Leadership for Learning: How School Leadership Shapes Teacher Agency, Innovation, and Professional Identity

Amish Mohanlal Punjabi

Leadership for Learning: How School Leadership Shapes Teacher Agency, Innovation, and Professional Identity

Author(s)	Amish Mohanlal Punjabi
Country	India
Abstract	Educational leadership has emerged as one of the most decisive factors influencing the quality of teaching and learning in schools. This paper investigates how different leadership approaches—particularly transformational, instructional, and distributed models—shape teacher professional growth, agency, and institutional learning. The study adopts a qualitative interpretivist lens, supported by an integrative review of global and Indian research between 2010 and 2025, including the author’s prior empirical works on teacher satisfaction, educational administration, and policy analysis (Sheokand, 2017; 2023; 2024). Findings reveal that effective school leadership extends beyond managerial control to act as a developmental force that nurtures reflective practice, emotional safety, and collective innovation among teachers. Transformational leaders who model trust, intellectual stimulation, and shared purpose consistently enable teachers to pursue self-directed learning and experimentation in pedagogy. Distributed leadership models foster professional learning communities, while instructional leadership provides clarity of vision and pedagogical coherence. The paper also identifies systemic challenges such as bureaucratic rigidity, excessive workload, and limited mentorship opportunities that constrain growth, particularly in the Indian context. The discussion synthesizes these insights into a “Leadership–Learning Nexus Model” that positions leadership as both a structural and psychological catalyst for teacher empowerment. Implications highlight the urgent need to redesign leadership training, embed reflective spaces in school systems, and align policy frameworks toward continuous professional growth. The study concludes that schools flourish when leaders cultivate not just organizational outcomes, but the inner potential and identity of teachers.
Keywords	school leadership, teacher professional growth, transformational leadership, teacher agency, instructional leadership, distributed leadership, organizational learning.
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 17, Issue 1, January-June 2026
Published On	2026-03-28
Cite This	Leadership for Learning: How School Leadership Shapes Teacher Agency, Innovation, and Professional Identity - Amish Mohanlal Punjabi - IJAIDR Volume 17, Issue 1, January-June 2026.

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Leadership for Learning: How School Leadership Shapes Teacher Agency, Innovation, and Professional Identity

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