Teacher leadership development: Impacts of principal–teacher interactions on beginning teachers

Teacher leadership ties in the heart of school improvement while principal plays a salient role in fostering teachers’ leadership. This study aims to examine a group of beginning teachers in Hong Kong to address research questions: (1) To what extent are the teachers’ developments of teacher leadership? (2) What are the teachers’ perceptions of principal-teacher interactions? (3) How principal-teacher interactions attribute to the teacher leadership development? Multiple data sources, including interviews, documentary evidence and questionnaires were collected. Results show that principal-teacher interactions that reflected trust, value communication and encourage professional development are key to facilitating teacher leadership. Three types of impact illustrating principal-teacher interactions attribute to teacher leadership development are identified. Implication for school leaders and teacher educators are discussed.