The digital pathway from learning-centered leadership to teacher innovation

Digital transformation has intensified expectations for teacher innovation, yet less is known about leadership conditions that support innovation. This study examines relationships among learning-centered leadership, teacher digital competencies, and teacher innovation, focusing on the mediating role of digital competencies and the contextual influence of school location. Teacher-level survey data were collected from 752 primary school teachers in urban, suburban, and nonurban schools in Wenzhou. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, bootstrapped mediation analysis, supplementary dimensional diagnostics, multigroup invariance testing, and latent mean comparison. Learning-centered leadership was positively associated with teacher innovation, and the composite mediation model showed a statistically significant positive indirect association through teacher digital competencies. When digital competencies were disaggregated, the total indirect effect in the simultaneous dimensional model was not statistically significant; separate single-mediator models nevertheless showed positive indirect effects for each dimension. Teachers in urban schools reported higher levels than those in nonurban schools on all three variables, while the structural relationships remained invariant across location groups. These findings indicate the relevance of learning-centered leadership to teacher innovation and identify digital competencies as an integrated professional capacity that partly accounts for this relationship.