The Relationship Between Digitial Leadership and Digital Implementation in Elementary Schools

Domeny, Jami V.

The Relationship Between Digitial Leadership and Digital Implementation in Elementary Schools

Public Deposited

New technological advances are changing the landscape for both teaching and learning at a rapid pace. With an increase in the focus and allocation of funding on technology, schools need leaders who can facilitate the change process and support a digital learning culture for technology integration. As with any focus and initiative in education, the support and leadership of the principal is crucial (Fullen, 2007). According to Sheninger (2014), leaders must understand that today’s learners are wired differently, as a result of the influence of technology in their lives outside of school. With endless possibilities and the world at their fingertips, today’s students need teachers and administrators to reimagine the role of technology in the classroom (Blair, 2012). There is a gap between the current school culture and leadership style and the digital culture and digital leadership style that needs to be addressed in order to support the next generation of learners. Digital leadership is a new construction of leadership that connects leaders with technology. In fact digital leadership is not only the use of technology, but also astrategic view of school culture that focuses on engagement and achievement (Askal, 2015). Creating a digital culture to support the needs of today’s learners begins with the school leader. This quantitative descriptive study was designed to determine the impact that a principal’s digital leadership has on the teachers’ digital implementation in the school. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of significance between the principals’ digital leadership and the teachers’ level of self-efficacy for modeling twenty-first century skills. The ISTE Standards for Administrators and the ISTE Standards for Teachers were foundational elements in this study; therefore, the researcher selected established instruments with strong alignment to these standards. The administrator viisurvey tool used for this study was the Principals’ Technology Leadership Assessment and the teacher survey tool used for this study was the Educator Technology Self-Efficacy Survey. Participants in this study were elementary principals and teachers from the state of Missouri. Results indicated that there was no significance found between principals’ digital leadership and teachers’ digital implementation, and the correlation between the two variables was weak. Strong relationships were found between each of the individual ISTE Standards for Administrators and the overall ISTE Standards for Administrators, suggesting that the International Society for Technology in Education has the right standards in place to guide and direct principals in their role as digital leaders. Likewise, there were strong relationships found between the individual ISTE Standards for Teachers and the ISTE Standards for Teachers as a whole, which suggested that the International Society for Technology in Education also has the right standards in place to guide and direct teachers in using technology to support teaching and learning. In this study, the demographics of age and years of experience were also analyzed. More important for principals than age or years of experience is their ability to lead in a transformational way. This study was grounded in the theory of transformational leadership, specifically focusing on technology integration and innovation. Principals who have a transformational leadership style empower their teachers and generate a school climate that supports innovation (Sagnak, Kuruoz, Polat & Soylu, 2015). The findings of this study support the need for principals to bridge the gap between teachers with less experience and veteran teachers. In order to do so, it is important for transformational leaders to create a safe environment, one where the staff are inspired and viiifeel empowered to be innovative (Mehdinezhad, 2016). As technology integration will continue to expand, it is critical for principals to be aware of their role as digital and transformational leaders along with their influence in supporting an innovative culture for their staff, students, parents, and community.

Title