Meaning Making and Self-Efficacy: Teacher Reflections through COVID-19

Abstract Teacher self-efficacy beliefs have been a topic of great interest because of their potential to positively influence teacher actions and student outcomes. This qualitatively-driven mixed methods study sought to better understand how such beliefs develop amongst the complex interplay of individuals, actions, and environments. With the challenges of COVID-19, such questions took on greater urgency. Our intent was to go beyond the survey ratings and learn more about the reasons, doubts, and perceptions behind judgments of teacher self-efficacy. In analyzing the words of our participants alongside their ratings, we saw how teachers considered themselves and their actions within the larger cultural contexts in which they worked. As the nature of teaching rapidly changed, teachers drew on their identity and their relationships with students and families to craft stories that shaped personal beliefs about what they could accomplish. From these findings, two important implications for the field emerged: (1) Self-reflection is part of a necessary meaning making process that supports teacher agency through great challenge; and (2) There is great value in gathering teacher elaborations on survey ratings to inform program development and curriculum design within teacher education programs.