Transformational and transactional school leadership as predictors of teacher self-efficacy

The effectiveness of school leadership can be linked to the extent to which school leaders have a positive impact on teacher variables such as teacher self-efficacy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between transformational and transactional school leadership, on the one hand, and teacher self-efficacy, on the other. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Cyprus for data collection. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and Bandura’s Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale were completed by 683 secondary school teachers. A structural equation model was used to investigate the link between transformational/transactional leadership and teacher self-efficacy. The results show that transformational and transactional leadership can be combined in a second-order factor and that this factor is a strong predictor of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs. Beyond their significance for educational policy, the findings point to the need for revisiting the conceptualisation and operationalisation framework associated with research on transformational leadership in education.