Keywords

1 Introduction

Teaching is creative and complex and requires high skills. Hence, teachers must constantly deepen their knowledge, skills, and value to be effective leader throughout their careers. In recent studies, teacher leadership has been defined as it is centered on a vision of a teacher who is able to build influence and interaction, rather than power and authority (Poekert, 2012). According to Fairman and Mackenzie (2012), teacher leadership emerged within many different contexts, such as individual and collective efforts; informal and formal actions; narrowly focused and broader school-wide improvement efforts; a school climate of isolation and mistrust; or one of collegiality, shared vision, and trust. Whereas, Hunzicker (2013) reported that teacher leadership roles and responsibilities are closely related to student-focused concerns. However, their self-efficacy increase when the teacher actively pursued leadership skills and positively influence their self-conceptions of teacher leadership.

Meanwhile, according to Danielson (2006), the leadership of teacher is the activities carried out by individuals who have knowledge and skills to influence other individuals inside and outside the organization. This in line with A. Ghani, Radzi, Marzuki, and Faisol (2014) and Fairman and Mackenzie (2015), where teacher leadership concept refers to teachers who make a difference whether within or outside the organization through knowledge and skill and style that affects colleagues. Therefore, it is shown that teachers use the knowledge, skills, and value to influence colleagues in adopting best practices in school. There are at least three major elements need to be considered in enhancing teacher leadership, which is knowledge, skill (Fairman & Mackenzie, 2012; Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009; Phelps, 2008; York-Barr & Duke, 2004), and value (MOE, 2009), of the teacher, which are going to discussed further below. At present, few instruments exist to measure teacher leadership by using these three elements especially in Malaysian high schools. Meanwhile, most scales were developed in the West such as Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009) and this scale is not designed to tap into the perceptions of teachers, which were reviewed to be meaningful, powerful, and intense in the lives of Malaysians. Therefore, it is a need to develop and validate a good reliable scale which is more suitable to Malaysian educational context.

Hence, the objectives of this study are (1) to develop an initial pool of items for scale to measure the elements of teacher leadership among teachers in terms knowledge, skill, and value; (2) to perform an EFA to assess the factor structure of the scale items; (3) to analyze the initial estimates of reliability indices and construct validity of the TLI scores; and (4) to test the factor structure of the scores obtained from the items determined in EFA, through the use of CFA. These objectives will be answered in two phases of study.

1.1 Teachers Knowledge

According to Green (2005); Yusof, Min, Jalil, Noor, and Yusof (2018), knowledge is what teachers know in order to promote the success of all students. Furthermore, with adequate knowledge, they can identify an appropriate and acceptable process for the schools’ success. Knowledge in this study refers to teachers’ understanding on teacher leadership concept, where teachers tend to use their content knowledge on teachers’ leadership and apply it in the school and community in order to strive for schools’ excellence. Besides, knowledge in this study also refers to teachers’ leadership knowledge, whereby teachers positively influent adults and young learners, formally and informally beyond individual classrooms (Ado, 2016; Carver, 2016; Dehart, 2011). Hence, leadership knowledge requires teachers to have extensive knowledge about students’ physical and psychological, as well as theory of pedagogy and andragogy (Darling-Hammond, Flook, Cook-Harvey, Barron, & Osher, 2019; Tamuri, Mahmud, & Bari, 2005).

Leadership knowledge also can be enhanced through practicing teachers’ professional learning for continuous improvement (Fairman & Mackenzie, 2014; Lieberman, Campbell, & Yashkina, 2017). In other words, teachers need to collaborate and contribute in the school improvement program by reflecting, collaborating, and engaging in school-wide decision-making based on distinct backgrounds, ethnicities, cultures, and languages in the school community while sharing best practices among colleagues (Bond, 2011; Cherkowski & Schnellert, 2017; Harmon, 2017; Lieberman & Miller, 2005; Spillane, 2005; Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011; Wenner & Campbell, 2017).

In this context, teachers will be able to voice their opinions to achieve the shared vision and mission of the school improvement. Meanwhile, novice teachers who are still lack of knowledge about the school systems and teacher leadership skills (Muijs, Chapman, & Armstrong, 2013) can use this platform to enhance their knowledge. According to Muijs (2015) and Harmon (2017), teacher leadership also provides spaces for teachers to share knowledge through school-to-school collaboration for significant school improvement. Brondyk and Stanulis (2014) and Lieberman et al. (2017), too, claim that teachers’ involvement in teacher leadership program at the ministry level would also provide opportunity for teachers to share their views in policy making and best practices as well.

Nonetheless, various empirical studies had proposed that it was crucial to develop the concept of teachers’ leadership knowledge during teacher preparation program which will be further practiced throughout their careers (Abidin, Norwani, & Musa, 2016; Bond & Sterrett, 2014; Musa, Yusof, Noor, Mansor, & Abidin, 2019; Neumann, Jones, & Webb, 2012; Padzil, 2016; York-Barr & Duke, 2004). In conclusion, teachers should be exposed with leadership skills since early stage at teacher’s training colleges so that they can face the challenges in the process of enhancing instructional practices in the classrooms (Moller & Katzenmeyer, 1996; Ontario Leadership Strategy, 2013; Sawalhi & Chaaban, 2019).

1.2 Teachers Skill

Teacher leadership skill is closely related to good teamwork skill. A study conducted by Khan and Ahmad (2012) had also confirmed that good teamwork skill requires effective interpersonal skills. According to Barnett et al. (2018), effective interpersonal skills enable teachers to lead by engaging, inspiring, and motivating others to improve through their actions. They are able to lead by effectively communicate with colleagues and inform them of their goals in ways that can garner support of their vision for the school improvement (Broemmel, Jordan, & Whitsett, 2016; Danielson, 2007; Huang, 2016). However, the teachers can only acquire this leadership skill through a broad range of practice. There are many leadership skills that a teacher must have in order to be successful and effective teacher leader. According to Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009), teachers who have the leadership skills to influence other teachers or students and other school communities can act as facilitators, mentors, counselors, and curriculum specialists toward improved educational practices, student learning, and achievement. Essentially, teachers who are able to lead would shape meaningful systems that contribute to the quality of educational system in the long term (Lieberman et al., 2017; Szeto & Cheng, 2017). In other words, teachers who portray influential skills , formally and informally, beyond individual classrooms would contribute to positive impact in student learning (Dehart, 2011), as well as to create a more enriching classroom environment (Fairman & Mackenzie, 2012). Hence, every teacher should have influential leadership skills and attributes. As a matter of fact, Danielson (2007) had also highlighted other additional skills that individual teachers may adopt. According to Danielson (2007), effective teachers must be open-minded and respect others’ views. They also should show confidence, assertive, flexible, and willing to try a different approach if their efforts failed, as well as willing to encounter a variety of risks such as time constraints in their daily job. Meanwhile, De Villiers and Pretorius (2011) and Barnett et al. (2018) emphasize that teacher leadership occurs in four settings which are in the classrooms, working with other teachers outside the classrooms, extracurricular activities, and school development and leadership practices among schools’ community. However, their study concluded that most of the leadership practices happen in the classroom, during teaching and learning improvement. Therefore, teachers must learn to lead a group, listen, use the data, and identify other needs to acquire a strong set of skills to be use in the school daily routines (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009).

Research done by Angelle, Nixon, Norton, and Niles (2011) showed that teacher leadership skills imposed high impact on school development through shared responsibility among teachers. This can be achieved through collaborative relationship and school culture based on trust. To achieve collaborative relationship and trusted culture, Jackson, Burrus, Bassett, and Roberts (2010) and Lieberman et al. (2017) suggested teachers should learn in groups. In other word, teachers should share best practices among colleagues and engage in school-wide decision-making through teachers’ participation with or without position and its positive implication to teachers themselves, students’ achievement, and school performance (Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011; Yusof, Vyapuri, Jalil, Mansor, & Noor, 2017). Another study conducted by Frost (2012) also confirmed that teachers who portray leadership skills are able to lead any development projects regardless of whatever positions they hold. Likewise, teachers who do not have any interest in leading colleagues also portray leadership skills informally beyond their classrooms (Leonard, Petta, & Porter, 2012).

In particular, this idea runs parallel with the focus of teachers as leaders who leads other teachers through group learning or commonly known as professional learning community (Wilson, 2016). In group learning, teachers will welcome a group of teachers to join their instructional sessions. According to Roberts and Pruitt (2009) and Olusegun and Bada (2015), group learning refers to the learning process that takes place among teachers to discuss on important issues in schools in identifying students’ learning. This professional learning community has led to changes in pedagogy through shared goals, relationships, and trust as well as supports continuous learning which gives a positive impact on student achievement and improve teacher effectiveness (Day, 2017; Harris & Jones, 2010; Sharratt & Fullan, 2009) as an effort to help other colleagues (Ghani & Crow, 2013; Lieberman et al., 2017).

Therefore, Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium (2011) suggests that teachers need to understand the family, culture, and society as they give a big impact to the educational process and student learning. Teacher needs to work with colleagues to establish a good continuous relationship with families, communities, and other stakeholders to improve the education system and student learning opportunities. Finally, teachers also can play a vital role as a referral leader to guide students, lead, and guide himself or herself and their colleagues to the shared purposive goals without being autocratic (Idris & Hamzah, 2012). In conclusion, these studies clearly shown that a teacher who poses leadership skills can be the role model and referral leader to students, colleagues, parents, and the community. Indirectly, it showed that leadership skills can be applied in each and every teacher as individual.

1.3 Teachers Value

The value is defined as beliefs about what is the right and wrong way for people to behave, and it is also known as moral principles (MOE, 2009). The term value in this study has been defined as a set of beliefs that teachers have toward the school and community and could give a great impact in schools transformation process. The school transformation process requires teachers to be transformative leaders in their respective classrooms. Hence, teachers need to portray at least five core values that shall help them in being outstanding transformative leaders, facilitators, and educators in the classrooms. Firstly, teachers should portray integrity in being instructional leaders in the classrooms. Similarly, they need to be honest in explaining solution to any confusion that the students may encounter. Secondly, teachers should always possess a sense of hope that their students can perform better. In other words, teachers should practice distinct ways of explaining core concepts to students as students have distinct learning styles too. Thirdly, teachers should always possess a sense of urgency in meeting academic as well as nonacademic goals that they had set for their students. Lingering around may not be a good idea as time is valuable , and students have also invested ample time expecting to learn meaningful and important information. Fourthly, teachers should be learners too. Teachers need to stay updated and learn advance technology in preparing students globally. At times, teachers should be accountable in learning distinct culture and beliefs from students as well. Last but not least, teachers also need to have respect and responsibility toward students. In other words, teachers are responsible in developing holistic society via educated and capable manpower. Upon possessing and exhibiting these core values, teachers shall be able to nurture students who will constantly practice good values in their daily lives.

Teachers also need to instill professionalism of teaching practices in them while being a guidance and role model to the students. According to MOE (2009, 2013) and Abdullah, Hassan, and Ying-Leh (2019), the practice of the professionalism will be a platform for teachers to develop good characters to fulfill the function of the school as a place of national establishment to develop human capital and this in line with the Malaysian National Education Philosophy and Philosophy of Teacher Education aspirations. The practice of professionalism in teaching is an initiative to develop a teacher who has a towering personality in becoming an excellent teacher (MOE, 2009).

Teachers also must have a high cognitive skills and a good personality. According Cheng and Zamarro (2016), teachers who have values and high self-esteem should be aware that the dignity of the teaching profession lies in their hands and teachers also should highlight the positive values in them because the students often refer them as the role models. In line with the philosophy of Malaysian Teacher Education, teachers must be honorable, have a progressive and scientific vision, ready to uphold the aspirations of the country, ensuring the development of individuals, as well as preserve the unity, democratic, and progressive community (Mok, 2010). In order to meet the current education challenges, teachers should have a strong values and self-esteem in them. According to Mat Som and Megat Daud (2008) and MOE (2013), the main aspects to be address in promoting the teaching profession are a teacher’s own personality. This is because the personal quality of the teacher is a source of knowledge and able to emulate the formation of good character (Abas, 2007; Qomar, 2016). In other words, the teacher is acting as “value developer” (MacBeath, Pedder, & Swaffield, 2007). Therefore, teachers need to show good personal values to the students, schools, and communities. These good personal qualities can guide and educate students to develop their personal character. In conclusion, the core values that a teacher must have are honest, discipline, responsibility, timeliness, and a commitment to work (MOE, 2009).

Thus, according to the literature, teacher leadership can be classified into three dimensions as suggested by Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009), Phelps (2008), Fairman and Mackenzie (2012, 2015), and MOE (2009): knowledge, skills, and values in practice, which are used in our model. However, currently, there are still not many suitable instruments to measure secondary school teachers’ perception toward teacher leadership. Most of the previous studies have been carried in Western countries, such as Teacher Leadership Self-Assessment (TLSA) developed by Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009), and the measurement is not really suitable with Malaysian context as well as less has been reviewed by previous researcher. Secondly is the use of suitable statistical procedure in developing and validating items. The exploratory factor analysis has been well suggested by experts if there are less research have been carried out regarding the observe factor structure (Bandalos & Finney, 2018). However, Hair, Black, Babin, Anderson, and Tatham (2018) argued that the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) itself cannot be used as a basis for a final determination regarding an underlying construct, because the analysis is designed to maximize the amount of variance within the current variable set, and subsequent analyses with other data sets may not reproduce the same factor structure. Furthermore, EFA only focuses on statistical and not according to the theory in determining the measurement structure scale as well as not enough to measure error (Byrne, 2016; Morin, Arens, Tran, & Caci, 2016; Schulz et al., 2018). Given these various constraints and limitations of existing instrument reviewed, therefore it was necessary for the researchers to develop an empirically validated Teacher Leadership Inventory (TLI) specifically measuring perceptions, for use in Malaysian educational context. The use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is more suitable in developing and validating items. As the EFA itself, according to Hair et al. (2018), can be used as a basis for a final determination regarding an underlying construct, because this analysis is designed to maximize the amount of variance within the current variable set, and subsequent analyses with other data sets may not reproduce the same factor structure. Furthermore, EFA only focuses on statistical and not according to the theory in determining the measurement structure scale as well as not enough to measure error. However, the use of EFA, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), content validity, as well as internal consistency are more suitable in developing and validating items . Given these various constraints and limitations of existing instrument reviewed, it was therefore necessary to develop an empirically validated TLI specifically in measuring perceptions of Malaysian secondary school teachers.

Hence, the objectives of this study are (1) to generate an initial pool of items for scale to measure the elements of teacher leadership among teachers; (2) to perform an EFA to assess the factor structure of the scale items; (3) to analyze the initial estimates of reliability indices and construct validity of the TLI scores; and (4) to test the factor structure of the scores obtained from the items determined in EFA, through the use of CFA. The method will be discussed in details below.

2 Method and Results

This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase will address the research objectives:

  1. 1.

    To generate an initial pool of items for scale to measure the elements of teacher leadership among teachers

  2. 2.

    To perform an EFA to assess the factor structure of the scale items

  3. 3.

    To analyze the initial estimates of reliability indices and construct validity of the TLI scores

  4. 4.

    Meanwhile, research objective:

  5. 5.

    To test the factor structure of the scores obtained from the items determined in EFA, through the use of CFA

  6. 6.

    Each phase is discussed in details below.

In Malaysia, permission for conducting research and data collection is typically granted by the ministry of education and the school principals. Approval was sought and obtained for the researchers to conduct the research at the schools prior to data collection. The purpose of the data collection was explained to the principals as well as teachers, and consent to participate in the study was obtained from involved teachers. Participation was strictly voluntary, and all responses were confidential. All questionnaires were administered both, in Malay and English.

A multistage cluster sampling technique has been used in this data collection. The first phase of the study has been carried out by using data from 166 teachers from 19 secondary schools in Batang Padang District, Perak. This set of data was used in preliminary study as to perform content validity, criterion validity, and EFA. 15 sets of questionnaires were distributed to each of these 19 regular secondary schools, only 200 questionnaries were return, and 166 valid for analysis. Meanwhile, for the second phase of the study, the confirmatory factor analysis has been carried out toward data of 244 teachers from 19 secondary schools in Perak, Malaysia. A total of 285 survey forms were circulated, of which 244 surveys were return and valid for analysis.

2.1 Phase 1

2.1.1 Questionnaire Design

The questionnaire is originally composed of three parts, 18 items including knowledge, skill, and value. The instrument used has been adopted from Niche Research Grant Scheme (NRGS) 2014 Project 4: Teacher Leadership. The questionnaire items were shown in Table 11.5 and answered using a four-point scale anchoring at 1, 2, 3, and 4 (strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree). The comparative analysis of teacher leadership models such as Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009), Phelps (2008), York-Barr and Duke (2004), Fairman and Mackenzie (2012, 2015), Malaysian Education Development Plan, Malaysian National Policy of Education, and Malaysian Teacher Standard (2009), as well as through key informants and survey of lecturers and teachers from schools and higher learning institutions in Malaysia has been done to develop these items.

2.1.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis, Validity, and Reliability

The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient is used to measure the internal consistency of these scales (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994). In this study, the constructs which had Cronbach’s alpha coefficients greater than 0.70 have been retained for further analysis (Hair et al., 2018). Furthermore, measures with item-to-total correlation larger than 0.3 are considered to have criterion validity (Hair et al., 2018). The item-to-total correlation of each measure was more than 0.3; therefore we consider the criterion validity of each scale to be satisfactory. The items are reviewed by a panel of Sultan Idris Education University lecturers to ensure the translation of meaning and terminology met the theoretical background as the technique . The panel consists of an assessment and measurement expert, a human resource development expert, and an educational leadership expert.

Then, the questionnaires have been administered to six trained teachers to identify if there were any confusion regarding the items and record it in the space provided for improvements or been dropped out (Gomez-Torres, Batanero, & Miguel, 2016). The purpose was to improve the items and to ensure it was suitable for Malaysian context. Furthermore, it was important to get feedback on quality of each item, as it was easy to understand and used the appropriate language and terminology. The samples were asked to evaluate about the clarity of each items by using the scale given (Kho, Yusof, & Mohamad, 2016). A scale of 1 to 10 is used to determine the validity coefficient for each item. According to Tuckman and Waheed (1981) in Mohd Noah and Ahmad (2005), if the total of the score obtained from the experts is 70% or above, it means that the item has a high score for the content validity aspect. Otherwise, the item will be dropped from the questionnaires. From the experts view, there are 3 items have been dropped from each factor. The items are N2, I model various leadership values and behavior; K5, I coordinate and manage activities with parents and community; and P6, I know the path to go above and beyond prescribed roles. The results of content validity are presented in Table 11.1 below.

Table 11.1 Content validity scores
Full size table

Meanwhile, to ensure the instrument has reasonable construct validity , exploratory factor analysis was used. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) through orthogonal rotation with varimax method had been used on these 15 items. The EFA applied the following rules as suggested by Hair et al. (2018):

  • Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity had to be significant (p < 0.05).

  • Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling index ≥0.5.

  • Eigenvalue >1.

  • Items with the factor loading >0.5 were retained.

  • Factors building are based on teacher leadership models and previous studies.

The results of exploratory factor analysis are presented in Table 11.2.

Table 11.2 Exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency values for the questionnaires
Full size table

2.2 Phase 2

The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test the stability of this three-factor model, 15 item using AMOS version 21. We analyzed this hypothesized three-factor model with all 15 items as indicators of the variable individually. The parameters were estimated using maximum likelihood. This approach incorporates both observed and latent variables. Multiple indices provided a comprehensive evaluation of model fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999). We examined chi-square per degree of freedom ratio (x2/df), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI), and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA). These indices have been used to evaluate the goodness-of-fit of the model that fit the data. However, given the known dependency of the chi-squared index depends on sample size (Byrne, 2016; Schumacker & Lomax, 2016), it is less suitable to use in determining the fitness of the model (Singh, Junnarkar, & Kaur, 2016). Therefore, indices such as CFI and GFI were also being evaluated. x2/df ratio value of less than 3 and value of 0.90 for CFI and GFI have been use as a lower cutoff value of the acceptable fit (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994; Schumacker & Lomax, 2016). In addition, the RMSEA value of less than 0.06 indicate a good fit, while the value as high as 0.80 indicate a reasonable fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The convergent indices value of more than 0.3 and less than 0.95, meanwhile for the discriminant indices is ranged more than 0.60 and less than 0.90, also have been used to determine the unidimensionality of the factors (Hair et al., 2018). Therefore, 2 items have been dropped regarding to the cross loading as well as violate discriminant index range. The items are K2, I know the techniques and methods of teaching, students’ psychology, and educational environment related to students; and N4, I possess a high level of confidence to implement programs with parents and the community. However, 1 item has been re-specified into the original factor based on the theories and literature. The results of CFA are presented in Table 11.3 below.

Table 11.3 The fit indices of CFA model
Full size table

Meanwhile, the internal consistency values for each construct after CFA are presented in Table 11.4.

Table 11.4 Internal consistency values for the questionnaires after the CFA
Full size table

The final items developed are in Table 11.5 below:

Table 11.5 The TLI items
Full size table

3 Discussion and Conclusion

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate Teacher Leadership Inventory used to measure secondary teachers’ self-assessment in Malaysian educational setting. The study use both theory and statistics to identify items leading to the establishment of the 15 TLI items, consisting of the four-item of knowledge, four-item of value, and five-item of teachers self-assessment subscales. Result across two studies suggested that TLI and its subscales provide reliable scores measuring teachers’ self-assessment from perception of secondary school teachers. The obtained scores from the total scale and three factors were found to be internally consistent across the studies with Cronbach’s alphas ranging between 0.66 and 0.91. The total content validity scores of the experts are 86.84%, above the cutoff point 70%. This first phase of the study used The EFA to identify 15 items in developing new TLI. The eigenvalues showed that there are three factors which score more than one, and the total cumulative percentage is 67.69%. The factor analysis of 15 items shown that there are 3 major factors have been formed based on the teacher leadership models and previous literatures.

However, the second phase of the study shown that only 13 items have been accepted and pooled to form TLI final version. Results from the second phase of the study also suggested that TLI and its constructs fit with the data, as the fit indices RMSEA is 0.06, GFI is 0.92, CFI is 0.95, and Chisq/df is 1.98. In studying TLI scores for convergent and discriminant validity, we examined the relationships between TLI items in the specific factors and between three major factors. The positive loadings among the TLI items range from 0.51 to 0.92 provide initial evidence of TLI’s convergent validity. The relationship between the TLI factors or subscales range from 0.70 to 0.83 provide initial evidence of TLI’s discriminant validity. These items also show the good internal consistency values to measure teachers’ perception toward teacher leadership. The overall internal consistency value is 0.84, meanwhile the values of each constructs range from 0.76 to 0.88. Therefore, these items are suitable to use in exploratory research.

The emergence of the three factors is consistent with the literature on teacher leadership factors as experienced by the secondary schools’ teachers. The factors developed are knowledge, skill, and value, as suggested by previous literatures. As for knowledge and skill factors, both have been highlighted and discussed extensively by Katzenmeyer and Moller (2009), Phelps (2008), York-Barr and Duke (2004), as well as Fairman and Mackenzie (2012, 2015) in their models. Meanwhile as for knowledge, skill, and value, these factors also have been discussed in Malaysian Education Development Plan, Malaysian National Policy of Education, and Malaysian Teacher Standard (2009).

Teachers could apply their content, pedagogical, and leadership knowledge in school and community in order to strive for schools’ excellence. By this knowledge, teachers could positively influence colleagues and young learners, either formally or informally beyond individual classrooms. Therefore, teachers should be exposed to leadership knowledge since the preservice training so that they could prepare themselves to cater the education current needs. Meanwhile, every teacher also should have influential leadership skills and attributes. Teachers could use this skill to influence their colleagues, students, and other school communities as facilitators, mentors, counselors, and curriculum specialists in improving educational practices and student achievement. Therefore, teachers who had the leadership skills should able to lead and shape a quality educational system. Lastly, teachers should have a set of beliefs about what is the right and wrong way for them to behave, known as value. As the value developer, teachers could emulate the formation of good character of younger generations and communities. The values teachers should have are honesty, discipline, responsibility, timeliness, and committed to their work. These good personal qualities could guide and educate students as well as communities to develop their personal character. Hence, a set of well-developed items suitable with the Malaysian educational context has been developed, and it is crucial for Malaysian teachers’ to know and aware of their leadership elements by using this self-assessment items.

This study has a few weakness, such as the comparison of the values of internal consistency among the studies cannot be done extensively because less of reviewed inventory by previous researchers. Inventory should be statistically reviewed especially been used in different context and culture. Secondly, because the TLI was deliberately restricted in its focus, it was not comprehensive in its coverage of school culture in enhancing teacher leadership. Also, if researchers were interested in developing a more comprehensive measure of teacher leadership in Malaysian teacher populations, it would be necessary to begin with a much broader item bank than was used in this study. Thirdly, the sample only consisted of secondary school’s teacher; therefore the future study should be extended to primary school teachers. Similar research could be done on a more diverse sample, so that the validity of the item could be tested across different samples, and the results of the study could be generalized. As suggestion, future studies also need to be conducted on other demographic groups of teachers, for example, age, gender, and year of service, to further validate the obtained scores from TLI. Fourthly, the comparison between research findings cannot be done because this inventory is the newly developed one. Further study also should be explored on the perception of the teachers on the existence of other teacher leadership models as well as using rigorous analysis such as cluster analysis. Notwithstanding the need for additional research, it is hoped that the TLI will become a useful tool for researchers, especially those interested in understanding the role as well as self-assessment inventory of teacher leadership. Moreover, hopefully the findings are also valuable for ministry of education, school-based professional learning developers’, teacher educator, school administrators, and teachers references, who are interested more in exploring teacher leadership.