Exploring the Relationship between Iranian English Language Teachers’ Sense of Autonomy and Perfectionism

Abstract

Teachers play a crucial and influential part in teaching/learning contexts and teacher-related features have gained a great deal of attention in the realm of teacher education and development. Among teacher-related factors, perfectionism and autonomy are regarded as two influential factors which play crucial roles in teachers’ and learners’ performance. Several research studies have tried to investigate their impacts on language teachers’ performance. However, no studies have so far explored the association between Iranian EFL teachers’ perfectionism and autonomy. Thus, the current research was undertaken to examine the association between Iranian EFL teachers’ perfectionism and autonomy. To do this, 82 English language teachers (34 males and 48 females) were selected as the participants of the study. They were asked to fill out teacher autonomy and perfectionism questionnaires. The results of the data analysis revealed that EFL teachers’ sense of perfectionism and autonomy were positively related. The findings of the present study can be helpful for syllabus designers, teacher educators, and language teachers.