Exploring the Relationship Between Teacher Professional Capital and Self-Efficacy: Based on the Interaction Effect of Generation

Purpose: The study examines how human capital and social capital among teachers' professional capital are related to three types of teacher self-efficacy (student participation, instruction, and class management), and investigates to what extent the relationships vary between millennials and non-millennials generations. Methods: Using the TALIS 2018 data, which provides a nationally representative sample of middle school teachers in South Korea, we conducted a linear regression analysis with the school fixed effect model. Results: The results show that even after controlling both individual and school characteristics, teachers' human capital and social capital were positively related to all three types of teacher self-efficacy. Next, the interaction effect between generation and professional capital is significant only for instruction self-efficacy. The millennials were more strongly related to human capital, and the non-millennials were more strongly associated with social capital when it comes to instruction self-efficacy. Conclusion: Based on the results, this study proposes accumulating teachers' human capital, supporting professional collaborative activities to revitalize social capital, and considering the distinctive characteristics of the millennials.