A Study On Teacher Autonomy Of English Teachers In Senior High School

Teacher autonomy has two dimensions: intrinsic autonomy of teaching and extrinsic autonomy of teaching,the former refers to the psychological characteristic for adjusting and controlling teaching activities,and the latter means the right given by school leaders or higher authorities to teachers to carry out teaching activities(Yao,2019).Teacher autonomy is a necessary condition for the realization of teachers’ professional development.The rapid development of society also puts forward higher requirements for teachers’ quality.For a long time,teacher autonomy has been widely concerned in the field of educational research abroad.Since the end of the 1990 s,scholars in China began to study it,but there is a lack of empirical research.Therefore,this paper conducts an empirical study of teacher autonomy using a mixed method of combining quantitative research and qualitative analysis.With the questionnaire and interview,this research analyses the current situation and features of senior high school English teachers,as well as the factors influencing teacher autonomy of them.After the data analyses of 101 questionnaires of senior high school English teachers in Urumqi and semi-structured interviews with four of them,the conclusions are offered as follows.Firstly,teacher autonomy includes two dimensions: intrinsic autonomy of teaching and extrinsic autonomy of teaching,and these dimensions have nine sub-dimensions(Yao,2019).Through the investigation,it is found that the English teachers have relatively high teacher autonomy,and their intrinsic autonomy of teaching is higher than extrinsic autonomy.Among the sub-dimensions,the teachers have a better sense of competence,self-reflection,and self-control,their sense of responsibility,curriculum autonomy and sense of independence are at the middle level,while the sense of spontaneity,sense of purpose and general teaching autonomy of them are comparatively poor.Secondly,the author explores the significant difference in teacher autonomy under different variables.According to the results,teacher autonomy is affected by gender and teaching age.But the significant difference can not be found in the professional title and educational background.Thirdly,it is found that teacher autonomy of the investigated English teachers is mainly restricted by some internal and external factors,especially by the impact of job burnout caused by the heavy workload,the exam-oriented assessment system for teachers and students,social support and school management.Based on the findings above,it is believed that through strengthening teachers’ awareness and ability of teacher autonomy,optimizing assessment system for teachers and students,creating a supportive social atmosphere as well as improving school management and incentive mechanism,teacher autonomy can be enhanced,thus teachers’ professional development can be achieved.