There is currently a severe shortage of teachers in the U.S. workforce. The problem is especially acute among science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers and exacerbated by high turnover among new teachers—those with less than 5 years of teaching experience. In this article, the authors investigate one piece of the puzzle. The authors model a social cognitive approach to understanding self-efficacy, a key precursor to job performance and retention. Their interactionist approach accounts for both demographic (i.e., gender and age) and relational variables (i.e., social networks). The authors test their ideas on a sample of 159 STEM teachers across five geographic regions in the United States. Their analysis reveals patterned differences in self-efficacy across gender that are contingent on the communities of practice in which the teachers are embedded. Together, their theory and findings highlight the value of taking a holistic, interactionist view in explaining STEM teacher self-efficacy.

目前，美国劳动力严重短缺。对于科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的教师来说，这个问题尤为严重，而由于新任教师的离职率高（这些教师的教学经验不足5年），这一问题尤其严重。在本文中，作者研究了一个难题。作者建立了一种社会认知方法来理解自我效能感，自我效能感是工作绩效和保留的关键先决条件。他们的互动主义方法考虑了人口（即性别和年龄）和关系变量（即社交网络）。作者在美国五个地理区域的159名STEM老师的样本中测试了他们的想法。他们的分析揭示了跨性别的自我效能模式差异，这取决于教师所嵌入的实践社区。他们的理论和发现共同强调了在解释STEM教师的自我效能感时采取整体的，互动的观点的价值。