ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1589958
The Relationship Between Principal Instructional Leadership and Teacher Self-Efficacy in Student Engagement and Classroom Management: A Cross-Sectional Study in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
- 2University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 3Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 4Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, China
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This study investigated the relationship between principal instructional leadership and teacher self-efficacy in student engagement and classroom management in Chinese primary and secondary schools. Guided by Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the study sought to answer two key research questions: (1) To what extent is principal instructional leadership associated with teacher selfefficacy? and (2) Which dimensions of leadership significantly predict teacher efficacy? In this quantitative study, a total of 459 teachers responded to two sets of online survey instruments, The Educational Leadership Instrument (ELI) and Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple regression were used to analyse the data. Results revealed significant positive relationships between leadership and teacher efficacy (r = 0.75 -0.84, p < .01), with "work environment" ( β = 0.488) and "teacher-student engagement" (β = 0.518) emerging as key predictors. The findings highlight the critical role of instructional leadership in enhancing teachers' confidence in engaging students and managing classrooms. The study contributes to leadership research in non-Western contexts by identifying culturally relevant leadership dimensions and offers practical implications for principal training and professional development.
Keywords: teacher self-efficacy, student engagement, Principal instructional leadership, Student management, Cross-sectional study
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 02 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Siaw and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Na Jiang, Shangrao Normal University, Shangrao, 334001, Jiangxi Province, China
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