Asserting Our Culture: Teacher Autonomy from a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Reports of teacher education practice specifically focused on learner autonomy have only recently started appearing in publication in any substantial number (for example, Huttunen, 1997; Riley, 1997; Serrano-Sampedro, 1997; Moreira, Vieira and Marques, 1999; Vieira, 1999a, 2000; Thavenius, 1999; Lamb, 2000; McGrath, 2000). Many of these reports share the view that learner autonomy and teacher autonomy are two sides of the same coin and reflect the current trend in second language teacher education which emphasizes the value of reflection in teacher development and the role action research can play in stimulating reflection. Teacher autonomy, however, is a multifaceted concept (Aoki, 2002a) and teacher development is a long, complex process which involves teachers’ personal as well as professional lives (Butt et al., 1992; Knowles and Cole, 1994). The schematic understanding, underlying much literature on teacher development, that action research stimulates reflection which helps teacher autonomy to develop is too simplistic a view. Particularly problematic is its assumed gender neutrality. In this chapter I shall discuss how the gender-blind nature of assumptions about reflective teacher education and action research which are widely accepted among second language teacher educators can undermine teacher autonomy as freedom; and I share a story of struggle for professional and personal autonomy by a novice female Japanese as a second language (JSL) teacher whom I worked with. In concluding I shall claim that asserting feminist values in teacher education can support developing teacher autonomy.