Evaluating the development of leadership self-efficacy among the aspiring school leaders

Trainings given to aspiring school leaders (ASLs) play a crucial role in setting the direction for successful schools. The inadequate ability of leadership preparatory training to prepare and support ASLs to take on the challenging task of school leadership has been severely criticized and continues to be a major concern locally and internationally. Literature on training has focused on training design, individual and organizational factors but studies on self-efficacy, especially among school leaders’ have not been given due consideration. The study evaluated the effectiveness of the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders (NPQELs) preparatory training in developing the leadership self-efficacy beliefs of ASLs. This encompassed an investigation of individual characteristics and determination of training design characteristics and how these contributed to the self-efficacy development of the ASLs. The study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed methodology. A survey was carried out on 226 NPQEL trained ASLs and in-depth interviews were conducted on seven selected ASLs based on criterion sampling. Non-parametric statistical techniques were used to analyse the quantitative data. The findings showed that among the individual characteristics, only age and experience significantly influenced the improvement of the ASLs’ self-efficacy beliefs. Among the four training design characteristics, training internship revealed a moderate influence in all the self-efficacy dimensions and this was followed by the relevancy of coursework to practice sub-factor. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data based on Bandura’s concept revealed that three of Bandura’s sources of efficacy beliefs, namely mastery experience, vicarious experience and physiological arousal were evident in the NPQEL training design. However, there was only a low level of social persuasion, the fourth source in the training. Overall, the findings showed that there were insufficient conditions of these sources of efficacy in the NPQEL training to give significant impact on the development of the ASLs’ self-efficacy beliefs. The study proposed a framework for self-efficacy development initiatives in the preparatory educational leadership training of ASLs in Malaysia