Principals' Emotional Intelligence And Teachers' Self-Efficacy: A Correlational Study

Abstract

Teacher Self-Efficacy is an important psychological resource that influences teachers' confidence in instructional practice, classroom management, and student engagement. The present study examines principals' Emotional Intelligence (EI) and teachers' Self-Efficacy in CBSE-affiliated private English-medium schools of Indore City. A quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive-correlational design was adopted. The sample comprised 40 principals and 800 teachers from 40 selected schools. Principal EI was measured with the Emotional Intelligence Scale developed by Hyde, Pethe and Dhar, while Teacher Self-Efficacy was measured with the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale developed by Sood and Sen. Teacher scores were aggregated to obtain one school-level Self-Efficacy mean for each principal. Three null hypotheses were examined. The mean EI score of principals (M = 147.75, SD = 9.43) was significantly higher than the theoretical midpoint of 102, t(39) = 30.68, p < .001; therefore, H01 was rejected. The school-level Teacher Self-Efficacy mean (M = 238.57, SD = 0.86) was also significantly higher than the theoretical midpoint of 168, t(39) = 517.77, p < .001; therefore, H02 was rejected. Pearson's correlation between principal EI and school-level Teacher Self-Efficacy was weak and non-significant, r = 0.119, p = 0.463, N = 40; therefore, H03 was retained. A supplementary Spearman rank-order correlation (ρ = 0.090, p = 0.581) corroborated this result, indicating that the non-significant relationship is not an artefact of the Pearson procedure's normality assumption. The findings show that both constructs were high relative to their scale midpoints, although variation in principal EI did not significantly correspond with variation in average Teacher Self-Efficacy across the participating schools.