From knowledge to practice: a qualitative study of the impact of continuing professional development on language teachers’ promotion of learner autonomy at a Saudi university

Abstract

The development of learner autonomy (LA) is widely recognised as an essential objective in language education; however, its promotion in many educational settings can be challenging. One primary reason for this difficulty is the lack of continuing professional development (CPD) that addresses teachers’ knowledge and practices concerning LA as a significant educational issues. However, research in teacher education has not extensively explored language teachers’ understanding and methods of teaching for fostering LA. This study examines the impact of CPD on in-service language teachers’ knowledge about LA through specialised workshops to impact their practice.
Initially, online group interviewing discussions were organised to investigate six EFL teachers’ beliefs and knowledge regarding LA and their responsibilities and teaching practices at a university in Saudi Arabia. This was followed by four online workshops, incorporating insights from the initial group interviewing and relevant literature to further develop the teachers’ knowledge and practices about implementing LA. At the teachers’ request, a post-workshop phase was added, resulting in five workshops, each involving focus group (FG) discussions and reflective audio diaries submitted by teachers two weeks apart. The fourth phase involved face-to-face field visits to observe classroom practices. The final phase consisted of online semi-structured interviews to assess changes and developments in teachers’ knowledge about LA and to explore uncovered issues raised in all the previous four phases.
The findings of this qualitative study were analysed using qualitative content analysis, which revealed the impact of the CPD on teachers’ knowledge and practices. While some teachers’ knowledge and practices showed resistance to change, the provided CPD also contributed to increasing teachers’ awareness of the concept of LA, and a minor change was noted in one participant’s practice. The results also showed the difficulties of promoting LA in this context as some challenges hindered the promotion of LA, such as teachers’ lack of understanding of LA-related issues in terms of knowledge and implementation. This study contributes to the academic understanding of professional development for autonomy-oriented teaching by introducing a context-sensitive Role-Shifting framework. Developed in response to teachers’ limited understanding of the facilitator role, the framework outlines a progression from organisational to interactional and reflective practices. It offers a theoretical tool for supporting teacher development and advancing research on CPD, teacher roles, and learner autonomy in higher education.

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