Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among principals’ authentic leadership style and teachers’ trust and engagement at selected Basic Education High Schools in Mandalay. Quantitative research method was used in this study. Three hundred and fifteen teachers from six selected high schools participated in this study. “Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ)” developed by Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing & Peterson (2008), “Workplace Trust Survey (WTS)” developed by Ferres and Travaglione (2003, as cited in Bird, Wang, Watson & Murray, 2009) and “Gallup Organization’s Q12 Survey” developed by Buckingham and Coffman (1999, as cited in Bird et al., 2009) were used to collect quantitative data on principals’ authentic leadership style, teachers’ trust and teachers’ engagement. For data analysis, descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations, and Pearson-product moment correlation coefficient were calculated by using SPSS version 22. It was found that principals sometimes practiced authentic leadership style, and teachers had high levels of trust and engagement in selected Basic Education High Schools according to teachers’ ratings. Moreover, there was a positive and moderate correlation between principals’ authentic leadership style and teachers’ trust (r=.589, p<0.01). Similarly, there was a positive and moderate correlation between principals’ authentic leadership style and teachers’ engagement (r=.524, p<0.01). Besides, there was a positive and high correlation between teachers’ trust and engagement (r=.762, p<0.01). It can be said that teachers believed in their principals, colleagues, and schools although the principals sometimes practiced authentic leadership style and then they actively engaged in their school activities. It can be concluded that principals who practice the authentic leadership style can earn the trust of their teachers and motivate teachers to engage in school activities.