The education system plays a central role in societal development. The emergence of innovative behavior and job optimism among its employees is a key factor in this system’s effectiveness. Accordingly, this research aimed to conduct a structural analysis of the relationship between knowledge-based leadership and teachers' innovative behavior, with the mediating role of teachers' job optimism. This study, in terms of purpose, is applied research, and in terms of method, it is descriptive-correlational, based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population consisted of primary school teachers in Tabriz, selected through cluster sampling from districts 2 and 5. From among 2058 teachers, using the Morgan table, 353 individuals (178 women and 175 men) were randomly selected. The data collection tools included standardized questionnaires for knowledge-based leadership (Donate et al., 2014), pedagogical knowledge (Şahin, 2011), innovative behavior (Janssen, 2000), and job optimism (Rutten Geus et al., 2005). Expert opinion was used for the validity of the questionnaires, and Cronbach's alpha test was used to determine their reliability. The reliability coefficients for the questionnaires on managers' knowledge-based leadership, pedagogical knowledge, teachers' innovative behavior, and teachers' job optimism were calculated as 0.95, 0.93, 0.90, and 0.82, respectively.
For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used. The results indicated a significant relationship between the variables of managers' knowledge-based leadership, pedagogical knowledge, and innovative behavior with teachers' job optimism. Furthermore, out of the total seven research hypotheses, the significance level for all of them exceeded 1.96; consequently, all research hypotheses were confirmed.