Research indicates that teachers’ academic optimism significantly enhances student performance, independent of students’ socioeconomic status and migration background. This study extends the knowledge base on academic optimism by empirically examining the impact of school-related antecedents on individual teachers’ academic optimism, with a particular focus on leadership and school culture as perceived by secondary school teachers in Antwerp, Belgium. Utilising a path model, the study explores whether various forms of school leadership directly influence academic optimism or whether this influence is mediated by school culture. Findings reveal that the rational goal perspective and open system perspective positively affect teachers’ academic optimism, while the internal process perspective and human relations perspective exert a negative impact. Additionally, the study demonstrates that instructional leadership, shared leadership, authentic leadership, and performance management are both direct and indirect predictors of teachers’ academic optimism. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of the dynamics between leadership, school culture, and academic optimism, providing valuable implications for educational policy and practice.
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