Teachers’ Perceptions of Leadership, Cognitive Trust, and School Functioning in a UAE Public School: An Exploratory Case Study

This exploratory case study examined teachers’ perceptions of leadership behavior, cognitive trust, collective teacher efficacy, and perceived school functioning in a public secondary school in the United Arab Emirates. Grounded in relational leadership and social cognitive theories, the study investigated how leadership behavior relates to trust, collective efficacy, and teachers’ perceptions of school functioning. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was administered to all teachers in the school (N = 35), yielding 31 responses (88.6% response rate). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman correlations, and regression analyses. Results showed that leadership behavior was positively associated with cognitive trust in the principal, collective teacher efficacy, and perceived school functioning. In regression analyses, leadership behavior emerged as the most consistent predictor of perceived school outcomes, explaining a substantial proportion of the variance and yielding a large practical effect. Although trust and student-context variables were significantly related to school functioning at the bivariate level, they were not significant predictors when leadership behavior was included in the model. These findings highlight the central role of teachers’ perceptions of leadership in shaping evaluations of organizational functioning, with implications for relational leadership development and future multi-site, longitudinal research in Gulf educational contexts.