(821) PERCEIVED TEACHERS' RESPONSIBILITY: A STUDY ON A SAMPLE OF ITALIAN PRIMARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL TEACHERS

摘要

Over the past twenty years, new responsibilities have been assigned to teachers as a result ofeducation policies based on school autonomy and decentralisation. As a consequence, increasingattention has been placed on teachers' changing professional role, including their formal level ofaccountability. However, little is known about teachers' perceived personal responsibility in the contextof their broadened professional roles. The present study was designed to examine professionalpersonal responsibility perceived by a sample of Italian primary versus middle school teachers, andthe relations between teacher perceived responsibility and personal variables that are conceptuallylinked to personal perceived, such as: self-efficacy beliefs and implicit theories of intelligence. Drawingon a sample of 221 teachers, multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed that the senseof perceived responsibility of teachers is affected principally by the teachers' school level (primary vs.middle) and by self-efficacy beliefs. The study increases our understanding of how teachersconceptualize their professional responsibility and the factors that shape their sense of responsibility.At the same time, the findings have relevance not only for theory development but also for practice,since teacher responsibility has implications for their well-being, approaches to instruction, andstudent outcomes.