UNDERSTANDING HOW AND WHEN TEACHERS’ SERVANT LEADERSHIP INFLUENCES STUDENT ALIENATION

Abstract

Building on self-determination theory, the current study proposes that teachers’ servant leadership style undermines student alienation from learning, teachers and classmates via student learning orientation. Furthermore, the study proposes student resilience as a boundary condition on the relationship between teachers’ servant leadership style and student alienation from teacher, classmates and learning. Subsequently, the study proposes that students’ resilience act as contingent factor on the indirect association between teachers’ servant leadership style and student alienation from learning, teachers and classmates via student learning orientation. This study collected data from 679 university students. The study adopted time lag-strategy to collect data in three rounds and each round was separated by a one-month lag time. Data across three rounds were matched using the unique codes. The study employed structural equation modeling in Mplus (8.10), to analyze the data. The findings reveals that teachers’ servant leadership style has a significant negative influence on student alienation from learning, student alienation from teachers and student alienation from classmates via student learning orientation. Furthermore, the results revealed that students’ resilience has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between teachers’ servant leadership style student learning orientation.