Impact of school leadership on teacher innovativeness: evidence from multilevel analysis of Taiwan TALIS 2018

This study explores the impact of school leadership on teacher innovativeness, focusing on both direct and indirect effects with teacher self-efficacy playing the mediating role. Two most commonly used leadership styles, instructional leadership and distributed leadership, are analysed using a multilevel design, i.e. teachers are nested within schools. The proposed model is validated using data of Taiwan TALIS 2018 collected from both teachers and principals and analysed using hierarchical linear modelling (HLM). Results show a significant direct effect of distributed leadership on teacher innovativeness, while the effect of instructional leadership was mainly indirect, mediated by teacher self-efficacy. Discussion and implications of results obtained are presented, highlighting the importance and impact of multilevel school leadership on teacher self-efficacy and teacher innovativeness. This study enriches the leadership literature regarding specific aspects for school improvement and educational reform by knowing how and to what extent leadership can levy the desired outcomes.