This study examines the effect of school principals’ distributed leadership behaviors on teacher collaboration and investigates the mediating role of teacher agency in this relationship within the Turkish context. Employing a quantitative correlational survey design, the study draws on data from 525 teachers working in public K–12 schools across 12 provinces in Türkiye. The results indicate that distributed leadership has significant and positive direct effects on both teacher agency and teacher collaboration. In addition, teacher agency partially mediates the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher collaboration. Enhancing teacher autonomy and participation strengthens sustainable collaborative professional practices.
Cemaloğlu et al. (2026) studied this question.