The effect of learning-focused leadership on the collective teacher culture: The supporting role of trust in principal and colleagues

This research aims to examine the supporting role of trust in the principal and colleague in the relationship between the learning-oriented leadership behaviors of school principals and the collective teacher culture, according to the opinions of teachers working in secondary schools. In this study, a cross-sectional survey method was used. While the study examined the direct and indirect effects of learning-oriented leadership on collective teacher culture with structural equation modeling (SEM), with trust in colleagues as a mediating variable and trust in the principal as an antecedent of learning-oriented leadership. The research population consists of secondary school teachers working in public and private schools in Adıyaman in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample for the population was determined by the simple random sampling method. Learning-oriented leadership, teacher and principal trust and collective teacher culture scales were employed to collect the data. SPSS and Mplus statistical packages were used in the analysis of the data. Findings showed that learning-oriented leadership is a salient factor influencing teachers' collective culture by increasing colleagues' beliefs about their trust in each other. In addition, teachers' trust in the principal has a direct effect on the principal's learning-oriented leadership, and that learning-oriented leadership has a direct effect on the collective teacher culture, while trust in colleagues has an indirect effect. This study contributes to the collective teacher culture literature, where there are limited national and international studies on the effects of factors affecting learning-oriented leadership on collective teacher culture.