Becoming a school leader: the effect of age and self-efficacy on teachers’ motivation to become school leaders

Abstract

In countries all over the world, primary schools are struggling to find potential school leaders. As many school leaders were teachers before, teachers are an important group to investigate. Previous research showed that teachers often believe they are capable of carrying out tasks of a school leader but also perceived themselves as too young. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the effects of self-efficacy beliefs and age of Dutch primary school teachers on their motivation to become school leader. In addition, to measure motivation an extension between internal and external motivation have been made. Teachers were asked to participate in a survey with 30 items. The goal was to examine the effects of age and self-efficacy on motivation by conducting a regression analysis. Results have indicated a significant effect of self-efficacy on teachers' motivation to become school leaders. This study indicates that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs positively impacts the motivation to become school leader. Therefore, improvement on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and confidence about carrying out school leader tasks could improve the motivation of teachers. Additionally, internal motivation turned out to be higher, which shows that teachers are more likely to be interested in internal motivators such as improving education and supporting teachers.