School Culture and Teaching Efficacy Among Newly-Hired Teachers: An Early Career Study
Keywords:
Early-career teachers, Organizational culture, Professional commitment, School culture, Teaching efficacyAbstract
This study explored the relationship between school culture and teaching efficacy among newly hired teaching personnel at the South East Asian Institute of Technology, Inc. (SEAIT) during the first semester of Academic Year 2025-2026. Grounded in Bandura’s (1997) Theory of Self Efficacy and Schein’s (2010) Organizational Culture Theory, the study examined how early-career teachers perform their instructional roles within a school environment characterized by leadership, teaching, and professional commitment. Specifically, it sought to determine the level of school culture across its dimensions, the level of teaching efficacy, and identify which aspect of school culture best predicts teaching efficacy. A descriptive-correlational design with regression analysis was employed. Seventy-two newly hired teaching personnel were selected through homogeneous purposive sampling. Data were gathered using validated survey instruments measuring school culture and teaching efficacy, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. Results showed an overall very high level of school culture and teaching efficacy, with mean scores of 3.32 for both. It further indicated a significant relationship between school culture and teaching efficacy. Among the dimensions of school culture, professional commitment emerged as the strongest predictor of teaching efficacy (β = .300). The regression model accounted for 42.4% of the variance in teaching efficacy. As stipulated in Sustainable Development Goal 4, which emphasizes improving the quality of education through enhanced teacher support, the findings underscore the importance of fostering a strong, supportive school culture to sustain teacher growth and instructional effectiveness. Future studies may examine additional personal and organizational factors not addressed in this study to further enhance understanding of teacher efficacy across diverse settings.
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