الملخص الإنجليزي
This qualitative study investigated the perceptions of Omani English language
teachers, MOE officials, and policy texts about teacher autonomy in the Omani ELT
context and the ideologies informing them. In addition, it sought to reveal the
discursive practices of different agencies in shaping and promoting teacher autonomy
in Oman. The study utilized semi-structured interviews to obtain data from three
senior teachers, two supervisors, and two teacher trainers. Further, this study
obtained data from a focus group consisting of six teachers, and a deep analysis of
four policy texts produced by the MOE. To analyze the data, a combination of
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Critical Thematic Analysis (CTA) was
utilized to reveal the power relations and discourse dominance concerning teacher
autonomy.
The findings revealed that there are two competing discourses of teacher
autonomy, one being imposed by the MOE using discursive power and is informed
by managerial professionalism, while the other is informed by democratic
professionalism and is promoted by teachers. Furthermore, the results uncovered that
the MOE language teaching policies are issued according to the neoliberal goals of
the Omani government. The MOE uses policy texts to introduce legislation and
reproduce dominance over the discourse about teacher autonomy and instructs
officials to normalize this dominance. The results also indicated that the MOE
restricted teachers’ autonomy by imposing a rigid and centralized curriculum that
teachers are mandated to abide by. Another finding suggested that teachers are aware
of the MOE’s excluding practices and counter them by adopting humanistic values.
English teachers attempted to overcome structural restrictions imposed on their
autonomy by establishing communities of practice and promoting humanism. Based
on the results yielded by this study, further implications and recommendations for
future practice were proposed.
