The relationship between transformational leadership, teacher autonomy and teacher well-being

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between transformational leadership behaviors of school principals, teacher autonomy and teacher well-being according to teacher perceptions. The population of this study, which was designed in the relational model, one of the quantitative research methods, consists of teachers working in high schools in Elazığ city center in the 2022-2023 academic year. The sample of the study was composed of 412 teachers working in various types of high schools by using simple random sampling method. In this study, data were collected using the Transformational Leadership Scale (TLS), which constitutes the 20-item part of the Multifactor Leadership Scale, the Teacher Autonomy Scale (TEAS), the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (WEMIWLS) and a personal information form. Regarding the data obtained as a result of the application of the measurement tools, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of the scales were first performed with the SPSS Amos 22 program, and then the data were transferred to the SPSS 22 package program and t-test, One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) (Kruskal-Wallis H in cases where variances were not homogeneous), Pearson Correlation analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were performed. According to the findings obtained as a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the general level of transformational leadership scale and the idealized influence and intellectual stimulation sub-dimensions of transformational leadership were perceived at a very high level, while inspirational motivation and individual interest sub-dimensions were perceived at a high level. Teachers' perceptions of autonomy were found to be very high in both the overall scale and the sub-dimensions of teacher autonomy, namely autonomy of teaching process, autonomy of instructional programming and autonomy of professional communication, and high in the sub-dimension of professional development. It was also found that teacher well-being was perceived at a very high level by teachers. The findings of the research show that teachers' perceptions of transformational leadership generally differ according to gender. It was determined that the perception levels of men were higher than women in both the overall transformational leadership scale and in the idealized influence, intellectual stimulation and individual interest sub-dimensions, but there was no difference between genders in the inspirational motivation sub-dimension. It was determined that teachers' perceptions of transformational leadership did not differ according to the education level variable. It was determined vii that teachers' perceptions of transformational leadership did not differ in general according to branch; only in the idealized influence sub-dimension of transformational leadership, the perceptions of teachers in the verbal branch were higher than those of teachers in other branches. In the study, it was determined that teacher autonomy did not differ according to gender, educational status and branch. In addition, it was concluded that teachers' perceptions of well-being differed significantly in favor of men according to gender, but did not differ according to educational status and branch variables. In general, there were moderate, significant and positive relationships between transformational leadership, teacher autonomy and teacher well-being. Only a low, significant and positive relationship was found between idealized influence and inspirational motivation, which are the sub-dimensions of transformational leadership, and the professional development autonomy sub-dimension of teacher autonomy. In addition, the findings of the study show that transformational leadership behaviors of school principals and teacher autonomy are significant predictors of teacher well-being according to teachers' perceptions.