Kamau Oginga Siwatu

Preservice Teachers' Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy-Forming Experiences: A Mixed Methods Study.

ABSTRACT The author used an explanatory mixed methods research design. The first phase involved the collection of quantitative data to examine the nature of preservice teachers’ (N = 192) culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Follow-up face-to-face interviews were carried out with a subsample selected from Phase 1 participants. These interviews were used to identify the types of culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy-forming experiences that preservice teachers encountered during their teacher education program and the perceived influence that these experiences had on the development of their self-efficacy beliefs. The face-to-face interviews uncovered disparities among preservice teachers regarding the aspects of culturally responsive teaching that were discussed, modeled, and practiced. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

An Investigation of Research Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Research Productivity among Faculty Members at an Emerging Research University in the USA.

The purposes of this study are to add to the existing knowledge base on research self-efficacy beliefs of faculty members and their influence on research productivity, and to inform higher education administrators about the relationship between research self-efficacy beliefs and research productivity. A theoretical framework of social cognitive theory underpins the study in which 109 faculty members completed the Research Self-Efficacy Inventory and Research Productivity Index. Quantitative analysis indicated that there is a significant but small correlation between research self-efficacy and productivity.

Culturally familiar tasks on reading performance and self-efficacy of culturally and linguistically diverse students

Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of constructivism and social cognitive theory, this study examined utilising culturally responsive pedagogy through a Latino themed reading task with the intention of increasing reading achievement and reading self-efficacy beliefs for culturally and linguistically diverse students. The research was conducted in an urban middle school in the south-western United States with 43 seventh grade students whose age ranged from 12 to 13 years. The majority of participants in this study reported to be Hispanic or multiracial with Hispanic origins. This study’s findings added to the existing knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching practices. More specifically, culturally responsive pedagogy was utilised in the form of a reading task to examine its influence on students’ recall and reading comprehension performance. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that a culturally familiar reading task may increase reading self-efficacy beliefs. Implications for primary and secondary teachers, administrators, parents, and students pertain to the importance of utilising culturally responsive pedagogy as a teaching method to increase reading achievement and reading self-efficacy for culturally and linguistically diverse students.

The Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale: Development and Initial Validation:

This article reports on the development and initial validation of the Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale. Data from 380 preservice and inservice teachers were used to examine the psychometric properties of the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested a one-factor structure consisting of 35 items and the scores on the measure were highly reliable. Evidence of construct validity was obtained with two existing teacher self-efficacy measures. The results of the correlational analysis lend credence that the instrument developed by the research team was indeed measuring self-efficacy beliefs. The implications for teacher education and research are discussed.

Examining the Relationship between the Research Training Environment, Course Experiences, and Graduate Students’ Research Self-Efficacy Beliefs

This study examined the relationship between graduate students’ research training environment, course experience, and research self-efficacy beliefs. The findings of the descriptive and regression analyses suggest that graduate students’ (n = 161) general research, quantitative, and qualitative research self-efficacy beliefs varied and that these beliefs were related to different aspects of the research training environment and course experiences, including their own personal research experiences. While course experience variables were significant predictors of quantitative and qualitative research self-efficacy, they were not predictive of general research methods selfefficacy. Also, while mentorship was a significant predictor of general research methods selfefficacy, it was not a significant predictor of quantitative and qualitative research self-efficacy. The implications of this study for research and graduate education are discussed.