The effects of distributed leadership on teacher professionalism: The case of Korean middle schools

This study investigated the structural relationship between distributed leadership (DL) and teacher professionalism (TP) and how it is mediated by collective teacher efficacy (CTE), professional learning community (PLC), and teacher job satisfaction (TJS). A structural analysis of data from 2655 teachers from 150 middle schools in Korea revealed the following: 1) distributed leadership does negatively influence TP; 2) DL indirectly and significantly influences TP mediated by CTE, PLC, and TJS; and 3) the effects of three mediators also indicated significant relationships among study variables. The results suggest that the internal efforts of an individual school organization itself contribute to developing TP and that it is often up to a school’s staff to improve student achievement and develop school organization capacity.