ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a quest to understand teacher autonomy from a review of teachers' responses to perceived institutional pressures which hinder learner autonomy. It describes suzhi education reform alongside the curriculum reform of College English, which was launched nationwide in 2007. A critical goal of teacher education is to facilitate teachers to become autonomous learners. The drive for teachers' inquiry into contextual challenges comes from their commitment to educational values and to educating students. The conventional teacher education paradigm prioritises objective knowledge, as teachers are often seen as cogs in the education machinery for standardised knowledge transmission. At a higher level of response to perceived institutional pressures, teachers can draw a tenuous surface relationship between competing reform demands. Li's teaching of reading, writing, and translation was congruent with the form of the College English Test-4 examination. A maturing teacher is capable of transforming tension into harmony, and is driven by a moral commitment to serve students.
