Professional Autonomy Visited: Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives During Practice Teaching

This study focuses on the pre-service teacher’s professional autonomy in an English language teacher education program of a foundation university in İstanbul, Türkiye. It explores whether practice teaching period had an influence on the pre-service teachers’ professional autonomy and the factors that might have a role in their understanding of autonomy. Thirty-seven pre-service teachers answered professional autonomy questionnaire and ten volunteered to participate in the semi-structured in-depth interviews. The overall study findings indicated that the participants had a high level of autonomy in terms of internal and external drives and motives, capability and collaboration with colleagues. The practice teaching experience had an impact on their perspectives about internal and external motivational sources, managing time and their capacity for professional development, whereas their opinions for collaboration did not change over practicum period. The participants’ comments indicated that mentor teachers, feedback and extra teaching experiences were the factors that led to the changes in their autonomy.