The Teachers’ Sense of Multicultural Efficacy Scale: Construction and Validation

Sense of efficacy, or one’s belief in his or her ability to facilitate change, has been cited as a predictor of many valuable educational outcomes for both students and teachers. Scales designed to measure teachers’ sense of efficacy have been developed in an effort to indentify both the best predictors of student and teacher success and reliable indicators of those predictors. The purpose of the current study was to develop a measure of teachers’ sense of efficacy for multicultural education. Whereas previous scales have measured only teachers’ sense of efficacy for general teaching tasks, they have not investigated the myriad aspects of multicultural education that may impact teacher efficacy. Because strong teacher efficacy has been linked, for example, with high student achievement, low efficacy for certain aspects of education may translate to low achievement. The Teachers’ Sense of Multicultural Efficacy Scale (TSMES) provides a manner of measuring teacher efficacy specifically for educating diverse students and for education about issues relating to diversity. Introduction Research on self efficacy, or one’s belief about his or her ability to bring about a desired outcome, has roots in Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). SCT posits that all human behavior is reciprocally connected to personal and environmental contexts (Bandura, ∗ 165 Ramseyer Hall, 29 W. Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210. I would like to thank my research collaborators, Michael Yough, Heather Dawson, and Dr. Anita Woolfolk Hoy, as well as all those who contributed to this work through the educational psychology research group. Multicultural Efficacy 2 1986). In other words, self-efficacy beliefs are drawn from the interaction of behavior, individual characteristics and environmental contexts. These three factors are analogous to legs of a tripod; without one, the others cannot stand. Furthermore, when one is altered—even slightly—the others must shift as well. As a result, the context in which teachers must be competent should play a central role in any investigation of sense of self-efficacy. Until now, research has fundamentally focused on general teacher efficacy, the extent to which teachers in any setting believe they can bring about a desired outcome (for a review, see Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998). Although scales have been administered in a variety of cultural settings and adapted to capture such constructs as collective efficacy (Goddard, Hoy, & Woolfolk Hoy, 2000, 2004), they have not examined the multicultural contexts in which most teachers find themselves. As is clear from the very foundation of teacher efficacy—as well as later warnings from Bandura (Bandura, 1997)—measures of self efficacy must take into account the context in which behaviors take place. One general premise guides the definition of context in self efficacy measurement: changes in context must be reflected in the content of the scale rather than the composition of participants. For example, an ideal measure of sense of math teaching efficacy will include items directly related to the teaching of math (e.g. How much can you do to teach the Pythagorean Theorem to a student who cannot discriminate between a triangle and a square? ). By the same token, an ideal measure of sense of multicultural efficacy will include items directly related to the impact of cultural identities on students (e.g. How much can you do to ensure diverse students learn about their own cultural heritage in your class? ). It is important to note that multicultural education is not general education across cultural contexts. In other words, previous researchers’ attempts to replicate findings of scales such as the Teachers’ Sense of Multicultural Efficacy 3 Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001; see Capa, Cakiroglu, & Sarikaya, in press) are important in terms of validation of a general efficacy scale but do not constitute a difference in teaching context. In any self efficacy scale, items should reflect behaviors specific to the context in which participants must perform (Bandura, 1997). Despite many social justice educators’ plea for ‘equal education for all,’ it bears noting that some specific behaviors characterize multicultural competence and that these behaviors are not typically captured in general efficacy scales. The absence of items in this vein is not a result of intrinsic differences between culturally responsive teaching and ‘regular’ teaching, but instead a result of the social paradigm in which teaching has heretofore been constructed. To be clear, previous measures of teachers’ sense of efficacy play an extremely important role in the conceptualization and application of teacher efficacy (see Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk Hoy, & Hoy, 1998) and will undoubtedly continue to contribute to a rich body of knowledge surrounding teacher and student success. It is also critical, however, to push the field forward, to challenge researchers and teacher alike to acknowledge the pervasiveness of culture. Multiculturalism is implicated in education for a variety of reasons, three of which are highlighted for the purposes of this argument. First, the United States is growing increasingly diverse in terms of race and ethnicity (Condition of Education, 2007). Changes in neighborhood demographic make-up coupled with shifts in school assignment mean classrooms are increasingly likely to be composed of a variety of students whose heritages may be different--and may be absent from traditional information sources such as textbooks. Although these changes may bring with them welcome (and important) opportunities for students to learn from each other, transitions may be difficult and uncomfortable. Second, increasing interconnectedness Multicultural Efficacy 4 among communities around the globe makes it essential for all students to learn about an evolving group of peers. These peers are no longer constrained to classmates, but may easily include other students and even businesses thousands of miles away. Furthermore, even local diversity in race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or other forms of identity may be more accessible through the increased presence of social networking technologies. Finally, and most importantly, U.S. schools do not successfully educate all students. In 2001, only 56% of African American public school students graduated from high school (Greene, 2002). For Latino/a students, the rate was even lower. When compared with the overall public high school graduation rate of 71%, it is clear that some students are receiving a more equal education than others. The Teachers’ Sense of Multicultural Efficacy Scale (TSMES) is designed to provide some possible reasons why educational inequity is so pervasive. Methods The purpose of this study was to develop a measure designed to address the cultural context of teaching efficacy. Item development was based on the premise that all classrooms are loci of cultural exchange and that teachers must develop competencies required to successfully educate all students in such a context. Scale Development Scale development began with 50 a priori statements generated by the researcher but grounded in the dominant paradigms of culturally relevant pedagogy. The researcher first collaborated with two co-investigators to clarify and consolidate statements. Next, a research group composed of nine graduate students and two faculty members reviewed the items, Multicultural Efficacy 5 recommended changes, posed alternatives and provided suggestions for consolidation. As a result of these processes, the total number of items was reduced to 33. Pilot Study The resulting scale was administered along with two other alternative measures of teacher efficacy to pre-service teachers at a large mid-western university (n = 92) during July and August, 2007. Together, these scales contained 110 items and 15 general demographic questions. All future statistical references refer only to the TSMES. Reliability analysis revealed items on the TSMES are highly correlated (r = 0.95). As a result, exploratory factor analyses using principle axis factoring with direct oblimin rotation were conducted to examine the relationships among items within the scale. A structure matrix converged at δ <. 45 with three highly correlated factors. The analysis revealed seven factors, although further review indicated three of the seven were specific factors. Based upon this analysis, four underlying factors were identified. Factors identified in the pilot study were used only for reference in analysis of the final scale and are therefore not reported here. Total variance explained by the four-factor solution was 54.48%. The scale grand mean a 9-point Likert-type scale was = 7.05, with standard deviation s = 0.86. In order to achieve minimum correlation with maximum variance explained, items were removed based upon both correlation analyses and factor analyses. First, items that produced correlation greater than α = . 8 were flagged for removal. Second, items that failed to load on a meaningful factor were also flagged for review. Third, items with factor loadings greater than . 9 were flagged for review. Based upon analysis of the flagged items along with review of the theoretical support for factor discrimination, items were selected for inclusion in the final scale. Through these processes, the TSMES was reduced from 33 items to 15 items. Demographic Multicultural Efficacy 6 statements were reduced to 10 items. In addition to changing the items on the scale, the response structure was modified from a 9-point Likert-type scale ranging from “Nothing” to “A Great Deal” to include number of strategies associated with each descriptor. For example “Nothing” became “Nothing (No Strategies)” while “A Great Deal” became “A Great Deal (6+ strategies). ” The purpose of this alteration was to clarify the distinctions am