Teacher work engagement refers to the extent to which teachers feel positively involved in their work and invest in their roles as educators. Work engagement is identified by feelings of energy, dedication, and enthusiasm towards teaching, as well as a sense of purpose and fulfilment in their work. Schaufeli and Bakker (2004a,b) defined work engagement as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption. They argued that engaged employees are more likely to experience positive outcomes, such as increased job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and performance. A high number of studies have examined specifically teacher work engagement. For example, Bakker et al. (2005) found that teachers who were highly engaged in their work reported greater job satisfaction, commitment, and performance. Other researchers have examined the factors that contribute to teacher work engagement. Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2014) concluded that teacher autonomy and social support were positively related to work engagement, whilst job demands were negatively related. Zhang et al. (2021) provide empirical evidence of how autonomy support influences teachers’ work engagement, stating that teachers with more autonomy have stronger teaching motivation and increased levels of work engagement. Similarly, Hakanen et al. (2006) study pointed out that job resources, such as social support and feedback, were positively related to teacher work engagement. Hermanto and Srimulyani (2022) also refer that the most relevant aspect of work engagement is dedication, favouring meaning and significance to the work performed, with a positive impact on the organisation oriented towards transformation. Leaders who explore new ways of doing and innovating are transformational leaders who increase their self-motivation and self-worth through their involvement and dedication (Ahmed, 2021; Wang et al., 2023).

In summary, teacher work engagement is a positive state of mind characterised by energy, dedication, and absorption in the work of teaching. Research has consistently shown that engaged teachers are more likely to experience positive outcomes, such as job satisfaction, commitment, and performance. Factors that contribute to teacher work engagement include autonomy, social support, and job resources.

The results of school leadership studies are diverse but generally show that effective leadership engagement can have a positive impact on teacher job satisfaction, teacher collaboration, student outcomes, and overall positive school climate (e.g., Leithwood et al., 2008; Leithwood and Jantzi, 2008; Hallinger and Heck, 2010; Boberg and Bourgeois, 2016; Leithwood and Sun, 2018; Mora-Ruano et al., 2021; Tan et al., 2021). An effective leader can influence the attitudes and behaviour of teachers, thereby influencing their involvement in the work, which is critical to improving the success of organisations and ensuring educational quality (Hermanto and Srimulyani, 2022). In this way, the school leadership can create a positive school culture, improve teaching and learning practises, and promote positive student outcomes. School leadership practises, such as supportive leadership and shared leadership, are associated with increased teacher job satisfaction and organisational commitment (e.g., Hulpia et al., 2009; Liu and Werblow, 2019; Berkovich and Bogler, 2021; Mansor et al., 2021). Simbula et al. (2013) argue that teachers who are more engaged find it easier to take advantage of opportunities that arise in work situations that favour the development of their skills and the perception of the meaning of their actions. Zahed-Babelan et al. (2019) proved the belief that the principal could have an indirect effect on teachers’ work engagement through indirect variables such as school culture, teacher empowerment, and job characteristics. Another relevant piece of evidence is the linkage between school leadership and student academic achievement improvement. A meta-analysis research by Tan et al. (2021) found that effective school leadership practises, such as setting clear goals and expectations, providing feedback, and creating a positive school climate have a significant positive effect on student achievement.

The most popular instruments in assessing teacher work engagement are: (1) The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES, Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004a,b), which measures engagement along three dimensions: vigour, dedication, and absorption, (2) The Engaged Teachers Scale (ETS) by Klassen et al. (2013) which measures teacher engagement through a 16-item and 4-factor scale. Federici and Skaalvik (2011) used UWES as one of the tools for studying Norwegian principals’ self-efficacy and work engagement. Their explanation to choose UWES fits in the Portuguese principals’ work which is often described in terms of being demanding, hectic and unpredictable, in part because the curriculum and educational policy are often subject to change. This study use the UWES scale since it is a scale used in multiple contexts, including in educational settings for assessing work engagement.

The present study performed a systematic examination of the dimensionality and validation of the UWES-9 and UWES-17 to Portuguese school leaders. The main findings indicated that the 2-factor solution fits better than the one and three-factor solution for both the 17-item and the 9-item versions of the UWES. Better fit indices were generally observed for the UWES-9. Combining the factors of ‘Vigour’ and ‘Dedication’ into a single factor, along with the factor ‘Absorption,’ not only increases the complexity of the model but also contributes to a greater representation of the UWES-9. The 2-factor structure makes the UWES-9 a more robust assessment tool than the original version.

Nerstad et al. (2009) investigated across occupational groups in Norway the factorial validity of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) amongst 1,266 participants. Confirmatory factor analyses, as well as multi-group and individual analyses, indicated that a three-dimensional model of both the UWES-17 and the short version, UWES-9, provided a better fit to the data than a one– and two-dimensional model. The results of multi-group analyses and analyses of each of the groups separately indicated that with a few exceptions, the three-factor model of work engagement provided the best fit.

As in the Japanese sample for the short UWES-9 and the UWES-17 versions (Shimazu et al., 2008), results from the factorial validity of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) in a 475 Korean student sample have shown that the UWES 17 and 9-items short version has a better fit on one single dimension than on three-dimensional scales (Römer, 2016). Römer (2016) emphasised that the covariance matrix of the three latent variables Vigour, Absorption, and Dedication was far from definitive. One reason for the model’s misspecification could be the high intercorrelation between the three factors.

Further analysis on the use of the UWES still needs to consider the differences between Europe and Asian/African countries, especially due to cultural reasons. The findings of the study conducted by Sonnentag (2003) raise concerns about the three-factor structure of UWES. It is thus not surprising that the current research literature on this topic does not reveal any incremental use of the three-factor model. Nevertheless, future studies need to explore these results in detail, as recommended by Schaufeli et al. (2006).

The present study also revealed that there were statistically significant strong positive correlations for each of the three subscales of UWES. These findings are consistent with the previous study findings (Römer, 2016; Tsubakita et al., 2017; Sinval et al., 2018). Sinval et al. (2018) used a sample of 3,887 rescue workers to assess the validity of evidence related to the internal structure of the Portuguese versions of the UWES-17 and UWES-9, namely, dimensionality, measurement invariance between occupational groups, and reliability of the scores. Psychometric properties were evaluated in the three-factor original structure revealing an acceptable fit to the data in the UWES-17, although the UWES-9 had better psychometric properties.

Findings obtained in the multigroup CFA for the demographic variables suggested that the UWES-9 measures the same construct across gender. These results support the metric and scalar invariance of gender, meaning that the scale means are comparable across gender. Domínguez-Salas et al. (2022) found the same result, i.e., the factorial invariance across gender in different factor solutions with and without the modification indexes. The factorial structure of the UWES showed strict invariance by gender. The invariance according to gender was also pointed out by Lovakov et al. (2017) in Russian workers. Greater consensus exists regarding the invariance of the scale according to other sample characteristics, such as its transcultural invariance (Balducci et al., 2010; Sinval et al., 2018).

Our study revealed significant differences in mean scores when comparing participants according to school leadership training. Participants who had training scored higher than those who had no training in school leadership. Weigl et al. (2014) confirmed that the relation between job autonomy and work engagement is mediated by the selection optimization compensation (SOC) strategies developed by training. Literature also indicates that better self-perceived professional status was related to greater work engagement (Van Dorssen-Boog et al., 2020) and a greater sense of coherence (Derbis and Jasiński, 2018).

This study accompanies the existing literature analysing the psychometric properties of the UWES, providing results in favour of the use of this scale in the field of education. The limitation could lie in the sampling procedure which does cannot guarantee that the sample is representative of the school leaders in Portugal, although the high sample number obtained might mitigate this effect. The generalisation of the findings to other populations should also be done with caution, considering the diversity in educational and cultural contexts.

The findings of this study support the use of the UWES-9 to assess the work engagement of school leaders and the constructs that comprise it. In this sense, the data provided could be useful for school leaders as they allow identifying areas of improvement which are specific to teachers. The 9-item UWES is a valid and reliable instrument to assess work engagement among school leaders and the easy administration and sound psychometric properties, could be used as an effective screening tool in educational contexts. Considering the superior fit indices of UWES-9, we recommend its usage over the UWES-17 version.

Improvements in work engagement and, therefore in school climate, will allow for a better quality of teaching. Until different results can be found for the work engagement subscales, our study reveals that the UWES 9 is the best option as a scale to measure work engagement in Portugal. Additionally, socio-demographic variables should be included and valued in future studies of work engagement.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Ethical approval was not required for the study involving human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent to participate in this study was not required from the participants in accordance with the national legislation and the institutional requirements.

JC, MF, PP, and AA: theoretical conceptualization, data collection, data analyses, and contributing to the writing process. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was funded by national funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., awarded to R&D Unit Centro de Investigação em Educação - UIDP/04853/2020 and UIDB/04853/2020.

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.

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