Demographic Intersections in Teacher Education: A Factorial Analysis of Interactive Effects on the Teaching Efficacy of Pre-Service Teachers in Odisha.

Abstract

This study investigated the standalone and interactive effects of Gender (Male vs. Female), Academic Stream (Arts vs. Science), and Type of Institution (Government vs. Private Self-Financing) on the overall Teaching Efficacy of pre-service teachers in Odisha. Anchored in Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, the study utilized a descriptive-survey research design. A stratified random sample of N=600 secondary-grade teacher trainees across diverse districts of Odisha was assessed using a standardized adaptation of the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES). The primary null hypothesis (H0​8) posited that there is no significant three-way interaction effect among the demographic variables on overall teaching efficacy scores. A 2×2×2 Three-Way Factorial Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was executed to analyse the data. The empirical results revealed significant standalone main effects for Type of Institution and Academic Stream, while Gender remained non-significant. Crucially, the three-way interaction effect (Gender×Stream×Institution) was found to be statistically significant, thereby rejecting H0​8. Post-hoc simple-effects analysis demonstrated that Female Science trainees enrolled in Government institutions exhibited the highest structural instructional confidence, whereas Male Arts trainees in Private Self-Financing centers exhibited the lowest baseline efficacy. This study builds directly upon foundational regional frameworks establishing that structural resources alone fail to elevate professional teacher self-belief without a robust, underlying affective framework (Singh, 2026). The paper discusses the structural, pedagogical, and policy-driven implications of these intersecting demographic filters under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) framework.