The pathways between teacher leadership and job satisfaction: A mixture model on teacher self-efficacy profiles in Türkiye

Studies increasingly emphasize teacher leadership and job satisfaction as vital elements. As well, scholars have primarily conceptualized teacher self-efficacy through variable-centered approaches, potentially overlooking its heterogeneity. In response to current calls for person-centered approaches, this study aimed to identify latent profiles of teacher self-efficacy and examine how these profiles operate within the association between teacher leadership and job satisfaction. Data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2024 were analyzed, including responses from 4976 Turkish high school teachers. The findings revealed three latent profiles of teacher self-efficacy: low, moderate, and high. Moreover, teacher leadership significantly predicted job satisfaction and was positively related to teachers’ likelihood of belonging to self-efficacy profiles. In turn, job satisfaction differed systematically across these profiles, with teachers in the high self-efficacy profile reporting higher job satisfaction. Taken together, the findings suggest that latent self-efficacy profiles may help explain how teacher leadership is associated with differences in teacher job satisfaction. Overall, the results underline the importance of teachers’ self-efficacy profiles for exploring teacher leadership and job satisfaction. Implications and future research are discussed.