Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN 1539-8072 January 2013, Vol. 10, No. 1, 32-40 ELT Professionals’ Perceptions on Self-Image: A Comparison Between Gender Lilie Zahara Ramly, Umi Kalsom Masrom Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Selangor, Malaysia The study is conducted to examine the differences of gender perception among educators who are teaching in local higher learning institutions in Malaysia, in viewing their roles as the “teacher”. Several higher learning institutions were randomly targeted. Several researchers were involved in the data collection by means of using questionnaires in the survey over a period of several weeks. The questionnaires were used to find out about their academic and professional backgrounds, requiring them to list their roles pertinent to their experiences in teaching, ranked them and provided the rationale behind the choices made. Twenty-five samples were collected to scrutinize the data by categorizing the information according to gender and teaching experiences and recording the frequencies of answers. From the study, it is found that regardless of gender and teaching experiences, most participants would consider themselves as “Provider of knowledge”, followed by “Nurturer”, especially those who are relatively new in teaching. There is also an indication that teacher’s experiences and gender might affect their perception in mirroring themselves. A larger scale of study is needed in validating the findings of this study for it to be empirical, thus promoting in-depth investigations in viewing whether gender and cultural background may be vital factors that has profound effects towards their professionalism. It is hoped that future studies will shed some light to this rather controversial claims. Keywords: provider of knowledge, nurturer, hanging judge, innovator Introduction Being an educator requires variety of roles in educating and connecting with learners. Generally, in higher learning institutions, an educator entails multifaceted portrayal of their own self-image as an ELT (English Language Teaching) professional in which their own competence in thinking and flexibility of their emotions are being depicted. Educators are commonly projected as being noble in characteristics rather than considered as a job as one must be able provide the fundamentals of the learned knowledge before leading other human beings in any subject matter. An educator nurtures the growth of the learning process of a learner as well as the subject matter taught. They are able to inculcate concepts of the taught knowledge, instilling growth and learning processes as well as influencing their students to adapt changes by taking into account appropriate values, thus, bring changes in their lives. The job is definitely not meant for the faint-hearted, as being an educator requires Lilie Zahara Ramly, lecturer at College of Foundation and General Studies, Universiti Tenaga Nasional. Umi Kalsom Masrom, lecturer at College of Foundation and General Studies, Universiti Tenaga Nasional. DAVID PUBLISHING D