Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to assess teachers' sense of efficacy in schools in the major
urban centres of the Free State Province after May 10, 1994. The study had two major
objectives. Firstly, the study sought to examine the impact of the new educational
perspective and practice on primary and secondary school teachers. Secondly, the study
sought to contribute to the theory of teacher self-efficacy by exploring teacher self-efficacy
in relation to School Category (CAT), Gender (GEN), and Teaching Experience (EXP).
Data were collected from ninety-three primary and secondary schools in the school districts of Sasolburg, Bethlehem, Kroonstad, Welkom, Bloemfontein East, Bloemfontein West, and Bloemfontein South. The instrument u~ed consisted of fifty-three items aimed at asking
teachers about their work, experiences at work, and opinions on matters related to teachinglearning
interactive situations that are democratically inclined.
The instrument was submitted to a principal component analyses using a varimax rotation
of one criterion for factor extraction. Three principal components were retained and rotated
obliquely using the factor matrix solution. Factor 1 was called Teacher Administrative
Responsibilities (TAR). Factor 2 was called Classroom Teaching Organisation (TCO).
Factor 3 was called Teacher in Relationships with others (TRO). The internal consistency
reliabilities for TAR, TCO, and TRO were found to be .89, .89, and 87 respectively. A
three-way ANOV A focused on CAT, GEN, and EXP as independent variables and TAR,
' TCO, and TRO as dependent variables to generate descriptive statistics concerning the
sample and inferential statistics for testing the seven research hypotheses .
The results have revealed a significant effect for the CAT variable with respect to TAR,
TCO, and TRO. Primary school teachers tended to score higher than Secondary school
teachers in all three factors . The same pattern was consistent for the GEN variable
(although no main effects were determined). Females demonstrated higher self-efficacy than
males in all three factors irrespective of School Category. The EXP variable showed a
remarkable vacillation of opinions among the three factors. No primary-order and
secondary-order interactions were found in all three factors . A discussion, interpretation
of the results, and suggestions for future research studies in this realm were rendered based
upon the outcome of the results.
