Retaining Teachers: The Impact of Distributed Leadership on Teacher Resignation Intention

ABSTRACT Teacher resignation intention remains a persistent challenge to building a high‐quality teaching system. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study examines how distributed leadership relates to teachers' resignation intention and tests the mediating roles of enjoyment of teaching and perceived barriers to professional learning. Using TALIS 2024 data, results show that distributed leadership is negatively associated with resignation intention. While the simple mediating role of enjoyment of teaching is not supported, perceived professional learning barriers act as a critical structural mediator. Crucially, a serial pathway emerges in which distributed leadership increases teaching enjoyment, which in turn reduces perceived barriers to professional learning, relating to lower leaving intentions. The findings highlight that individual affective resources alone are insufficient to retain educators; instead, retention is systematically strengthened when organizational leadership leverages these emotional resources to help teachers navigate and neutralize structural bottlenecks, offering strategic implications for educational governance.