Teachers’ individual citizenship behavior (ICB): the role of optimism and trust
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of teachers’ optimism and trust in their individual citizenship behavior (ICB), and the extent to which teachers’ optimism is related to teachers’ ICB, and mediated by teachers’ trust. ICB is a concept coined by Hoy et al. (2008). The concept refers to teachers’ voluntary and discretionary behavior directed toward colleagues, students, and the students’ parents, that exceeds the formal job expectations. The primary aim of ICB is to enhance students’ academic success.
Design/methodology/approach
In all, 370 teachers from public elementary schools in northern Israel completed questionnaires, assessing teachers’ optimism, trust, and ICB; the category was examined both by direct and projective measures. Factor and reliability analyses; a bi-variate correlation Pearson test; a hierarchical regression analysis; and a structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were conducted to analyze the data.
Findings
The research hypotheses were partially supported: teachers’ optimism, trust, and ICB were positively correlated; teachers’ optimism and trust predicted ICB; trust in students and their parents mediated the association between optimism and ICB, whereas trust in teachers mediated the association between optimism and the projective measure of ICB.
Originality/value
The study results confirm that optimism and trust in students and their parents, and in other teachers have a significant presence in teachers’ ICB; emphasize the importance of a positive school environment; emphasize the importance of teachers’ ICB toward students’ and their parents; indicate the potential benefit of using direct and projective measures; and show support for the mediating model.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express her appreciation to Dr Eliezer Yariv; and to Dr Leehu Zysberg for their help in the preparation of this research study. The author would also wish to thank the graduate students who helped collect the data.
Citation
Schwabsky, N. (2014), "Teachers’ individual citizenship behavior (ICB): the role of optimism and trust", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 52 No. 1, pp. 37-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-08-2012-0092
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited