More Leadership, More Efficacy for Inclusive Practices? Exploring the Relationships between Distributed Leadership, Teacher Leadership, and Self-Efficacy among Inclusive Education Teachers in China

Abstract

In response to the need for facilitating the sustainable development of inclusive education, this study conducts a pioneering attempt to analyze the relationship between two types of school leadership, organizational (i.e., distributed leadership, DL) and individual (i.e., teacher leadership, TL), and teacher self-efficacy among inclusive education teachers in Mainland China. A total of 893 teachers from primary inclusive education schools in Beijing and Shenzhen, China, participated in this study. Structural equation modeling examining the direct and mediating effects was conducted on collected data. The findings imply that principal-distributed leadership and inclusive education teacher leadership both positively predicted teacher self-efficacy. Additionally, inclusive education teacher leadership and its two dimensions, namely advocating inclusive values and liaising with an external support system, significantly mediated the influences of distributed leadership on inclusive education teacher self-efficacy. The implications of facilitating inclusive education in Chinese schools and other similar contexts are discussed.

School principals' leadership styles on implementing inclusive education: the entrepreneurial leadership effect

“…In particular, one important finding in a research study conducted in Spain by L opez-L opez et al (2021) on the degree to which school principals foster inclusion in compulsory education from the perspective of families, was the initiatives carried out by school principals to improve each school's openness to the community and the surrounding area. Furthermore, in a study conducted in China by Wang et al (2022), the school principals' distributed leadership included collaboration with the external support system. Also, L€ uddeckens et al (2022), in their study on school principals in Sweden on promoting inclusive education identified as a common practice the cooperation and working together with other stakeholders for creating relationships.…”

“…(2021) on the degree to which school principals foster inclusion in compulsory education from the perspective of families, was the initiatives carried out by school principals to improve each school's openness to the community and the surrounding area. Furthermore, in a study conducted in China by Wang et al. (2022), the school principals' distributed leadership included collaboration with the external support system.…”

Linking Distributed Leadership with Differentiated Instruction in Inclusive Schools: The Mediating Roles of Teacher Leadership and Professional Competence

“…However, the influence of distributed leadership on inclusive teaching practices seems to be divergent in the literature. On the one hand, while there have been few explorations on the effects of distributed leadership on such inclusive teaching practices as DI, relatively sufficient empirical evidence suggested positive connections between distributed leadership and different school organizational variables that may motivate educators' pedagogical improvement, including teacher leadership for inclusion, school supportive climate, faculty collaboration, teacher work engagement, and teacher efficacy [14,[33][34][35]. On the other hand, in the field of inclusive schooling, Mullick et al found that distributed leadership for inclusive education elevates the level at which educators become satisfied with their school working settings [36].…”

“…The 22-item IETL scale validated by Wang et al was utilized to examine inclusive educators' perceptions of their leadership behaviors [14]. This scale was developed and validated in Chinese contexts for measuring inclusive teacher leaders' behaviors in five dimensions: advocating inclusive values (three items), implementing inclusive teaching practices (seven items), engaging in school-wide decision-making (four items), encouraging multilateral collaboration (four items), and liaising with an external support system (four items).…”

“…Distributed leadership could emerge as a crucial stimulus in motivating teachers' enhancement of teaching practices, such as more frequent employment of DI, through its impacts on teachers' agency, professional competencies, and affective states [11,12]. On the one hand, distributed leadership, to some degree, means a more dispersed, fluid, and shared form of leadership, making possible the activation of teacher leadership by conscious empowerment, shared decision, and collective engagement [13,14]. These teacher leaders are more likely to adopt innovative teaching practices such as DI [15].…”