The manner in which perceived principal distributed leadership affects teachers’ professional agency remains ambiguous in Oman. The study aimed to explore the effect of distributed leadership on teacher agency through teacher reflection. In the cross-sectional study, survey data were gathered from 1095 teachers in 58 middle and secondary schools in Muscat, Oman. Structural equation modelling and bootstrapping were used to analyse the data. Data analysis revealed that distributed leadership elicited significant direct and indirect effects on teacher agency, with teacher reflection playing a partial mediating role in this relationship. These results contribute to an existing body of research that confirms the relationship between principal leadership and teacher agency and highlights the importance of reflection in shaping this relationship. Moreover, these results could provide cultural evidence for theoretical implications and offer evidence-based guidance to policymakers and principals to promote teacher agency.

Purpose: Research has provided powerful evidence that what teachers do in the classroom matters most for the learning of students. Evidence also suggests that school leaders can make a significant difference to student learning via their influence on teachers' attitudes, beliefs and classroom practices. The purpose of this study was to examine if/how principal instructional leadership practices affect differentiated instruction in Omani schools, and understand the role that teacher collaboration and self-efficacy play in this dynamic.Design/methodology/approach: The study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from a sample of 496 teachers working in public schools in Muscat, Oman.Findings: The findings revealed no direct association between principal instructional leadership and differentiated instruction. Instead, the effects of principal instructional leadership on differentiated instruction were achieved indirectly through the mediation of teacher collaboration and teacher self-efficacy. Collaboration was also found to have a positive influence on the teachers' self-efficacy beliefs.Originality/value: The significance of this study stems from its relevance to the educational developments unfolding not only in Oman, but in the Gulf region at large. Recent reviews of educational administration and leadership research in the Gulf states indicate the scarcity of empirical research investigating the relationship between principal leadership and teacher practices. This is problematic as it creates a gap in our knowledge of the factors that can support ongoing school improvement initiatives in the region. More specifically, we expect our findings to guide current educational reforms aimed at raising education quality via promoting effective teaching and learning in Omani schools.

Reflection is fundamental to teachers’ agency, professional learning, and sustainable school improvement. This study investigates schoolteachers’ conceptions of reflection and the factors they report as affecting their engagement in it. The study deploys Habermas’ (1984)theory of communicative action, specifically the lifeworld colonization thesis and the contexts of relevance notion to understand teachers’ conceptions of reflection. The paper analyzes teachers’ reports within this framework and argues that teachers’ reflection is, at best, reduced to a technical endeavor, one aimed at primarily and exclusively improving teachers’ restricted and narrowed practices within pre-set standards. The study concludes with a proposed framework highlighting the role of leadership in developing conducive environments by drawing on the justified indoctrination acontrived collegiality.