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The political orientation was the second most supported (mean = 4.2), followed bythe technical (3.93) and finally the social (3.3). The relatively low mean on the socialdimension of learner autonomy reflects uncertainty among the teachers here aboutthe role that co-operation and social interaction (as opposed to individual work)play in promoting learner autonomy. This may point to an underlying individualisticview of learner autonomy (in contrast, for example, Dam, Eriksson, Little, Miliander,& Trebbi, 1990: 102, define learner autonomy as ‘a capacity and willingness to actindependently and in cooperation with others, as a social, responsible person’).One answer to our first research question, then, is that, overall, teachers’ notions oflearner autonomy were most strongly associated with a psychological orientation– particularly one that relates to ‘learning to learn’ (on the individual items, thestatement ‘Learning how to learn is key to developing learner autonomy’ did infact receive the joint highest level of agreement from teachers – see Appendix 3);political notions of learner autonomy – i.e. associated with giving learners choicein decisions about their own learning – also received considerable support (forexample, 95.1 per cent agreed that autonomy means that learners can make choicesabout how they learn). We are not arguing that in agreeing or disagreeing withparticular questionnaire items teachers were consciously advocating, for example,psychological or political notions of autonomy – it is very possible that teachers werein many cases unaware of the various conceptions of autonomy implied in the beliefsthey were expressing. In fact, our sense from the interviews is that where teacherswere advocating, for example, the idea that learners should be given the freedomto make choices about aspects of their learning, such views were not explicitlyideological and there were no references, for example, to learners’ human right toautonomy or the development of democratic societies. Teachers’ beliefs seemed tohave a more immediate grounding in the positive impact that, for example, choicewould have on learner motivation and subsequently on their learning.Further insight into teachers’ views about learner autonomy emerged from theinterviews where, as Appendix 2 shows, our opening question invited teachersto elaborate on what learner autonomy meant to them. Five concepts whichrecurred in the teachers’ answers were responsibility (6 mentions), control (5),independence (5), choice (4) and freedom (4). The comments below from differentteachers illustrate the prevalence of these ideas:I believe the learner must be given a lot of freedom to develop his own style.Learner autonomy to me means giving independence to students, to learners.Also giving chances to learners to choose the kinds of materials they want touse, the kinds of objectives they want to achieve.… for students to be able to take responsibility for their own learning, to functionindependently as learners. Make their own decisions about their learning, theirown choices.… not depending exclusively on the teacher for your learning and your learningoutcomes, but to take responsibility yourself and decide what it is that you needto learn.228 | Teacher Beliefs Autonomy