Principals’ Technology Leadership and its Effect on Teachers’ Technology Integration in 21st Century Classrooms

Abstract

This study aims to identify the effect of Principals' Technology Leadership on Teachers' Technology Integration in Malaysian secondary schools. This is a crosssectional survey where systematic random sampling was carried out to select 47 principals and 375 teachers from National Secondary Schools in the northern region of Kedah, Malaysia. Two questionnaires were used: Principals Technology Leadership Assessment (PTLA), which is based on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)-Standards for Administrators (2014) was administered to principals, while the Learning with ICT: Measuring ICT Use in the Curriculum Instrument was administered to the teachers from the same schools as the principals. Descriptive analysis was carried out using SPSS Version 25, and SmartPLS was used for inferential analysis. Although the findings showed that the levels of Technology Leadership; the five constructs of ISTE (2014), and Teachers' Technology Integration were at high levels but, there was no significant relationship between Principals' Technology Leadership and Teachers' Technology Integration in the selected schools in the northern region of Kedah. Principals' preparatory programmes should emphasize leadership based on technology to enhance the integration of technology in classrooms. Further research on professional development for principals' is recommended.

Mobile Technology Integration in the 2020s: The Impact of Technology Leadership in the Malaysian Context

“…The success of ISTE in establishing the characteristics of technology leadership deserves the highest recognition of any educational organization that practices it. Notably, in most studies, the NETS-A has shown that there are positive signs in building the character of prominent educational leaders [18][19] [20]. Although there are differences in items in the PTLA, in most studies, they still use the original NETS-A instrument as their primary reference.…”

“…Although there are differences in items in the PTLA, in most studies, they still use the original NETS-A instrument as their primary reference. For example, the study of [18] proves that all dimensions of PTLA are high. This is supported by [19], who acknowledged that technology leadership levels would be high if all principals are able to increase ICT competencies.…”

“…By examining this situation, a study needs to be conducted to identify the influence of principals' technology leadership on teachers' mobile technology integration based on the model of National Educational Technology Standards for Administrations (NETS-A). Previously, the NETS-A has proven its impact on 21st Century technology integration [18], educational administrator readiness [17], teacher ICT competence [19] as well as professional development [20]. Therefore, the NETS-A should be introduced to examine its impact on the use of the latest ICT devices that enhance the quality of teaching and learning [15].…”

Aproximación a la ciudadanía digital y el perfil del profesor

“…Those in charge of educational institutions can help support digital citizenship through their leadership skills. Thannimalai and Raman (2018) found an important link between the leadership demonstrated in IT skills by school principals and administrators and the amount of technology employed by teachers. It is therefore apparent that educational programmes must highlight leadership based on technology in order to improve the integration of that technology in classrooms (López & Bernal 2016).…”

School Technology Leadership and The Maker Movement

“…Technology leadership that provides educational technology being used effectively plays a vital role on school goals (Anderson & Dexter, 2005;Papa, 2011;Schiller, 2003). In recent years technology leadership in education has been a topic for extensive researches in a global context (Alenezi, 2017;Apsorn et al, 2019;Chang, 2019;Esplin et al, 2018;Gallego-Arrufat et al, 2017;Gonzales, 2019;Moreira et al, 2019;Raman et al, 2019;Thannimalai & Raman, 2018). In order to reveal what the studies conducted present exactly, two studies that can also be called as the current literature's tomography are like a road map for researchers within the context of technology leadership (Dexter, Richardson & Nash et al, 2016;Dexter & Richardson, 2020).…”