Building Collective Teacher Efficacy Through Teacher Collaboration

Abstract

Both individual and collective efficacy are often overlooked in discussions about school improvement, despite the fact that these constructs exert significant influence on students’ literacy learning and achievement. The authors in this chapter focus on how efficacious high school English teachers in an urban school feel and in particular, if they believe that their efforts impact students’ literacy lives. Four high school English teachers are profiled, drawing upon interviews and observations. The findings reveal that improving teacher efficacy, individually and collectively, supports teachers to develop their agency and identity, and as a result, their job satisfaction and impact on students. The authors consider how to engage themselves and their teacher colleagues in increasing efficacy and thus student literacy learning. Most importantly, the authors provide a series of recommendations that ELA teachers and their leaders can use to mobilize the impact of efficacy in their schools.