Leadership Efficacy, Job Satisfaction and Educational Quality In Chilean Elementary Schools

This paper is based on a national study of school leadership in Chile. Surveys were administered during the 2009 school year to school directors and teachers in 649 urban elementary schools across Chile’s three education sectors: municipal schools, government subsidized private schools, and non-subsidized private schools. While nearly all principals reported high levels of satisfaction and individual efficacy in the overall performance of their jobs, a substantial number expressed low confidence in their capacity to improve the quality of teaching and learning, especially in municipal schools. Using correlation and regression analysis, the paper explores the relationships between survey measures of principals’ efficacy and job satisfaction, professional education, years’ experience, and practices in order to identify those factors that contribute to principal confidence in their ability to improve their schools. The analyses considers differences in school context (sector, size) and student performance (national achievement test scores) that may be linked to varying expressions of principals’ sense of efficacy. The findings confirm prior research concerning the task dependent nature of principals’ self efficacy in their work.