Efficacy Beliefs of Special Educators: The Relationships Among Collective Efficacy, Teacher Self-Efficacy,

In order to examine the relationship between reported levels of teacher self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and job satisfaction in special educators, teachers in one school district completed three surveys measuring these constructs. The results indicated that teacher self-efficacy had a direct effect on job satisfaction. It was further found that collective efficacy directly affected teacher self-efficacy but that it did not have a direct effect on job satisfaction. No significant differences were found in reported levels of these areas across subgroups of teachers categorized by teaching level (elementary, middle, and high), teaching setting (self-contained, resource, or inclusion), and certification type (highly qualified, not highly qualified, or emergency). Keywords collective efficacy, teacher efficacy, job satisfaction, attrition and retention Personnel shortages in special education have been identified, and critical needs to fill cur-rent teaching positions exist (Brownell, Hirsch, & Seo, 2004). One major reason for this short