Fostering collective teacher efficacy through values-based leadership in Ethiopian institutions for higher education

Abstract

This thesis is entitled “Fostering collective teacher efficacy through values-based leadership in Ethiopian institutions of higher education”, which is delimited to the private universities. The main question was “What constitutes/determines the institutionalisation of values-based leadership (VBL) to foster collective teacher efficacy (CTE) in the context of Ethiopian private universities (EPrUs)?” The sub-questions were: 1) what does the current state of CTE and its perceived outcomes look like in EPrUs? 2) What sets of behaviours are desired to institutionalise VBL so as to foster CTE in EPrUs? 3) What are the institutional contexts required to institutionalise VBL so as to foster CTE in EPrUs? In addressing these issues, academic leaders, students and teachers from EPrUs participated in the study. As methods of data gathering both the survey method and interviews were used. Results revealed that CTE is not high enough in EPrUs and hence it needs to be fostered so as to bring the desired change in students’ learning. To foster this, institutionalisation of VBL is required that involves two inter-related aspects. The first one is about institutionalising desired values (behaviours), which are linked to the academic leaders’ yearning for positive sets of values and the teachers’ moral contract to their professional values. To this effect, the positive sets of values that academic leaders should yearn for and the sets of values that teachers should espouse as their professional values are explored. The commonalities between these values are also described and how these would be institutionalised is suggested. The values include integrity and trustworthiness, humility/selflessness, compassion and sense of gratitude, accountability and self-discipline, sense of collaboration and teamwork, and envisioning in leadership as the driving force. The second aspect is about institutionalising the contexts conducive to foster CTE and VBL support behaviours. The need to institutionalise those behaviours and contexts arise out of the perceived leadership gap (between what the teachers believe are the leadership priorities of the leaders and the behaviours they actually see in the leaders). This gap has been linked to CTE, and hence a model has been developed that would foster this efficacy.