Principal Instructional Leadership and Teacher Attitudes: A Meta-Analytic Review, 1989–2024

Abstract

The meta-analytic review builds on prior reviews that synthesised findings from studies of the relationship between school leadership and teacher attitudes. This review is distinguished by its focus on how one leadership model—principal instructional leadership—is related to multiple teacher attitudes: teacher trust, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, commitment, and job satisfaction. The review synthesised findings from 68 quantitative studies that employed the PIMRS instrument to investigate these relationships. A three-level meta-analysis was conducted based on the hierarchical structure of the data. The meta-analysis revealed a moderate and significant relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher attitudes, measured as a single construct (r = 0.450). Although the magnitude varied, the correlation between principal instructional leadership and each of the five teacher attitudes fell within the moderate to large range of effects. The strongest correlation was found for teacher trust (r = 0.615), while the weakest was found for teacher self-efficacy (r = 0.385). These findings affirm that, despite being distinct concepts, these teacher attitudes can be combined and analysed as a single construct. The research further confirms that instructional leadership is a relational process, despite its primary focus on teaching and learning.