Antecedent of teacher agency: the role of teacher leadership

The practice of Teacher Leadership (TL) has gained momentum in the past two decades and is one pathway to produce favourable outcomes which can leverage sustainable school improvement and effectiveness.The study aimed to investigate the relationship between TL and Teacher Agency (TA) in Malaysian National Secondary Schools.A total of 898 schoolteachers from 60 schools completed the survey.Structural equation modelling was employed for data analysis.The findings found that (i) TL was significantly related to TA; (ii) all the six dimensions of TL were significantly related to the five dimensions of TA, respectively and (iii) 85% of the practice of TL by teacher leaders contributed to the enactment of TA.The study offers relevant parties a lens through which TL can steer systemic change in examining TA as a critical component towards effective school improvement specifically in developing countries with the similar background as Malaysia.