The relationship between teacher leadership style and learning engagement of English major students—the mediating role of academic self-efficacy

Introduction Teacher leadership is an important factor that likely influences students’ learning engagement. However, teacher leadership has received less attention from researchers than other potential causes of learning engagement. Previous research has focused mainly on the perspectives of principals (i.e., academic leaders) and teachers. Student-perceived teacher leadership has received comparatively less empirical attention, or conducted in-depth research on the relationships between this factor and students’ academic self-efficacy and learning engagement. Methods This study explores the relationships among teacher leadership and English major students’ academic self-efficacy and learning engagement in the foreign language context. A questionnaire was completed by 591 English major students at three common colleges via a random sampling method. Results The results showed teacher leadership, academic self-efficacy, and learning engagement were all positively correlated with each other. Teacher leadership had significant impacts on both academic self-efficacy and learning engagement, with academic self-efficacy mediating the relationship between teacher leadership and learning engagement. Discussion Therefore, enhancing the teacher leadership of college teachers and promoting students’ academic self-efficacy can effectively boost learning engagement among English major students and promote a positive academic atmosphere in foreign language education of colleges.