Personal and Contextual Attributes Predicting Agriscience Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Texas High Schools

Enhancing the self-efficacy of agriscience teachers can help address the challenges of attrition and ensure the continuity of agricultural education in secondary schools and universities. Unfortunately, high school agriscience teachers face unique challenges that lead to dissatisfaction and burnout, causing many to leave the profession within two to seven years of starting their careers. On the other hand, research has shown that higher self-efficacy has a positive impact on teachers’ performance, motivation, and perseverance, which may, in turn, foster a more satisfied and committed future workforce. This study aimed to predict agriscience teachers’ self-efficacy from selected factors, including mentorship, job satisfaction, burnout, gender, teaching experience, and school context. Data were collected online using Qualtrics from a convenience sample of 122 agriscience teachers at secondary schools in Texas. The data were analyzed through STATA using binary logistic regression. The results indicated that the binary logistic model was statistically significant, χ2(10) = 48.59, p < .001, McFadden’s R2 = .30, suggesting that teaching experience, personal accomplishment, and job satisfaction contributed to the likelihood of teachers reporting a high level of self-efficacy. Notably, gender had a statistically significant negative effect on teaching self-efficacy. These findings highlight the urgent need for targeted strategies that enhance job satisfaction and support teacher retention, ultimately fostering stronger self-efficacy among agriscience educators.