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2019 年1月 中国应用语言学（英文） Jan. 2019
第42 卷 第1期 Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics Vol. 42 No. 1
3
ISSN 2192-9505 Chinese J. of Appl. Ling. 42-1 (2019), pp. 3-20 DOI 10.1515/CJAL-2019-0001
© FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy
Autonomy in English Language Teaching:
A Case Study of Novice Secondary School
Teachers in Hong Kong
Jing HUANG, Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
Hong Kong Baptist University
Abstract
Following years of pre-service teacher education, novice teachers are often enthusiastic about
embarking on the journey in the teaching profession. However, they may not always possess the
internal capacity and institutional support to take effective control of their teaching. This paper
reports on a case study of the teaching lives of two novice secondary school ESL (English as a second
language) teachers in Hong Kong, drawing on qualitative data gathered through individual face-to-
face interviews, and supplemented by email exchanges and telephone conversations, over a one-year
period. The study investigates how novice English teachers develop their teacher autonomy, and what
factors contribute to their development as autonomous English teachers. The paper concludes that
novice English teachers in Hong Kong possess the capacity and are also ready for autonomy, and that
an invitational, supportive and collaborative school environment plays a decisive role in affording
ample opportunities for novices to develop their autonomy in language teaching. The study suggests
that novice teachers should become critically aware of the affordances (opportunities, possibilities,
invitations, enablements) in their working conditions, and should meanwhile exercise their teacher
agency to act on these affordances to pursue their personal-professional development.
Keywords: teacher autonomy, professional development, teacher agency, affordances, novice
teachers
1. Introduction
e notion of autonomy has received increasing attention in educational research, especially in
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
foreign language education (Benson, 2007; Huang & Benson, 2013). Over the past two decades,
the idea of autonomy has evolved to be not only a goal of education but also an important
element in quality teaching and learning. While learner autonomy has been extensively
investigated, teacher autonomy has not gained as much attention until relatively recently
(Huang, 2007, 2010, 2013; Long, 2014; Sinclair, 2008; Teng, 2018; Xu, 2015).
McGrath (2000) highlights the importance of teacher autonomy in teacher
professionalism. Inquiry into teacher autonomy allows us to move toward education as
transformation from education as reproduction (Vieira, Barbosa, Paiva, & Fernandes, 2008).
Teacher autonomy may create tension for novice teachers. For example, novice teachers need
to handle the tension between their work as professional practitioners in the classroom while
being dependent on the organizational structure, including the embedded rules, curriculum,
and “Schemes of Work” (Teng, 2018). This kind of tension may result in dilemmas and strong
perceptions of risk for novice teachers as they exercise autonomy in teaching. In addition, it
is problematic for policy-makers to demand that novice teachers execute agentic behaviors in
their classroom practices, and then simultaneously deny them the means to do so or effectively
disable them. Therefore, there is a need to revisit the individual dimensions of what it means
to be an autonomous teacher, as well as the cultural and structural conditions that play an
important role in enabling novice teachers to take control of their teaching.
Teacher autonomy has not received the attention it deserves in the field of ESL (English as
a second language) teaching. Few initiatives have been made to investigate the development of
teacher autonomy among novice ESL teachers (Teng, 2018). In addition, the image of teachers
as reflective, self-determining, life-long learning practitioners with high professional autonomy
has become a hegemonic international discourse. This study sets out to look into how novice
ESL teachers, referred to in this study as those with less than three years of full-time teaching
experience, develop their autonomy in teaching and what factors influence their development
as autonomous teachers, through an in-depth inquiry of two novice secondary school ESL
teachers in Hong Kong.
2. Autonomy in language teaching
Autonomy is concerned with defining and exploring personal meanings and purposes
(Huang, 2006). is interpretation of autonomy relates the concept to the idea of individual
agency. Interestingly, Toohey (2007) suggests that autonomy is “socially situated agency”
(p. 232). Agency can be briey dened as “the capacity to act otherwise” (Giddens, 1976, p.
75) or interpreted as “the self-conscious reexive actions of human beings” (Sealey & Carter,
2004, p. xiii). It is related to how individuals “assign relevance and signicance to things and
events” (Lantolf & orne, 2006, p. 143). Based on these interpretations, Huang (2011, 2013)
proposes that agency entails actions, in particular, actions arising from deliberation and choice.
is echoes elements of self-directedness and personal relevance that are oen highlighted in
understanding the multifaceted concept of autonomy (see Huang & Benson, 2013).
Following Benson’s (2001) concise definition of learner autonomy as “the capacity to
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
take control of one’s own learning” (p. 47), Huang (2007) succinctly conceptualizes teacher
autonomy as “teachers’ willingness, capacity and freedom to take control of their own
teaching and learning” (p. 33). In a similar vein, Benson (2010) and Benson and Huang (2008)
view teacher autonomy as teachers’ professional freedom and their capacity to create such
freedom within prevailing constraints. As far as day-to-day teaching is concerned, Benson
(2012) suggests that the opening-up of spaces for autonomy is challenging, and support from
colleagues, friends and professionals is clearly of help. In order to develop teacher autonomy,
there is an emerging tendency to construct teachers explicitly as agents of change (Priestley,
Biesta, & Robinson, 2015). Thus, teacher agency is interpreted as an alternative means of
understanding how teachers might enact practice and engage with policy. This interpretation
of teacher agency allows questions to be asked about the conditions under which teachers may
achieve agency in developing teacher autonomy.
In terms of developing teacher autonomy, a teacher needs to be an agent unceasingly
moving between the need to resort to other teachers for help or support and the need to
maintain a sense of agentic behavior. A teacher may possess various identities in the process
of achieving autonomy. The development of teacher autonomy serves as the repository of
particular experiences in classrooms and schools, the site of emotions, behaviors, thoughts,
beliefs, and attitudes (Zembylas, 2005). Teacher identity, which originates from teachers’
participation and practice in their situated professional and socio-cultural contexts (Teng,
2017), delineates how teachers construct ideas or build practical knowledge on ways to be
and act like a teacher (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). This knowledge is also expected to
deepen novice teachers’ understanding of the qualities required of an autonomous teacher and
determining ways of achieving these qualities. In line with teacher identity as a fluid, unstable,
dynamic, and multi-faceted notion (Yuan & Lee, 2016), the development of teacher autonomy
for novice teachers may also be an unstable, fluctuating process.
There may be no perfect route for developing novice teachers’ autonomy as novice
teachers may have different roles, rights, and responsibilities assigned by the school or society.
However, the development of teacher autonomy emphasizes the importance of self-direction,
collaboration, critical reflective inquiry, empowerment, and dialogue (Pineda & Frodden, 2008).
If an autonomous teacher should be defined as “fully competent, motivated by having a calling
and a positive attitude to his or her students, which allows him or her to facilitate the learning
process by creating a favorable classroom atmosphere” (Gabryś-Barker, 2017, p.175), teacher
autonomy will come with experience with students and the teaching conditions under which
novice teachers become experienced teachers. Hence, the development of teacher autonomy
may be a fluid process and, while encountering various internal and external factors, novice
teachers may perceive different constraints or affordances in taking control over their teaching.
3. Constraints on and affordances for teacher autonomy
Teaching is stressful and demanding to novices. e rst year is usually the most challenging in
a teacher’s career. Constraints on teacher autonomy are manifold and from dierent levels, as
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
illustrated by Benson’s (2012) model in Hong Kong school contexts.
Figure 1. Constraints on teacher autonomy
According to Benson (2012), the layers in the figure show the relative distance of each
constraint from the classroom. The arrows indicate that all the constraints exert an influence
on the classroom (teachers and students). Therefore, the classroom, being the innermost layer,
bears the greatest weight of constraint. Benson (2010) particularly noted Schemes of Work as a
constraint on teacher autonomy because they mandate what teachers should do instead of what
students should achieve.
Benson (2000) suggests earlier two extra ideological constraints on teacher autonomy:
Teachers’ conceptions of language and their language teaching methodologies. As language
teachers, conceptions and beliefs about teaching methodologies have a dominant effect on
teaching practices. This may affect their autonomy as they may not be willing to try out new
possibilities which contradict their conceptions and beliefs. Other researchers add more
constraints to the list. An obvious one relates to time (Pinter, 2007). This is especially true for
Hong Kong teachers, who are often burdened with heavy teaching loads and administrative
work. This leaves them with little time for continuous professional development (CPD). Aoki
(2002) states that teachers’ working conditions and their spaces for participation in institutional
decision making may exert great pressure on teachers to conform rather than to transform.
Given the “social and personal constraints on the development of teacher and learner
autonomy” (Vieira et al., 2008, p. 219), we must emphasize the importance of teacher autonomy
in teacher education and school pedagogy. A sense of powerlessness among teachers leads to
anxiety and frustration. If constraints might imply possibilities (opportunities, invitations,
enablements), it is up to teachers to create possibilities out of existing constraints. In this
sense, autonomy is about how teachers take advantage of the opportunities their institutional
structures afford them (affordances). Based on Gibson (1979), affordances can be broadly
conceptualized as perceived possibilities for action (Allison & Huang, 2005). Remarking upon
the power of individual agency in shaping what constitutes an affordance, Billett (2001) found
that the readiness of the workplace in affording individuals opportunities for professional
development determines the quality of teaching and learning in the workplace.
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
4. Method
4.1 Research questions
is study aims to explore how two novice teachers develop their autonomy in ESL teaching
and what factors may influence their autonomous development in the Hong Kong school
contexts. e study addresses the following research questions:
1) How do novice secondary school teachers in Hong Kong take control of their ESL teaching?
2) What influences their development as autonomous ESL teachers?
4.2 Research design
This is a qualitative case study. A qualitative design helps the researchers “develop an in-
depth exploration of a central phenomenon” (Creswell, 2012, p. 206). In this study, the central
phenomenon is the quest for autonomy among novice secondary school English teachers in
Hong Kong.
A case study approach, referred to as “interpretation in context” (Merriam, 2009, p. 42),
captures the complex action, perception and interpretation of the participants (Merriam,
2009). Through interviewing our participants at different time points over a one-year period,
the researchers were able to track their development of autonomy during their initial year of
teaching.
Two participants, Anthony and Simon, took part in this study. The second author (Lock)
knew both of them prior to this study. He worked with Anthony for one year in a tutorial
center and enrolled in the same teacher education program one year later than Simon. Both
participants had completed a local teacher education program and were first-year teachers in
local secondary schools when this study was carried out. They were also willing to share their
teaching lives with the researchers.
Sampling decisions are often associated with the struggle and balance between the width
and depth of data and analyses. Given that “the overall ability of a researcher to provide an
in-depth picture diminishes with the addition of each new individual or site” (Creswell,
2012, p. 209), the sampling size of this study was kept small to facilitate the uncovering of the
complexity of our participants’ teaching lives.
4.3 Data collection and data analysis
Two semi-structured individual face-to-face interviews, conducted in English and each lasting
around one hour, were conducted with each participant. Prior to the interviews, they signed
a consent form acknowledging that (1) they took part in the study voluntarily; (2) they were
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
free to withdraw from the study anytime; and (3) all interviews were audio-taped for research
purpose.
The first round of interviews was carried out about two months after they started their
first-year teaching. The interviews focused on their teaching lives, such as their adaptation to
the school environment, lesson planning and classroom teaching, working relationship with
colleagues, challenges encountered and the strategies they adopted or planned to adopt to
overcome those challenges. The second round of interviews allowed the researchers to obtain
the latest updates on their teaching lives and to clarify any unclear points made in the previous
interview. During the interviews, open-ended questions were asked to allow our participants to
“create the options for responding … without being forced into research possibilities” (Creswell &
Plano Clark, 2006, p. 218).
Data were also collected between the two interviews and following the second round of
interviews through regular email exchanges and telephone conversations. Information obtained
from these sources enriched the interview data by providing a fuller picture of their first-year
teaching journey.
Qualitative data analysis involves an “inductive investigative strategy” (Merriam, 2009,
p. 39). The interviews were first transcribed and coded thematically, and compared with the
data obtained from other sources to ensure consistency. The resulting thematic structure of
each case was then investigated for emerging themes, which were discussed with reference to
the research questions.
5. Findings
In this section, the key findings of this study are presented in the form of a story of each
participant. These stories provide rich descriptions of how they manage their day-to-day
teaching and form the basis for further discussion of the ndings in the section that follows.
5.1 Anthony’s story
Anthony taught English at a local English medium of instruction (EMI) secondary school.
He was in charge of three junior classes and some senior small-group classes. Noting that his
teaching load was “perhaps lighter than most novice teachers”, he was “extremely busy with
lesson preparation and marking” (1st and 2nd interviews). Anthony said that he was lucky
as his non-teaching duties as the teacher-in-charge for the debate team and the secretary of
the Career and Guidance Committee did not require lots of time. As a novice, he felt stressed
at times. “It’s all about what you think is more worth the time”, Anthony remarked (2nd
interview).
Collaboration was at the heart of his school culture. The coming up of the Scheme of
Work was a joint effort among English teachers. It contained a list of textbook chapters and
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
language points to be covered. Changes to those documents were made during the academic
year based on the consensus of colleagues. Anthony valued the Scheme of Work as a means to
“standardize” what students learn (2nd interview) rather than constraints on teacher autonomy
(cf. Benson, 2010).
Lesson planning was also a collective endeavor. As Anthony noted, “every cycle we have
a lesson planning period and we’ll discuss together what to put in the curriculum and what
to put in the notes” (1st interview). Chaired by a form (grade) coordinator, these meetings
typically covered their pace of teaching, preparation of handouts and notes and adjustments to
the teaching content. Anthony commended the decentralized power structure within the panel
in which coordinators made decisions for their respective levels, and the panel head was there
to foster consensus. Collaboration in lesson planning was also manifested in the active and
generous sharing of teaching resources:
Sometimes, even if you are not the one responsible for preparing that part of a chapter, you may still
prepare something related, and the teachers would actually appreciate your effort. I mean we inspire each
other. That’s how we grow and learn in the teaching profession. (2nd interview)
Immersed in this sharing culture, Anthony felt comfortable sharing the materials he
prepared with his colleagues. The exchange of ideas among English teachers was also facilitated
by their proximity in the school. Since they were all situated in the same staff room, much of
the communication was made conveniently through informal discussion in the staff room
rather than formal meetings.
Every new teacher in Anthony’s school would be assigned a mentor. Anthony found his
mentor supportive in offering him practical advice on issues ranging from subject knowledge
to assignment marking strategies to student misbehavior in class. He particularly recalled
discussing with his mentor how to implement the readers’ theater, a strategy Anthony was not
familiar with. There was also a peer observation scheme in which the panel head observed
panel members’ lessons once every term. To Anthony, these were opportunities for him
to receive “constructive feedback” (a term Anthony often used in interviews and informal
contacts) on his strengths and weaknesses in teaching. Considered a learning experience for
teachers, post-observation discussions were made encouraging by, for example, replacing
criticisms with constructive suggestions for improvement.
Anthony strived to create spaces for autonomous teaching, asserting himself as “the
boss in the classroom” making decisions about his teaching (2nd interview). Considering
the Schemes of Work a guide rather than rigid rules, he took the initiatives in modifying pre-
prepared teaching resources and producing his own materials in response to learner needs. As
he remarked, “as a teacher we always would like to do more” (1st interview). Anthony was also
concerned about building an “authoritative image” in the classroom:
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
… Students would tend to misbehave more because they know that you are a new teacher and you don’t
know the system well and you can’t even call their names. And you don’t have any image there; you
haven’t set up as a person that students would be afraid of. (1st interview)
Because of his inability in handling student discipline problems, he found the interactive
learning approach, a pedagogy he used to value a lot, difficult to implement. Anthony was
therefore keen on developing his competence in managing classroom discipline.
Anthony joined a number of school-based staff development programs to develop himself
as a professional teacher. Most of them were seminars, with topics ranging from the use of
information and communication technology (ICT) in promoting collaborative learning to
marking strategies to the management structure in his school. Anthony remarked that there
were not many programs which addressed direct teaching-related issues such as teaching
strategies and working with students. As a whole, he found them of limited usefulness in
enhancing his professional development.
All in all, Anthony found his career in the teaching profession so far both challenging
and satisfying. Though he said, from time to time, that as a novice teacher, he unavoidably
encountered a lot of difficulties in teaching (often without going into the details of the
difficulties and constraints), his enthusiasm and his colleagues’ support motivated him to
try his best to foster a competent teacher image in front of his students. He attributed his
professional growth and autonomous development (e.g., effective control over his own
teaching) to the following: Perceived manageable workload (“perhaps lighter than most
novice teachers” as mentioned by Anthony), collegiality (particularly collegiality nurtured
by the sharing culture of the school), the scaffolding role of Schemes of Work rather than the
constraining effect reported by Benson (2010), the peer observation scheme and subsequent
constructive feedback, collaboration between fellow teachers in lesson planning and other
teaching activities, and the guidance and support from the mentor and the school. These
were the major possibilities for actions, that is, affordances (Allison & Huang, 2005), which
Anthony was able to act upon, so the usual types of difficulties novice teachers in other schools
in Hong Kong and in other socio-educational contexts often encountered in their first year
teaching, such as heavy workload and insufficient time for lesson preparation, adaption to a
new environment and classroom management (see Huang & Lock, 2016), did not eventually
become an insurmountable problem for Anthony. In addition to being “extremely busy
with lesson preparation and marking”, other challenges he also mentioned (but again did
not really complain about) in the interviews, email exchanges and telephone conversations
included managing student discipline problems, the implementation of the interactive learning
pedagogy that he had acquired from the pre-service teacher education program and the lack of
school-based teaching-related staff development programs.
5.2 Simon’s story
Simon was a first-year teacher in a local EMI secondary school under the Direct Subsidy
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
Scheme (DSS).* We found himself “acceptably busy”, with “a reasonable teaching and non-
teaching workload” (1st interview). He was in charge of teaching two junior language classes
and a senior literature class.
Simon found himself situated in a liberal school context in which professional autonomy
and collaboration formed its core values. Such a school culture was reflected in multiple
aspects. The first thing that Simon noted was how the Scheme of Work was formulated. Instead
of mandating topics to be covered, English teachers in his school decide on teaching themes
collectively based on their individual strengths and preferences. Through exercising their
professional autonomy in choosing what to teach, they make sure that they are competent at
and passionate about teaching those topics. This helped them build “a competent image” (2nd
interview) in the classroom, which facilitated learning. English teachers also co-produced
teaching materials and held weekly meetings to reflect on their teaching in order to make
their teaching “more complementary” (2nd interview). In Simon’s view, collaboration among
teachers was not only desirable but necessary and inevitable because it was “not possible for
teachers to handle all the work alone” (2nd interview).
Following the Scheme of Work “closely but not rigidly” (2nd interview), he routinely
and strategically completed the assigned topics early so he could engage his students in other
learning activities. For example, Simon reserved English lessons on Fridays for fun learning and
he called it “relaxing Friday”. “I made worksheets for them. The materials are chosen by me
because I know their proficiency level the best” (1st interview). He once turned the classroom
into a restaurant and taught his students how to order food by asking them to perform the roles
of waiters and customers. His students enjoyed the lesson a lot, and they were highly engaged
in the creative activities.
Learner needs were of prime concern to Simon in his instructional strategies. In his class,
he made English lessons communicative and interactive because he found that his students
lacked chances and motivation to speak in English. He once rewarded his class for speaking
in English in his lesson by showing them one of his ugliest photos. While this strategy worked
that time, he knew that in the long run, “their confidence, interest and motivation in speaking
the language” and ultimately “their autonomy in ESL learning” must be developed (2nd
interview). In his form/grade 2 remedial class, on the other hand, Simon included more hands-
on experience to help them build a solid foundation in grammar.
Collaboration also took the form of a peer observation scheme. For example, his level
coordinator observed that he easily went off-track during lessons, a problem that Simon had
never noticed by himself. Simon found the peer observation experiences, in particular, the post-
observation feedback, constructive: “… We do discuss but not the kind of discussion that will
make you feel pressurized or make you feel bad. We are just talking like friends and colleagues
and try to enhance each other’s teaching” (1st interview). Through such interactions, Simon
* The Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) was introduced by the Hong Kong SAR government in 1991.
Sufficiently high-achieving primary and secondary schools could join the scheme and receive subsidies
from the government and make their own decisions concerning the curriculum, school fees and entrance
requirements. The aim of this scheme is to improve the quality of private school education in Hong Kong.
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
identified the “blind spots” in his teaching and made appropriate adjustments to “enhance
students’ control over their learning as well as his control over teaching” (1st interview).
Simon noted a few factors that facilitated collaboration among English teachers in his
school. First, he often mentioned that the English team was “young and vibrant”, and there
was “little hierarchy” among them. Most of them were “open-minded” and receptive to new
pedagogies. Second, all English teachers were stationed in the same staff room, and this
made communication convenient. Most importantly, teachers in Simon’s school were keen to
collaborate and were active in contributing ideas, treating one another as “learning partners”
(1st interview). Simon highly commended the professionalism of his colleagues in this respect
and felt that teacher collaboration is the key to professional development for novices: “… I guess
every one of us is quite comfortable with our own way. But when we are struck by another
force, then we will learn something from the other and try to use their methods in our class” (1st
interview).
Simon was appreciative of his school in offering him great chances for professional
development. He was sent to Singapore for a four-day International Baccalaureate (IB)
curriculum training program, which had prepared him for teaching that curriculum effectively
through experience-sharing and discussion. On the other hand, Simon was doubtful of the
usefulness of school-based staff development programs in improving his teaching, one of
which was about the legal roles of teachers. While not downplaying its importance, Simon
pointed out that “sitting there for three hours to learn about the legal roles of a teacher doesn’t
really help me to teach” (2nd interview).
Overall, his first-year teaching experience was satisfying. “Everything is quite on-track
now” (2nd interview). Like Anthony, Simon also felt that he was lucky to work in a liberal
and humanistic environment. The kinds of “workplace affordances” (Billett, 2001) such as
manageable workload (“acceptably busy” as mentioned by Simon), collegiality and sharing
culture, flexible implementation of Schemes of Work, peer observation and constructive
feedback, full collaboration among colleagues, and effective mentoring, which worked for
Anthony, also nurtured Simon’s teacher agency to foster his sense of control over teaching
(teacher autonomy). What was slightly different from Anthony’s case was that Simon was
working in an even more liberal environment with a “young”, “vibrant” and “open-minded”
English team and with “little hierarchy”, and thus was able to adopt a stronger version of
learner-centered pedagogy and to create more spaces for experimenting with new ideas
to enhance his own teaching and facilitate student learning. Also like Anthony, common
constraints and difficulties in the first year teaching were considered as “under control” (a term
Simon sometimes mentioned in our contacts) and were not emphasized in our face-to-face
interviews, email exchanges or telephone conversations, although one year later Simon left the
teaching profession to work in the government partly because he considered he still lacked full
confidence in teaching English to secondary school students in Hong Kong in accordance with
his own teaching philosophy and partly because he wanted to try something else when he was
still young (see Huang & Lock, 2016).
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
6. Discussion
is section discusses the experiences of the two case study participants (Anthony and Simon)
with regard to the two research questions. One point to note was that compared with teachers
in other schools in Hong Kong (Huang & Lock, 2016), the particular liberal and humanistic
elements of the two schools they were working in (manageable workload, collegiality,
collaboration, exible rather than rigid implementation of Schemes of Work, peer observation
and constructive feedback) might aord more opportunities for their personal and professional
development which, we have found, are oen absent in many other contexts. In this respect,
they were probably not common cases in Hong Kong, according to the authors’ educational
experiences and observations (the first author has been supervising teaching practice in
around 100 primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong in the past years while the second
author had taught for some time in a secondary school in Hong Kong at the time of writing
this paper). erefore, this study did not intend to generalize its ndings to all novice teachers
in Hong Kong and other socio-educational contexts but to provide a dierent perspective to
understand how novice teachers might develop their teacher autonomy in their rst-year day-
to-day teaching, provided that they have the chance to work in a supportive and aordance-
rich environment.
6.1 Novice teachers’ autonomy development
Situated in friendly, invitational school contexts, our two participants were able to capitalize
on the existing opportunities afforded by their respective institutional structures to facilitate
student learning. This enabled them to create spaces, within common constraints that novice
teachers oen encounter in various school contexts, for their autonomous teaching in their own
classrooms. For example, Anthony’s Schemes of Work were largely textbook-based without
specifying what learning tasks to be included. Such Schemes of Work did not seem to oer novice
teachers like Anthony much concrete help in his day-to-day teaching but fortunately le “spaces
and opportunities for maneuver” (Lamb, 2000, p. 128). Anthony was thus able to exercise his
individual agency to modify teaching resources prepared by his colleagues and produce his own
materials to suit the needs of his own students. Similarly, Simon was passionate about planning
and implementing his own lessons outside the scope of his Schemes of Work. He made accurate
observations on the characteristics and needs of his students and tailor-made meaningful
and interesting class activities for them. He also adopted different instructional strategies in
dierent classes even when that meant he had to step out of his comfort zone and experiment
with ideas that he was not familiar with. In short, both Anthony and Simon considered the
Schemes of Work a framework guiding their teaching (providing some form of standardization)
and scaffolding their professional learning and did not find them constraining teacher
autonomy as in other studies (e.g., Benson, 2010). They retained some degree of professional
autonomy in planning and implementing their lessons while adhering to their Schemes of
Work, which enhanced their sense of control over their teaching and professional learning.
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
Our participants were highly engaged in enhancing their capacity to take control of their
teaching by learning from peers and more-experienced colleagues. In addition to making
sense of and gaining insights from teaching materials developed by his colleagues, Anthony
took the initiative to seek advice particularly from his mentors for a wide range of work-
related issues. He also took his lesson observation sessions seriously and made use of these
opportunities to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of his teaching. Simon also engaged
in “workplace learning” (Billett, 2001). He actively exchanged ideas with his colleagues, his
“learning partners”, who were “young, vibrant and open-minded” in his own terms. Through
peer observation and constructive post-observation feedback, he was able to identify his
strengths and “blind spots”—in a sense, the open/blind/hidden/unknown self as shown in the
Johari window (cited in DeVito, 2003, p. 97) —so that he could take corresponding measures
to improve his classroom practices. Being sensitive to student needs and paying great attention
to student motivation, he employed a range of creative activities and strategies in his classroom,
such as “relaxing Friday”, to make learning as enjoyable as possible.
Therefore, as far as Schemes of Work and their day-to-day teaching are concerned, the
constraints noted by Benson (2000, 2010, 2012) and Pinter (2007) did not seem to be oppressive
to our participants. Instead, our participants demonstrated the ability and eagerness to make
good use of existing opportunities in their school contexts to create spaces for autonomous
teaching. In Aoki’s (2002) words, the teachers were not merely conforming to the established
institutional practices; instead, they were willing and able to transform such practices. This
gained sense of control was attributed to individual teacher agency at work, which was
grounded in a positive professional identity that novice teachers were eager to establish, for
example, “a competent image” (Simon) and “the boss in the classroom” (Anthony).
Teaching is a cognitive process that involves teachers’ expectations, perceptions,
awareness, judgment, prescription, and decision making (Wilson, 2004). In addition, teachers’
interaction with students, mentors, and other stakeholders may help them discern their
students’ needs. This is related to a sense of taking control of teaching. In this connection,
mentors’ support on experiencing the classroom dynamics is an effective way for novice
teachers to take control of their teaching, as revealed by the two participants’ mentee
experiences in the present study. For example, both Antony and Simon received support from
mentors in helping them internalize their teaching beliefs and avert reality shock. However,
one thing to bear in mind is that novice teachers are likely to encounter multiple conflicting
expectations that are not in line with their own beliefs. For example, Anthony found the
school-based development programs “of limited use” while Simon was “doubtful” of the
effectiveness of school-based staff development programs in enhancing teaching. Therefore,
teachers need better management of clinical information to enhance their sense in exercising
professional autonomy in teaching.
6.2 Factors influencing novice teachers’ autonomy development
at our participants were able to enhance their capacity to take control over teaching during
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15
Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
their initial year was to a large extent attributable to their readiness for autonomy and the
opportunities that the particular socio-institutional structures had afforded them. As far as
personal factors are concerned, our participants were willing to engage themselves in workplace
learning. For example, both of them thought quite positively about lesson observation.
Rather than emphasizing the stressfulness that most novice teachers would associate lesson
observation with, Anthony and Simon chose to treat it as an opportunity by accepting their
observers’ feedback as constructive input. Their determination to make teaching student-
centered also motivated them to reflect on their teaching and modify their instructional
strategies for promoting student and teacher autonomy. Our ndings are in line with Pinter’s
(2007) assertion that willingness to change is essential for professional growth. It is this
“changing teacher personality” (Thavenius, 1999, p. 159) that cultivates a sense of learner-
centeredness in teaching, which involves a continuous cycle of reflection, experimentation,
regulation, and negotiation (Vieira et al., 2008). However, this poses an issue of how teachers
can sustain their initial willingness to change after one year of teaching. Although this is
not the scope of the present study, it may be interesting to explore how teachers manage to
maintain their growing recognition of the institutional role, and how they can overcome the
tensions that may exist in the contemporary teaching profession. Teachers are oen le to take
personal and collective responsibility for improving their skills and subject knowledge (Teng,
2018). e school should guide new teachers so that they could develop a sense of belonging to
the school and to create opportunities for them to make contributions to the school. is can
be done through allocating mentors, tutors, providing supportive and informative settings, and
opportunities for critical reection on practice and meaningful engagement in professional debates
(Dymoke & Harrison, 2006). The two teacher participants in the present study seemed to
experience a school system that provides support to the development of a positive professional
identity. However, other school systems may be rooted in a bureaucratic-managerial approach
which may hinder novice teachers from being self-determined to develop their autonomy.
Our data therefore clearly revealed how institutional structures afforded opportunities
for novice teachers’ autonomy development. One such enablement concerned teacher
collaboration, which could take many forms. The preparation and implementation of Schemes
of Work were the result of collaborative discussion. In Simon’s case, the Schemes of Work
were even formulated with reference to teachers’ strengths and preferences, and this was a
combination of collaboration and professional discretion. Collaboration also took the form of
materials sharing, with Anthony remarking on how he learned from the shared resources and
how that inspired him to exercise his agency in modifying and producing his own materials.
This kind of goal-oriented collaboration have alleviated their stress and anxiety level, and
contrary to Xu’s (2015) argument, did not seem to compromise their eagerness for autonomy.
In contrast, such collaboration had inspired Anthony and Simon to create spaces for teacher
autonomy based on the outcomes of collaboration.
Collaboration also took the form of mentoring, including lesson observation. This
ongoing dialogic process of exchanging ideas enabled novice teachers to gradually transform
the mechanical approach they acquired from pre-service teacher education programs to a set
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Autonomy in English Language Teaching: A Case Study of Novice Secondary School Teachers in Hong Kong
of more internalized skills (Evertson & Smithey, 2000). As Schön (1990) succinctly points out,
novice teachers’ development of a personalized and integrated teaching approach, together with
their growing critical reflectivity and receptiveness to new ideas, form the foundation for their
continuous professional development. The first year is critical in determining whether a novice
teacher is going to stay in the teaching profession and very often, those who are afforded plenty
of psychological support are the ones who are more likely to successfully complete their first
year of teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2003). Therefore, effective mentoring is indispensable in
enabling novice teachers to develop their autonomy in teaching.
Overall, our findings suggest two types of factors for developing teacher autonomy:
(1) Teachers’ own passion and their sense of responsibility for their students and thus a positive
professional teacher identity (“a competent image” and “the boss” in the novice teachers’ own
classrooms in this study); (2) whole “sets of affordances” (see Huang, Long, & Teng, 2018,
p. 43, citing Aronin & Singleton, 2012) such as manageable workload to create possibilities for
liberating teachers from simply conforming to tight schedules and rigid practices, teachers’
professional discretion in defining standards of schooling and freedom of choice over the
content of instruction and application of teaching resources, collegiality characterized by a
sharing culture and open-minded colleagues, full-scope teacher collaboration, constructive
peer feedback (e.g., in peer lesson observation in the study) and genuine and effective
mentoring. It should also be noted that teacher passion and a positive professional identity
might shape novice teachers’ perceptions of affordances and affect how they act upon the
perceived affordances. It is through continuously acting upon the workplace affordances (Billett,
2001) that novice teachers develop their autonomy in language teaching and professional
learning.
7. Conclusion and implications
This qualitative inquiry into the teaching lives of two secondary school English teachers in
Hong Kong demonstrates that novice teachers are able to exercise their teacher agency to
take effective control of their teaching and professional learning, that is, to develop their
teacher autonomy, in an invitational and supportive socio-institutional environment. Their
school contexts have afforded them ample opportunities for professional development, and
our participants succeeded in taking advantage of these opportunities to create spaces for
their autonomous teaching. is is in stark contrast to the widely-held perception that novice
teachers are inadequately supported in the workplace and were oen le to sink or swim (see
Huang & Lock, 2016, for a comparative study of novice teachers in Shenzhen and Hong Kong).
This study sheds light on how novice teachers can be better supported in terms of school-
initiated CPD programs. First, in view of the discrepancy between what the school thinks
novices need and what novices themselves think they need for professional development,
there is a requirement for schools to better understand and cater for the professional learning
needs of these teachers. Schools should, therefore, strive to provide an autonomy-supportive
environment for teachers. Effective teacher education programs should be developed to afford
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Jing HUANG , Kenny Yau Ning LOCK & Feng TENG
opportunities for novice teachers to utilize their professional expertise, and to develop their
professional judgments. Teachers’ voices should also be addressed. By making themselves
heard, novice teachers develop their autonomy both as learners and teachers. It has been
argued that the current teacher development programs are often based on a “one size fits all”
approach, without considering the individual needs of in-service teachers (Collay, Dunlap,
Enloe, & Gagnon, 1998, p. 55). CPD programs should move from a lecturing mode toward
a mode modeling the constructivist approach, engaging teachers intellectually in teaching-
related knowledge (Corcoran, 2006).
Second, teacher education programs should contribute to raising teachers’ awareness of
wielding power responsibly, exercising autonomy aptly, and executing professional conduct
effectively (Reed, 2000). The teachers in the present study are activists who smartly critique
mandates that the hinder development of autonomy on the basis of credible professional
knowledge. However, other teachers may not be adequately prepared for doing so due to
the fragmentation and discontinuities of teacher education. Hence, teacher education and
induction programs for novice teachers should take teachers’ needs and concerns into
consideration, with a final goal towards the appropriate and responsible exercise of autonomy.
Finally, teacher power is the prerequisite for teacher autonomy (Webb, 2002). There
is a need to support teachers with power in terms of exercising autonomy in teaching and
learning rather than devising ways to eliminate teachers’ power base. The situation of teacher
compliance will become exacerbated when teachers are excluded from developing initiatives
for exercising autonomy. As shown in the present study, teacher collaboration, rather than
teacher compliance, is what novice teachers look for. Particularly it is in a school setting where
teachers, for example in the present study, can implement creative activities for students’
needs, collaborate with fellow teachers, make use of the mandated Schemes of Work to suit
their educational purposes, and are eager for teacher autonomy. Therefore, school districts
and governments should become accountable to the opportunities for teachers to have power,
responsibilities, and rights in exercising autonomy.
Acknowledgements
e work described in this paper was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council
of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (GRF Project No. HKBU 12403214).
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About the authors
Jing HUANG is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Studies at Hong Kong
Baptist University (HKBU). His research is in learner and teacher autonomy, TESOL teacher
education and educational ethnography. Email: peterjh@hkbu.edu.hk
Kenny Yau Ning LOCK graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University with an Honors Degree
in Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature and Bachelor of Education in English
Language Teaching. He subsequently obtained a Master of Arts in Linguistics at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong and worked in Hong Kong Baptist University as a senior research
assistant. Email: ynlock@gmail.com
Feng TENG is a PhD candidate in the Department of Education Studies at Hong Kong Baptist
University. His main research interests include identity research, L2 writing, and vocabulary
development. Email: markteng@life.hkbu.edu.hk
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