Teacher education for teacher-learner autonomy

Teacher-learner autonomy, by analogy with previous definitions of language learner autonomy, might be defined as the ability to develop appropriate skills, knowledge and attitudes for oneself as a teacher, in cooperation with others. By focusing on the teacher as learner in this manner I do not mean to diminish the importance of ‘being free from constraints on one’s teaching’, i.e. teacher autonomy in the more commonly understood sense of the term. Rather, as I shall attempt to illustrate in this paper, considering teachers’ autonomy as learners may allow us to view just one aspect of their lives more clearly, at the same time enabling us to adopt useful perspectives from recent discussion of language learner autonomy (for example, on the role of interdependence, issues of cross-cultural appropriateness, and the relative merits of ‘deep-’ and shallow-end’ approaches). The enhancement of teacher-learner autonomy in relation to a variety of areas of pedagogical, attitudinal and content-related expertise can be argued to have an intrinsic value within teacher education programmes (aside from its value in preparing teachers to engage in pedagogy for autonomy with students) since teacher-learning is inevitably a largely self-directed process. Examples will be provided of activities and other arrangements designed explicitly to promote teacherlearner autonomy in some of these areas, within particular teacher education settings in Japan and the UK.