Investigating the Effect of Knowledge Leadership on the Professional Development of Teachers with The Mediating Role of Organizational Learning Capacity in Secondary Schools of Ilam City

The present research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of knowledge leadership on the professional development of teachers through the mediation of the learning capacity of secondary school teachers in Ilam city. In terms of the purpose, it is an applied study, in terms of the method of data collection, it is descriptive of the correlation type, and in terms of time, it is cross-sectional. The statistical population of the current research includes all the teachers of the second secondary schools of Ilam city (N = 576), from among whom 231 participants were selected via stratified random sampling method by referring to the Morgan table. To measure the variables of the research, the 15-question questionnaire of the professional development of teachers (Ayubi, 2013), the knowledge leadership questionnaire (Vitala et al., 2004), and the Organizational Learning Capacity Questionnaire (2006). In order to analyze the data in the descriptive part, mean and standard deviation and in the inferential part, structural equation modeling was used, using SPSS software version 22 and Lisrel software version 8/8. The results of the research showed that the variable of knowledge leadership has a direct effect on the professional development of teachers. It also affects the professional development of teachers through organizational learning capacity. Considering the impact of knowledge leadership and organizational learning capacity on teachers' professional development, schools and educational organizations can strengthen knowledge leadership among school administrators and teachers. Also, they should pay attention to the organizational learning capacity as one of the important elements of the school in facilitating the relationship between knowledge leadership and teachers' professional development, so that the teachers' professional development is on the right track.