How Collective Efficacy Mediates the Association between Principal Instructional Leadership and Teacher Self-Efficacy: Findings from a Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling (MASEM) Study

Abstract

Principal instructional leadership (PIL) is significant for school effectiveness due to its direct and indirect influences on school-, teacher-, and student-level variables. A considerable number of studies have provided persuasive evidence that PIL is associated with both collective efficacy (CEF) and teacher self-efficacy (TSEF), two significant variables to sustain the quality of instruction. These studies were conducted with a variety of participants from various contexts. The current study aims to investigate the association between PIL and TSEF, and the mediating role of CEF in this association using meta-analytical structural equation modeling (MASEM). This analysis was conducted using the correlation values obtained from 26 studies focusing on their relationship and included data from a population of 19.584 participants from around the world, thus providing a more generalizable perspective on these variables. The results indicated that PIL was correlated with both CEF and TSEF, and the combined influence of PIL and CEF on TSEF was 31%. The study findings also showed that the scales used to measure PIL could produce different results regarding these relationships, while gender did not have a significant effect. These results suggest significant implications for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to sustain school effectiveness in the fast-changing context of schools in the twenty-first century.