A study on the influence of teacher leadership, work motivation and colleague trust on teacher professional learning community in kindergartens in Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

This study takes kindergarten teachers in the Guangdong Province of China as the research object. It takes learning organization as the theoretical basis to explore the effects of teacher leadership, work motivation, and colleague trust on the teacher professional learning community and the mediating role of teacher work motivation and colleague trust. 620 validated questionnaires were randomly distributed to kindergarten teachers in Guangdong Province, China. The results showed that the leadership of kindergarten teachers in Guangdong Province had a significant positive effect on teachers’ work motivation, teacher-colleague trust, and teacher professional learning community. In verifying the mediating effect, teachers’ work motivation has no mediating effect between teacher leadership and the teacher professional learning community. Still, the teacher-colleague trust had mediated the effect between teacher leadership and the teacher professional learning community. Our study suggested that attention should be paid to the mediating role of teachers’ colleague trust and the cultivation of teachers’ group trust, to encourage teachers to communicate and cooperate, actively participate in professional learning, and promote the development of teachers’ professional learning community.