The relationship between preschool teachers' beliefs towards developmentally appropriate practices and their self-efficacy in culturally responsive classroom management

The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between preschool teachers' beliefs regarding developmentally appropriate practices and their self-efficacy in culturally responsive classroom management. The sample of the study consists of 402 preschool teachers in Van province. A relational research design was used, and data were collected through the Beliefs about Developmentally Appropriate Practices Scale and the Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale. Descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U tests, and Spearman Correlation tests were employed in the analysis. The study found a moderate, positive (r = .497) and significant (p = 0.05) relationship between teachers' beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices and their self-efficacy in culturally responsive classroom management. It was determined that teachers' belief scores regarding developmentally appropriate practices positively and significantly predicted their scores on the culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scale. Moreover, increases in belief scores about developmentally appropriate practices significantly increased culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scores (B = 45.104, β = .487, p < .001). As a result of the study, it was found that the participants had high levels of beliefs regarding developmentally appropriate practices. Variables such as gender, level of education, years of experience, knowledge of a second language, and class size did not create significant differences in their beliefs about developmentally appropriate practices. However, significant differences were found in the Developmentally Appropriate Practices subdimension based on age, the type of institution they work in, and their working patterns. Additionally, significant differences were found in the Developmentally Inappropriate Practices subdimension and the overall scale scores based on the age variable. It was also found that teachers had high self-efficacy in culturally responsive classroom management. No significant differences were found in self-efficacy scores for culturally responsive classroom management based on gender, age, knowledge of a second language, education level, years of experience, type of institution, working patterns, or class size.