Does school leadership affect teacher work engagement in Turkish schools? Investigating the mediating effect of teacher job satisfaction: A multilevel structural equation modelling analysis

Abstract

Emerging research highlights the central role of leadership in the effectiveness of Turkish schools, particularly in influencing teacher engagement, a key factor in achieving better school outcomes. This study investigated how and under what conditions school leadership is beneficial for teachers’ work engagement using data collected from 368 public secondary school teachers in Turkey. A model was developed to explore the direct and indirect relationships among school leadership, teacher job satisfaction, and work engagement, and it was tested at both the teacher and school levels. A multilevel structural equation model analysis was used to test the developed model. The results indicated that school leadership has a significant impact on teachers’ job engagement, regardless of the school where they work. Furthermore, job satisfaction played a mediating role in the relationship between school leadership and work engagement at both levels. The effect of school leadership on teachers’ work engagement at both levels occurs on the condition that job satisfaction acts as a mediator. This result makes a valuable contribution to the existing literature. Based on the results of the study, we also offer some suggestions for policy makers and school leaders to increase teacher work engagement by emphasising teacher job satisfaction.