<![CDATA[Teacher performance is a crucial factor in determining the success of education in schools. However, teacher performance at State Vocational High Schools in Serang City still faces various challenges, such as suboptimal quality of task implementation, work discipline, and teacher engagement in carrying out professional responsibilities. This study aims to analyze the influence of paternalistic leadership and professional development programs on teacher performance, examine the influence of both variables on work engagement, analyze the influence of work engagement on teacher performance, and examine the role of work engagement as a mediating variable. The study used a quantitative approach with an associative method. The study population was 85 teachers, with a saturated sampling technique so that the entire population was sampled. Data were collected through a questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale and analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling–Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS) with the help of SmartPLS 4.0. The results showed that paternalistic leadership and professional development programs had a positive and significant effect on teacher performance. Professional development programs also had a positive and significant effect on work engagement. Conversely, paternalistic leadership did not have a significant effect on work engagement, while work engagement did not have a significant effect on teacher performance. Furthermore, work engagement was unable to mediate the influence of paternalistic leadership or professional development programs on teacher performance. This finding suggests that teacher performance improvements are more directly influenced by the quality of principal leadership and the implementation of professional development programs than by work engagement mechanisms.]]>
