The Impact of Job Resources and Teaching Self-Efficacy on Rural Teachers’ Agency
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22047166 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zongqing Cao (0009-0005-0785-9955, Southwest University), Yingqi Yue (Southwest University), Xuan Xie (0000-0003-4627-1298, Southwest University), Guoyuan Ran (Southwest University), Qianfeng Li (0000-0002-7610-5832, Hainan Normal University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 612 |
| Publication date | 2026-04-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Education Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/educsci16040612 |
| OpenAlex | W4412710895 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 30 |
Against the backdrop of uneven educational development and structural constraints in rural Mainland China, teacher agency is critical for driving professional growth and instructional improvement. Rural educators face distinct challenges—limited resources, isolated work contexts, and systemic pressures—that shape their capacity to enact change. While scholarship has documented the roles of contextual resources and individual beliefs in shaping teacher agency, less is known about the mediating mechanisms linking job resources and self-efficacy to agency within China’s rural educational landscape. This study examines how perceived job resources (teaching resources, administrative support, colleague support, parental support) and teaching self-efficacy collectively shape rural teachers’ agency, to inform policy and practice for strengthening their professional capacity. Drawing on a quantitative survey of 625 rural teachers, we employ a two-stage analytical approach: first, descriptive statistics, t-tests, ANOVA, and Pearson correlations to map baseline variable relationships; second, Hayes’ PROCESS macro (Model 4) with bootstrapping to test the mediating role of teaching self-efficacy between job resources and teacher agency. Findings reveal the following: (1) Rural teachers report moderate agency (M = 3.53/5), indicating room for growth; (2) All four job resource dimensions significantly and positively predict agency (β = 0.099–0.163); (3) Teaching self-efficacy is a robust predictor of agency (β = 0.785–0.822, p
Pedagogy · Self-efficacy · Social science · Sociology · Diverse Educational Innovations Studies · Education and Learning Interventions · Psychology · Social Psychology · Teacher Professional Development and Motivation
Teacher efficacy
A model of teacher agency in professional development and school reform
Job Demands–Resources theory and self-regulation
The job demands-resources model
Teacher agency in the dynamics of educational practices
Teacher agency and professional practice
Psychological needs matter more than social and organizational resources in explaining organizational commitment
Tests of Simple Slopes in Multiple Regression Models with an Interaction
Impacts of Bilingual Teaching job Demands and Resources on Teacher self-Efficacy- A Taiwanese Example
An ecological framework for early years teacher self-efficacy development
Factors influencing teacher self-efficacy for inclusive education
A new framework for teachers’ professional development
School context and instructional capacity
Emotions as agency
Evaluating teachers’ professional development initiatives
Reflectiveness, Adaptivity, and Support
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |