The language game of principal leadership for learning

Purpose Grounded by the concepts of principal leadership for learning and language games, this study was interested in the general question: Do leadership pathways require different principal–teacher conversational structures? The study begins with a review of the literature on principal leadership for learning. It turns to a description of language games before making a case that principal–teacher conversation is a language game engaged in and across leadership pathways. Language games were used to advance hypotheses about principal–teacher conversation and teacher vision inspiration and professional growth. Design/methodology/approach A correlational research design with teacher survey data was used for the empirical study. Teacher survey data came from a sample of high school teachers in a metropolitan area of a southwestern state in the United States. A total of 1,201 high school teachers received an electronic survey by email in spring 2024. Complete responses were received from 680 teachers, leading to a 57% response rate. Hypotheses were tested with Structural Equation Modeling in AMOS 29 using robust maximum likelihood estimation. Findings Consistent with hypothesis one, principal–teacher conversation about vision and goals had a strong, positive relationship with vision inspiration (β = 0.45, p < 0.01), explaining about 20% of the unique variance. Principal–teacher conversation about teacher learning also had a positive relationship with vision inspiration (β = 0.20, p < 0.01), but as hypothesized, the unique relationship was not as strong as conversation about vision and goals. Consistent with hypothesis two, principal–teacher conversation about teacher learning had the strongest relationship with teacher professional growth (β = 0.61, p < 0.01), explaining about 37% of the unique variance. Originality/value This study provides insight into the language game of principal leadership for learning, revealing that effective conversation across leadership pathways does not follow a uniform or fixed structure. Rather, school principals optimize conversation when their language and approach fit with the leadership purpose of the pathway connecting principals to learning outcomes.