Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices in Promoting Learner Autonomy in Under-Resourced EFL Schools: Enabling and Constraining Factors
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61255/jupiter.v4i4.2106Keywords:
Learner Autonomy, Autonomy-Supportive Teaching, Teacher Perceptions and Practices, Under-Resourced Schools, EFL EducationAbstract
This qualitative case study examines how English teachers perceive and enact practices for promoting learner autonomy in under-resourced senior high-school EFL contexts and identifies factors that enable or constrain those practices. Eleven English teachers in Lebak Regency, Indonesia, participated in in-depth interviews, and two of them additionally participated in classroom observations. Interview and observation data were analyzed thematically. The findings show that teachers promoted learner autonomy through inquiry and resource exploration, active and reflective participation, opportunities for students to make selected learning-related decisions, and collaborative group work and peer support. Teacher commitment emerged as an enabling condition, whereas teacher-perceived student dependence on teacher direction and limited teacher knowledge of autonomy-supportive assessment were identified as constraining conditions. The observation data provided contextual support for selected reported practices but were not treated as representative of all participants. The study suggests that learner autonomy in resource-constrained settings can be supported through purposeful pedagogical use of available digital, printed, local, and interpersonal resources. It also highlights learner autonomy as a gradually developed, pedagogically supported, and socially mediated process rather than as independence from teachers or peers.
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