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Description
This quantitative study was designed to gain further insight into factors affecting student agency and achievement, and the impact of those factors. The study focused on surveying students’ beliefs about their own identity and efficacy and surveying teacher predictions regarding how positive those students’ beliefs were. Extant literature supports the hypothesis: students’ sense of academic identity and efficacy is positively related to agency and achievement as are the beliefs and opinions held by their teachers. This study took place in an urban school serving a marginalized population that the extant literature would characterize as a school that should be concerned that students’ academic identities and efficacy are low, as teachers’ beliefs negatively impact agency and achievement. Two student groups were surveyed: English learners and English proficient. Two teacher groups were surveyed and assigned to English learner or English proficient students and asked to predict the percent of yes student responses. Chi-square tests identified whether significant differences in responses were found between the participant groups. The findings showed that students’ statements of identity and efficacy were significantly more positive than the predictions made by teachers. Students assumed that teachers held more positive beliefs about their identity and efficacy than teachers actually did. The results led to a discussion of positive and precautionary explanations and implications. There is a need to continue to identify circumstances, factors, conditions that promote positive identities and efficacy, and factors that change what the extant literature described as beliefs, actions that result in low self-agency and underachievement.
