The Role of School Leadership in Strengthening Teacher Loyalty

Abstract

School leadership shapes teachers’ motivation, retention, and willingness to go beyond compliance, which makes it a practical lever for improving school performance in resource-constrained systems. However, Philippine evidence that links specific National Competency-Based Standards for School Heads-aligned leadership domains to the three components of teacher commitment in terms of affective, continuance, and normative remains limited, especially in public secondary schools outside major urban centers. This study examined the extent to which school heads’ leadership practices predict teachers’ organizational commitment among public secondary teachers in Northern Luzon, Philippines. Using a quantitative descriptive–correlational–predictive design, 275 teachers from five public secondary schools completed an adapted leadership practices questionnaire and the Meyer and Allen organizational commitment scale. Descriptive statistics, Pearson r, and linear regression were used to analyze the data. Results indicate that teachers perceived leadership practices as strong overall, with instructional support rated comparatively lower than systems alignment and ethics-related practices. Teachers reported generally strong commitment, but their attachment tended to be driven more by continuance and normative considerations than by affective connection. Leadership practices showed a moderate positive association with overall commitment and significantly predicted commitment, with stronger effects on affective and normative commitment. These findings suggest that targeted leadership development, particularly in instructional supervision, ethical decision-making, and stakeholder collaboration, can strengthen teacher loyalty and support retention-oriented school improvement and policy initiatives.