Distributed Leadership as a Catalyst for Change: Building Emotional Capital to Enhance Teachers' Beliefs in AI-Integrated Teaching

Asia-Pacific Education Researcher - WoS (SSCI), Q1

Author: Đặng Mỹ Duyên - Trường Đại học Đông Á
Abstract:

Teachers’ beliefs regarding AI-integrated teaching influence the intelligent application of education, yet there remains a gap in understanding the roles of leadership support and psychological factors. Guided by the Conservation of Resources Theory, this study examines how distributed leadership affects the AI teaching beliefs of junior high school teachers in Vietnam. Using data from TALIS 2024, a chain mediation model was established to investigate the mediating effects of teacher stress and teaching enjoyment. The results show that distributed leadership not only directly and positively predicts teachers’ AI teaching beliefs but also exerts an indirect influence through the pathway of stress reduction and enhanced teaching enjoyment. A key finding is that teacher stress itself is not significantly directly associated with AI teaching beliefs, whereas teaching enjoyment plays a central mediating role. This reveals that, in the context of educational intelligence transformation, distributed leadership primarily motivates teachers to embrace AI teaching innovation by cultivating their positive emotional capital, rather than merely reducing their workload. The findings underscore the importance of establishing distributed leadership structures and supportive emotional environments in schools, providing empirical evidence for educational policymakers and school administrators to promote sustainable intelligent education transformation through leadership development and emotional support.