Date of Award

Fall 2021

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Kay A. Keiser, Ed. D.

Abstract

School leaders are continually looking for ways to improve instruction and increase student achievement. Collective teacher efficacy has shown to have a high effect size on student learning. However, as educators focus on building collective teacher efficacy and helping students, these same teachers may not be completely engaged in their work. With the complexity of building collective efficacy and potentially a disengaged staff, this poses a challenge to principals who have limited time and resources to make the biggest difference they can. If a positive relationship exists between the two, then principals could focus on increasing teacher engagement which would result in increased collective teacher efficacy. Therefore, the purpose of this correlational research study was to discover to what degree a relationship exists between teacher engagement and collective teacher efficacy.

To explore the relationship between teacher engagement and collective teacher efficacy, participants in this study completed two surveys focused on each of these concepts. These surveys were utilized to answer three questions for this study: How positive are teachers' collective teacher efficacy beliefs? How positive are teachers' engagement? How strong is the relationship between a teacher's engagement, measured by job, team, principal and school district, with their collective beliefs, measured through instructional strategies and classroom discipline?

Results from the survey indicated that overall both collective teacher efficacy and teacher engagement are positive. In addition, relationships between the different subgroups had varying levels of strengths ranging from strong to weak. The findings from this study have implications for teachers, principals, and school districts. The conclusions and recommendations included can provide insight on ways to increase teacher engagement and collective teacher efficacy.

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