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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between school principals’ sense of efficacy and their involvement with the Arkansas Leadership Academy's (the Academy) School Support Program (SSP).

Data were collected from participating SSP principals to explore differences in mean principal self-efficacy given varied years of participation in SSP. The Principal Self-Efficacy Survey was used to measure the construct of principal self-efficacy of 27 principals participating in the Academy's SSP for low-performing schools.

The findings suggest that principals of low-performing schools that participated in the Arkansas Leadership Academy's SSP for more years have a stronger sense of leadership efficacy than principals of low-performing schools that are just beginning the SSP. Post hoc qualitative data were collected through a focus group discussion to provide insight regarding actual practices that led to increased perceived self-efficacy as a result of participating in the SSP.

This study is highly contextualized to the principals and school systems participating in the SSP, a limited population due to conditions under which schools qualify to participate in the program.

As schools continue to be identified as needing to improve based on accountability measures, external sources of leadership development for the principals leading these schools should be considered as a possible means for increasing their senses of efficacy, and indirectly supporting the potential for improved school performance.

The attributes of highly efficacious principals – self-regulating, confident, and calm in difficult situations – may be more critical to leaders engaged in systemic change in low-performing schools where the challenges may be more complex.

There could be a strong argument that the influence of an outside support program might be one strategy to consider when addressing the improvement of low-performing schools through raising leader efficacy.

In this era of accountability and significant school reform, efforts to improve schools increasingly look to the principal to spearhead change efforts at the school level. Good principals are the cornerstones of good schools. Without a principal's leadership efforts to raise student achievement, a school cannot achieve its fundamental academic mission. The principal is seen as a key agent at the school level, initiating change by raising the level of expectations for both teachers and students. One promising, but largely unexplored avenue to understanding principal motivation and behavior is principals' sense of efficacy. Self‐efficacy is a perceived judgment of one's ability to effect change, which may be viewed as a foundational characteristic of an effective school leader. This paper reports on three studies that were conducted in the search for a reasonably valid and reliable measure to capture principals' sense of efficacy.

This study aims to explore the relationship between principals’ performance on the Pennsylvania Framework for Leadership evaluation tool and the corresponding self-reported degree of self-efficacy and growth mindset.

The data analysis involved linear regression of principal performance on principals’ mindset, moral leadership self-efficacy and instructional self-efficacy scores. Additionally, correlation matrices identified the presence and direction of relationships between self-efficacy levels and the degree of growth mindset reported by principals.

The results demonstrated a positive association between principals’ instructional self-efficacy reports and their overall performance evaluation. Alternatively, both growth mindset and moral leadership self-efficacy evidenced a negative association. There was no association reflected between growth mindset and either the overall self-efficacy measure or the sub-scale self-efficacy measures. A secondary relationship revealed a negative association between school performance profile and growth mindset. This relationship held true in subsequent regression analyses.

The study adds to the limited research available on examining the relationship between principals’ self-efficacy levels and their performance ratings on a common tool.

This paper investigates the levels of career resilience and self-efficacy of the principals of primary school units, identifies the relationship between them and determines the effect of the demographic elements of the sample on their career resilience and self-efficacy.

The convenient sample of this study was 165 principals from public schools across the prefecture of Central Macedonia. A total of 422 questionnaires were mailed to all principals of kindergarten and elementary schools, accompanied by a personal letter to inform them about the procedure and the purpose of the survey. A pilot survey took place to check the adequacy of and get feedback on the questionnaire. The questionnaire used in the study consisted of three parts: The Career Resilience Scale (CRS) by Kodama (2015), the Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES) by Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) and demographic questions.

The results of the survey showed that principals have high levels of career resilience and very high levels of self-efficacy. There are four factors that form the levels of career resilience: (a) problem-solving skills (b) social skills (c) interest in innovation and (d) optimism for the future. Demographic factors play a role in shaping career resilience as they affect two of the four factors. There are two factors that shape levels of self-efficacy: (a) self-efficiency in administration and (b) self-efficiency in moral leadership. Demographic factors play a role in shaping the factor of self-efficacy that refers to administration. Finally, there was a high positive correlation and a causal relationship between career resilience and self-efficacy.

The convenient sample used in the present study is a limiting factor, as it may not be representative of Greek primary school principals. Also, research is based on self-evaluation questionnaires, which may show a lack of objectivity, as the answers may reflect the personal worldviews of leaders and particular needs of educational institutions (Sarid, 2021). This fact may not allow us to generalize the results.

The present study showed that resilience and self-efficacy have a causal relationship and that one enhances another, making their relation pivotal for a successful educational leadership. Regarding the professional development of school leaders, educational leadership training programs could be designed and offered by the Greek Ministry of Education (Dexter et al., 2020). Coaching programs and practices that help principals develop social skills, coping mechanisms, emotional capacities and confidence in one's knowledge should be widely introduced. Governments have to take the necessary initiative to ensure that, particularly in adverse contexts, education stimulate and nurture resilience and self-efficacy among citizens, by promoting appropriate lifelong learning programs and by ensuring the continuous training of employees (Renko et al., 2020).

Career resilience and self-efficacy ensures economic prosperity in times of crisis, globalization and rapid technology development and may be the best way to create strong and successful leaders. Coaching programs and practices that help principals develop social skills, coping mechanisms, emotional capacities and confidence in one's knowledge should be widely introduced. The results of the present research could prove helpful in developing strategic plans, building networks between organizations to improve communication and flow of information, through employee exchange programs.

This research, which combined career resilience and self-efficacy, took place for the first time in Greece. The CRS by Kodama (2015) was also used for the first time in Greek population.

Work-related stress is a significant occupational health issue. Stress cannot be viewed separately from the perceptual or interpretive act by the individual. Self-efficacy is a personal characteristic that explains a high proportion of variation in the performance of school principals.

The current study examines if the COVID-pandemic is related to burnout among school principals. Additionally, the study analyzes if the self-efficacy of school principals plays a mediating role in the impact that the COVID-19 crisis had on their burnout level. To explore this, the authors used survey data of 981 Flemish school principals.

The findings indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic is related to feelings of burnout among Flemish school principals. In addition, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between the COVID-19 scale and the four core subscales of burnout: exhaustion, mental distance, emotional impairment and cognitive impairment. No mediating effect of self-efficacy was found for the secondary symptoms of burnout, psychological distress and psychosomatic complaints.

This paper emphasizes the importance of school principal's self-efficacy experiences for crisis management. Implications for school leadership training and support are discussed.

Failure to identify any significant relationships between principal leadership and student achievement has proved concerns about the assumed value and legitimacy of principal leadership. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the current literature by empirically testing the relationships between the principal leadership and the teacher self‐efficacy, a construct which has a proven impact on student achievement. The role of collective efficacy on the relationship between transformational leadership of principals and self‐efficacy of teachers was a special focus for the study.

A causal comparative research design was employed to study the direct, indirect, and mediating relationships among principal leadership, teacher self‐efficacy, and collective efficacy in schools. The participants included a cluster‐random sample of 813 primary school teachers. Data gathering instruments composed of a combination of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the Collective Teacher Efficacy Scale and the Teacher's Sense of Efficacy Scale. A structural equation modelling with path analysis was employed to test the research models and hypotheses.

Findings of the study demonstrated that collective efficacy and transformation leadership jointly shape teachers' self‐efficacy. There was a significant relationship between principals' transformational leadership and teachers' self‐efficacy beliefs. This relationship was mediated and magnified by collective efficacy in schools.

The study has the common limitations of the self‐reported perceptions of participants.

The study enlightened the little‐known causal relationship mechanisms through which transformational leadership practices of principals and collective efficacy of schools affect the self‐efficacy beliefs of teachers. The findings are in line with the socio‐cognitive theory which assumes the presence of reciprocal relationships among leadership, organization, and person domains in shaping organizational behaviors of teachers. The study also parallels with the emerging literature about the mediating effects of collective efficacy on the relationship between principal transformational leadership and teacher self‐efficacy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which principals’ instructional leadership predicts teacher self-efficacy, in order to identify whether a relationship exists between principals’ perceived instructional leadership practices and teachers perceived self-efficacy in classroom management, instruction, and student engagement, while controlling for several principal, teacher, and school characteristics.

The data employed in this study were both teacher- and school-level data sets obtained from the Teaching and Learning International Survey, which was administered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2013. A two-level mixed model was employed in the analysis of the data by adding adjusted weights at both levels for the complex survey data.

The results indicated a significant and positive relationship between principals’ perceived instructional leadership practice and teachers’ self-efficacy in all three aspects. Also, gender, experience, tenure status, and formal in-service training of teachers were found to be the key factors that have significant effects on teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions.

Findings suggested that international effort for mandating instructional leadership in schools is a worthwhile strategy, which can help teachers develop a greater sense of ability in classroom management, instruction, and student engagement.

This study is the first of its kind to examine the relationship between instructional leadership and teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in multiple areas related to teaching.

Discusses a method for the evaluation of school management training programmes, and explores the usefulness of this evaluation approach within the context of two school management training programmes. Investigates whether the impact of these training programmes on principals and teachers can be demonstrated by changes in their self‐efficacy. Training effects are determined by means of repeated measures. Finds significant principal effects and no teacher effects. Discusses theoretical and practical implications within the context of self‐efficacy theory and a model for staff development.

This study aims to investigate the direct and indirect relationships among principal instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment using multilevel analysis.

This study employed quantitative cross-sectional research design. Data were collected from 1,328 teachers selected from 71 Malaysian primary schools.

The direct relationship between instructional leadership and teacher commitment was significant at the school level. Similarly, instructional leadership exhibits a significant direct effect on collective teacher efficacy. Collective teacher efficacy also has a significant direct effect on teacher commitment. The results also indicate a significant indirect effect at school level between instructional leadership and teacher commitment through collective teacher efficacy.

The multilevel analysis among instructional leadership, collective teacher efficacy, and teacher commitment warrant further investigations with larger sample sizes at both group and individual levels.

This study supplements previous findings by contributing more rigorous empirical evidence using multilevel analysis. The findings extend current knowledge in the principal instructional leadership literature in the context of a Southeast Asian country.

The first purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between principal self-efficacy and work experience. The second purpose of this paper is to re-study the structure of a multidimensional and hierarchical Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES).

PSES was measured using the Brama-Friedman scale (PSES) (Brama and Friedman, 2007). During the 2010 school year, 123 principals participated. Exploration of PSES was based on Facet Theory (Guttman, 1959).

The findings show that the highest levels of the PSES were found with principals that were at their first year of leading the school. The levels of PSES drop significantly during the second year and up to the fifth year of work experience. The levels of PSES start to rise after the fifth year, and stabilize after ten years. Furthermore, the findings show that PSES is comprised of organizational leadership, educational, and pedagogical leadership and external and communal relations.

The sample was relatively small and mostly from the center school district of Israel. The second limitation was that the sample included only Jewish principals. Since 20 percent of the population in Israel is Arabs, further studies should include all minorities in order to enlighten the issue.

Understanding the relations between PSES levels and work experience could assist policy makers with decisions concerning continuing professional development (in-service training) of principals.

Little is known about the relations between perceived self-efficacy of principals and their work experience.