Teacher Efficacy and Poverty: A Qualitative Examination from the Teachers' Perspectives

Abstract

This study provides a deeper understanding of the challenges teachers face as their efficacy develops in different conditions of SES. Nine randomly selected elementary teachers were interviewed and took the short version of the Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen Moran & Hoy, 2001). Each teacher’s school’s rank on the state’s Top-to-Bottom list and the schools’ free or reduced-priced lunch percentage were collected as contextual data. The question this phenomenological study examined is "Does the environmental factor of poverty influence self-perceptions of teacher efficacy? And, if so, how?” This study showed that as the condition of poverty increased, the quality of the environmental conditions for learning decreased, which resulted in a continuum of ease between high SES and low SES schools in regard to demands on teachers. As poverty increased, perceptions of their efficacy were encumbered. The data also presented a pattern of relatively higher levels of efficacy for the teachers new to their current positions. The TSES data, while a statistically reliable tool, proved to be only a minor indicator of the continuum but when coupled with the interview data, the continuum of ease became more conspicuous. An item analysis of the TSES instrument also supported this temporal quality to efficacy. This research adds to the current literature by providing a deeper exploration of teachers’ lived experiences. The analysis provides us with a better understanding of what factors are most relevant in the development of teachers’ sense of efficacy within the context of teachers’ lived experiences.