Andreia Vale
Luísa Mota Ribeiro
José Matias Alves
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- Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Research Centre for Human Development, Porto, Portugal
Introduction: Educational organizations are increasingly concerned with students’ well-being and happiness in order to improve the quality of learning and promote the sustainability of teaching. Literature has shown that teacher happiness is related to students’ happiness and contributes to better academic performance, greater motivation and psychological well-being. In an increasingly uncertain, unpredictable and competitive school organizational reality, it is important that top and middle leaders recognize the significant power they have to influence the members of their organization, whether positively or negatively. The practice of successful leadership in a school context is essential to promote positive environments and inspire confidence in teachers, technicians, educational assistants and students.
Objectives: Map the existing literature to understand the role of leadership in promoting student and teacher happiness in school environments.
Methodology: A Scoping Review was carried out, following the guidelines proposed by PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews), to ensure methodological validity and reliability. The research was carried out in five scientific databases, considering the defined eligibility criteria.
Results and discussion: A total of 17 articles were analyzed, as they met the established inclusion criteria. It was found that school happiness is promoted by factors such as a sense of belonging, interpersonal relationships, academic self-efficacy and teachers’ personal and pedagogical skills. Regarding the analysis of the role of leadership, it was possible to perceive that there are several styles that are related to happiness in the school environment.
Conclusion: This review showed that the combination of leadership styles is fundamental, since there is no single leadership style that is considered effective for all contexts and situations, and it may vary depending on the school environment and circumstances.
1 Introduction
Educational organizations are increasingly concerned with students’ well-being and happiness, in order to improve the quality of learning and promote the sustainability of teaching (UNESCO, 2016).
In terms of defining happiness, the scientific community has had some difficulty in clearly and objectively defining this construct, since it is ambiguous and complex. It has been essentially characterized through two aspects: hedonic and eudaimonic (Delle Fave et al., 2011). In the hedonic aspect, happiness focuses on subjective well-being (Diener and Ryan, 2009; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005), positive emotions and life satisfaction (Diener and Ryan, 2009). From a eudaimonic perspective, happiness is related to psychological well-being (Ryff and Keyes, 1995; Ryff and Singer, 2008), purpose of life (Keyes et al., 2002; Ryff and Keyes, 1995), self-realization and personal growth (Ryan and Deci, 2001; Ryff and Keyes, 1995).
Happiness in the school context has been associated with different factors that contribute to student success (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Tanhaye Reshvanloo and Hejazi, 2014). Among these factors, greater motivation (Antaramian, 2017; Isen and Reeve, 2005), commitment (Heffner and Antaramian, 2016; King et al., 2015; Lewis et al., 2011), confidence (Cheng and Furnham, 2002) and self-efficacy (Antaramian, 2017; Cheng and Furnham, 2002) stand out, which play a fundamental role in promoting learning and improving academic performance and achievement (Bakker et al., 2005; Heffner and Antaramian, 2016; Nickerson et al., 2011; Oishi et al., 2007; Talebzadeh and Samkan, 2011). Complementarily, Okun et al. (2009) investigated the relationship between students’ grades and happiness, suggesting that students with lower grades had lower levels of happiness and tolerated a greater degree of stress.
It is also relevant to mention that happiness in the school environment can be influenced by other factors, such as teacher happiness (Bakker et al., 2005), life satisfaction (Proctor et al., 2010), and satisfaction with the school environment (Gómez-Baya et al., 2021).
In a school organizational context characterized by uncertainty, unpredictability and competition, it is essential that top and middle leaders understand the importance of their role and how they impact the different elements of the school community, in promoting positive, healthy and happy school climates. Gurr (2015) found that successful school leaders do not follow a single leadership style, but exhibit consistent behaviours, guided by transparency in their beliefs, values and actions, as well as by fairness. In addition, leaders include others in decision-making processes and inspire trust.
With this research, we aim to contribute to improving learning and, more broadly, to a healthy and successful educational system. In terms of general objective, this review aims to understand the influence of leadership practices in promoting school happiness. More specifically, it aims to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the dimensions that contribute to teachers and students’ happiness?
2. What are the leadership practices that relate to happiness in schools?
2 Methodology
As the role of leadership in promoting organizational happiness still lacks sustained research, we opted for the Scoping Review methodology to map and synthesize the main evidence that has emerged in research literature on the subject over the last 5 years, as well as to identify possible knowledge gaps. In addition, the selection of publications between 2019 and 2024 made it possible to incorporate more recent findings, reflecting contemporary trends and challenges that influence organizational happiness.
To support the review process, the guidelines proposed by PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) were followed to ensure methodological quality. The review protocol consists of 27 verification items, divided into 7 sections: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and Funding, which allows improving the quality of the report and the methodological quality (Page et al., 2021).
2.1 Eligibility criteria
Criteria for inclusion and exclusion of studies were defined in order to answer the previously defined review questions (Table 1).
Table 1
Table 1. Inclusion and exclusion criteria.
2.2 Sources of information
A bibliographic and cross-sectional research was carried out through the consultation of scientific articles obtained from five databases: Web of Science, Scopus, B-On, Education Source, and ERIC. Additional articles were included to understand the construct of leadership in promoting happiness in school organizations.
2.3 Research strategy
The search strategy was based on a set of keywords to identify titles and abstracts of articles that relate to the review questions. For this purpose, the following combinations of keywords will be used, as shown in Table 2.
Table 2
Table 2. Keyword combinations for searching articles in databases.
The selection of relevant articles was carried out from December 2023 to July 2024 and focused mainly on the review questions mentioned above.
After the research was carried out, duplicates were removed. At this stage, a reference management program—Mendeley—was used to facilitate the analysis of the articles to be included in the literature review, according to the pre-defined eligibility criteria. In this way, the titles and abstracts of the articles were evaluated, selecting only those that were related to the topic under study and, taking into account the previously defined eligibility criteria. The full articles were then analyzed. After this stage, the snowballing technique was used, without limiting the search in terms of date, to search for other studies/articles, based on those that were included in the first stage of the research. Using this technique, it was possible to identify 5 relevant articles to be considered in this review. A total of 17 articles were considered eligible, as they met the established inclusion criteria.
The process of researching and selecting articles is summarized in the flowchart (Figure 1) for PRISMA-ScR scoping reviews (Page et al., 2021).
Figure 1
Figure 1. Flowchart showing the different phases of the process of selecting and including articles for scoping review—PRISMA-ScR flowchart diagram (Page et al., 2021).
2.4 Data collection and analysis process
Regarding the articles that were included in the preparation of this review, an Excel table was created, which allowed the organization of the data, according to the following topics: Author, Year, Country, Objectives | Hypotheses, Type of Study, Sample/Population and Main Results.
3 Results
The descriptive characteristics of the included studies are organized in table form, which encompasses all relevant data related to the questions previously defined for this review, as illustrated in Table 3.
Table 3
Table 3. Characterization of articles included in the scoping review.
The review allowed us to synthesise the results of studies that address the dimensions of school happiness, as well as leadership practices associated with happiness in the school environment, as shown in Figures 2, 3.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Map of the results analysed in the scoping review on the dimensions of happiness.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Map of the results analysed in the scoping review on leadership practices that promote school happiness.
3.1 Discussion of results
The main results extracted from the 17 articles included in this review are summarised below, seeking to understand the factors that may contribute to school happiness and understand leadership practices in promoting these positive environments.
Regarding the first review question (Table 2), the various studies analysed allowed us to elucidate the factors that promote happiness in school organizations. Specifically, the importance of the sense of belonging (Calp, 2020), relationships with friends (O'Rourke and Cooper, 2010; Gramaxo et al., 2023a,b) and with teachers (López-Pérez and Zuffianò, 2020), academic self-efficacy (Döş, 2023; Pivarč, 2023) and teachers’ personal and pedagogical skills (Gramaxo et al., 2023a,b) stand out. The data obtained are consistent with the literature, since motivation, commitment and interpersonal relationships have been considered fundamental in the academic success and well-being of students (Lyubomirsky et al., 2005; Tanhaye Reshvanloo and Hejazi, 2014).
Regarding the second review question, we found that a single leadership style is insufficient to adequately promote school happiness. Among the leadership studies analysed, the following are the ones that appear most associated with the promotion of school happiness: distributed leadership (Algan and Ummanel, 2019, 2020), transformational leadership (Kılıç et al., 2023), virtuous leadership (Wang and Hackett, 2022), integrated leadership (Corrigan and Merry, 2022) and empowering leadership (Çevik and Çeli̇k, 2023). The analysis of the different studies shows the importance of a multifaceted approach in leadership practices to promote happiness in the school environment. Thus, the integration of the different leadership styles proves to be fundamental to the creation of happy school environments. In this line of thought, leaders should demonstrate a moral identity centered on virtues (Wang and Hackett, 2022), promote a shared vision of the school (Corrigan and Merry, 2022), in a collaborative environment, in which all opinions are valued in decision-making (Tore and Duman-Saka, 2023), thus, contributing to professional development and growth (Tore and Duman-Saka, 2023).
It should be noted that these results are in line with what has been studied by Gurr (2015), insofar as successful leaders do not follow just one leadership style, since it is the situations and needs that require the adaptation of the most appropriate practices to the educational environment.
3.2 Study limitations
Despite the limitations listed below, this review contributed to a better understanding of the role of leadership in promoting happiness in school environments, thus opening new avenues for further research. Although the scarcity of studies related to leadership and school happiness represents a limitation, it also constitutes an opportunity for the development of new studies and research.
We also point out as limitations the fact that only articles published in Portuguese and English, in scientific journals that were available in full text, were included, which may have excluded other studies with possible important results for the topic.
Finally, although the analysed articles correspond to different cultural contexts, more research will be needed on the relationship between the role of leadership and happiness before any cross-cultural generalizations can be made.
4 Conclusion
4.1 Final considerations and relevance of the study/implications
This research has provided a deeper understanding by examining the relationship between leadership practices and styles in promoting school happiness, in order to contribute to improving learning and, more broadly, to a healthy and successful education system. We found that a combination of different leadership styles is necessary in promoting happy and healthy school environments, as there is no single leadership style that is considered to be effective, and it can vary depending on the school environment and circumstances.
With this research, we intend to encourage other studies to analyse this relationship, in order to promote greater awareness of the importance of leadership in promoting school happiness, ensuring the quality and sustainability of education.
4.2 Prospects for future research
The data obtained through this review indicate paths for the advancement of new scientific studies on the role of leadership and happiness in school organizations. We suggest that future research understand in a deeper way the characteristics of leaders who can contribute to school happiness.
In order to better understand the practical implications of this research in the future, we consider it pertinent that future studies study the triad Headteachers-Teachers-Students, since it has been observed that the literature focuses essentially on the Headteacher-Teacher and/or Teacher-Student dyads. It is also essential to analyze which characteristics of leaders are most related to happiness in the school environment, in order to guarantee the quality of learning.
Finally, it will be important to identify the factors that contribute to effective leadership, to analyse what may be hindering its effective and safe implementation within the educational context, contributing to the quality and sustainability of teaching.
Data availability statement
The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.
Author contributions
AV: Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. LR: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Investigation. JA: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing, Investigation.
Funding
The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The authors are grateful to the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the support to CEDH – Research Centre for Human Development (Ref. UIDB/04872/2020) and to Faculty of Education and Psychology da Universidade Católica Portuguesa and also the Ribadouro Schools Group for providing the necessary conditions for the study to be conducted.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The authors declare that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
Publisher’s note
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Keywords: school, happiness, leadership, students, teachers
Citation: Vale A, Ribeiro LM and Alves JM (2025) Happiness in school organizations: the role of leadership (a scoping review). Front. Educ. 10:1541533. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1541533
Edited by:
Claudia Fahrenwald, University of Education Upper Austria, AustriaReviewed by:
Ana Paula Monteiro, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, PortugalGül Kadan, Cankiri Karatekin University, Türkiye
Copyright © 2025 Vale, Ribeiro and Alves. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Andreia Vale, cy1hcGx2YWxlQHVjcC5wdA==