The Effects of Principal Support on Teachers’ Professional Skills: The Mediating Role of School-Wide Inclusive Practices and Teacher Agency

ABSTRACT

The present study focuses on the relationships between principal support, school-wide inclusive practices, teacher agency, and teachers’ professional skills in the Chinese context of inclusive education – Learning in Regular Classroom. Data were collected from 1,676 primary and junior high school teachers in China. Results of structural equation modelling demonstrated that principal support had a significant effect on teachers’ professional skills; the chain mediating role of school-wide inclusive practices and teacher agency on the relationship between principal support and teachers’ professional skills was also significant. These results suggest the direct and indirect roles of school principal in promoting inclusive education teachers’ professional skills. The results also highlight the significant effects of school environment on inclusive education teachers’ professional development. We consider implications for practice at the end of the paper.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• principal support
• professional skills
• school-wide inclusive practices
• teacher agency

Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks go to the Special Issue Editor, Guanglun Michael Mu, for providing several rounds of constructive and insightful feedback on early drafts of this paper. We appreciate Michael’s generosity in taking time out of his busy schedule to review and edit our early drafts. We also thank Anita Harman, PhD, from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Editing China (www.liwenbianji.cn/ac), for editing the English text of a draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In Chinese-language literature or English-language literature, many different terms such as ‘children with disabilities’, ‘children with special needs’ and ‘children with diverse needs’ are used to describe those children who study in inclusive education but need extra supports and resources. However, ‘children with disabilities’ is the most widely used term in Chinese-language literature and even in China’s policy documents. Given the term ‘children with disabilities’ has a negative connotation, it is important to maintain a distance away from it. Therefore, we use the term ‘children with special needs’ in the whole study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the International Joint Research Project of Huiyan International College, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University [ICER202103]. No financial interest or benefit is expected to arise from direct applications of this research.