"I was never taught about it": Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers' perceptions of learner autonomy

Khusnul Khotimah
Universitas Mataram; Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia
Yazid Basthomi and Evi Eliyanah
Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia

Responding to the scant scholarly discussion on pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the area of learner autonomy (LA), this study aimed to enrich the literature by enquiring about PSTs' perceptions of LA and autonomy-supportive instruction (ASI). Framed as an exploratory case study, we recruited six Indonesian English PSTs using snowball and purposive sampling. We enacted four stimulated recall interviews to collect data and using thematic content analysis found that the PSTs exhibited inadequate understanding of LA and ASI. They saw LA as self-access learning with no social aspects in its construction and ASI was defined more to enhancing reactive action than proactive action. Despite some emerging perceptions of a shared responsibility between teachers and students in the classroom, they regarded teachers as predominantly an overpowering decision-maker for almost all classroom educational activities. Correspondingly, the absence of explicit, autonomy-based instruction in PSTs' initial teacher education was viewed as the main reason for their inadequacy. PSTs reflected that their learning experiences in initial teacher education lacked strategic investment. This study suggests making the principles of LA and ASI visible in initial teacher education to prepare PSTs to be future autonomy-supportive teachers.
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Authors: Khusnul Khotimah is a faculty member in the Department of English Education, Universitas Mataram, Indonesia. She is currently doing her doctoral program in English Language Education in Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. Her research interests include language teaching methodology, learner and teacher autonomy, and teacher professional development. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5309-443X Email: khusnul_pena@unram.ac.id Dr Yazid Basthomi is Professor of Applied Linguistics with the Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia. Having interests in genre analysis, intercultural education, and digital culture, he is currently coordinator of the publication division of TEFLIN. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3314-3334 Email: ybasthomi@um.ac.id Dr Evi Eliyanah teaches at the Department of English, Universitas Negeri Malang, Indonesia, and is a member of Indonesian Young Academy of Sciences (ALMI). She obtained her PhD from Australian National University. Her research areas include gender, popular culture, and higher education management. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6413-8792 Email: evi.eliyanah.fs@um.ac.id Please cite as: Khotimah, K., Basthomi, Y. & Eliyanah, E. (2023). "I was never taught about it": Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers' perceptions of learner autonomy. Issues in Educational Research, 33(2), 653-672. http://www.iier.org.au/iier33/khotimah.pdf