| Georgia has experienced an influx of students whose primary home language is not English. Local school systems are under pressure to have highly qualified elementary English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. Grounded in the social-cognitive theory, the purpose of this correlational exploratory study was to examine the self-efficacy (SE) levels of elementary ESL teachers and identify key factors that contribute to individual differences in SE. The specific research questions addressed by the study sought to determine if teaching experience, age, and gender contributed to reported levels of SE; and also, if the teachers' ability to speak the students' native language, type of licensure, or number of days of professional development specifically for ESL teaching influenced their reported level of SE. Surveys from 105 teachers actively teaching ESL in grades K-5 across 21 public school districts located in northern Georgia included the ESL Teacher Self-Efficacy Survey (ETSES) and measures of the hypothesized demographic predictor variables. Findings from descriptive analyses indicated that most ESL teachers (70%) felt they had sufficient foundation training, 48% desired further training, and that the lowest levels of reported SE were associated with teaching math and science. Results from Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis analyses indicated that the greatest influences on teachers' ETSES scores were age and number of ESL-specific professional development days. Institutes of higher education, professional development providers, and teacher organizations can benefit from an increased awareness of ESL teachers' perceived efficacy. Since teacher engagement is necessary to achieve positive social change in ESL student achievement, the results of this study can be used to support continued advocacy for targeted teacher professional development within the field of ESL education. |
