Perception of Elementary Teacher Educators towards Distributed Pedagogical Leadership: Evidence from Katak, Odisha

Prabina Priyadarsini Behera; Jashobanta Meher

doi:10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84578

Perception of Elementary Teacher Educators towards Distributed Pedagogical Leadership: Evidence from Katak, Odisha

Author(s)	Dr. Prabina Priyadarsini Behera, Jashobanta Meher
Country	India
Abstract	Instead of viewing school and institutional leadership as a task assigned to a single formal authority, distributed pedagogical leadership (DPL) rethinks it as a shared, collaborative activity. There is a dearth of empirical data about primary teacher educators' perceptions of DPL, especially in pre-service teacher education institutions in India, despite the construct being well-established in early childhood and in-service teacher-leadership literature. The current study investigated how elementary teacher educators saw dispersed pedagogical leadership and investigated if this impression differed by study stream (science vs. arts) and place (rural vs. urban). A sample of sixty elementary teacher educators from coastal Odisha was selected by simple random selection using a descriptive survey methodology (30 rural, 30 urban; 30 arts, 30 science). A 20-item, five-point self-structured questionnaire based on Heikka's (2014) dimensions of dispersed pedagogical leadership was used to collect the data, which were then analyzed using independent-samples t-tests and descriptive statistics. Overall, teacher educators had a favorable opinion of DPL (M = 90.5, SD = 6.33, on a potential range of 20-100). Although both comparisons approached traditional significance thresholds, independent-samples t-tests revealed no statistically significant difference in perception by stream of study (t(58) = 1.83, p =.073) or by locality (t(58) = 1.94, p =.057), with slightly higher mean scores for rural and arts educators. The results point to the influence of shared professional training and institutional culture over demographic variation, suggesting that distributed pedagogical leadership is a widely acknowledged and consistently valued practice among elementary teacher educators regardless of institutional location or disciplinary background. Limitations pertaining to sample size and design are examined, as well as implications for bolstering collaborative leadership structures in teacher education institutions.
Keywords	distributed pedagogical leadership, teacher educators, elementary teacher education, shared leadership, perception
Field	Sociology > Education
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-07-26
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2026.v08i04.84578

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Perception of Elementary Teacher Educators towards Distributed Pedagogical Leadership: Evidence from Katak, Odisha

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