Leading for coherence: analysing the relationship between programme leadership and teacher educators’ self-reported coherence implementation

This study addresses the challenge of fragmentation in teacher education by examining how teacher educators implement coherence through their instructional practices and how programme leadership influences this process. Survey data were collected from 153 teacher educators across five secondary teacher education programmes in Flanders, Belgium. The study first developed the Coherence Implementation (ICO) scale, with exploratory factor analysis revealing three dimensions: vision alignment, course alignment, and practice alignment. Second, the relationship between these dimensions and leadership practices associated with enhancing coherence was examined using path analysis. Findings reveal that programme leaders’ visioning and collaboration encouragement are significantly related to teacher educators’ self-reported coherence implementation, each influencing coherence dimensions differently. Visioning is positively associated with vision alignment, while collaboration encouragement is positively linked to all three dimensions, partially mediated by team collaboration. These findings and their implications provide directions for future research and offer valuable insights for pursuing curriculum coherence.