Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Studies in Educational Evaluation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/stueduc Measuring student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about family-teacher communication: Scale construction and validation Karen De Coninck a, ⁎ , Joan Walker b , Benjamin Dotger c , Ruben Vanderlinde d a Department of Educational Studies – Ghent Universtiy, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium b School of Education, Pace University, Pleasantville, New York, USA c School of Education, Syracuse University, New York, USA d Department of Educational Studies – Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Teacher education Self-efficacy beliefs Family-teacher communication Measurement instrument Student teachers ABSTRACT This article describes the development of a self-report survey measure of student teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about family-teacher communication. Consistent with a guiding conceptual framework (Walker & Dotger, 2012), an exploratory factor analysis (n = 266) suggested a two-factor structure: (1) structuring the conversation (α = .92) and (2) responsiveness to parents (α = .87). Confirmatory factor analysis with a second sample (n = 315) also indicated a good fit between the hypothesized two-factor model and the observed data. Despite their lack of experience, student teachers’ self-efficacy ratings were relatively high. Efficacy for structuring conversations (M = 6.7, SD = 1.02; range = 0–10) was lower than efficacy for responsiveness (M = 7.57, SD = 1.04; difference, -0.83, t(581)=-21.32, p < .01). Development of this measure is important because it underscores the complexity of family-teacher conference communication and the need for teacher competence at separate but related facets of communication. Implications for research and teacher education practices are discussed. 1. Introduction Engaging with students’ families is an essential component of every school and every teacher’s professional work (Epstein, 2018). Strong family-school partnerships positively impact pupils’ academic perfor- mance, well-being, motivation and self-esteem (Bakker, Denessen, Dennissen, & Oolbekkink-Marchand, 2013; Epstein, 2001; Hattie, 2009; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2007). Further, teachers, schools, and families themselves benefit from strong family-school partnerships. A review by Smit, Sluiter, and Driessen (2006), for example, showed that family-school partnerships enhanced parents’ conceptions of their role as educator and their attitude towards school and teachers; this work also found that strong family-school partnerships increased tea- chers’ understanding of families and students’ life outside of the school. Given the importance of family-school partnerships, educator pre- paration programmes (EPPs) should prepare student teachers for un- derstanding and conducting effective practices of family-school part- nerships (Willemse, Thompson, Vanderlinde, & Mutton, 2018; Walker, 2018). One particular professional activity that student teachers should be well-prepared for is conducting family-teacher conferences as this form of family-teacher communication is considered a fundamental aspect of family-school partnerships (Dotger, 2015, Walker, 2018; Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003; Sheldon & Turner-Vorbeck, 2019). However, across countries, EPPs struggle to prepare student tea- chers for communicating with families during family-teacher con- ferences (e.g., Willemse et al., 2018; de Bruïne et al., 2014; Evans, 2013). Given that EPPs provide insufficient attention to this area, it is unsurprising that in-service teachers often feel unprepared for and an- xious about communicating with families (Hoover-Dempsey, Walker, Jones, & Reed, 2002; Lawrence-Lightfoot, 2003; Symeou, Roussounidou, & Michaelides, 2012) and that novice teachers consider communicating with families one of their most challenging professional tasks (Markow & Martin, 2005; Vanderlinde & Kelchtermans, 2013). Why is it difficult to prepare teachers for communicating with fa- milies in the context of family-teacher conferences? One answer is the complexity of these essential conversations (Walker, 2018). For ex- ample, teachers are often responsible for sharing evaluative information about children’s behaviour and performance that families may construe as personal critiques of their child or of their parenting or family cir- cumstances (Pillet-Shore, 2016). Mastering complex tasks such as https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2019.100820 Received 14 May 2019; Received in revised form 26 September 2019; Accepted 29 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: KarenH.DeConinck@UGent.be (K. De Coninck), jwalker@pace.edu (J. Walker), bdotger@syr.edu (B. Dotger), Ruben.Vanderlinde@ugent.be (R. Vanderlinde). Studies in Educational Evaluation 64 (2020) 100820 0191-491X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T