Dealing With Bullying Among Secondary School Students in Malaysia: Deputy Principal’s Self-Efficacy
Universiti Utara Malaysia
ABSTRACT
Deputy Principals are second in command structure of secondary schools and remain as one of the least understood role in the schools of contemporary education systems. Scant attention has been paid especially to their self-efficacy regarding bullying and what actually are their ability when they deal with this type of problem, particularly in Malaysia. There also relatively little is known about sources that have an impact on deputy principals’ self-efficacy regarding dealing with bullying in school, in the local context or probably in the international arena. The purpose of this study was to identify the overall source of influence that contributes to deputy principals’ self-efficacy and what are the levels of their self-efficacy in terms of dealing with bullying in secondary schools. This quantitative research utilizes a correlation method in order to examine the relationship between various sources of influence and teacher sense of efficacy when dealing with bullying among students in secondary schools. Based on the standardized regression coefficients (βs) indices of direct effects of each predictor variable on teacher self-efficacy in dealing with bullying among students, Mastery Experience contributed the highest direct effect or influence on deputy principals self-efficacy in dealing with bullying among students, followed by Verbal Persuasion. Based on the finding of this study, the level of deputy principals’ self-efficacy in terms of dealing with bullying in secondary school was moderately high (M = 3.68, SD= 0.94). This implies that majority of the in-service deputy principals were somewhat confident of themselves in having the ability to successfully perform their duty or responsibility in dealing with bullying among students in secondary school. The findings of this study showed that mastery experience is a crucial source of influence on deputy principals’ self-efficacy in dealing with bullying among students.
KEYWORDS
Self-Efficacy, Bullying, Secondary School, Deputy Principals