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The manner in which perceived principal distributed leadership affects teachers' professional agency remains ambiguous in Oman. The study aimed to explore the effect of distributed leadership on teacher agency through teacher reflection. In the cross-sectional study, survey data were gathered from 1095 teachers in 58 middle and secondary schools in Muscat, Oman. Structural equation modelling and bootstrapping were used to analyse the data. Data analysis revealed that distributed leadership elicited significant direct and indirect effects on teacher agency, with teacher reflection playing a partial mediating role in this relationship. These results contribute to an existing body of research that confirms the relationship between principal leadership and teacher agency and highlights the importance of reflection in shaping this relationship. Moreover, these results could provide cultural evidence for theoretical implications and offer evidence-based guidance to policymakers and principals to promote teacher agency.

This study investigated the heterogeneous nature of teachers' perceptions of distinct leadership practices and explored the predictors of teacher- and school-level leadership typologies on teacher self-efficacy and commitment by using a multilevel latent profile mediation analysis of a dataset of 890 teachers from K-12 schools in Turkey. The results revealed three distinct leadership profiles ("limiting," "transitioning," and "integrating") at the teacher level and two profiles ("transitioned" and "integrated") at the school level, providing evidence that integrating teachers and integrated school profiles were associated with greater teacher self-efficacy and commitment. Additionally, both levels of integrated leadership profiles were indirectly related to teacher commitment through teacher self-efficacy vis-a-vis other profile groups. The study concluded that different leadership styles are related and that the impact of leadership on teachers is maximized when multiple leadership types are integrated.

Purpose: The present study aims to examine the moderation role of school culture attributes (individualism versus collectivism) in the relationship between paternalistic leadership and teacher commitment, mediated by teacher well-being. Design/methodology/approach: The data included 1,152 teachers across 104 schools in Türkiye using a multilevel moderated mediation SEM model to test relevant hypotheses. Findings: The results showed that teacher well-being fully mediates the relationship between perceived paternalistic principal leadership and teacher commitment. Additionally, the collectivist orientation of school culture influences the strength of the association between paternalistic leadership and teacher commitment indirectly through well-being. More precisely, paternalistic leadership has a stronger link to teacher well-being and commitment when teachers identify the culture of their schools as relatively more collectivist. Originality/value: This study offers empirical evidence of paternalistic school leadership in promoting teacher well-being and commitment depending on the school culture in a non-western country context.

This study tested a moderated mediation model of transformational leadership's effects on teacher innovative practices, with teacher commitment as mediator and trust in principal as moderator. Implementing a cross-sectional survey design and using data from 611 teachers working in 56 schools in Turkey, we employed multilevel structural equation modelling with Bayesian estimation to estimate the structural links between our variables. The results provided evidence of the indirect effects of transformational leadership on teacher innovative practices through the significant mediator role of teacher commitment. We also found evidence that trust in principal acted as a significant moderator of the indirect effect of transformational leadership on teacher innovative practice through teacher commitment. This study adds nuanced evidence to the global literature by concluding that the effect of transformational leadership on teacher commitment and innovative practice is contingent upon the extent to which teachers trust their principals. We conclude with key implications for policy and practice.

This study investigated the relationship between principal job satisfaction, distributed leadership, teacher-student relationships, and student reading achievement in Turkey. Using school- and teacher-level data from the PISA 2018 and TALIS 2018, we conducted a mediated-effect with antecedent effect model, in which the construct of teacher-student relationships was proposed as the mediator of the effects of distributed leadership on student achievement, while principal job satisfaction was included as the antecedent of distributed leadership. The results confirmed the indirect effect of distributed leadership on student achievement through teacher-student relationships. We also found that principal job satisfaction exercised a positive and significant effect on the enactment of distributed leadership practices. This study adds evidence to the international literature suggesting that principal job satisfaction is an important mechanism for distributed leadership practices and that the execution of such practices improves student achievement by promoting teacher-student relationships. Implications for policy, practice, and research are discussed.

Purpose: This paper explores the relationship between transformational principal leadership and individual teacher innovativeness, considering the mediating role of teacher agency (TA) and the moderating role of teacher trust (TT). Design/methodology/approach: We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) using survey data collected from 676 teachers at 25 schools in Turkey. Findings: The results indicated no direct correlation between transformational leadership (TL) and teacher innovativeness but revealed a significant and positive association between TL and teachers' agency, as well as between teachers' agency and innovativeness, suggesting that TA fully mediates the association between TL and teacher innovativeness. Additionally, teachers' trust positively influenced the link between principal leadership and teachers' innovativeness, with the impact of TL on teachers' innovativeness being stronger when trust levels were higher. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to the literature, providing an understanding of the mechanisms through which leadership can exert an influence on teacher innovativeness. Practical implications: This study also suggests that the strength of the influence is likely to vary under different circumstances. Trust among teachers appears to play a key role in the effect of school leadership on teachers, particularly when aiming to support and sustain innovativeness. Social implications: Trust-based relationships within a school are essential for school principals to influence innovative practices. We conclude that, in the absence of trust as a key component of school climate, achieving a comprehensive understanding of the role of school leadership in fostering teacher innovativeness seems unattainable. Originality/value: This paper expands existing knowledge regarding the effect of TL in leading teacher innovativeness by indicating the indispensable role of TA and trust.