Leading Educational Change in Egyptian Schools: The Role of Change Leadership, School Climate, and Teachers' Innovative Practices

Educational reform in developing contexts requires effective leadership and a supportive school climate to stimulate teachers’ innovative behaviours. This chapter examines how change leadership (CL) can foster teacher innovation in Egyptian public schools by shaping an innovative school climate. Drawing on data from 696 teachers across various regions of Egypt, the chapter analyses the relationships between CL, innovative climate (IC), and teachers’ innovative practices (TIPs). Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test a framework in which IC mediates the relationship between CL and TIP. The findings show that CL has a significant positive effect on both IC and TIP. IC also partially mediates the relationship between CL and TIP. These findings highlight the central role of principals’ change-oriented behaviours in cultivating climates that encourage pedagogical creativity and innovation. The chapter contributes to educational leadership scholarship in non-Western contexts by offering empirical evidence on the mechanisms through which change-oriented leadership fosters innovation in Egyptian schools.