How organizational support promotes teacher professional recognition: a perspective on teachers’ autonomous learning and teaching abilities

Introduction Teacher professional recognition is a key factor in promoting teacher professional development and improving educational quality. In reality, many teachers feel undervalued and lack the recognition and attention they deserve, and organizational support often remains superficial. Existing research has mostly focused on either organizational support or teacher competence in isolation, lacking a systematic exploration of their synergistic effects. This theoretical blind spot has limited the academic understanding of the mechanisms of teacher professional recognition and has led to school support measures that are not targeted enough to meet the real needs of teachers, potentially further weakening their sense of recognition and hindering the continuous improvement of educational quality. Methods To fill this gap, this study conducted a questionnaire survey of 3,983 primary and secondary school teachers from different regions in China. Data analysis was performed using Mplus 8.0, SPSS 27.0, and Smart PLS 4.0 software. Results Organizational support not only directly influences teacher professional recognition but also indirectly affects it through the parallel mediating roles of autonomous learning ability and teaching ability. Discussion This mechanism integrates both organizational and individual levels, indicating that organizational support can directly impact professional recognition and revealing two specific mediating paths. The first is the autonomous learning ability path, where organizational support promotes teachers’ active learning and reflection. The second is the teaching ability path, where organizational support enhances teachers’ teaching design and enthusiasm. These multiple paths collectively drive the deepening of teacher professional recognition. Theoretically, this study clarifies the mechanism by which organizational support influences teacher professional recognition, expands the integrated framework of organizational support theory and self-determination theory, and enriches the existing theoretical knowledge system. Practically, the study suggests that schools should establish a comprehensive support system covering policies, leadership, and colleagues, implement differentiated support strategies, and innovate evaluation and incentive mechanisms to genuinely enhance the importance placed on teachers. Future research could adopt longitudinal or experimental designs, expand sample diversity and representativeness, and integrate qualitative evidence to enhance the validity and robustness of research results.