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This paper aims at understanding teachers' (the authors refer to “teachers” in higher education as lecturers or senior lecturers) professional autonomy in the context of the current university English teachers in France.

The authors present here the preliminary results of the test-questionnaire the authors have made to gather main tendencies on the topic (the results were presented orally at the SAES national conference held in Paris from 20 to 22 May 2011, http://saes.univ-paris3.fr). This paper is organized in three different themes that correspond to the three main parts of the test-questionnaire.

The authors first show that the current degree of professional autonomy is both satisfying and an essential factor of self-development. The data underline the fact that teachers' professional autonomy is indeed a very important aspect of teaching as a job within the organizational university context. Then, the authors distinguish individualism from autonomy; stressing the fact that team-work does not entail less professional autonomy, contrary to what people may often think. Finally, most colleagues who participated in this first study have expressed concern that organizational constraints, such as the size of the groups, the obligation to conform to an overly constraining curriculum, the obligation to reach some success quotas or employment quotas, etc. could reduce or even threaten their professional autonomy and self-development.

Many books have been written on learners' autonomy and teachers' role on this aspect. Teachers' professional autonomy at university level on the other hand is a much less studied topic. Often taken for granted, this autonomy now appears to be questioned because of the implementation of new organizational systems.