Teachers’ Collective and Self-Efficacy as Reform Agents: One Teacher Discusses Her Place in Reforming Literacy Instruction

Abstract

In this chapter, the concepts of individual and collective self-efficacy are drawn on to consider how teachers are positioned within literacy curriculum reform processes in the current education context, where accountability and standardization are key drivers in what is framed as “quality” education. The authors provide an example of how a teacher’s self-efficacy and that of the collective is dynamic and circumstances can be challenged as such in curriculum reform. Top-down curriculum reform with prescribed standards and achievement levels leaves little self-determination for teachers as professionals and their self-efficacy and that of their collective often declines. Conversely, bottom-up, localized curriculum decision-making promotes a sense of professional agency and self-efficacy in educators thrives. This case study examines how a teacher demonstrates high levels of self-efficacy about both herself as an individual and the teacher collective within her school that was in the process of implementing a reform to school-based English curriculum.