An Examination of Principal-Perceived Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Its Relationship to Principal-Perceived Teachers’ Disposition to Innovate

• In Event: School Leadership for Innovation

Abstract

Objectives:
To address learning loss and high levels of students’ absenteeism after schools reopened, the Ministry of Education in Chile initiated the Educational Reactivation strategy, expecting that each school community through a participatory process design a local reactivation plan. Studies conducted in Chile have reported great variability in the administrative and pedagogical management of schools during closure and now during reactivation, even in similar contexts (Kuzmanic et al., 2023; Valenzuela et al., 2023).
Based on previous studies reporting that principals’ self-efficacy beliefs impact how they managed innovation during the pandemic (Röhl et al., 2022) as well as studies that connect teachers’ self-efficacy and dispositions to innovate may account, in part at least, for this variability (Xie et al., 2022), the purpose of the current study is to address the following research question: How do principal-perceived teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, relate to principal-perceived teachers’ disposition to innovate? Additionally, this relationship will be associated with school-level characteristics (i.e., grade levels served, type of school, and level of performance according to the categorization determined by the Quality Agency).
Theoretical framework:
According to Bandura (1986) a strong belief in a group’s or organization’s capacity to solve challenges is an important resource when working on them. Leaders with stronger self-efficacy tend to communicate and model high expectations to both teachers and students, shaping their self-efficacy beliefs (Tschannen-Moran and Gareis, 2004). An empirical question is the extent to which principals with strong self-efficacy to manage innovation also perceive the teaching staff as having strong self-efficacy beliefs to initiate and or implement innovations to address learning loss as a result of school closure and emergency remote instruction.
Method:
In the current study, we used data from an online survey sent to a random sample of school principals. Principals were contacted through the Ministry of Education. Principals’ self-efficacy, perceptions of teachers’ self-efficacy, and teachers’ dispositions to innovate were measured with three items each, using a 4-point likert-scale.
Currently, the survey is still running. First preliminary findings of the pilot survey (N=30) tend to indicate that: (a) principals exhibit a high level of self-efficacy beliefs (M=3.9, SD=0.15), report a high level of teacher self-efficacy beliefs (M=3.4, SD=0.39), and an overall positive disposition of teachers to innovate in order to improve their practices (M=3.1, SD=0.39). Principals reporting higher levels of teacher’s self-efficacy beliefs, also perceive a stronger disposition to innovate of their teachers (r=.69). In the symposium, findings of the overall sample (ca. N=500) will be presented and discussed.
Significance:
Schools in Chile, particularly those serving students facing multiple challenges associated with poverty, are having to deal with unprecedented challenges. Schools with lower socioeconomic status were significantly less likely to offer in-person instruction and reopened later than schools serving more affluent students. As reported by Kuzmanic et al. (2023) disparities in reopening decisions were associated with administrative factors. The current study seeks to uncover individual and school-level factors that may account for differences in how school are innovating in the context of their reactivation plan.

Author

• Carmen Montecinos, Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso