Community Animosity and Teacher Efficacy

This post could be REALLY long, but I am only going to focus on one small aspect of this broad and explosive topic.  I usually tend to avoid polemic issues, but the contrarian view of teachers by the general public has become seemingly overwhelming in the last few years.  There are countless journal articles, books, and blog posts that dissect and analyze this issue, yet no resolution has become apparent while a dichotomy of values continues to exist between educators and the community.  This problem will likely require years more of analysis and serious policy level changes.  The contention between the teacher's unions and the community is rife with political, economic, and philosophical issues that have proven nearly impossible to resolve.  Teacher union and school board negotiations often resemble the disputes between Democrats and Republicans, frequently making no ground towards successful resolutions.  The question is how does this animosity and dissonance impact teachers?  For some it may have little or no emotional affect, while others may become overtly angry.  The majority of teachers it seems become disheartened and begin to lose faith in the value of their profession.  Teacher efficacy, the confidence in one's ability to promote learning, can have significant impacts on student achievement.  If individual teacher efficacy is compromised, the collective ability to provide students with quality instruction and support will decline. I do not claim to know or understand the emotions of the majority of educators in the United States, but pulling from my own experiences and those around me I have found the former to be true.  Most teachers care deeply about student success and they work tirelessly to meet federal, state, and local demands, not to mention their own individual expectations.  This is not a conscious decision, but a subconscious consequence of not feeling valued.  The greater implications of teacher efficacy should be taken into consideration in order to improve the greater education system.