Exploring how power distance influences principal instructional leadership effects on teacher agency and classroom instruction in Oman: A moderated-mediation analysis

Abstract

Nations throughout the world have been engaged in efforts to redefine the role of principals to include instructional leadership. This is based upon research that has verified a positive indirect relationship between principal instructional leadership and student learning. This study tested a moderated mediation model of how the power distance orientation of teachers influences the effects of principal instructional leadership on teacher agency and classroom instruction. Data collected from 464 teachers in 65 middle schools in Oman were analysed using structural equation modelling, factor analysis and bootsrapping. The results supported a partial mediation model in which principal instructional leadership was associated with moderate direct and indirect effects through teacher agency on classroom instruction. In addition, lower power distance in principal–teacher professional relationships was associated with stronger effects of instructional leadership on teacher agency. These findings support assertions that instructional leadership is a relational process rather than a top-down bureaucratic form of leadership.

School leadership and teaching practice: a systematic review of studies of the indirect effects

“…These findings support the assumption that in today's schools, it is unrealistic to expect that principals have enough knowledge and time to directly engage in instructional work with teachers (Grissom et al, 2013;Liebowitz and Porter, 2019). The previously mentioned empirical findings contributed to the generation of a wave of studies on the indirect effects of school leadership on teaching practice (Hendawy Al-Mahdy et al, 2022). The new stream of research, which is gaining momentum, focuses on classroom instruction rather than student achievement as an outcome variable.…”

“…Two studies have simultaneously examined moderating and mediating relationships between constructs. Hendawy Al-Mahdy et al (2022) found that instructional leadership is directly and indirectly, via teacher agency, related to teacher work. The effect of school leadership on the mediator variable, teacher agency, was greater when the power distance in principal-teacher relations was less pronounced.…”

Emotional capital in schools: principals' caring leadership as a moderator of the mediated association between emotional geographies and school climate

“…Nevertheless, research insights from cross-sectional studies are acceptable in educational administration research and are considered informative when keeping this limitation in mind (e.g. Bellibaş et al ., 2021; Hendawy Al-Mahdy et al. , 2022).…”

Leading teacher instructional practices in Türkiye: do inner school conditions matter?

“…Second, although the knowledge base on the association between leadership and teaching is well established in Western nations (Heck and Hallinger, 2014), empirical studies have only recently begun to emerge in Asia (Hendawy Al-Mahdy et al ., 2022) or other non-English speaking regions (Pietsch and Tulowitzki, 2017). Therefore, a higher density of further research from different educational settings might advance our understanding of the link between leadership and teaching.…”

“…Therefore, following Liebowitz and Porter (2019, p. 793), who suggested that "future research should focus more on specific leadership practices rather than overarching styles or models," we measured school leadership as a set of practices including setting direction, building relationships and developing people, developing the organization to support desired practices and improving the instructional program (Leithwood, 2012). Second, although the knowledge base on the association between leadership and teaching is well established in Western nations (Heck and Hallinger, 2014), empirical studies have only recently begun to emerge in Asia (Hendawy Al-Mahdy et al, 2022) or other non-English speaking regions (Pietsch and Tulowitzki, 2017). Therefore, a higher density of further research from different educational settings might advance our understanding of the link between leadership and teaching.…”