Transformational Leadership and Instructional Quality during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Moderated Mediation Analysis

Abstract

The school lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
pushed teachers to online teaching literally overnight, which put
their performance at risk. Transformational school leadership
(TSL), teacher self-efficacy (TSE) and digital competencies might
have played a protective role in such burdening conditions.
Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the mediating
role of TSE in explaining the relationship between TSL and
instructional quality. Additionally, the moderating role of digital
competencies in explaining the interrelations between TSL and
TSE as well as between TSE and instructional quality, or the
proposed mediating mechanism, was tested. The study was
conducted via online survey in Spring 2020 and involved 1655
Croatian teachers. The mediation and moderated mediation
analyses revealed that TSL was positively related to instructional
quality both directly and indirectly via TSE. Teacher digital
competencies did not moderate the proposed relationships or
the mediating mechanism.