A Complicated Good: Collective Teacher Efficacy in a Low-Performing School

• In Event: Principals Leading Teachers: Lessons for Improving Schools

Abstract

This study complicates understandings of collective efficacy, suggesting the source of efficacy beliefs matter more for student learning than the reported strength of those beliefs. When efficacy beliefs were forged amid low expectations for students, foregrounding of external factors, and effusive praise untethered to outcomes, efficacy actually undermined equity and improvement. These findings provide a cautionary example of the deleterious effects of leadership practices that bypass the hard work of transforming mindset when pursuing improvement.

Author

• Mary Frances Jones, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author