Enabling District Structure: The Relationship Between Perceived District Structure and Principal Self-Efficacy

• In Event: Exploring Social Networks and Systemic Approaches to Influencing Student Achievement

Abstract

Principal self-efficacy (PSE) is a powerful construct, yet little is known about its antecedents. This quantitative study is framed using Giddens’ structuration theory (1979), and builds upon Hoy and Sweetland’s (2001) construct of enabling school structures to explore the interaction of principals’ perception of their districts and PSE. This study confirmed that these two constructs share a moderate, statistically significant correlation and that these variables were moderately and significantly predictive of each other, lending support to the assertion that these constructs share a mutually reinforcing relationship. These findings are consequential because they offer evidentiary support of the identification of a structural antecedent of PSE, and because they support the suggestion that EDS is a viable and influential construct.

Author

• Kathleen Landy, Mercy College