Preschool Teachers’ Personality Traits and Their Leadership Practices: The Moderating Role of School Attributes

Abstract

This study examined the moderating role of school attributes in the relationship between teacher personality traits and teacher leadership in early childhood education in Beijing, China. A total of 492 preschool teachers were investigated using a convenient sampling method. The results indicated that except for the correlation between the personality trait of agreeableness and participation in school-based decision making, and the correlation between the personality trait of neuroticism and characteristics of teacher leaders being not significant, correlations between other dimensions of teacher personality traits and teacher leadership were significant. The moderating role of school attributes occurred in the influence of two personality traits—extraversion and openness to experience—when participating in school-based decision making. The study suggests that school leaders distinguish different personality traits of teachers and transformational leaders who can empower and cultivate informal teacher leaders.