Culturally Foreign Teachers’ Perceptions of School Climate and Its Relationship to Their Self-Efficacy

Abstract

This correlational study focuses on the influence of teacher-perceived school climate on the self-efficacy of teachers working in a culturally foreign environment. Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory guides the study. Teachers who work in private and public schools in Abu Dhabi participated in the study. Teachers were surveyed using the School Climate Index to collect information about their perceptions of their school climate and the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale was used to gather information about their self-efficacy. The study found that there is a positive correlation between the overall school climate and teachers’ self-efficacy as well as between three dimensions of school climate (collegial leadership, teacher professionalism, and community engagement) and teachers’ self-efficacy. The results also found that outcome of teachers’ self-efficacy, which is the dependent variable, can be predicted by the overall school climate. However, only collegial leadership and teacher professionalism were significant predictors for teacher self-efficacy in a multiple regression analysis. It can also be noted that despite being added to the predictive model, the impact of community engagement and academic press is not statistically significant. Implications of the study for enhancing self-efficacy among culturally foreign teachers are discussed.