فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

As a salient factor in teaching, the multidimensional topic of teacher autonomy (TA) has been investigated in previous studies concerning teachers’ control, decision-making, power, freedom, independence, and discretion. However, scant research has been done on the self-direction of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers. To narrow this gap, this case study aims to consider two Iranian EFL teachers' self-directed professional action (SDPA), capacity, and freedom for TA with regard to their teaching experience. The classrooms of two male teachers, one novice and one experienced, were observed and video-recorded for eight months. The qualitative content analysis was conducted through deductive and inductive coding of the data from observations and stimulated recall interviews (SRIs). These results unraveled the construct of TA comprising five major categories of curricular, affective, evaluative, instructional, and disciplinary TA, as well as many sub-categories or codes, which have pedagogical implications for the improvement of TA for professional action. Discrepancies in autonomy between novice and experienced teachers provide insights for teachers and institute managers to enhance TA as the basis for teachers' effective teaching.