The development and impact of team-based school technology leadership

Abstract

PurposeThe authors tested the efficacy of a team-based instructional leadership intervention designed to increase middle school mathematics and science teachers' use of educational technologies for multiple representations of content to foster students' conceptual understandings. Each school's leadership team comprised an administrator, a technology instructional specialist role, and a mathematics and a science teacher leader.Design/methodology/approachThe authors tested the intervention in a quasi-experimental design with five treatment and five matched comparison schools. Participants included 48 leadership team members and 100 grade 6–8 teachers and their students. The authors analyzed data using two-level, nested multiple regressions to determine the effect of treatment on leaders' practices; leaders' practices on teachers' learning and integration; and teachers' learning and integration on students' learning. Leaders and teachers completed monthly self-reports of practices; students completed pre- and post-tests of knowledge in science and math.FindingsSignificant treatment effects at the leader, teacher and student levels establish the efficacy of this team-based approach to school leadership of an educational technology integration innovation. Leaders at treatment schools participated in a significantly higher total frequency and a wider variety of leadership activities, with large effect sizes. Teachers participated in a significantly wider variety of learning modes focused on technology integration and integrated technology significantly more frequently, with a wider variety of technologies, all with moderate effect sizes. Students in treatment schools significantly outperformed students in comparison schools in terms of science achievement but not in mathematics.Research limitations/implicationsThe overall sample size is small and the approach to participant recruitment did not allow for randomized assignment to the treatment condition. The authors tested the influence of treatment on leader practices, on teacher practices, and on student achievement. Future work is needed to identify the core components of treatment that influence practice and investigate the causal relationships between specific leaders' practices, teacher practices and student achievement.Originality/valueThis study establishes the efficacy of a replicable approach to developing team-based instructional leaders addressing educational technology. It contributes to the knowledge base about how district leaders and leadership educators might foster school leaders' instructional leadership, and more specifically technology leadership capacity.

Elevating Teachers’ Professional Digital Competence: Synergies of Principals’ Instructional E-Supervision, Technology Leadership and Digital Culture for Educational Excellence in Digital-Savvy Era

“…This is consistent with prior studies emphasizing that principals who are actively involved in helping teachers in strategically planning technology integration have a positive influence on enhancing teachers' digital competence. Key elements include establishing clear goals and envisioning technology-enhanced teaching [26,27,93,120]. Second, when the principal advocates for equity and citizenship, it assists teachers in acknowledging the significance of readying students for the digital challenges of global citizenship.…”

“…Additionally, the need for regular maintenance of teachers' performance after certification [25] is a crucial aspect that needs to be addressed. The role of the principal as a leader and technology-based supervisor in a digital-savvy era toward those issues is essential [10,26,27]. Studies on principal technology leadership in the Indonesian context have been investigated quantitatively and qualitatively [9,[28][29][30][31].…”