The last mile of distributed leadership: what happens when leadership reaches teacher leaders?

Purpose This study examines the “last mile” of distributed leadership by investigating what happens when leadership reaches teacher leaders: whether it is further distributed to colleagues and students or instead retained and consolidated around teacher leaders' roles and influence. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive qualitative design was employed. Semi-structured online interviews were conducted with 21 K–12 teachers from five Arab countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates). Findings Five themes emerged: leadership often pooled around teacher leaders (consultation without co-decision), creating expert bottlenecks. Sharing was selective – mostly within trusted circles and low-stakes tasks – while potential “rivals” were sometimes excluded. Leadership flowed more consistently to students via classroom voice, peer mentoring and student-led projects. Distribution was conditional, shaped by principal expectations, collaborative routines and accountability pressures. Teachers' sense-making ranged from feeling sidelined to developing tentative leadership agency when genuinely invited. Originality/value The study extends teacher leadership and distributed leadership scholarship by foregrounding distribution beyond the teacher leader as an under-examined criterion of leadership quality and equity. It challenges normative assumptions in distributed leadership that once leadership is dispersed by formal school leaders, it will automatically cascade to all actors and spaces in the school. Instead, it shows that the presence of teacher leaders does not necessarily translate into broad-based leadership across staff, conceptualising teacher leaders as critical nodes where leadership may widen, filter, stall or be redirected (often towards students rather than colleagues).