This study examines whether school leadership influences academic optimism – a critical element in fostering more excellence and equity in education – through its impact on professionalization culture. Educational inequity and declining performance trends in various education systems, as highlighted by international assessments such as PISA (OECD, 2023), underscore the pressing challenges schools face today. These challenges underscore the urgent need for innovative, evidence-based approaches that empower schools to overcome systemic barriers and deliver transformative education for all learners (Nachbauer, 2024; Schleicher, 2019). Academic optimism – encompassing collective efficacy, faculty trust in students and parents, and high academic emphasis – has been shown to significantly improve student performance, irrespective of socioeconomic status or migrant background (Hoy, 2012). Consequently, cultivating academic optimism is essential for driving school improvement, as it establishes the foundation for excellent learning opportunities for all students. However, questions remain about how leadership can most effectively create the conditions that enable teachers to contribute to such improvement efforts.

A systematic review highlights the pivotal role of principals in driving school effectiveness (Liebowitz & Porter, 2019), and evidence suggests that teachers are more likely to engage in school improvement initiatives when they perceive their principals as intellectually stimulating (Rechsteiner et al., 2022). Furthermore, a meta-analysis demonstrates that principals who actively lead professional learning opportunities significantly enhance the success of these initiatives (Timperley et al., 2007). Together, these studies emphasize the importance of cultivating a professionalization culture that supports teachers’ professional development, which is essential for fostering positive change in schools (Vanlommel et al., 2023)​. Despite these insights, it remains unclear which leadership styles are most effective in fostering a professionalization culture and how this culture contributes to the development of academic optimism.

This study investigates four leadership perspectives – instructional leadership, distributed leadership, authentic leadership, and performance management for academic optimism – to determine their influence on professionalization culture. Instructional leadership focuses on developing teaching and learning (Hallinger, 2003). Distributed leadership decentralises decision-making by leveraging expertise across the organization (Harris, 2004). Authentic leadership is grounded in leaders acting in alignment with their personal values to influence staff behaviours (Walumbwa et al., 2008). Performance management for academic optimism emphasizes setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and monitoring valued behaviours (Aguinis et al., 2011) specifically related to academic optimism. Leaders practicing performance management for academic optimism prioritize dimensions like self-efficacy and trust in students, monitoring and adjusting expectations as needed. This perspective stands out as uniquely operationalized for academic optimism, distinguishing it from the broader approaches studied.

By examining how these leadership styles shape professionalization culture – both in terms of the value placed on professional development and the financial and practical support provided – this research aims to uncover how professionalization culture contributes to academic optimism. Ultimately, this study seeks to identify the leadership styles that are most effective in creating conditions that drive school improvement through increased academic optimism, providing valuable insights for fostering equity and excellence in education.

Data for this study were collected in Antwerp, the largest city in Flanders (Belgium), characterised by a significant diversity of secondary schools in terms of ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES). Using stratified clustered systematic sampling, a total of 813 teachers from 30 secondary schools participated in the study. School academic optimism was assessed with the adapted and validated Survey for Academic Optimism (Lelieur et al., 2022) . Professionalization culture was measured through questions derived from TALIS’ teacher questionnaire, designed to map professional development (Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2019). To evaluate performance management for academic optimism, a traditional performance management questionnaire was modified and translated to align with the dimensions of academic optimism (e.g., “My principal emphasizes the importance of trusting students”). All items were measured on a 7-point response scale, ranging from “strongly disagree” (1) to “strongly agree” (7), to capture teachers’ perceptions. This study focuses exclusively on teachers, recognising their critical role in shaping school environments. By capturing their perceptions, the study aims to provide valuable insights into school dynamics, reflecting teachers’ unique perspectives and their significant influence on the educational setting. A path model approach was employed, accommodating multiple dependent and independent variables simultaneously. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was selected as the analytical technique, given its capacity to evaluate the fit and appropriateness of the proposed hypotheses. The model was estimated using robust maximum likelihood estimation (MLR) to account for the nested structure of the data (Stapleton et al., 2016) and full information maximum likelihood (FIML) to address missing data (Schlomer et al., 2010). Model fit was evaluated using the lavaan package (version 0.6-7) in RStudio, with several fit indices considered to assess model adequacy.

The model demonstrated good fit, as indicated by key fit indices (CFI = 0.914, RMSEA = 0.047, SRMR = 0.064), supporting the adequacy of the hypothesised relationships. The analysis suggests that both performance management for academic optimism and instructional leadership are strongly associated with professionalization culture. Specifically, these leadership styles show positive relationships with both the value placed on professional development and the financial and practical support provided for it. In contrast, authentic leadership appears to have a smaller but negative relationship with the perceived value of professionalization, indicating that leadership styles may influence the culture of professional growth differently. Distributed leadership showed no statistically significant association. Financial and practical support for professionalization did not appear to directly relate to academic optimism. However, the emphasis placed on the value of professionalization – shared by both teachers and school leaders – was positively associated with academic optimism, pointing to the importance of shared beliefs in professional development. All subcomponents of academic optimism showed meaningful increases, with collective efficacy and academic emphasis reflecting the most pronounced improvements. This study highlights the potential influence of leadership on cultivating a professionalization culture that aligns with academic optimism. The findings offer valuable insights into how leadership practices and professional development initiatives may interact to enhance academic optimism, providing important considerations for school improvement efforts. These insights are particularly relevant for advancing equity and excellence across diverse educational contexts and emphasise the importance of leadership in fostering sustainable change.

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