Fostering Teacher Self-efficacy in Foreign Language Immersion Classrooms: A Qualitative Case Study
Date
2023-05-30
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Abstract
Foreign language immersion programs offer one approach to increasing the nation’s competitive edge in world language development. The problem the study addressed is a need for more understanding of how school leaders foster conditions that support teacher self-efficacy when implementing foreign language immersion programs’ specialized and rigorous goals. Self-efficacy theory and transformational leadership theory supported the purpose of the study to describe teacher and leader perceptions about program-related factors influencing teacher self-efficacy beliefs in Colorado’s elementary foreign language immersion programs. A qualitative case study design was used to analyze records and interviews with 15 teachers and leaders from three school sites. Once collected, data were coded and analyzed for common themes across all sites. The study findings revealed a combination of personal and external factors influenced teachers’ mixed self-efficacy beliefs. Four themes emerged: majority-language context matters, accountability tradeoffs, hindrances to the two-for-one model, and teacher agency. Specific recommendations were provided to foster greater teacher self-efficacy in the study region’s foreign language immersion programs while recommending that all dual language immersion models be reviewed in the context of the standards-based accountability paradigm and the role of academic language proficiencies.
Keywords: foreign language immersion, dual language immersion, one-way immersion, teacher self-efficacy, transformational leadership, integrated content and language instruction, content-based instruction
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Dissertation Submitted to the Doctoral Program of the American College of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership
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