The effect of distributed leadership on the professionalization of primary school teachers

In distributed leadership, leadership roles, responsibilities and freedom of choice are shared within a team. The central question of this research is whether distributed leadership has a positive effect on professionalization of teachers and whether teachers' sense of autonomy of teachers reinforces this influence. A questionnaire was administered to 125 teachers in primary education, of which 87 teachers completed it. The questionnaire consisted of 33 items of which 27 measured distributed leadership, professionalization and autonomy using a 5-point Likert scale. The results of the moderation analysis showed that distributed leadership significantly increases the extent to which teachers undertake professionalization activities. Moreover, the teacher's sense of autonomy was found to significantly enhance the influence of distributed leadership and the degree of professionalization. The research shows that in order to stimulate teachers to undertake professionalization activities, it is important that the school leader shares influence, freedom of choice and responsibilities with the team of teachers. If teachers experience a lot of autonomy, this is even more effective. It is recommended that school leaders pay sufficient attention to this in their reflection on leadership.