Beginning generalist teacher self-efficacy for music compared with maths and English

In 2008, 201 beginning generalist teachers throughout Queensland, Australia, responded to a questionnaire intended to create a snapshot of current self-efficacy beliefs towards teaching music. Beginning teachers were asked to rank their perceived level of teacher self-efficacy for music, English and maths. Results were analysed through a series of repeated measures ANOVAs to compare the mean scores for statistical difference. Findings suggest that generalist beginning teacher self-efficacy for music declines as years of teaching experience increase, while teacher self-efficacy for English and maths increases during this period. Results provide key insights for teacher educators, school administrators and policy makers into the likelihood of long-term music teaching in the generalist classroom. Greater support is required to reverse the documented snapshot of low teacher self-efficacy for music education in Queensland generalist teacher classrooms.