English Teacher Ideologies: an empirical study

This paper describes an empirical study into English teacher attitudes to a variety of issues within their subject, in order to investigate one particular hypothesis about the nature of English subject ideology variation. The paper presents an attitude questionnaire, the results of which both confirm the hypothesis, and also suggest an additional dimension of tender/tough mindedness, similar to that explored in earlier studies by Eysenck, and Oliver & Butcher. The paper emphasises the high degree of idiosyncracy evident in the teachers' responses, and concludes by suggesting a particular relevance of a subject ideology perspective to the training of new teachers.