The Impact of Self-affirmation on Teacher Leadership: An Experimental Design

Abstract

Teacher leadership has recently gained significant attention in the literature since there is enough evidence that it leads to effective student outcomes. Therefore, many scholars study the antecedents of teacher leadership. This study investigates the impact of self-affirmation on teacher leadership beliefs through an experimental design. Self-affirmation, a well-established construct in psychological science, refers to participants’ affirming their self-transcendent (e.g., empathy, justice, honesty) or self-enhancement (e.g., power, status, wealth) values through a writing exercise. In the experiment (n=221), participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a self-transcendent value-affirmation group (STVA), a self-enhancement value-affirmation group (SEVA), or a control group. Participants in three groups wrote about their self-transcendent values, self-enhancement values or their meals and completed teacher leadership belief scale. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) demonstrated that the STVA group had significantly higher scores on teacher leadership belief scales compared to the SEVA and the control group. This finding suggests that affirming self-transcendent values can lead teachers to adopt leadership beliefs, which in turn is likely to affect their leadership behaviours. School leaders can incorporate self-affirmation exercises into professional development programmes to facilitate teacher leadership.

Keywords

• teacher leadership
• self-affirmation
• experiment
• school leadership

References

1. Antonakis, J., Bendahan, S., Jacquart, P., & Lalive, R. (2010). On making causal claims: A review and recommendations. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(6), 1086-1120.
2. Armitage, C. J., Harris, P. R., & Arden, M. A. (2011). Evidence that self-affirmation reduces alcohol consumption: Randomized exploratory trial with a new, brief means of self-affirming. Health Psychology, 30(5), 633.
3. Aronson, J., Cohen, G., & Nail, P. R. (1999). Self-affirmation theory: An update and appraisal. In E. Harmon-Jones & J. Mills (Eds.), Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology (pp. 127–147). American Psychological Association
4. Bingham, G. E., & Hall-Kenyon, K. M. (2013). Examining teachers’ beliefs about and implementation of a balanced literacy framework. Journal of Research and Reading, 36, 14–28.
5. Binning, K. R., Cook, J. E., Purdie-Greenaway, V., Garcia, J., Chen, S., Apfel, N., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2019). Bolstering trust and reducing discipline incidents at a diverse middle school: How self-affirmation affects behavioral conduct during the transition to adolescence. Journal of School Psychology, 75, 74-88.
6. Bolat, O. (2013). A non-positional teacher leadership approach to school improvement: An action research study in Turkey. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
7. Bolat, Ö. & Antalyalı, Ö.L. (2023). PS kişisel eğilimler envanterinin psikometrik özellikleri. Turkish Studies - Education, 18(2), 433-477.
8. Bums, J. M. (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

9. Burson, A., Crocker, J., & Mischkowski, D. (2012). Two types of value-affirmation: Implications for self-control following social exclusion. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3(4), 510-516.
10. Bush, T., Abdul Hamid, S., Ng, A., & Kaparou, M. (2018). School leadership theories and the Malaysia education blueprint: Findings from a systematic literature review. International Journal of Educational Management, 32(7), 1245-1265.
11. Brown, M. E., & Treviño, L. K. (2009). Leader–follower values congruence: Are socialized charismatic leaders better able to achieve it?. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(2), 478.
12. Campbell, D. T., & Stanley, J. C. (2015). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Ravenio books.
13. Can, N. (2009). The leadership behaviours of teachers in primary schools in Turkey. Education, 129, 436-448.
14. Carey, M. R. (1992). Transformational leadership and the fundamental option for self-transcendence. The Leadership Quarterly, 3(3), 217-236.
15. Carver, C. L. (2016). Transforming identities: The transition from teacher to leader during teacher leader preparation. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 11(2), 158-180.
16. Carpenter, B. D., & Sherretz, C. E. (2012). Professional development school partnerships: An instrument for teacher leadership. School-University Partnerships, 5, 89-101.
17. Carrion, R. G., & García-Carrión, R. (2015). Transforming education through teacher leadership. International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 3(2), 219-221.
18. Čehajić‐Clancy, S. (2011). Empathy, intergroup: Regarding the suffering of others. The encyclopedia of peace psychology.
19. Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333-371.
20. Cohen, G. L., Aronson, J., & Steele, C. M. (2000). When beliefs yield to evidence: Reducing biased evaluation by affirming the self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1151-1164.
21. Cohen, G. L., Sherman, D. K., Bastardi, A., Hsu, L., McGoey, M., & Ross, L. (2007). Bridging the partisan divide: Self-affirmation reduces ideological closed-mindedness and inflexibility in negotiation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(3), 415.
22. Cohen, A., & Liu, Y. (2011). Relationships between in-role performance and individual values, commitment, and organizational citizenship behaviour among Israeli teachers. International Journal of Psychology, 46, 271–287.
23. Colquitt, J. A. (2008). From the editors publishing laboratory research in AMJ: A question of when, not if. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 616-620.
24. Creswell, J. D., Welch, W. T., Taylor, S. E., Sherman, D. K., Gruenewald, T. L., & Mann, T. (2005). Affirmation of personal values buffers neuroendocrine and psychological stress responses. Psychological Science, 16(11), 846-851.
25. Crocker, J., Niiya, Y., & Mischkowski, D. (2008). Why does writing about important values reduce defensiveness? Self-affirmation and the role of positive other-directed feelings. Psychological Science, 19(7), 740-747.
26. Darling-Hammond, L., Wechsler, M. E., Levin, S., & Tozer, S. (2022). Developing effective principals: What kind of learning matters? Learning Policy Institute.
27. Dent, E., Higgins, M., & Wharf, D. (2005). Spirituality and leadership: An empirical review of definitions, distinctions, and embedded assumptions. The Leadership Quarterly, 16(5), 625-653.
28. Ding, Z., & Thien, L. M. (2022). Assessing the antecedents and consequences of teacher leadership: A partial least squares analysis. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 1-23.
29. Ehret, P. J., & Sherman, D. K. (2018). Integrating self-affirmation and implementation intentions: Effects on college student drinking. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 52(8), 633-644.
30. Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G* Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41(4), 1149-1160.
31. Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 31.
32. Fives, H., & Buehl, M. M. (2012). Spring cleaning for the “messy” construct of teachers’ beliefs: What are they? Which have been examined? What can they tell us? In K. R. Harris, S. Graham, & T. Urdan (Eds.), Individual differences and cultural and contextual factors, (pp. 471-499). Washington, DC: APA.
33. Frost, D. (2006). The concept of ‘agency’ in leadership for learning. Leading and Managing, 12(2), 19-28.
34. Frost, D. (2011). Supporting teacher leadership in 15 countries. International Teacher Leadership project, Phase, 1.
35. Frost, D. (2012). From professional development to system change: Teacher leadership and innovation. Professional Development in Education, 38(2), 205-227.
36. Frost, D. (2019). Teacher leadership and professionality. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.
37. Frost, D., & Durrant, J. (2002). Teachers as leaders: Exploring the impact of teacher-led development work. School Leadership and Management, 22(2), 143-161.
38. Gümüş, S. (2022). Özonaylama/Kendini Onaylama. In Ö. Bolat & S. Özdemir (Eds.), Eğitimin Özü (pp. 217-227). Pegem.
39. Goyer, J. P., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Binning, K. R., Cook, J. E., Reeves, S. L., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2017). Self-affirmation facilitates minority middle schoolers’ progress along college trajectories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(29), 7594-7599.
40. Graham-Rowe, E., Jessop, D. C., & Sparks, P. (2019). Self-affirmation theory and pro-environmental behaviour: Promoting a reduction in household food waste. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 62, 124-132.
41. Gronn, P. (2002). Distributed leadership as a unit of analysis. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(4), 423-451.
42. Hallinger, P., & Heck, R. H. (2010). Collaborative leadership and school improvement: Understanding the impact on school capacity and student learning. School Leadership and Management, 30(2), 95-110.
43. Hallinger, P., Piyaman, P., & Viseshsiri, P. (2017). Assessing the effects of learning-centered leadership on teacher professional learning in Thailand. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67, 464-476.
44. Harackiewicz, J. M., Canning, E. A., Tibbetts, Y., Giffen, C. J., Blair, S. S., Rouse, D. I., & Hyde, J. S. (2014). Closing the social class achievement gap for first-generation students in undergraduate biology. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(2), 375.
45. Harris, P. R., & Napper, L. (2005). Self-affirmation and the biased processing of threatening health-risk information. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(9), 1250-1263.
46. Harris, P. R., Mayle, K., Mabbott, L., & Napper, L. (2007). Self-affirmation reduces smokers’ defensiveness to graphic on-pack cigarette warning labels. Health Psychology, 26(4), 437.
47. Hauser, D. J., Ellsworth, P. C., & Gonzalez, R. (2018). Are manipulation checks necessary? Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 998.
48. Heifetz, R. A. (1994). Leadership without easy answers. Harvard University Press.
49. Hunzicker, J. (2013). Attitude has a lot to do with it: Dispositions of emerging teacher leadership. Teacher Development, 17(4), 538-561.
50. Hunzicker, J. (2017). From teacher to teacher leader: A conceptual model. International Journal of Teacher Leadership, 8(2), 1-27.
51. Ingersoll, R. M., Sirinides, P., & Dougherty, P. (2018). Leadership matters: Teachers’ roles in school decision making and school performance. American Educator, 42(1), 13.
52. Jordan, C. H., Spencer, S. J., Zanna, M. P., Hoshino-Browne, E., & Correll, J. (2003). Secure and defensive high self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(5), 969.
53. Katzenmeyer, M., & Moller, G. (2009). Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop as leaders. Corwin Press.
54. Lambert, L. (2003). Leadership capacity for lasting school improvement. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
55. Lieberman, A., & Friedrich, L. D. (2010). How teachers become leaders: Learning from practice and research. Series on School Reform. Teachers College Press. 1234 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027.
56. Leithwood, K. (2021). A review of evidence about equitable school leadership. Education Sciences, 11(8), 377.
57. Leithwood, K., Sun, J., & Schumacker, R. (2020). How school leadership influences student learning: A test of “The four paths model”. Educational Administration Quarterly, 56(4), 570-599.
58. Liebowitz, D. D., & Porter, L. (2019). The effect of principal behaviors on student, teacher, and school outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 785-827.
59. Liu, S., Liu, P., Wang, M., & Zhang, B. (2020). Effectiveness of stereotype threat interventions: A meta-analytic review. The Journal of Applied Psychology, 106(6), 921-949. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000770
60. Logel, C., & Cohen, G. L. (2012). The role of the self in physical health. Psychological Science, 23, 53-55.
61. Lowery-Moore, H., Latimer, R. M., & Villate, V. M. (2016). The essence of teacher leadership: A phenomenological inquiry of professional growth. International Journal of Teacher Leadership, 7(1), 1-16.
62. Margolis, J. (2012). Hybrid teacher leaders and the new professional development ecology. Professional Development in Education, 38(2), 291-315.
63. Margolis, J., & Huggins, K. (2012). Distributed, but undefined: New teacher leader roles to change schools. Journal of School Leadership, 22, 859-981.
64. Martínez, M. Á. Á., & Tadeu, P. M. (2018). Teacher leadership: A bibliometric study. Journal of Educational Change, 19(4), 425-449.
65. McQueen, A., & Klein, W. M. (2006). Experimental manipulations of self-affirmation: A systematic review. Self and Identity, 5(4), 289-354.
66. Meirink, J., Oolbekkink, H., Imants, J., & Bergen, T. (2020). Teacher leadership in professional learning communities: A comparative study in Dutch and Indonesian secondary education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 96, 103-178.
67. Miyake, A., Kost-Smith, L. E., Finkelstein, N. D., Pollock, S. J., Cohen, G. L., & Ito, T. A. (2010). Reducing the gender achievement gap in college science: A classroom study of values affirmation. Science, 330, 1234-1237.
68. Neumerski, C. M. (2012). Rethinking instructional leadership, a review: What do we know about principal, teacher, and coach instructional leadership, and where should we go from here? Educational Administration Quarterly, 49(2), 310-347.
69. Nguyen, D., Harris, A., & Ng, D. (2020). A review of the empirical research on teacher leadership (2003-2017): Evidence, patterns, and implications. Journal of Educational Administration, 58(1), 60-80.
70. Pan, H. L. W., & Chen, W. Y. (2021). How principal leadership facilitates teacher learning through teacher leadership: Determining the critical path. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 49(3), 454-470.
71. Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press.
72. Podsakoff, P. M., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2019). Experimental designs in management and leadership research: Strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improving publishability. The Leadership Quarterly, 30(1), 11-33.
73. Poekert, P. E. (2012). Teacher leadership and professional development: Examining links between two concepts central to school improvement. Professional Development in Education, 38(2), 169-188.
74. Reed, M. B., & Aspinwall, L. G. (1998). Self-affirmation reduces biased processing of health-risk information. Motivation and Emotion, 22, 99-132.
75. Richardson, V., Anders, P., Tidwell, D., & Lloyd, C. (1991). The relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices in reading comprehension instruction. American Educational Research Journal, 28(3), 559–586.
76. Robins, R. W., Hendin, H. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2001). Measuring global self-esteem: Construct validation of a single-item measure and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(2), 151-161.
77. Robinson, V., & Gray, E. (2019). What difference does school leadership make to student outcomes? Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 49(2), 171-187.
78. Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S.H. (2007). Cultural values in organisations: Insights for Europe. European Journal of International Management, 1(3): 176–90.
79. Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C. (2001). Leaders and values: A cross‐cultural study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(5), 243-248.
80. Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 2307– 0919.
81. Schimel, J., Arndt, J., Banko, K. M., & Cook, A. (2004). Not all self-affirmations were created equal: The cognitive and social benefit of affirming the intrinsic (vs.) extrinsic self. Social Cognition, 22, 75-99.
82. Schmeichel, B. J., & Martens, A. (2005). Self-affirmation and mortality salience: Affirming values reduces worldview defense and death-thought accessibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(5), 658-667.
83. Schmeichel, B. J., & Vohs, K. D. (2009). Self-affirmation and self-control: Affirming core values counteracts ego depletion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 770-782.
84. Schott, C., van Roekel, H., & Tummers, L. G. (2020). Teacher leadership: A systematic review, methodological quality assessment, and conceptual framework. Educational Research Review, 31, 100352.
85. Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Are there universal aspects in the structure and contents of human values? Journal of Social Issues, 50, 19–45.
86. Schwartz, S. H. (2017). The refined theory of basic values. Values and behavior: Taking a cross-cultural perspective, 51-72.
87. Sergiovanni, T. J. (1987). The principalship: A reflective practice perspective. Newton, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
88. Shamir, B., House, R. J., & Arthur, M. B. (1993). The motivational effects of charismatic leadership: A self-concept based theory. Organization science, 4(4), 577-594.
89. Shen, J., Wu, H., Reeves, P., Zheng, Y., Ryan, L., & Anderson, D. (2020). The association between teacher leadership and student achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 31, 100357.
90. Sherman, D. A., Nelson, L. D., & Steele, C. M. (2000). Do messages about health risks threaten the self? Increasing the acceptance of threatening health messages via self-affirmation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26(9), 1046-1058.
91. Sherman, D. K. (2013). Self-affirmation: Understanding the effects. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(11), 834-845.
92. Sherman, D. K., & Cohen, G. L. (2006). The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 183-242.
93. Sherman, D. K., & Hartson, K. A. (2011). Reconciling self-protection with self-improvement. Handbook of Self-Enhancement and Self-Protection, 128, 128-151.
94. Sherman, D. K., & Kim, H. S. (2005). Is there an “I” in “team”? The role of the self in group-serving judgments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1), 108.
95. Singh, N., & Krishnan, V. R. (2014). Impact of leader values and transformational leadership on followers. International Journal of Leadership, 2, 52-64.
96. Smylie, M. A., Conley, S., & Marks, H. M. (2002). Section four: Reshaping leadership in action: Exploring new approaches to teacher leadership for school improvement. Teachers College Record, 104(9), 162-188.
97. Smulyan, L. (2016). Stepping into their power: The development of a teacher leadership stance. Schools: Studies in Education, 13(1), 8-28.
98. Spain, S. M., Harms, P., & LeBreton, J. M. (2014). The dark side of personality at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35, S41–S60.
99. Spillane, J. (2006). Distributed leadership. Jossey-Bass.
100. Steele, C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 21, pp. 261-302).
101. Steele, C. M., & Liu, T. J. (1983). Dissonance processes as self-affirmation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(1), 5.
102. Steele, C. M., Spencer, S. J., & Lynch, M. (1993). Self-image resilience and dissonance: The role of affirmational resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 885.
103. Sun, J., Chen, X., & Zhang, S. (2017). A review of research evidence on the antecedents of transformational leadership. Education Sciences, 7(1), 15.
104. Sweeney, A. M., & Moyer, A. (2015). Self-affirmation and responses to health messages: A meta-analysis on intentions and behavior. Health Psychology, 34(2), 149.
105. Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193.
106. Taylor, S. E., & Lobel, M. (1989). Social comparison activity under threat: Downward evaluation and upward contacts. Psychological Review, 96, 569-575.
107. Taherdoost, H. (2016). Sampling methods in research methodology; how to choose a sampling technique for research. How to choose a sampling technique for research (April 10, 2016).
108. Valli, L., van Zee, E., Rennert-Ariev, P., Mikeska, J., Catlett-Muhammad, S., & Roy, P. (2006). Initiating and sustaining a culture of inquiry in a teacher leadership program. Teacher Education Quarterly, 33(3), 97-114.
109. Wang, H., King, R. B., & McInerney, D. M. (2021). Conflicting or compatible? Evaluating teachers’ self-transcendence versus self-enhancement values from a multilevel perspective. Current Psychology, 1-11.
110. Wang, M., & Ho, D. (2020). A quest for teacher leadership in the twenty-first century – emerging themes for future research. International Journal of Educational Management, 34(2), 354-372.
111. Wang, M., & Xia, J. (2022). A scale for measuring teacher leadership in early childhood education in China: Development and validation. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 50(4), 649-671.
112. Wang, H., & Hall, N. C. (2019). When “I care” is not enough: An interactional analysis of teacher values, value congruence, and well-being. Teaching and Teacher Education, 86, 102906.
113. Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The theoretical and empirical basis of teacher leadership: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 87(1), 134-171.
114. Wert, S. R., & Salovey, P. (2004). A social comparison account of gossip. Review of General Psychology, 8, 122-137.
115. Wilson, T. (2011). Redirect: The surprising new science of psychological change. Penguin UK.
116. Wu, X., De Li, L., & Wei, C. (2018). Investigating the effect of teacher leadership on job satisfaction. Psychological Reports, 121(6), 1125-1138.
117. Xia, J. (2021). Teachers’ leadership in a Chinese school context: What does it mean to teachers and how is it experienced and demonstrated? School Leadership & Management, 41(3), 308-330.
118. Yaden, D. B., Haidt, J., Hood, R. W., Vago, D. R., and Newberg, A. (2017a). The varieties of self-transcendent experience. Review of General Psychology, 21, 143–160.
119. Yaghi, H. A. (2019). A model of teacher leadership, motivation and job satisfaction. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 47(4), 655-673.
120. York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of educational research, 74(3), 255-316.
121. Yu, Y. T., & Chen, Y. C. (2016). Teacher leadership as a professional development tool in relation to teacher efficacy and organizational commitment. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(6), 936-954.
122. Zhang, X., & Tian, X. (2019). A study of teacher leadership in promoting job satisfaction in Chinese kindergartens. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(5), 814-832.
123. Zhang, Y., Zhang, C., Wang, L., & Wei, Z. (2020). How transformational leadership influences follower voice in China: The role of self-affirmation and moral identity. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1223.