Which leadership predicts teacher cooperation? Multilevel evidence from Moroccan secondary schools

Using data from Morocco's first participation in TALIS 2024, this study applies multilevel mixed-effects models to examine how school leadership is associated with two dimensions of the collaborative climate among teachers: professional collaboration in lessons and the exchange of information and ideas. By distinguishing relational leadership from instructional leadership and separating within-school effects from between-school effects through Mundlak decomposition, we find that instructional leadership predicts both dimensions of cooperation, whereas relational leadership does not. Instructional leadership operates at both the individual and the school level, to a comparable degree. Compared with private school teachers, public school teachers report markedly less collaboration and information exchange. These findings offer novel evidence for policymakers that teacher-perceived instructional leadership is more consistently associated with teacher cooperation than relational leadership, with direct implications for Morocco's ongoing teacher-leadership reforms and the broader North African context.