The purpose of this study was to explore the role of self-efficacy sources in informing the self-beliefs, teaching practices, and commitment of rural music teachers. People’s efficacy beliefs affect what actions they take based on how they envision the expected outcomes. These actions include how much effort they will give, their resilience in the face of obstacles and adversity, how they respond to stressors, and what results they realize. Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy sources (enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal/social persuasion, and physiological and affective states) provide a framework to understand how rural music teachers experience with these self-efficacy sources may contribute to their teaching practice and their commitment to rural music teaching.
The study methodology was a multiple case study with cross-case analysis. There were six study participants who taught multiple grade levels and music subject areas in a rural public school in Maine. Each participant completed the Music Teacher Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (adapted from Zelenak, 2011 and Lewis, 2018); a focus group interview; individual interviews; and two written journal prompts. Results from this study show the importance to support rural music teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching through the four self-efficacy sources. The strengths of the participants’ perceived self-efficacy enabled them to persevere through music teaching challenges, especially those with out-of-specialty music teaching, which contributed to their resilience and commitment to teaching in a rural area. Helping music teachers to understand self-efficacy development and the cognitive processing of the four self-efficacy sources may motivate them to persist and improve their teaching practice through perseverant action, improve student learning, and strengthen commitment levels for music teaching in rural areas. Furthermore, fostering relationships and building connections of community with students, staff, parents, and members of the community may be important for developing rural music teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and for supporting affirming rural lifestyle experiences. Rural music teachers may discover an enduring concept of teaching success when they co-create meaningful experiences with students and community members that celebrates the individual strengths and values of a rural area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/46096 |
| Date | 25 April 2023 |
| Creators | Michaud, Edward Gerard |
| Contributors | Hendricks, Karin S. |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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