Teacher Autonomy and Personality Traits: A Comparative Study of Iranian Male and Female EFL Teachers

Teacher autonomy and teacher personality, both affecting teaching and learning processes, were focused on in this gender-comparative study. The required data was gathered through convenience sampling by online distributing two sets of questionnaires, which were responded by 156 Iranian EFL teachers, including both males and females. Then, SPSS-26 was used to analyze the data in this quantitative correlational survey to answer the two research questions, and the results indicated that a) among the five sub-constructs of personality traits, the Extraversion construct stayed on the first place according to its correlation degree to teacher autonomy, which was assessed very strong; b) male teachers naturally felt more sense of autonomy than females did; also, they are more extraverted, open, and conscientious than female teachers. Finally, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) was applied to support the acquired results. This survey can be best suited for EFL teachers to become more sensitive about their personality constructs.