Renewed Purposes for Social Studies Teacher Preparation: An Analysis of Teacher Self-Efficacy and Initial Teacher Education

Abstract

Using data from TALIS 2018, this study analyzed the relationship of U.S. social studies teachers’ initial teacher education (ITE) and their self-efficacy, with an emphasis on the newly added construct of multicultural teacher self-efficacy. Results indicated that content and pedagogy training is present in the vast majority of ITE programs that U.S. social studies teachers have attended; however, over one quarter of participants reported no training in teaching in a multilingual or multicultural setting during their ITE. Social studies teachers were more self-efficacious about instruction and classroom management than they were about student engagement and teaching in multicultural classrooms. All components of self-efficacy were significantly correlated with each other; however, student engagement, instruction, and classroom management are more highly correlated than self-efficacy in multicultural classrooms. Regression analyses revealed an association between ITE and self-efficacy; all four components of self-efficacy were significantly associated with the predictor variables. Recommendations for practice and future research are discussed.