Nurturing Female Teachers' Leadership Aspiration: The Role of Principal–Teacher Relationships, Resilience and Self-Efficacy

While the research on female leadership has been ubiquitous in contemporary educational administration discourse, the preponderance of research has scrutinised personal, social, and cultural barriers to female teachers' leadership, lacking an understanding of school support mechanisms to strengthen their cognitive and emotional strength and support their leadership aspirations. To address this, we examined the relationship between principal–teacher relationships and female teachers' leadership aspirations, considering the mediating roles of teacher resilience and self-efficacy. We employed structural equation modelling, followed by a regression decision tree analysis, using a sample of 481 teachers in Türkiye. We found that (1) positive principal–teacher relationships are positively associated with teacher resilience, self-efficacy, and female teachers' leadership aspirations; (2) psychological resilience and self-efficacy positively relate to female teachers' leadership intentions; (3) teacher resilience and self-efficacy partially mediate the relationship between principal–teacher interactions and female teachers' aspirations for leadership. We concluded that principal–teacher relationships can support teachers' psychological resilience and self-efficacy, and motivate female teachers to seek leadership positions.