This paper reports on the initial findings from stage one of a longitudinal study exploring the development of teacher self-efficacy beliefs in undergraduate pre-service teachers throughout their degree and into their early career teacher induction period in England. The study focuses on the sources of teacher efficacy beliefs during this critical period, with the aim of understanding how positive teacher self-efficacy beliefs can be nurtured.

Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory suggests that there is a reciprocal relationship between an individuals’ behaviours, their environment and personal factors. Self-efficacy is a central construct within this theory - the belief an individual has about their ability to carry out the necessary actions to perform in a domain. Efficacy beliefs are suggested to be influenced by mastery experiences (successful performance of a task in the given domain), vicarious experiences (observing others model tasks successfully), verbal persuasion (feedback from others) and emotional and physiological states (Bandura, 1997). Crucially, an individual with strong self-efficacy beliefs is more likely to be successful and set and achieve their goals in a given domain, therefore understanding how self-efficacy beliefs can be nurtured is important in professional contexts.

Pre-service and beginning teachers’ efficacy beliefs are more malleable and open to influence from contextual factors than experienced teachers (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2007). Previous research has highlighted the importance of positive teacher efficacy beliefs upon teacher performance, job satisfaction, student achievement and resilience (Moè, Pazzaglia and Ronconi, 2010; Klassen and Tze, 2014). Bandura’s theory suggests that once formed, self-efficacy beliefs are relatively stable, therefore, understanding how positive self-efficacy beliefs are developed in the early stages of teachers’ careers is vital. This is particularly pertinent considering the high attrition rate for early career teachers in England and internationally (UNESCO & International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, 2024).

Literature reviews of research into teacher self-efficacy beliefs have noted a lack of qualitative methods and less emphasis upon the sources of teacher efficacy beliefs (Klassen et al., 2011; Morris, Usher and Chen, 2017). Although further qualitative research into the sources of teacher self-efficacy beliefs have been carried out since then (such as Marschall, 2023), there is still a need to further understand how teachers interpret contextual factors and events that influence their self-efficacy beliefs.

Research questions for this stage of the longitudinal study:

• What are the sources of teacher self-efficacy beliefs for undergraduate pre-service teachers?
• Are some sources more influential than others?
• How do teacher self-efficacy beliefs develop during an undergraduate teacher education course?  

Participants were recruited via volunteer sampling. Second year pre-service studying an undergraduate teacher education course at a university in England were invited to take part by email, with an outline of the purpose of the research and what it will involve. Five participants (4 female, 1 male) gave their informed consent. Qualitative methods were chosen to explore participants’ own perceptions of their experiences and developing teacher self-efficacy beliefs. Data collection in stage one of the longitudinal study included participants’ weekly written reflections during two school practicum modules (weekly reflections were a mandatory element of the 8-week practicum module in each year of the course). Permission was sought from participants to analyse the content of their reflective entries (entered into an online portfolio) during the practicum modules. The reflective entries provide a rich opportunity to understand how pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs are influenced by the context of learning to teach in a school setting. Reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2022) was chosen to generate themes from the data as it reflects the interpretivist stance that understanding researcher assumptions is part of the research process. Data analysis for this part for the study took place in two phases – one phase for each 8-week practicum module. Each phase of data analysis followed Braun and Clarke’s recommended six-stage process. Phase one started with familiarisation and initial coding of the weekly reflective writing completed by the participants during their first 8-week placement module. Each participants’ set of weekly reflections were analysed in turn to start with, before revisiting each set of reflections in a different order to refine codes and add additional codes were necessary. A mixture of inductive and deductive coding was applied, based on Bandura’s suggested sources of efficacy beliefs. Codes were then clustered on a mind map before initial theme generation, refinement and naming. Reflexive journaling was used throughout the data analysis process to record the researcher’s developing interpretations of the data and support writing up of the analysis. In phase two, the same data analysis process as outlined above was applied to analyse the weekly reflective writing completed during the participants’ second placement module. Themes generated during phase one were revisited and refined where relevant.

The balance of internal and external sources of influence upon teacher self-efficacy beliefs as an initial theme from the data will be discussed. Analysis of the weekly reflective entries during early school practicum indicate that pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs are primarily influenced by mastery experiences at this stage. This aligns with Bandura’s (1997) theory suggesting mastery experiences are the most influential source of self-efficacy beliefs. Pre-service teachers frequently reflected on their own analysis of the success of practicum tasks and their emotional response to these experiences – suggesting a more internal focus of influence for many participants. Some participants drew more explicitly on external sources such as verbal persuasion (feedback from experienced teachers) and vicarious experiences (observing experienced teachers). External sources appear to be reflected on more readily by participants who are indicating stronger development of their teacher self-efficacy beliefs. This could suggest that developing pre-service teachers’ skills in receiving and responding to feedback (feedback literacy) may help to nurture more positive self-efficacy beliefs. Other initial themes include how pre-service teachers’ developing professional identity, future-focused reflections and interpretation of their own emotional states interacts with the formation of their teacher self-efficacy beliefs. As there is a global teacher shortage and teacher attrition is a concern, particularly in the early career stage (UNESCO & International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, 2024), it is crucial for teacher educators to consider how best to prepare pre-service teachers for a lifelong career in teaching. Nurturing the self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers has the potential to improve teacher job satisfaction, commitment and reduce burnout (Zee and Koomen, 2016), which indirectly reduces attrition rates. Implications from this study for supporting the positive development of teacher self-efficacy beliefs in pre-service teachers will be discussed, relevant to teacher educators and mentors working within European teacher education programmes.

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