Does teachers’ autonomy practice mature with time: experienced versus novice EFL teacher practices

The Chinese proverb ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’ implies what this research focused on. In effect, how teachers’ Learner Autonomy (LA henceforth) promotion practices have evolve with experience was the niche the current study tried to dwell. That said, and the fact that the recent movement in Iranian education system calls for a change or an update of EFL high school teachers’ mindsets towards teaching and learning which embraces LA runs counter to what they were educated to do. That is, in their years of schooling as a student they experienced little if any autonomy and yet are expected to practice promoting LA. To that end a group of 16 EFL teachers, i.e. both novice and experienced, who were conveniently sampled out in Mahabad and Boukan, were interviewed in focus groups to see how their practices with regard to LA promotion evolved, if any, over time. After conducting the interviews came the analysis of the narratives, i.e. stories told by the teachers were analyzed and interpreted by the researcher to see how LA was framed and formed in the minds of these participants over time by looking for such things as epiphanies. In other words, the narrative analysis phase was an iterative process whereby data analysis was ongoing in tandem with data collection. The results hinted that experience might not be the determining factor when it comes to LA promotion practices. It is hoped the implications and suggestions for further research made at the end of the study raise teachers’ awareness, be it novice or experienced on the one hand, and teacher educators and curriculum developers on the other of the significance of LA promotion maturation.