Measuring Music Teacher Identity: Self-Efficacy and Commitment Among Music Teachers

The purpose of the study was to design an instrument to measure constructs of music teacher identity. The Music Teacher Identity Scale (MTIS), a researcher-constructed data gathering instrument, was developed to measure two constructs of music teacher identity: Music Teacher Self-Efficacy and Music Teacher Commitment. Participants in the study were selected using a stratified sampling technique, based on music teaching level, from the National Association for Music Education’s division membership roster. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s coefficient alpha, item-total corrected correlation, and inter-item correlation were used to evaluate the degree of reliability of the survey instrument. An exploratory factor analysis using a direct oblimin rotation was calculated to allow for correlated factors to be considered as subdimensions of the common theme of professional identity and provide evidence of construct validity for the measurement instrument. The MTIS had an overall reliability of α = .81, with the individual constructs of Music Teacher Self-Efficacy reliability of α = .87 and Music Teacher Commitment of α = .67. The two constructs were found to contribute 42.17% of the variance through the exploratory factor analysis. The MTIS has initially been found to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring Music Teacher Self-Efficacy and Music Teacher Commitment, explaining nearly half of the total variance of contributors to music teacher identity construction. Recommendations are suggested for future research regarding music teacher identity construction utilizing the findings in this study.