DEVELOPING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE INDICATORS TO ENHANCE PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP IN MALAYSIAN PRE-SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION: A MODIFIED FUZZY DELPHI STUDY

Abstract

The focus of this study is to examine how Empowering Professional Leadership (EPL) can enhance the understanding of the concept of teacher leadership among Malaysian pre-service teachers. While conventional leadership models often emphasize positional authority and technical tasks, this domain highlights culturally grounded, future-oriented dimensions that are crucial for holistic teacher development. The five main EPL themes that relate to this positive outlook are Pioneering the Attitude of Servitude, Practicing Futuristic Thinking, Catalyzing Change, Leading a Research Culture, and Triggering Entrepreneurial Values. These EPL themes are also in line and reflect the Malaysian National Philosophy of Education, which is the hope towards the balance in the individuals’ intellectual, spiritual, emotional, and social development. EPL also served to develop and assess a set of indicators of culturally responsive leadership that can be used as part of the Malaysian teacher educator programs. A Modified Delphi Method was employed across three rounds. In round 1, qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with six educational leadership experts, resulting in the identification of initial themes and 74 proposed indicators. Round 2 involved expert review using an open-ended questionnaire, leading to refinement of the indicators based on conceptual clarity and contextual relevance. In round 3, a Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) was applied, involving 27 local experts comprising teacher educators, school leaders, and ministry officers. Fuzzy logic procedures, including defuzzification and threshold analysis (d ≤ 0.2), were used to establish expert consensus at a minimum agreement level of 75%. The study validated 74 indicators across the five themes, highlighting leadership as an evolving process rooted in service, critical inquiry, and innovative thinking. With these findings, a new validated framework that is culturally responsive and empirically sound, and which prepares future educators as teacher leaders with the new required competencies has been defined. This study adds to the decolonial reconceptualisation of teacher leadership, with implications for teacher education reform in Malaysia and similar Global South contexts.