EFL Teacher Professionalism and Agency in Addis Ababa with Implications for Digital Professional Learning

Abstract

This study examines how English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in Addis Ababa understand professionalism and how their accounts relate to professional development represented in school documents. An interpretive qualitative inquiry informed by hermeneutic phenomenology drew on interviews with 16 government secondary school teachers, two focus groups of four teachers each, and eight school documents. Analysis examined accounts of commitment, knowledge, pedagogical judgement, and continuing professional development alongside institutional expectations. Teachers described professionalism through care, subject expertise, responsive teaching, and continued learning. They valued practical development and collegial support but questioned activities experienced as paperwork. Documents combined prescribed requirements, collaboration, and opportunities for personal choice, complicating a binary distinction between supportive and controlling schools. References to online searching, videos, technology priorities, and Telegram indicated possible connections with digital professional learning but did not establish its implementation or effectiveness. Self-reports and selected documents cannot establish classroom outcomes, school-wide practices, or the prevalence of particular beliefs. The findings support piloting development records that connect teachers’ priorities with classroom inquiry and collegial feedback. Digital formats should be evaluated for accessibility, workload, and opportunities for professional judgement. The study offers context-specific insights into the relationship between teachers’ expressed commitments and institutional representations of development, informing further research on digitally supported language teacher learning.