class

T:	Ok, have you got any questions about paragraph one, class?
S1:	I can’t understand a sentence. That is, I watch her back her new truck out of the driveway (this is a sentence from the passage).
T:	‘I watch her back her new truck out of the driveway’. You don’t know the word ‘back’, right? So, what’s the meaning of ‘back’? (The teacher writes the word on the blackboard.) Do you know ‘back’? (Actions of driving a car backwards.) I am backing my car, right?
Ss:	Yes

From Excerpt 15, we can see that one student encountered a difficult sentence, so he raised a question on how to interpret the sentence. Qin repeated the sentence and pointed out a difficult word, ‘back’. The usage of the word was different from what the students had previously learned. Qin did not provide the meaning of the word directly. Rather, she used body language to act out the meaning of the word. Evidently, the class understood the word immediately.

Following the student-question and teacher-reply session, Qin began to raise questions that she believed to be important in the text, and her students were required to answer the questions. As Excerpt 15 shows, Qin was highly learner-centered throughout the class, and her interaction pattern was very effective as she solved most of her students’ problems within a limited time. Furthermore, the interaction pattern enabled her students to take the initiative to learn. Notably, Qin adopted this kind of interaction pattern, based on her pedagogical principles. To illustrate, consider Excerpt 16.

Excerpt 16: Qin’s teaching style (SRI)

R:

You adopted a question–answer approach and you went through the whole text in such a way. Why did you adopt such an approach?

T:

Because I asked my students to learn the text all by themselves beforehand. (…) I asked them to note down the difficult points that appeared in the text and then bring them into class. When it comes to the class time, I would answer their questions. (…) I have already set up this rule in the first lecture, and it is basically the same for all my freshman classes. If I teach them in the next semester, I will not have to repeat the rule because they have already known my teaching style: I only answer questions in class!

R:

Yes.

T:

If you do not understand anything about the text, you could come and ask me, or we could discuss it together.

R:

Then, I cannot help asking whether you are influenced by the concept of flipped class?

T:

Yes, that’s possible, because I learned this teaching method when I was a visiting scholar of Sun Yat-Sen University in 2009, and I borrowed the pedagogical principles behind the flipped classroom. However, my teaching approach is slightly different from the flipped class. For instance, when my students don’t have any further questions, I would raise questions based on my own understanding of the textbook.

As Excerpt 16 shows, Qin adopted the question–answer interaction pattern based on the pedagogical principles behind the flipped classroom (Webb & Doman, 2016). From the interview, we can see that Qin was very confident about her pedagogy, as she repeatedly mentioned that she only answered her students’ questions in her class. Moreover, her teaching practice modified the teacher’s role, as she saw herself as a consultant rather than a knowledge provider. She explicitly required her students to take the initiative to learn, and her role was to help them by answering their questions. This is actually a learner-centered approach. Moreover, this approach tends to foster independent learning. At the same time, Qin did not regard herself as an authority, but was open-minded to discuss with her students. Therefore, this approach aroused the students’ curiosity in language learning, and better learning results could ideally be achieved.

In summary, most participants in the negative group did not show evidence of teacher autonomy, while the positive group exhibited a high degree of teacher autonomy. Nevertheless, Qin was exceptional, as she showed signs of autonomy in her teaching practice despite the fact that she held a negative attitude toward professional development. It is likely that Qin’s autonomy was developed through her teaching practice as a habitual approach. However, this teaching habit may not be directly linked to her views on professional development.

In summary, most of the participants’ attitude toward professional development is closely associated with their teaching practice. Specifically, the more positive the participants are toward their professional development, the more autonomous they are in their teaching practice, and vice versa.

5. General Discussion

The present study mainly investigated how EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence their practice of autonomy. The findings were threefold. First, most of the participants held a negative attitude toward their professional development. In particular, the majority of the participants did not have a clear plan for their professional development. Hopefully, this finding will attract attention from the education department as to the issue of how to improve EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development. There were four main factors that influenced their attitudes toward professional development, namely, poor awareness, passive attitude, family commitments, and personal reasons. Previous research has indicated that burnout can be a psychological factor that hinders teachers’ professional development (Javadi, 2014), but many other factors (such as workload, work pressure, work–life balance, etc.) should also be taken into consideration. The present findings have enriched the literature of EFL teachers’ professional development, and they can be used as reference data for the university authority to work out effective measures to facilitate EFL teachers’ professional development as well as the realization of teacher autonomy.

Second, the participants’ positive attitudes toward professional development accommodate their practice of autonomy. As mentioned earlier, the participants were divided into two groups (positive versus negative), based on their attitudes toward professional development. It was found that the positive group is more autonomous in the teaching practice than the negative one. This finding appears to support the proposal that a continuing professional-development support system would help to build up autonomy (Bentham et al., 2015). In addition, the findings indicate that teacher professional development and teacher autonomy are mutually compatibly and reinforcing. Specifically, teacher professional development is an indispensable part of teacher autonomy. In addition, the enhancement of teacher autonomy largely hinges on teacher professional development. Moreover, teacher autonomy accommodates learner autonomy, and vice versa. Notably, autonomous teaching practices were also witnessed in the negative group, as in the case of Qin. This is an interesting finding, as the negative group exhibited signs of autonomous teaching practices as well. However, the majority of the negative group were not so autonomous, as they were quite teacher-centered in their teaching practice.

Third, the participants had conflicting views on the in-service training programs. That is, some of the participants enjoyed the in-service training, which they believed might contribute to their professional development. In contrast, a subset of the participants believed that in-service training provided by the university authority were not suitable for them. It is assumed that these participants were more willing to develop their profession based on their own plans, without too much interference of the university authority. Therefore, it is suggestive that the university authorities should take teachers’ individual needs into consideration when planning their in-service training programs.

6. Conclusions

To conclude, the present findings suggest that, at least within the sample examined, while some EFL teachers have a positive attitude toward their professional development, others hold a rather poor attitude. Moreover, EFL teachers’ attitudes toward professional development are positively correlated with teacher autonomy. That is, the more positive the attitude, the higher the degree of teacher autonomy. Different from theoretical studies, the present study has unveiled how teachers’ attitudes toward professional development influence their autonomy from the empirical perspective. To some extent, the findings have enriched the existing literature of teacher autonomy and teacher professional development. Moreover, the findings can also shed light on how to take effective measures to improve EFL teachers’ professional development, as well as how to help them achieve a higher degree of teacher autonomy. Nevertheless, the present study has two limitations. First, it only investigated the case of one university, the findings of which might not be generalizable to other cases. Second, the present findings reveal that most EFL teachers have an unclear plan, or even no plans, for professional development, but the underlying reasons are not further pursued. Obviously, those participants have a rather poor attitude toward their professional development, which is quite disappointing and worrisome. The underlying reasons deserve further exploration, and we leave this issue as our future research direction.