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Inclusive Self-Efficacy and Paraprofessional Collaboration: An Integrated Framework

Esther AJAYI

Abstract

Teacher self-efficacy, the educator's belief in her capacity to organise and execute the courses of action required to produce specified instructional attainments, has emerged as one of the most generative constructs in the educational psychology of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. When applied to inclusive classrooms serving learners with disabilities, the construct both illuminates and complicates the relationship between belief and practice. Inclusive self- efficacy is structured by the educator's perceived competence across instructional, behavioural, and collaborative domains, and the collaborative domain has become increasingly salient as paraprofessional staff has assumed a central role in the daily implementation of inclusive education. This paper synthesises the conceptual and empirical literature on teacher self-efficacy for inclusive practice with the emerging literature on paraprofessional-teacher collaboration, with a view to specifying how the two bodies of work can inform one another. The paper traces the genealogy of the self-efficacy construct within social cognitive theory, examines its specialisation as inclusive self-efficacy, identifies the principal correlates and antecedents documented in the empirical literature, and articulates the role of the paraprofessional workforce in the efficacy- practice relationship. Particular attention is given to the mechanisms through which collaborative practice generates, sustains, or erodes inclusive self-efficacy for both categories of adult. The paper is explicitly conceptual, and its arguments are offered as an organising framework for further empirical and theoretical work.

Keywords

Self-efficacy; Inclusive Educationcollaboration; Special needsSocial cognitive theory

References

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