How does leadership affect teacher collaboration? Evidence from teachers in US schools

ABSTRACT

The research literature reports that teacher collaboration has great potential to increase various teachers’ competencies; however, less has been said about how leaders can facilitate and support the development of these collaborations. This study examines the relative impact of distributed leadership practices, teacher professional learning, and innovative climate on teacher collaboration. Data are from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). The sample consists of 2,324 teachers from 159 US lower secondary schools. Results indicate that distributed leadership has a direct and indirect impact on teacher collaboration in that professional learning and innovative climate serve as mediators for the leadership–collaboration relationship. The findings imply a potential benefit to be gained from distributing leadership among various stakeholders throughout the school, as well as expanding access to improve collaborative pedagogical practice among teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• Distributed leadership
• teacher collaboration
• innovative climate
• professional learning
• hierarchical linear model (HLM)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaorong Ma

Xiaorong Ma is a lecturer in the Department of Education at Langfang Normal University, China. Dr. Ma’s research interests include educational leadership, school effectiveness, teacher beliefs, teacher collaboration, and network analysis.

Russ Marion

Russ Marion is a professor in the Emeritus College at Clemson University, South Carolina. Dr. Marion is an author of a number of books and articles on leadership and complexity theory. His current research interests include nonlinear social dynamics, network modeling of social dynamics, and agent-based modeling of networks.