Leadership for diversity: Investigating psychological empowerment as a mediator between principals’ inclusive leadership and attitudes toward multicultural education in Türkiye

This study explores how inclusive leadership shapes attitudes toward multicultural education, with particular attention to the mediating role of psychological empowerment. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with a stratified random sample of 605 teachers working in public schools across a culturally diverse region of southeastern Türkiye. Data were collected via standardized self-report instruments and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that inclusive leadership positively predicted psychological empowerment and attitudes toward multicultural education, while psychological empowerment partially mediated this relationship. The final model explained 48.5% of the variance in psychological empowerment and 51.7% in multicultural education attitudes. These findings highlight that inclusive leadership fosters interpersonal inclusion and cultivates internal psychological conditions that make teachers more receptive to equity-driven and culturally sustaining practices. The study underscores the importance of leadership development and teacher empowerment initiatives in advancing school multicultural responsiveness. Strengthening inclusive leadership can catalyze inclusive pedagogy and systemic equity in diverse educational contexts. However, the findings should be interpreted in light of inherent limitations, including the cross-sectional design and reliance on self-report measures. Nonetheless, the study extends existing leadership and empowerment models by situating them within multicultural education in a centralized system such as Türkiye.