Session Information
04 SES 14 A, Building Inclusive School Communities: Collective Commitment, Teacher Efficacy, and Collaborative Leadership
Symposium
Contribution
Improving inclusive education requires a thorough understanding of the factors influencing teachers' intentions to implement inclusive practices. According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) an individual's intention is a relevant predictor of the respective action. Drawing on this theory, our study examines how teachers' collective efficacy beliefs (defined as a group's belief in its ability to achieve desired outcomes; Goddard et al., 2000), attitudes towards inclusion (teachers' beliefs about the value and feasibility of including students with diverse needs in mainstream classrooms; Sahli Lozano et al., 2021), and individual self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997), relates to teachers' intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms in a cross-national sample from Canada, Germany, and Switzerland. Individualised teaching adapted to the students’ diversity requires teams of teachers who share common goals (Goddard et al., 2000). These goals can be regarded as normative expectations, influencing individual teachers’ beliefs as well as their performances in the classroom. Accordingly, collective efficacy is related to individual self-efficacy (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007), as well as to teachers’ attitudes and inclusion-related teaching intentions (e.g. Sahli Lozano et al., 2021). However, there remains a gap in understanding how these constructs interact in different cultural contexts. International comparisons are of particular interest for any country/school system, as they can help to identify alternative approaches and opportunities for inclusive school development (e.g. Sharma et al., 2023). Using an approach similar to Sahli Lozano et al. 2021, the study presented here examines the relationships between these variables using structural equation modelling across countries. Preschool, primary, and secondary school teachers from Canada, Germany, and Switzerland (N=897) were surveyed using an online questionnaire regarding their individual (TEIP; Sharma et al., 2012) and collective efficacy (TEIP-C; Sharma et al., 2023) for inclusive practices, as well as their attitudes toward inclusion and intentions to teach inclusively (AIS and ITICS, respectively; Sahli Lozano et al., 2021). Preliminary analyses indicate that both positive AIS and TEIP-C significantly predict TEIP. Furthermore, TEIP appears to be a strong predictor of ITICS. The findings highlight the importance of fostering positive attitudes towards inclusion and increasing educators’ individual and collective efficacy as critical components in promoting inclusive education. Country-specific relationships between the aspects of teacher professionalism analysed, together with country-specific interpretations, are presented and discussed in the presentation.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W.H. Freeman and Company. Goddard, R. D., Hoy, W. K., & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2000). Collective teacher efficacy: Its meaning, measure, and effect on student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 37, 479–507. Sahli Lozano, C., Sharma, U., & Wüthrich, S. (2021). A comparison of Australian and Swiss secondary school teachers’ attitudes, concerns, self-efficacy, and intentions to teach in inclusive classrooms: does the context matter? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28(7), 1205–1223. Sharma, U., Loreman, T., & Forlin, C. (2012). Measuring teacher efficacy to implement inclusive practices. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 12(1), 12–21. Sharma, U., Loreman, T., May, F., Romano, A., Lozano, C. S., Avramidis, E. et al. (2024). Measuring collective efficacy for inclusion in a global context. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 39(2), 167–184. Skaalvik, E. M., & Skaalvik, S. (2007). Dimensions of teacher self-efficacy and relations with strain factors, perceived collective teacher efficacy, and teacher burnout. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(3), 611–625.
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