Ebrahim Khezerlou
Abstract
Teacher autonomy is viewed very differently: one teacher may view autonomy as a means to gain substantial freedom from interference or supervision; another may view it as the freedom to develop collegial relationships and accomplish tasks that extend beyond the classroom; and even some others may perceive ...
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Teacher autonomy is viewed very differently: one teacher may view autonomy as a means to gain substantial freedom from interference or supervision; another may view it as the freedom to develop collegial relationships and accomplish tasks that extend beyond the classroom; and even some others may perceive it as a means for principals to avoid their duties (Frase and Sorenson, 1992). Although the concept was viewed as a unitary one in the past, it is recently decomposed into six distinct subcomponents: autonomy over curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, professional development, student discipline, and classroom environment (LaCoe, 2008). These six subcomponents of teacher autonomy provide a solid framework to understand the complex nature of teacher autonomy in the study. However, the study aimed at examining Iranian (N=71) and Turkish (N=48) high school EFL teachers’ opinions about teacher autonomy in curriculum development. The results revealed that there were slight differences between Iranian and Turkish teachers’ autonomy perceptions. They also indicated there were significant differences among teachers in considering their gender, age and academic level, while no significant relationship was found for their marital status.
Ebrahim Khezerlou
Abstract
The study aimed at measuring the perceived burnout levels of Iranian (N= 230) and Turkish (N=156) EFL teachers, determining the teacher autonomy predictors of EE, DP and PA burnout processes, and exploring their cross-cultural roles. The MBI-ES was used to measure the perceived burnout levels ...
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The study aimed at measuring the perceived burnout levels of Iranian (N= 230) and Turkish (N=156) EFL teachers, determining the teacher autonomy predictors of EE, DP and PA burnout processes, and exploring their cross-cultural roles. The MBI-ES was used to measure the perceived burnout levels of the participants, and a self-developed Teacher Autonomy Scale (11 items) based on the six-component teacher autonomy model of LaCoe (2008) was employed to measure the participants’ autonomy perceptions in the areas of (a) pedagogy, (b) curriculum evaluation, (c) decision making and (d) problem solving. The internal consistency reliability of the 11-item scale was r=0.762. The results revealed that there was a slight significant difference between Iranian and Turkish groups only in EE processes, three dimensions of the teacher autonomy scale predicted the EE, DP and PA burnout processes, and its curriculum evaluation, problem solving, and decision making dimensions played discriminatory role in EE, DP and PA processes across Iranian and Turkish teachers.